Undefined Obstacle Avoidance and Path Planning

Abstract

Abstract Undefined Obstacle Avoidance and Path Planning of an Autonomous Mobile Robot in a Two-Dimensional WorkspaceAbstract:Design and development of robotics applications has always been an ever advancing areaof study in the field of modern automation technology. The concept of introducingmobile robots in familiarizing engineering technology students with various roboticsproblem solving approaches, is widely being implemented for educational purposenowadays. Path Planning and Collision avoidance are two of the most common theoriesapplied for designing and developing advanced autonomous robotics applications. Theobjective of this study was to develop a graphical programming model for the NationalInstrument’s (NI) Robotic Starter Kit (DaNI) in NI LabView Robotics Platform thatincorporates mobile robot path planning and obstacle avoidance concepts. The LabViewprogram enables the mobile robot to travel from a starting point to a user desireddestination point, avoiding undefined obstacles on its route. This paper encompasses thescope to educate engineering technology students with the robotics “Sense, Think andAct” approach where the robot senses for random obstacles on its path via an ultrasonicsensor, makes a decision based on a non-colliding threshold distance in order to executecollision avoidance routine and returns to the process of reaching the predefineddestination point. The motion of the robot is controlled by two pairs of mechanicallygeared wheels driven by two DC Servo Motors.Project Problem Solving Methodology:The LabView programming approach for this project was mainly based on the requiredtravel time in X direction and Y direction for a certain velocity in order to reach thedestination. In order to solve the program for reaching a destination by successfullyavoiding undefined obstacle on the way, two types of variable were considered in thisresearch: independent variables and dependent variables. The independent variables inthis program are predefined by the user. These are: sensor’s Field of View (FoV), thenon-colliding distance, the travel time in X direction, the travel time in Y direction andtravelling speed. Whenever the robot determines an obstacle, the total travel time in boththe directions increases as there are some time elapsed due to performing the collisionavoidance routine. The travel time in this research is represented by the number ofiteration of the while loop. In the collision avoidance routine, every time the robotdetects an obstacle; it reverses, goes in the right hand direction and then tries to reach itsoriginal path of travel. However, it keeps of performing the collision avoidance step untilit sees a clearance. All movements in this case are time dependent. The logical approachfor solving this problem is given below:Figure 11: Process Flow Diagram.