Autonomous Navigation for Middle-size Robots Project

Tutor: Prof. Dr. Pedro José Marrón, Contact: Eduardo Ferrera

Nowadays, mobile robots are used in many applications, such as rescue missions, surveillance or people assistance. In these applications, robots usually need to operate in unknown environments, so they need to obtain information with their sensors and take intelligent decisions. In general, they proceed in a loop with several steps:

(i) Information is obtained with the sensors on board the robot;

(ii) Given the current information the best decision is made;

(iii) The decision is carried out by the robot autonomously.

Mainly, mobile robots need to know where they are located and how to navigate safely to other places. For that, they have to use external sensors (e.g., GPS, compass, laser, etc.), plan trajectories, avoid obstacles, etc.

In this project, the motivating application will be a rescue mission in an indoor building after a catastrophe. For that, a robotic simulator will be used in order to develop algorithms to localize a robot, to navigate avoiding obstacles, to build a map of the environment and find the victims and to report back the results. The Robotic Operating System (ROS) will be used in order to program
the robot and communicate to the simulator.

This course will be taught in English and will require programming in C++. The project is suitable for students at the bachelor and the master level. However, the course contents and the requirements for passing are different depending on the level. As a consequence, it is not possible to create mixed teams. If you want to participate in this project or further information, please contact Eduardo Ferrera.

The kickoff meeting for this project will take place in Room S-A 126, from 16:00h to 18:00h, on Tuesday, October 14th, 2014. It is mandatory to attend this meeting in order to participate in the project.