project proposal: student: rowan pivetta supervisor: dr nasser asgari
TRANSCRIPT
“NI Autonomous Robotics Competition 2013”
Project Proposal:
Student: Rowan Pivetta Supervisor: Dr Nasser Asgari
The Competition 2013
Milestones
Research
Robotic Design
Obstacle Detection
Navigation
Proposal
Project Proposal -Outline
Competition run by National Instruments
◦ Supply products to engineering industry
April to late September 2013
24 universities from Australia & New Zealand
Flinders University team
◦ Joel Cottrell, Joshua Renfrey
◦ Rowan Pivetta and Peter Cook (BENG Mechanical)
Design, build and program an autonomous robotic
vehicle
Fully utilises the NI Single board RIO
Program the sbRIO through NI LabView
◦ A graphical development software package
The Competition
Scenario: A hazardous mining environment
Search and retrieval of precious metals
Competition involves
◦ Integration – Robot design and sbRIO
◦ Task – Speed vs time
◦ Obstacle Avoidance
◦ Object Detection and Handling
◦ Navigation
90% of robot control must be done by single board RIO and
programmed in LabView
The Competition Task 2013
Navigate from home position
to the mining field
Distinguish the golden cubes
from the rubble grey cubes
Pick up and transport up to 4
golden cubes to the depot
Complete the task in under 3
minutes without incurring
any penalties.
◦ Hitting walls
◦ Picking up rubble
The Competition Task 2013
Mining Area
Depot
Home
Unknown obstacles
around mining area
Unknown position of the
cubes in mining area
Unknown openings into
mining area
One point for localisation
◦ A IR emitting tower with
fixed co-ordinates
The Competition Task 2013
Mining Area
Depot
Home
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Milestone 1 – 29th April
◦ Completion of NI LabView online training course
◦ Demonstrate control of a motor or a sensor
◦ Complete written project proposal
Milestone 2 – 3rd June
◦ Prototype design with obstacle avoidance
Milestone 3 – 22nd July
◦ Final design and demonstration of navigation and localisation
Milestone 4 – 26th August
◦ Demonstrate object handling, navigation, localisation and obstacle avoidance
Competition – Week of 23rd September
Milestones
Research – Previous Competitions
Competition run in 2012:
◦ Search and rescue mission
Understand competition
◦ Grid pattern reference
◦ Height obstacles
◦ Colour block detection
Check milestones
◦ The type of hardware used
◦ The sensors and structures used
◦ Assessing different designs
Group discussions
Four grippers
◦ Design to maximum efficiency
Internal block storage
Tip-up truck
◦ Allow easier transportation
Circular vs rectangular footprint
Holonomic vs conventional drive
Final design still under consideration
Collaborative decision
Robotic Design Options
Sensors are the eyes and ears
◦ Robot decisions based on sensor readings
Strategic positioning
◦ Detect walls and height obstacles
◦ No interference between robotic components
More sensors provides more information
allowing better decision making
Does to much hinder performance
◦ Increase weight and power drain
◦ Constrained to capabilities of sbRIO
◦ Further complex sensor fusing algorithms
Obstacle Avoidance
Obstacle Avoidance - Sensors Infra-red or Ultrasonic range finding sensors
Camera can detect the edges of the
obstacles
LIDAR gives more information about the
obstacles
◦ Can be used to determine exact boundaries
Combining camera and LIDAR can
distinguish between the obstacles and the
smaller blocks
IR Range Finder
LIDAR
Camera
Navigation and localisation is a difficult
problem to solve in robotics
Combine all sensor information
Techniques
◦ Markov localisation
◦ Extended Kalman Filter
Robot prediction vs measured position
◦ Simultaneous Localization And Mapping
◦ Follow the right wall
Navigation
Design the robot for what is best suited
for the specifications of the competition
◦ Unique wheel configuration
◦ Unique navigation solution
◦ Unique robotic design
Proposal
Questions?
National Instruments, 2013, http://australia.ni.com/ni-arc
NIARC, September 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=Nx3hZOjneZ4&list=UUYKerj0SwaT1BaTSi9Xxltw&index=
Bayuk, R. “A comparison of Robot Navigation Algorithms for
an Unknown Goal”,
http://www.micsymposium.org/mics_2005/papers/paper108.
References