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OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE USING LASER SCANNER FOR BEARCAT III

SAXENA, MAYANK
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin991134557

Abstract Details

2001, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering : Industrial Engineering.
One of the major challenges in designing intelligent vehicles capable of autonomous travel on highways is reliable obstacle detection. Obstacle avoidance is one of the key problems in computer vision and mobile robotics. There has been a great amount of research devoted to the obstacle detection problem for mobile robot platforms and intelligent vehicles. Any mobile robot that must reliably operate in an unknown or dynamic environment must be able to perform obstacle detection. As road following systems have become more capable, more attention has been focused on obstacle detection problem, much of it driven by programs such as the Automated Highway System or PROMETHEUS which seek to revolutionize automobile transportation, providing consumers with a combination of "smart" cars and smart roads. Laser scanners have been used for many years for obstacle detection and are found to be the most reliable and provide accurate results. They operate by sweeping a laser beam across a scene and at each angle, measuring the range and returned intensity. The Center for Robotics Research at the University of Cincinnati has built an unmanned, autonomous guided vehicle (AGV), named Bearcat III for the International Ground Robotics Competition conducted each year by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS). We were using ultrasonic transducers last year on Bearcat II to detect and avoid unexpected obstacles, which did not provide us with accurate data. This year there is an enhancement in obstacle avoidance system using a laser scanner. The vehicle senses its location and orientation using the integrated vision system and a high-performance laser scanner is used for obstacle detection system of Bearcat III. It provides fast single-line laser scans and is used to map the location and size of possible obstacles. With these inputs the fuzzy logic controls the steering speed and steering decisions of the robot on an obstacle course 10 feet wide bounded by white/yellow/dashed lines.The goal of this research was to implement a laser scanner on the U.C. robot Bearcat III to detect and avoid obstacles in its environment. I performed obstacle detection experiments both indoors and outdoors. Each experiment consisted of 180° field of view of the laser scanner with a 0.5° resolution. The scans were made using a scan-oriented approach rather than a pixel oriented approach because of the faster refresh rate and with the laser scanner giving us a clear field of view of the coordinates of every point along x and y-axis, obstacles were detected and avoided accurately.
Dr. Ernest L. Hall (Advisor)
72 p.
Engineering, Industrial
obstacle avoidance using laser scanner

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • SAXENA, M. (2001). OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE USING LASER SCANNER FOR BEARCAT III [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin991134557

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • SAXENA, MAYANK. OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE USING LASER SCANNER FOR BEARCAT III. 2001. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin991134557.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • SAXENA, MAYANK. "OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE USING LASER SCANNER FOR BEARCAT III." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin991134557

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin991134557
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© 2001, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.