Embedded Motion Control 2015 Group 3/Scan

Scan

This page is part of the EMC03 CST-wiki.

In order to solve the maze, the robot needs to be able to drive autonomously. One type of data that is available is the laser range finder data. The PICO robot has a 270 degrees view, with approximately thousand beams.

Potential field

By splitting up the received laser data from the LRF in x and y, and summing them up results in a large vector containing the appropiate angle for PICO to follow. In other words, PICO moves always to the point with the most room. Note, the actual magnitude of this resultant vector is of no importance, since the Drive block has is own conditions for velocity.

In straight corridors potential field will let PICO drive in the middle in a robust manner. In the case that PICO approaches a T-junction or intersection a decision must be made by the decision maker

Since, there are more than one options at intersections. There has to be an extra element to send the robot in the appropriate direction. This is done, by blocking the other directions with virtual walls. In principle an extra layer has been added with the modified laser range finder data that PICO sees. From there on the potential field will do its work and PICO will drive in its desired direction.

The potential field function will perceive this virtual walls as real walls. Therefore, PICO will avoid these 'walls' and drive into the desired corridor. The 'decision maker' in combination with the 'mapping algorithm' will decide were to place the virtual walls.

Collision avoidance

The first level of saftey is provided by the potential field algoritm. Its resultant vector will always point towards the direction with the most room and therefore it is sufficient as first layer. However, avoidance collision is one of the top priorities since if Pico bumps into the wall the attempt of solving the maze is over. Another safety layer has been implemented to prevent the robot hitting walls or corners. The distance to the wals is continuosly measured and compared to a set safety margin. If the distance of multiple coextensive beams is smaller than this fixed parameter the robot will move in the opposite direction.

Figure 1) Pico using collision avoidance

Detection intersections

At this stage the basic skill of driving with the potential field based on LRF data is complete. Next, the different type of junctions and intersections must be recognized in order to solve the maze. Not only is recognition necassary for driving through the maze, it is also a important part of mapping the maze, see Embedded_Motion_Control_2015_Group_3/Mapping Mapping.

Since the maze is axis alligned there are three possibilites:

1. Crossroad
2. T-junction
3. Open space

The first two cases are detected by taking n+10 and n-10 and looking if they differ more than 30 centimer, in that case there is a corridor. By using this simple but very effective method left and right corridors can be distinguished. Next, detecting if there is a corridor in front. This is done by adding up multiple beams in the front and diving them by the number of beams. If this differs more than a set value with the middle one, there is a corridor.

Open space

When 80% of the LRF data is larger than 1 meter PICO knows it is in a open space and therefore it starts wall hugging in order to find the exit. Pico will stop this procedure if the corridor is equal or smaller than 1.5 meter, which is the maximum size of a corridor.

Figure 1) Pico handling open space

Constructing virtual walls

Constructing virtual walls is an essential part of driving PICO around the maze. First individual virtual walls were constructed therefore blocking potential corridors, which lead PICO into the desired direction. At a later stage this idea was slightly modified by computing a wall on a radius; therefore, PICO will move more smoothly through a corner.

Crossroad

Consider an crossroad shown in the picture below, the left plot shows what pico sees when approaching this kind of junction. There are three maxima, which represent the possible directions PICO can go to. By slightly modifying the data the actual vision as seen in the simulator can be constructed, shown in (b). In Figure 1 two minima are shown that represent the far corners between the three maxima. These provide pico with reference points from where the virtual walls are constructed. Dependent on the direction of the desired turn the corner is used as a reference point for computing the radius where the virtual walls are set.

T-junction

Now a T-junction is further examined, Figure 2 (a) shows what pico sees in this case. The figure shows two maxima with in between a minima. These two maxima are used as bounds for finding the minima. When the robot turn it is hard to keep a reference point and therefore this is a good method of finding the reference point, which is a minima in this case, to construct the virtual walls.

In the case of a T-junction the situation is slightly different, in this case using the above method the minima will not represent a corner. However locating this minima is usefull, dependent on the kind of turn, 100+n[minimum] or 100-n[minimum], a radius is computed which will represent the virtual wall.

Door Detection

Since a door is basicly a dead end which can be opened, PICO should search for dead ends. These have a spefic profile were always three walls are visible and connected. And since the maxe is axis aligned, two of these walls will be parallel and one, of them, the one in between perpendicular on top of the others. These dead ends can be found at the end of a corridor and in junctions longer than 0.3 meters. This means PICO has to detect dead ends/doors in front, and at the side during turns. Therefore PICO will search in three regions in its LRF-data for doors. PICO will look left, in front and right to minimize detecting faulty doors and to be able to easily tell where the door is. All regions use the same methods for detecting doors, this method is based on the profile of a dead end, and PICO tries to recognize dead ends by searching its LRF-data with some conditions. . PICO will search for the two corner points where the walls meet. In between these corner points, the dead end/door can be detected. PICO will first start by searching the left corner point within a certain range. If this point can be found, pico will search for the wall or door which should be right of this point. This will be the closest point to PICO slightly right of this corner point. If this point can be found, PICO will search for the last point which is the right corner point. See figure 3, the points which PICO must detect are highlighted by a red cross. Notice that PICO will only look for the next point if the last one is found.

To prevent PICO from detecting faulty doors, two extra conditions to qualify as a door/dead end are added. When the point are found, the distance to these points and the angles are knows. This makes it possible to determine whether all points are aligned. This is done by calculating the distance of all points according to figure 3 as "distance to pico". All three lenghts should be approximately equal. The second condition is the length of the door which has to be within the bound given in the assignment thus: 0.5 > door length < 1.5. If all condition are met, this area will qualify as a daed end/door and, if the distance to PICO is small enough, PICO has reached the door area. During experiments we noticed that faulty doors could still be detected by placing the walls a little askew or due to measurement noise. Therefore the last fix was introduced. PICO has to detect dead ends/doors ten times in a row before it actualy quaslifies as a real dead end/dead. This is to eliminate measurement noise/faults.

Figure 3) PICO detecting doors, top images showing how pico detects doors/dead ends in front. The middle images show PICO detecting a door/dead ends on the right side. Bottom images showing PICO detecting incoming doors/dead ends

If PICO has detected a dead end/door and its positioned in the door area, PICO will immediately stop and send the door request. After this PICO will stand still for six second to wait if the doors opens. After this waiting time, PICO will look for one second whether it is still in the door area. If PICO is still in the door area this means that nothing has changed and the door has not opened. It will qualify this as a regular dead end and turn around. If PICO is not in the door area anymore, this means that the door has opened and PICO will continue its path. Since this path was directed at the door, PICO will go thru the door and search for the exit of the maze.