Development of An In-building Transport Robot for Autonomous Usage of Elevators

Abstract

In order to realize transit of goods among different floors inside a building, this study developed a new type of in-building transport robot to be capable of moving in the corridors, and an intelligent manipulator is equipped to autonomously press button and take elevator for lifting up-down to different floors. Firstly, a mechanical structure of the robot body is designed according to the functional requirements, and then a visual recognition method is adopted for manipulator recognizing and pressing elevator button independently. Next, an integrated positioning and navigation method is proposed by application of a dead reckoning, distance measurement using ultrasonic sensor, and visual localization according to the doorplate number in the corridors. Finally, a prototype of transport robot was developed to perform a validation experiments, and the experimental results indicates that the developed transport robot can realize accurate positioning in the corridors, and autonomous usage of elevator to go up and down different floors. As a conclusion, this study is therefore a useful attempt for achievement of an in-building transport robot in the near further.