Unidade de Mapeamento e Navegação Autônoma Embarcável em Diferentes Dispositivos Robóticos

Abstract

A service robot is an adaptable autonomous equipment that must perceive the environment, act accordingly and make decisions to perform tasks. In order to increase the embedded intelligence in these devices, providing extra capabilities and autonomous functionalities, a solution consists in the deployment of a navigation system. In this sense, this article presents an Autonomous Mapping and Navigation Unit, called UM&NA, composed of a set of localization and mapping strategies, path planning and navigation control developed in open source. Two versions of the Mapping and Navigation Unit were implemented, one based on the sensing and control systems of the EspeleoRobô and ROSI service robots, and another implemented with low-cost and low-weight hardware, allowing installation in aerial vehicles such as drones. To evaluate the UM&NAs, field experiments were carried out for mapping natural caves and navigating autonomously in indoor environments. The results show the units’ efficiency generating geometric models of natural caves for geological studies, and also validate the autonomous navigation pipeline for mobile robots.