In this paper, we design a basic algorithm enabling recognition of surrounding environment and collision avoidance among elemental technologies for autonomous driving, also applies sensor theoretical data and actual road performance to robo-racing system based on experimental data obtained through driving tests to enable sophisticated collision avoidance. For this study, a commercial autonomous driving patform(ERP-42), LiDAR and GPS sensors were used to implement efficient comunication systems and autonomous driving algorithms between each module.

Robots for a wide range of purposes have been developed along with the rapid industrialization. On the basis of higher convenience, the robots have been creating new industrial environment. The robots are generally classified into service robots and industrial robots. Robots in various shapes have been developed on the basis of the autonomous mobile robots. The autonomous mobile robots have the possibility to crash against any object in their moving range. This paper suggests a collision avoidance method to prevent collision of robots. The collision avoidance method analyzes the road context data and makes a robot move to a safe area. The collision avoidance method proposed in this paper converts the road context data into the information value. The collision avoidance method analyzes the present risk on the basis of the converted information value. The collision avoidance method makes a robot move to a safe area when crash is estimated by the information analysis.

The aims of this paper is to develop a modular agricultural robot and its autonomous driving algorithm that can be used in field farming. Actually, it is difficult to develop a controller for autonomous agricultural robot that transforming their dynamic characteristics by installation of machine modules. So we develop for the model based control algorithm of rotary machine connected to agricultural robot. Autonomous control algorithm of agricultural robot consists of the path control, velocity control, orientation control. To verify the developed algorithm, we used to analytical techniques that have the advantage of reducing development time and risks. The model is formulated based on the multibody dynamics methods for high accuracy. Their model parameters get from the design parameter and real constructed data. Then we developed the co-simulation that is combined between the multibody dynamics model and control model using the ADAMS and Matlab simulink programs. Using the developed model, we carried out various dynamics simulation in the several rotation speed of blades.

In this paper, an Embedded solution for fast navigation and precise positioning of mobile robots by floor features is introduced. Most of navigation systems tend to require high-performance computing unit and high quality sensor data. They can produce high accuracy navigation systems but have limited application due to their high cost. The introduced navigation system is designed to be a low cost solution for a wide range of applications such as toys, mobile service robots and education. The key design idea of the system is a simple localization approach using line features of the floor and delayed localization strategy using topological map. It differs from typical navigation approaches which usually use Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technique with high latency localization. This navigation system is implemented on single board Raspberry Pi B+ computer which has 1.4 GHz processor and Redone mobile robot which has maximum speed of 1.1 m/s.

This study proposes a multi-robot system, using multiple autonomous robots, to explore concrete structures and assist in their maintenance by sealing any cracks present in the structure. The proposed system employed a new self-localization method that is essential for autonomous robots, along with a visualization system to recognize the external environment and to detect and explore cracks efficiently. Moreover, more efficient crack search in an unknown environment became possible by arranging the robots into search areas divided depending on the surrounding situations. Operations with increased efficiency were also realized by overcoming the disadvantages of the infeasible logical behavioral model design with only six basic behavioral strategies based on distributed control-one of the methods to control swarm robots. Finally, this study investigated the efficiency of the proposed multi-robot system via basic sensor testing and simulation.

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm of the guidance line extraction for autonomous agricultural robot based on vision camera in paddy field. It is the important process for guidance line extraction which finds the central point or area of rice row. We are trying to use the central region data of crop that the direction of rice leaves have convergence to central area of rice row in order to improve accuracy of the guidance line. The guidance line is extracted from the intersection points of extended virtual lines using the modified robust regression. The extended virtual lines are represented as the extended line from each segmented straight line created on the edges of the rice plants in the image using the Hough transform. We also have verified an accuracy of the proposed algorithm by experiments in the real wet paddy.

In this paper, we proposed a new algorithm of the guidance line extraction for autonomous weeding robot based on infrared vision sensor in wet paddy. It is the critical process for guidance line extraction which finds the central point or area of rice row. In order to improve accuracy of the guidance line, we are trying to use the morphological characteristics of rice that the direction of rice leaves have convergence to central area of rice row. Using Hough transform, we were represented the curved leaves as a combination of segmented straight lines on binary image that has been skeletonized and segmented object. A slope of the guidance line was gotten as calculate the average slope of all segmented lines. An initial point of the guidance line was determined that is the maximum pixel value of the accumulated white columns of a binary image which is rotated the slope of guidance line in the opposite direction. We also have verified an accuracy of the proposed algorithm by experiments in the real wet paddy.

Methods for measuring or estimating of ground shape by a laser range finder and a vision sensor(exteroceptive sensors) have critical weakness in terms that these methods need prior database built to distinguish acquired data as unique surface condition for driving. Also, ground information by exteroceptive sensors does not reflect the deflection of ground surface caused by the movement of UGVs. Thereby, UGVs have some difficulties regarding to finding optimal driving conditions for maximum maneuverability. Therefore, this paper proposes a method of recognizing exact and precise ground shape using Inertial Measurement Unit(IMU) as a proprioceptive sensor. In this paper, firstly this method recognizes attitude of a robot in real-time using IMU and compensates attitude data of a robot with angle errors through analysis of vehicle dynamics. This method is verified by outdoor driving experiments of a real mobile robot.

This paper presents a localization system using ceiling images in a large indoor environment. For a system with low cost and complexity, we propose a single camera based system that utilizes ceiling images acquired from a camera installed to point upwards. For reliable operation, we propose a method using hybrid features which include natural landmarks in a natural scene and artificial landmarks observable in an infrared ray domain. Compared with previous works utilizing only infrared based features, our method reduces the required number of artificial features as we exploit both natural and artificial features. In addition, compared with previous works using only natural scene, our method has an advantage in the convergence speed and robustness as an observation of an artificial feature provides a crucial clue for robot pose estimation. In an experiment with challenging situations in a real environment, our method was performed impressively in terms of the robustness and accuracy. To our knowledge, our method is the first ceiling vision based localization method using features from both visible and infrared rays domains. Our system can be easily utilized with a variety of service robot applications in a large indoor environment.

Recently, many vision-based navigation methods have been introduced as an intelligent robot application. However, many of these methods mainly focus on finding an image in the database corresponding to a query image. Thus, if the environment changes, for example, objects moving in the environment, a robot is unlikely to find consistent corresponding points with one of the database images. To solve these problems, we propose a novel navigation strategy which uses fast motion estimation and a practical scene recognition scheme preparing the kidnapping problem, which is defined as the problem of re-localizing a mobile robot after it is undergone an unknown motion or visual occlusion. This algorithm is based on motion estimation by a camera to plan the next movement of a robot and an efficient outlier rejection algorithm for scene recognition. Experimental results demonstrate the capability of the vision-based autonomous navigation against dynamic environments.

We propose a novel real-time obstacle avoidance method for rescue robots. This method, named the ELA(Emergency Level Around), permits the detection of unknown obstacles and avoids collisions while simultaneously steering the mobile robot toward safe position. In the ELA, we consider two sensor modules, PSD(Position Sensitive Detector) infrared sensors taking charge of obstacle detection in short distance and LMS(Laser Measurement System) in long distance respectively. Hence if a robot recognizes an obstacle ahead by PSD infrared sensors first, and judges impossibility to overcome the obstacle based on driving mode decision process, the order of priority is transferred to LMS which collects data of radial distance centered on the robot to avoid the confronted obstacle. After gathering radial information, the ELA algorithm estimates emergency level around a robot and generates a polar histogram based on the emergency level to judge where the optimal free space is. Finally, steering angle is determined to guarantee rotation to randomly direction as well as robot width for safe avoidance. Simulation results from wandering in closed local area which includes various obstacles and different conditions demonstrate the power of the ELA.