Development of a Mobile Robot to Run in Tsukuba Challenge 2010

Abstract

Abstract This paper describes an implementation of a mobile robot system in a 1 km autonomous mobile robot navigation challenge called ‘Tsukuba Challenge 2010’ which was held in the city of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan. The mobile robot used only three types of sensors which were a magnetic sensor, two wheel encoders, and a laser range finder. For a stable navigation, we have proposed a method that is able to localize and perform trajectory tracking based on patterns of the magnetic field's intensity that occurs in the environment. It was divided into two distinct parts of map building and navigating. In the map building, the mobile robot was operated by a joystick along the course of the challenge to record the environmental magnetic field to build a map. The mobile robot then navigated by using a trajectory tracking method based on the map. During the seven trials which were given before the qualifying and final runs, the mobile robot completed the full course three times with once in small rain. Keywords: outdoor navigationenvironmental magnetic fieldtrajectory trackingTsukuba Challenge