Vision-based vanishing point detection of autonomous navigation of mobile robot for outdoor applications

The vision-based approach to mobile robot navigation is considered superior due to its affordability. This paper aims to design and construct an autonomous mobile robot with a vision-based system for outdoor navigation. This robot receives inputs from camera and ultrasonic sensor. The camera is used to detect vanishing points and obstacles from the road. The vanishing point is used to detect the heading of the road. Lines are extracted from the environment using a canny edge detector and Houghline Transforms from OpenCV to navigate the system. Then, removed lines are processed to locate the vanishing point and the road angle. A low pass filter is then applied to detect a vanishing point better. The robot is tested to run in several outdoor conditions such as asphalt roads and pedestrian roads to follow the detected vanishing point. By implementing a Simple Blob Detector from OpenCV and ultrasonic sensor module, the obstacle's position in front of the robot is detected. The test results show that the robot can avoid obstacles while following the heading of the road in outdoor environments. Vision-based vanishing point detection is successfully applied for outdoor applications of autonomous mobile robot navigation.

Method of analysis of the current state of inertial characteristics of an autonomous mobile robot of variable configuration

The features of the dynamics of an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) of variable configuration with the relative movement of attachments are considered. Analysis of the current state of inertial characteristics during AMR operation will ensure stable movement along a given trajectory, successful implementation of technological operations by attachments, and preservation of the robot's functionality when operating under undetermined or extreme conditions. At the design stage, the analysis of the inertial characteristics of the AMR will make it possible to refine the parameters of the mathematical model, improve the algorithms for adaptive control and correct the commands for the actuators. Figs.: 2. Tabl.: 2. Bibliogr.: 10 titles. Keywords: autonomous mobile robot, inertial characteristics.

Intelligent Path Planning Approach for Autonomous Mobile Robot

This paper presents a new path planning algorithm for an autonomous mobile robot. It is desired that the robot reaches its goal in a known or partially known environment (e.g., a warehouse or an urban environment) and avoids collisions with walls and other obstacles. To this end, a new, efficient, simple, and flexible path finder strategy for the robot is proposed in this paper. With the proposed strategy, the optimal path from the robot’s current position to the goal position is guaranteed. The environment is represented as a grid-based map, which is then divided into a predefined number of subfields to reduce the number of required computations. This leads to a reduction in the load on the controller and allows a real-time response. To evaluate the flexibility and efficiency of the proposed strategy, several tests were simulated with environments of different sizes and obstacle distributions. The experimental results demonstrate the reliability and efficiency of the proposed algorithm.

COVID surveillance robot: Monitoring social distancing constraints in indoor scenarios

Observing social/physical distancing norms between humans has become an indispensable precaution to slow down the transmission of COVID-19. We present a novel method to automatically detect pairs of humans in a crowded scenario who are not maintaining social distancing, i.e. about 2 meters of space between them using an autonomous mobile robot and existing CCTV (Closed-Circuit TeleVision) cameras. The robot is equipped with commodity sensors, namely an RGB-D (Red Green Blue—Depth) camera and a 2-D lidar to detect social distancing breaches within their sensing range and navigate towards the location of the breach. Moreover, it discreetly alerts the relevant people to move apart by using a mounted display. In addition, we also equip the robot with a thermal camera that transmits thermal images to security/healthcare personnel who monitors COVID symptoms such as a fever. In indoor scenarios, we integrate the mobile robot setup with a static wall-mounted CCTV camera to further improve the number of social distancing breaches detected, accurately pursuing walking groups of people etc. We highlight the performance benefits of our robot + CCTV approach in different static and dynamic indoor scenarios.

Realtime autonomous navigation in V-Rep based static and dynamic environment using EKF-SLAM

<p>Localization in an autonomous mobile robot allows it to operate autonomously in an unknown and unpredictable environment with the ability to determine its position and heading. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) are introduced to solve the problem where no prior information about the environment is available either static or dynamic to achieve standard map-based localization. The primary focus of this research is autonomous mobile robot navigation using the extended Kalman filter (EKF)-SLAM environment modeling technique which provides higher accuracy and reliability in mobile robot localization and mapping results. In this paper, EKF-SLAM performance is verified by simulations performed in a static and dynamic environment designed in V-REP i.e., 3D Robot simulation environment. In this work SLAM problem of two-wheeled differential drive robot i.e., Pioneer 3-DX in indoor static and dynamic environment integrated with Laser range finder i.e., Hokuyo URG-04LX- UG01, LIDAR, and Ultrasonic sensors is solved. EKF-SLAM scripts are developed using MATLAB that is linked to V-REP via remote API feature to evaluate EKF-SLAM performance. The reached results confirm the EKF- SLAM is a reliable approach for real-time autonomous navigation for mobile robots in comparison to other techniques.</p>