An Autonomously Guided Differential Drive Robot Base Using Asus® Xtion Pro Live

摘要

Robots have been popularized in the world during the past two decades and its development has overtaken many tasks performed by people, from households to the largest companies. Further, robotics has its applications in almost all industries and sectors. Robots are available in many sizes, weights, and appearances based on their usage and applicability. In our study, we are going to introduce a novel robot base. We have developed the basic structure of the base using low-cost materials and open-source software packages. We used a 3D vision sensor for capturing the environment. Xtion Pro Live sensor by Asus was chosen for the purpose as it is lightweight, small and can be powered through a USB cable. We selected a Raspberry Pi computer as the processing unit of the base because of its lightweight and low cost. Further, it functions efficiently in an indoor environment using wheels. It is Pentagon shaped, 35 cm long and 30 cm wide. It can carry up to 5 kg in weight. We have tested the robot base in an unstructured indoor environment for goal completion using five locations. The robot’s accuracy in achieving its targets is 92%. We have made a prototype of a novel robot base with the intention of developing it to append a robotic arm. The system will be able to mimic the tasks in a storage area, having the ability to add, remove and reposition the items in racks.