Um sistema de visão para navegação robusta de uma plataforma robótica semi-autônoma

Large efforts have been maden by the scientific community on tasks involving locomotion of mobile robots. To execute this kind of task, we must develop to the robot the ability of navigation through the environment in a safe way, that is, without collisions with the objects. In order to perform this, it is necessary to implement strategies that makes possible to detect obstacles. In this work, we deal with this problem by proposing a system that is able to collect sensory information and to estimate the possibility for obstacles to occur in the mobile robot path. Stereo cameras positioned in parallel to each other in a structure coupled to the robot are employed as the main sensory device, making possible the generation of a disparity map. Code optimizations and a strategy for data reduction and abstraction are applied to the images, resulting in a substantial gain in the execution time. This makes possible to the high level decision processes to execute obstacle deviation in real time. This system can be employed in situations where the robot is remotely operated, as well as in situations where it depends only on itself to generate trajectories (the autonomous case)

Mapeamento robótico 2,5-D com representação em grade de ocupação-elevação

This work introduces a new method for environment mapping with three-dimensional information from visual information for robotic accurate navigation. Many approaches of 3D mapping using occupancy grid typically requires high computacional effort to both build and store the map. We introduce an 2.5-D occupancy-elevation grid mapping, which is a discrete mapping approach, where each cell stores the occupancy probability, the height of the terrain at current place in the environment and the variance of this height. This 2.5-dimensional representation allows that a mobile robot to know whether a place in the environment is occupied by an obstacle and the height of this obstacle, thus, it can decide if is possible to traverse the obstacle. Sensorial informations necessary to construct the map is provided by a stereo vision system, which has been modeled with a robust probabilistic approach, considering the noise present in the stereo processing. The resulting maps favors the execution of tasks like decision making in the autonomous navigation, exploration, localization and path planning. Experiments carried out with a real mobile robots demonstrates that this proposed approach yields useful maps for robot autonomous navigation

Navegação cooperativa de um robô humanóide e um robô com rodas usando informação visual

This work presents a cooperative navigation systemof a humanoid robot and a wheeled robot using visual information, aiming to navigate the non-instrumented humanoid robot using information obtained from the instrumented wheeled robot. Despite the humanoid not having sensors to its navigation, it can be remotely controlled by infra-red signals. Thus, the wheeled robot can control the humanoid positioning itself behind him and, through visual information, find it and navigate it. The location of the wheeled robot is obtained merging information from odometers and from landmarks detection, using the Extended Kalman Filter. The marks are visually detected, and their features are extracted by image processing. Parameters obtained by image processing are directly used in the Extended Kalman Filter. Thus, while the wheeled robot locates and navigates the humanoid, it also simultaneously calculates its own location and maps the environment (SLAM). The navigation is done through heuristic algorithms based on errors between the actual and desired pose for each robot. The main contribution of this work was the implementation of a cooperative navigation system for two robots based on visual information, which can be extended to other robotic applications, as the ability to control robots without interfering on its hardware, or attaching communication devices

Plataforma Robótica de Baixíssimo Custo para Robótica Educacional

Robots are present each time more on several areas of our society, however they are still considered expensive equipments that are restricted to few people. This work con- sists on the development of control techniques and architectures that make possible the construction and programming of low cost robots with low programming and building complexity. One key aspect of the proposed architecture is the use of audio interfaces to control actuators and read sensors, thus allowing the usage of any device that can produce sounds as a control unit of a robot. The work also includes the development of web ba- sed programming environments that allow the usage of computers or mobile phones as control units of the robot, which can be remotely programmed and controlled. The work also includes possible applications of such low cost robotic platform, including mainly its educational usage, which was experimentally validated by teachers and students of seve- ral graduation courses. We also present an analysis of data obtained from interviews done with the students before and after the use of our platform, which confirms its acceptance as a teaching support tool

RoboEduc: especificação de um software educacional para ensino da robótica às crianças como uma ferramenta de inclusão digital

Because of social exclusion in Brazil and having as focus the digital inclusion, was started in Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte a project that could talk, at the same time, about concepts of collaborative learning and educational robotics , focused on children digitally excluded. In this context was created a methodology that approaches many subjects as technological elements (e. g. informatics and robotics) and school subjects (e. g. Portuguese, Mathematics, Geography, History), contextualized in everyday situations. We observed educational concepts of collaborative learning and the development of capacities from those students, as group work, logical knowledge and learning ability. This paper proposes an educational software for robotics teaching called RoboEduc, created to be used by children digitally excluded from primary school. Its introduction prioritizes a friendly interface, that makes the concepts of robotics and programming easy and fun to be taught. With this new tool, users without informatics or robotics previous knowledge are able to control a robot, previously set with Lego kits, or even program it to carry some activities out. This paper provides the implementation of the second version of the software. This version presents the control of the robot already used. After were implemented the different levels of programming linked to the many learning levels of the users and their different interfaces and functions. Nowadays, has been implemented the third version, with the improvement of each one of the mentioned stages. In order to validate, prove and test the efficience of the developed methodology to the RoboEduc, were made experiments, through practice of robotics, with children for fourth and fifth grades of primary school at the City School Professor Ascendino de Almeida, in the suburb of Natal (west zone), Rio Grande do Norte. As a preliminary result of the current technology, we verified that the use of robots associated with a well elaborated software can be spread to users that know very little about the subject, without the necessity of previous advanced technology knowledges. Therefore, they showed to be accessible and efficient tools in the process of digital inclusion

Uma abordagem comportamental para inserção de robôs em ambientes culturais

In this work, we propose methodologies and computer tools to insert robots in cultural environments. The basic idea is to have a robot in a real context (a cultural space) that can represent an user connected to the system through Internet (visitor avatar in the real space) and that the robot also have its representation in a Mixed Reality space (robot avatar in the virtual space). In this way, robot and avatar are not simply real and virtual objects. They play a more important role in the scenery, interfering in the process and taking decisions. In order to have this service running, we developed a module composed by a robot, communication tools and ways to provide integration of these with the virtual environment. As welI we implemented a set of behaviors with the purpose of controlling the robot in the real space. We studied available software and hardware tools for the robotics platform used in the experiments, as welI we developed test routines to determine their potentialities. Finally, we studied the behavior-based control model, we planned and implemented alI the necessary behaviors for the robot integration to the real and virtual cultural spaces. Several experiments were conducted, in order to validate the developed methodologies and tools

Utilizando a televisão digital como um meio de comunicação para ambientes interativos reais

This Dissertation aims to provide a communication mechanism between Digital TV viewers and interaction devices, such as robots, for example, placed on the environment from which a TV program is being live broadcasted. Such communication mechanism has the objective to allow viewers controll the Interaction Devices through their TV devices, using the broadcast channel present in Interactive Digital TV systems, and receive data from the devices by the broadcast channel. This system was projected as a middlewaer system where the Interaction Devices in the TV program set are interconnected, creating a Interactive Device Network. With this approach, the system is capable of manage the devices on the network, controlling the flow of coming and leaving elements, in a transparent way for the viewers. The system yet allows the Interaction Devices communicate each other, with a integrated communication channel with no worries about the physical communication layer

Posicionamento e movimentação de um robô humanóide utilizando imagens de uma câmera móvel externa

This work proposes a method to localize a simple humanoid robot, without embedded sensors, using images taken from an extern camera and image processing techniques. Once the robot is localized relative to the camera, supposing we know the position of the camera relative to the world, we can compute the position of the robot relative to the world. To make the camera move in the work space, we will use another mobile robot with wheels, which has a precise locating system, and will place the camera on it. Once the humanoid is localized in the work space, we can take the necessary actions to move it. Simultaneously, we will move the camera robot, so it will take good images of the humanoid. The mainly contributions of this work are: the idea of using another mobile robot to aid the navigation of a humanoid robot without and advanced embedded electronics; chosing of the intrinsic and extrinsic calibration methods appropriated to the task, especially in the real time part; and the collaborative algorithm of simultaneous navigation of the robots

Identificação em tempo real de modelo dinâmico de robô móvel com acionamento diferencial e zona morta

Several mobile robots show non-linear behavior, mainly due friction phenomena between the mechanical parts of the robot or between the robot and the ground. Linear models are efficient in some cases, but it is necessary take the robot non-linearity in consideration when precise displacement and positioning are desired. In this work a parametric model identification procedure for a mobile robot with differential drive that considers the dead-zone in the robot actuators is proposed. The method consists in dividing the system into Hammerstein systems and then uses the key-term separation principle to present the input-output relations which shows the parameters from both linear and non-linear blocks. The parameters are then simultaneously estimated through a recursive least squares algorithm. The results shows that is possible to identify the dead-zone thresholds together with the linear parameters

Localização de um robô móvel usando odometria e marcos naturais

Several methods of mobile robot navigation request the mensuration of robot position and orientation in its workspace. In the wheeled mobile robot case, techniques based on odometry allow to determine the robot localization by the integration of incremental displacements of its wheels. However, this technique is subject to errors that accumulate with the distance traveled by the robot, making unfeasible its exclusive use. Other methods are based on the detection of natural or artificial landmarks present in the environment and whose location is known. This technique doesnt generate cumulative errors, but it can request a larger processing time than the methods based on odometry. Thus, many methods make use of both techniques, in such a way that the odometry errors are periodically corrected through mensurations obtained from landmarks. Accordding to this approach, this work proposes a hybrid localization system for wheeled mobile robots in indoor environments based on odometry and natural landmarks. The landmarks are straight lines de.ned by the junctions in environments floor, forming a bi-dimensional grid. The landmark detection from digital images is perfomed through the Hough transform. Heuristics are associated with that transform to allow its application in real time. To reduce the search time of landmarks, we propose to map odometry errors in an area of the captured image that possesses high probability of containing the sought mark

Controle dinâmico de robôs móveis com acionamento diferencial

This work addresses the dynamic control problem of two-wheeled differentially driven non-holonomic mobile robot. Strategies for robot positioning control and robot orientating control are presented. Such strategies just require information about the robot con¯guration (x, y and teta), which can be collected by an absolute positioning system. The strategies development is related to a change on the controlled variables for such systems, from x, y and teta to s (denoting the robot linear displacement) and teta, and makes use of the polar coordinates representation for the robot kinematic model. Thus, it is possible to obtain a linear representation for the mobile robot dynamic model and to develop such strategies. It is also presented that such strategies allow the use of linear controllers to solve the control problem. It is shown that there is flexibility to choice the linear controller (P, PI, PID, Model Matching techniques, others) to be implemented. This work presents an introduction to mobile robotics and their characteristics followed by the control strategies development and controllers design. Finally, simulated and experimental results are presented and commented

Sistema de navegação para robôs móveis autônomos

The main task and one of the major mobile robotics problems is its navigation process. Conceptualy, this process means drive the robot from an initial position and orientation to a goal position and orientation, along an admissible path respecting the temporal and velocity constraints. This task must be accomplished by some subtasks like robot localization in the workspace, admissible path planning, trajectory generation and motion control. Moreover, autonomous wheeled mobile robots have kinematics constraints, also called nonholonomic constraints, that impose the robot can not move everywhere freely in its workspace, reducing the number of feasible paths between two distinct positions. This work mainly approaches the path planning and trajectory generation problems applied to wheeled mobile robots acting on a robot soccer environment. The major dificulty in this process is to find a smooth function that respects the imposed robot kinematic constraints. This work proposes a path generation strategy based on parametric polynomials of third degree for the 'x' and 'y' axis. The 'theta' orientation is derived from the 'y' and 'x' relations in such a way that the generated path respects the kinematic constraint. To execute the trajectory, this work also shows a simple control strategy acting on the robot linear and angular velocities

Estratégias baseadas em aprendizado para coordenação de uma frota de robôs em tarefas cooperativas

In multi-robot systems, both control architecture and work strategy represent a challenge for researchers. It is important to have a robust architecture that can be easily adapted to requirement changes. It is also important that work strategy allows robots to complete tasks efficiently, considering that robots interact directly in environments with humans. In this context, this work explores two approaches for robot soccer team coordination for cooperative tasks development. Both approaches are based on a combination of imitation learning and reinforcement learning. Thus, in the first approach was developed a control architecture, a fuzzy inference engine for recognizing situations in robot soccer games, a software for narration of robot soccer games based on the inference engine and the implementation of learning by imitation from observation and analysis of others robotic teams. Moreover, state abstraction was efficiently implemented in reinforcement learning applied to the robot soccer standard problem. Finally, reinforcement learning was implemented in a form where actions are explored only in some states (for example, states where an specialist robot system used them) differently to the traditional form, where actions have to be tested in all states. In the second approach reinforcement learning was implemented with function approximation, for which an algorithm called RBF-Sarsa($lambda$) was created. In both approaches batch reinforcement learning algorithms were implemented and imitation learning was used as a seed for reinforcement learning. Moreover, learning from robotic teams controlled by humans was explored. The proposal in this work had revealed efficient in the robot soccer standard problem and, when implemented in other robotics systems, they will allow that these robotics systems can efficiently and effectively develop assigned tasks. These approaches will give high adaptation capabilities to requirements and environment changes.

Planejamento cooperativo de tarefas em um ambiente de futebol de robôs

Este trabalho apresenta o desenvolvimento de um método de coordenação e cooperação para uma frota de mini-robôs móveis. O escopo do desenvolvimento é o futebol de robôs. Trata-se de uma plataforma bem estruturada, dinâmica e desenvolvida no mundo inteiro. O futebol de robôs envolve diversos campos do conhecimento incluindo: visão computacional, teoria de controle, desenvolvimento de circuitos microcontrolados, planejamento cooperativo, entre outros. A título de organização os sistema foi dividido em cinco módulos: robô, visão, localização, planejamento e controle. O foco do trabalho se limita ao módulo de planejamento. Para auxiliar seu desenvolvimento um simulador do sistema foi implementado. O simulador funciona em tempo real e substitui os robôs reais. Dessa forma os outros módulos permanecem praticamente inalterados durante uma simulação ou execução com robôs reais. Para organizar o comportamento dos robôs e produzir a cooperação entre eles foi adotada uma arquitetura hierarquizada: no mais alto nível está a escolha do estilo de jogo do time; logo abaixo decide-se o papel que cada jogador deve assumir; associado ao papel temos uma ação específica e finalmente calcula-se a referência de movimento do robô. O papel de um robô dita o comportamento do robô na dada ocasião. Os papéis são alocados dinamicamente durante o jogo de forma que um mesmo robô pode assumir diferentes papéis no decorrer da partida

Modelagem linear e identificação do modelo dinâmico de um robô móvel com acionamento diferencial

This work presents a modelling and identification method for a wheeled mobile robot, including the actuator dynamics. Instead of the classic modelling approach, where the robot position coordinates (x,y) are utilized as state variables (resulting in a non linear model), the proposed discrete model is based on the travelled distance increment Delta_l. Thus, the resulting model is linear and time invariant and it can be identified through classical methods such as Recursive Least Mean Squares. This approach has a problem: Delta_l can not be directly measured. In this paper, this problem is solved using an estimate of Delta_l based on a second order polynomial approximation. Experimental data were colected and the proposed method was used to identify the model of a real robot