DO NOT FEED THE ROBOT

The Autonomous Interactive

Multimedia Droid

(GuideBot)

Bradley University

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

EE-452

Dan Leach and John Hathway

Advisor: Aleksander Malinowski

May 3rd, 2005

Outline

•Project Overview•Previous Work•Project Description

•Flash interface•Navigation•Implementation

•Remaining Work•Questions

Overview

Features•Friendly touch screen

interface•Auditory and visual

greetings•Pioneer 2 robot platform

by ActivMedia

Applications

Museums Malls

Pioneer 2 Features•GuideBot uses Saphira and PAI software supplied by ActivMedia for control of movement and other functions

•Eight sonar transducers are positioned in a ring around the front of GuideBot

•PAI software controls all rotational and translational movement, along with taking in sonar data

•Onboard heading information allows for precise turning

•Onboard distance is read from wheel encoders

Pioneer 2 Robotic Platform

PC

User Input ViaTouch Screen

Sensor Data

MappingData

Display Output

Audio Output

Movement of Platform

System Block Diagram

Previous Work

Java-based Manual Web Control

Data Flow Diagram

Flash XML Socket

C-based Robot Server

Saphira Code On Pioneer2

TCP/IPSerial Port

Graphical User Interface

Graphical User Interface

Graphical User Interface

Graphical User Interface

Graphical User Interface

Finding Dr. Huggins

Mapping File

Index,Name,Floor,Lane,X,Y,Crosses To,Is A Stop,Is A Patrol,Type,Manual Commands

0,Origin,3,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,0;1,SEStairwell,3,1,191,0,1,1,0,1,0;2,MalinowskiHW,3,1,762,0,0,1,0,0,0;3,WRestroom,3,1,1219,0,0,1,0,0,0;4,Room327,3,1,1661,0,0,0,0,0,0;5,Room326,3,1,2377,0,0,0,0,0,0;6,RFHW,3,1,2682,0,1,0,0,0,0;7,NEStairwell,3,1,3139,0,1,0,1,0,0;8,SWindow,3,2,0,183,1,0,0,0,0;9,Room330,3,2,747,183,0,0,0,1,0;10,Prasad,3,2,1036,183,1,1,0,0,0;…

Finding Dr. Shastry

Waypoint Detection•Doorframes, open hallways, wall drop-offs

•Waypoint checked every 300 ms using one sonar transducer

•Waypoints are only looked for when GuideBot is within a predefined range of the waypoint

•Offices and other sites that are considered waypoints that have no distinguishable features will be found using the nearest waypoints and the distance GuideBot has traveled

•Most doorframes have a 9cm drop off between the wall and door which is large enough to check with the sonar transducers

9 cm

Waypoints

Collision Avoidance

•Front two sonar transducers are used to detect objects and obstacles in GuideBot’s path

•Threshold distance of 1 meter is used for objects in path

•If there is an obstruction, wait 30 seconds for object to move from path

•Try to navigate around object if it does not move and continue on path

Waypoint Detection and Collision Avoidance

Drift Correction

X

Y’

-2ΘY

Wall

Θ

•GuideBot is designed to follow a straight path to its destination

•Problems with drifting have been observed and a method for correction has been devised using trigonometry

•driftangle = (atan2(driftdist, xdistance))

Drift Correction

Remaining Work

•Implement hallway crossing

•Implement manual waypoint paths

•Add additional GUI interaction / motion sensing

Guiding Down The Hallway

Questions?

More detailed information can be found at:http://cegt201.bradley.edu/projects/proj2005/guidebot/