Teleoperation of mobile robots is constrained by factors such as time delay in sending and receiving data during communication over the communication medium. In most cases the data becomes redundant and is no longer valid. There is also the possibility of the robot encountering a dangerous situation and due to time delays put the robot in danger, as the operator commands are not received on time. The operator stress levels also increase as data transmission is delayed. Controlling every aspect of the robot imposes a high level of concentration on the operator, which cannot be sustained for a long period. The operator will also require some kind of visual feedback of the environment that the robot is traveling in.; To overcome some of these difficulties faced during teleoperation, we are trying to study the feasibility of using a quadtree data structure to map and generate a path plan for a mobile robot. In order to give the mobile robot more autonomy due to time delays in the communication network a two layered control structure was used. The operator would be able to choose the mode of control either manual control, or auto control. The manual control mode is useful when there is little time delay in the network or when the operator wants more control over the system. In the auto control mode, the operator can specify the target destination, and let the robot navigate itself to the destination by avoiding any obstacles in the way. In order for the mobile robot to navigate successfully to a target destination, it should successfully map and plan an optimal path to reach the destination, this information is also vital to update the operator's perception of the environment in which the mobile robot is being navigated in. A mobile robot was constructed using a Motorola MC68HC11, Microcontroller to test the performance. The results show that the mobile robot can be successfully navigated around a set of obstacles while avoiding collision, in both the manual and auto control mode.
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