Embedded Motion Control 2015 Group 3/Archive

Archive

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Specifications

The first specification results from the second requirement: Driving without bumping into objects. In order to do this, the robot uses its sensors to scan the surroundings. It then adjusts its speed and direction to maintain a safe distance from the walls. The way the robot will solve the maze comprises of a few principle things the robot will be able to do. Because of the addition of doors in the maze, the strategy of wall hugging is no longer effective. Hence a different approach is required. The second specification is that the robot will remember what it has seen of the maze and that it makes a map accordingly. The robot should then use this map to decide which avenue it should explore. The escape strategy of the robot is an algorithm. Because the doors in the maze might not be clearly distinguishable, they might be difficult to detect. The only way to know for sure if a door is present at a certain location, is to stand still in front of the door until it opens. Standing still in front of every piece of wall in order to check for the presence of doors takes a long time and is therefore not desirable for escaping the maze as fast as possible. Therefore the robot first assumes that there are no doors in the way to the exit. It then explores by following the wall and taking every left turn. Whenever a dead end is hit, the robot goes back to the last intersection and chooses the next left path. Because the robot maps the maze, it knows whether it has explored an area and when it moves in a loop

Doors

If no exit is found under the assumption that there are no doors, the robot starts checking for doors. See Figure 1 for different possible situations of where the doors are located. At first it assumes that there can only be doors at dead ends (1). If still no solution is found the robot also checks for doors at corners (2), followed by intersections (3) and finally on every outside wall of the currently mapped maze. In order to detect these doors the robot stands in front of the potential door for a certain time and checks with its sensors whether the distance to the nearest wall changes.

Uncertainties

Certain aspects of the design are not yet clear due to uncertainties in the specifications of the robot and/ or the maze challenge. Depending on the difference between the end of the maze and the inside of the maze, the robot may be enabled to detect it has completed the challenge. If however the outside of the maze is simply an open space similar to a place inside the maze, the robot might not be able to distinguish the difference. In this case the robot would have to be stopped manually.

The exact specifications of the robot are still unknown and without testing the precise accuracy and range of the sensors, the resolution of the map and the safe wall distance are unknown.

In order to make the robot complete the challenge faster control over the speed of the robot could be used. This way it could move faster in area’s it has already mapped. This is only possible if the robot has the capability of moving at different speeds.