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1 Introduction
Many of our electronic devices today are automated and unmanned. There
are many instances that the automated and unmanned robots are a big help
to the society. These kinds of robots could make the work of people easier
and the lives safer. An example is a robot that is used by the military that
serves as a lookout for surveillance in critical areas. Through the use of
these robots the lives of the soldiers are placed away from danger. Another
automated and unmanned robot that is a big help to us is the Percussion
Actuated Nonelectric Disrupter, which has become the primary tool used
by bomb squads nationwide to disable conventional, handmade-type bomb
remotely.
With the vastness of the applications of unmanned and autonomous land
vehicles, this project attempts to develop an autonomous mobile robot that
could navigate from an initial position to a specified destination with the
use of GPS for localization, compass module for heading determination, and
sonar for collision detection. As part of this project, an algorithm for path
planning and obstacle avoidance is implemented.
in them cannot solve the problem faced in outdoor navigation. It is this gap
in knowledge that currently drives resources to develop future autonomous
robots.
1.2 Objectives
The primary objective of this project is to design an autonomous mobile
robot that can navigate to a user-defined coordinates while avoiding obstacle
along the way. The specific objectives for this project are the following:
Robot should be able to navigate to a user-defined location using data
from a GPS module and compass.
Robot should be able to detect possible collisions and avoid obstacles
while navigating with the use ultrasonic ranging sensors.
Robot should be able to send information and receive commands from
the user through a WIFI network.
detection, and compass for heading recognition. The scope of this project
includes the following:
WIFI communication between the user and the mobile robot.
Path planning algorithms using a GPS and compass module.
Obstacle avoidance and collision detection of mobile robot using ultrasonic range finder.
This project does not include the following:
Specific applications for the GPS based robot navigation like Percussion Actuated Nonelectric Disrupter (PAND), surveillance and surveying applications.
Navigation of robot for extended period of time; the research does not
include experiments on which batteries are better suited for the robot.
The length of time that the batteries will be fully consumed by the
robot was not included in the research.
Extensive algorithm for wall following; the researchers goal is to simply
navigate the robot on the specified location without much regard for
obstales. the robot on the specified location without much regard for
obstacles.
Navigation of the robot on very rough and rugged terrain.
Use of alternative components.
The researchers also included this paper[5]. This paper focuses on motion planning for car-like robots and particularly on applications where an
arbitrary working area should be covered by the robot. This paper aims
to develop a path planning application which can compute a feasible path
between two arbitrary points. Furthermore, the path shall fully cover a
predefined area avoiding obstacles. It is also desired that the predefined
working area is cruised in parallel lanes.
Since this research uses lots of components that needs to be interfaced
with the microcontroller, the researchers picked a book[6], as a reference on
coding and general ideas on how to use the components such as ultrasonic
range finders, GPS module, and compass, all of which the researchers did
not have prior experience in using.
[7] provides a collection of libraries for working with various types of
hardware; a comparison with other prototyping platforms, and information
about the components of the Arduino board.
3 Methodology
3.1 System Setup
The system setup is divided into two subsystems:
Platform Side
User Side
The platform side refers to the actual robot platform and the peripherals
used. The platform side is further divided into three subsystems, namely,
the sensor unit, the MCU unit, and the Wi-Fi TX/RX unit.
The sensor unit is composed of the following: compass module, GPS
module, and ultrasonic range finders. The main reponsibility of the sensor
unit is to provide the MCU essential information for the robot to navigate
properly. The GPS unit relays to the MCU the current coordinates of the
robot, allowing the robot to know where it is, thus localization is achieved.
The project also used two ultrasonic range finders, one is embedded in the
front of the platform allowing it to detect obstacles ahead, another one is
placed in a servo motor, allowing it to rotate towards the obstacle. The
second sensor is used for wall following algorithm and will be discussed in
the succeeding part of the paper. The compass module is used for heading
control. It tells the MCU where the robot is facing, thus, guiding the robot
where it should be headed with the help of the GPS coordinates relayed
from the GPS module.
The MCU unit is the brains of the whole platform. It is responsible for
the calculations involved in path planning, managing the obstacle avoidance
routine, communicating with the user side, and navigation control.
The user side refers to the programs that are running on the server
device. It include the following:
Socket routine, which is responsible for managing the communication
between the GUI and the robot platform.
GUI, interacts with the user. It contains functions necessary for the
user to send and receive information to and from the robot platform.
It shows the user the current position of the robot in terms of longitude
and latitude. It allows the user to send commands to the platform. It
also has the ability to log all the data sent by the robot platform and
save it as a text file to be used by the user for statistics purposes.
GPS parser, is another component of the user side which does not
interact with the user directly. It is used for converting GPS strings
sent by the platform side to a human readeable form. After processing
the GPS string in terms of longitude and latitude, the GUI displays
the parsed data for the user to read.
Wireless router, is used by the user device for the actual communication with the robot platform.
Below is the preliminary block diagram of our proposed system.
3.2 Components
3.2.1 GPS
Overview: The platform does not have the ability to know its current
location and the coordinates defined by the user. It has to keep track on
its current position. For the platform to do this, it must use a location
tracking sensor that works outdoor and make use of the GPS. GPS or the
Global Positioning System is a satellite-based navigation system. Sensors
that can receive data from the GPS are the GPS receivers. The advantages of
GPS are very high tracking sensitivity (159dBm) and extremely fast TTFF
(Time to First Fix) at low signal level. The disadvantages of GPS are signal
multipath that occurs when the GPS signal is reflected off objects such as
tall buildings and accuracy.
The platform will be incorporated with the GPS receiver engine board
EM-406A from GlobalSat Technology Corporation. The GPS receiver has a
built-in SuperCap to reserve system data for rapid satellite acquisition and a
built-in patch antenna [4]. EM-406A uses the NMEA Output Command[8].
3.2.2 Compass
Overview: Digital compass will be used for the platform to know where
it is heading or sensing the horizontal components of the earths magnetic
field. The platform must distinguish where it is heading for it to navigate
properly. Its advantage is the use of user calibration mode for diminishing
the hard-iron effects of the end-users (customers) location of the product. Hard-iron effects come from nearby ferrous materials with residual
magnetism that buck or boost the intensity of the earths magnetic field
that leads to heading errors. Such hard-iron effects come from vehicle chassis, speaker magnets, and high current conductors or circuit traces. This
must take into consideration since the platform will navigate to unfamiliar
places. The disadvantages of the digital compass are that each degree of
tilt from the level of orientation could add two degrees of compass heading
error and magnetic error that can be introduce if operated near strong magnetic sources. The platform has 4 motors (electromagnetic) that can be a
source of magnetic error and should be a concern in making the design of
the platform.
This research will use the Honeywell HMC6352 integrated compass module[9].
The HMC6352 Integrated Compass Sensor circuit uses two magneto-resistive
sensors of orthogonal orientation for sensing the horizontal components of
the earths magnetic field (0 to 630 milli-gauss). The HMC6352 uses I2C
Communication Protocol that is provided on the pins 7(I2C Data Output)
and 10(I2C Clock). The board has the dimension of 6.5mm by 6.5mm by
1.5mm with the things needed for it to work..
3.2.3 Sonar
Overview: The platform must know and spot any upcoming obstacle along
the way for it to avoid and not to be crushed to it. To be able to spot any
3.2.5 Wifly
Overview: As stated in the previous section, the platform must navigate
to the predefined coordinates that the user desires. For this to happen, the
platform must communicate to WIFI capable devices, specifically laptop,
using the Wifly. This research will use the WiFly GSX 802.11 b/g Wireless
LAN Module from Roving Networks. The WiFly can communicate through
the UART hardware interface and it also supports the Adhoc connections.
The WiFly GSX module is a stand alone, embedded wireless 802.11 networking module. Because of its small form factor and extremely low power
consumption, the RN-131G is perfect for mobile wireless applications such
as asset monitoring, GPS tracking and battery sensors. The WiFly GSX
module incorporates a 2.4GHz radio, processor, TCP/IP stack, real-time
clock, crypto accelerator, power management and analog sensor interfaces.
In the simplest configuration the hardware only requires four connections
(PWR, TX, RX, GND) to create a wireless data connection. Additionally, the sensor interface provides temperature, audio, motion, acceleration
and other analog data without requiring additional hardware. The WIfly
GSX module is programmed and controlled with a simple ASCII command
language [12].
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3.2.6 Arduino
Overview: The platform must have a brain that controls the components
in the platform. A microcontroller will be used to get, transmit and process
data from the sensors and other components of the platform. This research
will use the Arduino Mega from Arduino. The microcontroller on the board
is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring)
and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). It has
serial communication pins, I2C communication pins, digital pins and analog
pins that is perfect for interfacing the other components.[7].
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is the accuracy of the GPS unit itself, especially when there are obstructions
in the sky such as buildings, cloudy weather, and trees.
4 Schedule
The research is divided into seven phases which are described below. The
Gannt Chart is shown in figure 2 on page ??.
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References
[1] R.F. Guzman Autonomous robot navigation with the use of GPS
[2] C.Foley, K. Horn, R.N. Pittman, and M. Willis. GPS navigation for field
mobile robot
[3] T. Ersson and X. Hu.Path planning and navigation of mobile robots in
unknown environment
[4] K. Ohno, T. Tsubouchi, B. Shigematsu, and S. Yuta. Differential GPS
and odometry-based outdoor navigation of a mobile robot.
[5] L. Krammer. Motion planning for car-like robots.
[6] T. Igoe. Making things talk.
[7] Arduino Reference. http://www.arduino.cc.
[8] Product user manual. EM-406 GPS Receiver Engine Board
[9] Datasheet. Honeywell HMC6352 Electronic Compass
R
[10] Datasheet. LV-MaxSonar
-EZ1TM
High Performance Sonar Range
Finder
[11] Users Manual. Canakit L298 H-bridge Dual Bidirectional Motor Driver
[12] Datasheet. Wifly GSX 802.11 b/g Wireless Lan Module
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