As part of my undergraduate thesis, I decided to design and describe the process of assembling a small robotic vehicle that, in addition to general features such as driving a robot with a keyboard and a PS3 compatible console, would also provide basic standalone plane navigation, which includes obstacle avoidance, ambient detection and modification directions relative to the signals from the surroundings. The robot itself should be designed to be made of inexpensive and widely available components, so that it can be made by an individual without special knowledge in robotics and upgraded according to their needs.
As it turned out that during the construction process, global navigation and processing of the image stream from the camera in such a project was demanding. I limited myself to avoiding obstacles and navigating the robot with the help of commands encoded in QR codes. As part of the task, I also designed and built a simple LIDAR device capable of satisfactorily scanning the surroundings, and the data thus obtained can be used by the robot to avoid obstacles.
I can say that the project has achieved its purpose within the given possibilities and limitations. I designed a robot that is capable of fairly accurate basic space navigation, both standalone and guided. Program code, easy-to-follow instructions and robot chasis plans are also available. Anyone interested in the field can build on this robot based on this or build their own on the principles I have used and described.
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