Mobile Robot Navigation System

Published on 19 May 2022. Written by Vasanth Vidyakar

Through this project you will develop a robot that uses RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag sensors, laser range sensors and ultrasonic sensors to find its way out of a path. The robot that you build will automatically move along the path using the scanned range data till it finds a tad and then follows a pre-set map for the next movement.

To facilitate the robot movement, the floor will be patched with RFID tags which the robot detects with the help of RFID reader. Whenever the RFID reader present in the robot detects the tag value it will correlate with the value that is previously stored in the PC without needing the help of GPS. According to the data received from the tag, position of the robot will be estimated and then the robot navigates through a definite path.

The robot can also be embedded with ultrasonic sensors to make it avoid colliding with the walls or any other obstacles. An Arm7 processor can be used to read the RFID tag data and pass it to the PC through the serial port.

The application of this robot varies from intelligent navigation of motorized wheelchairs, surveillance and security actions. Also this technology can be widely implemented on to the systems that emit harmful radiations like the nuclear power plants.

Project Description:

The hardware implementation in the Mobile Robot Navigation System are as follows,

ARM7 LPC2129: The ARM7 LPC2129 is a microcontroller based on the ARM TDMI architecture. This microcontroller is widely used to sense the RFID tags which information is already stored in the database. This particular microcontroller is capable of storing a lot of data in comparison with the conventional ones.
RFID Tags: The RFID tags consist a unique number which can be read by a RFID reader. With the electromagnetic waves, the data from the tag will be passed to the RFID reader and the information collected will be further sent to the arm microcontroller for processing.
Ultrasonic Sensor: The ultrasonic sensor is used to detect the obstacles present in the location. This module will be constantly generating the ultrasonic waves and whenever the robot comes near the obstacle the waves will be reflected back and the receiver will detect it and sends the data to the microcontroller.
ULN2003: The motors of the robot will be controlled by the motor driver unit which is embedded with ULN2003 driver IC. The sinking current of the ULN driver is around 500ma.

Project Implementation:

The ultrasonic sensor detect the ultrasonic waves emitted from the objects and the variation in the pulsed output is the expected output from the sensor
The RFID reader reads the tag values and sends the output to the microcontroller through serial port
The input to the motor driver is the triggering voltage from port pin of the microcontroller
The motors receive the input through relay from the microcontroller and gets switched ON/OFF based on the triggering input
The RFID reader obtains the RFID tag value and inputs it to the microcontroller through its serial port. Also the ultrasonic sensor provides the value as input to the microcontroller’s ADC Pin
The microcontroller then outputs the RFID value to the PC for processing. Based on the information, the microcontroller then sends out the signals to control the robot actuation. And with the data received from the ultrasonic sensor the robot avoids obstacle and maintains the fixed path.

Software requirements:

Keil Uvision 3: Keil Software makes C compilers, macro assemblers, real-time kernels, debuggers, simulators, integrated environments and evaluation boards for the 8051, 251, ARM and XC16x/C16x/ST10 microcontroller families

Programming language: Embedded C language

Kit required to develop Mobile Robot Navigation System:

Technologies you will learn by working on Mobile Robot Navigation System:

Mobile Robot Navigation System

Project Description:

Project Implementation:

Software requirements:

Any Questions?

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