International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 4 Issue 9- Sep 2013
Autonomous Mobile Platform for Intelligent Control of Robot
G.SUBBARAYUDU1, Y.ARUNA SUHASINI DEVI2, ABD SUBHANI SHAIKUL3
1
M.Tech, Dept of ECE, CMR College of Engineering &Technology, Hyderabad, AP-India,
2
Assoc Prof, Dept of ECE, CMR College of Engineering &Technology, Hyderabad, AP-India.
3
Asst Prof, Dept of ECE, CMR College of Engineering &Technology, Hyderabad, AP-India.
Abstract: An autonomous mobile platform for
intelligent control of robot is presented in this
paper, whose main objective is to continuously
monitor the presence of unauthorized people in a
highly secured zone and to detect the presence of
explosives in a place where human intervention is
impossible. In this research, Zigbee wireless
technology is used together with robotic
application to illustrate the effectiveness of
intelligent control of robot. To implement this,
Zigbee protocol is used as the communication
medium between mobile robot and PC controller.
Camera is interfaced to the controller and the
robot is controlled accordingly to provide
continuous monitoring of the surrounding area.
The autonomous mobile platform developed was
controlled using GPS, ultrasonic sensor and metal
sensor.
Keywords:
Robot, Zigbee, ARM7LPC2148
microcontroller, PC, Wireless video camera,
Ultrasonic Sensor, Metal sensor
I.INTRODUCTION:
Autonomous mobile platform is a machine that can
operate in a human made environment by using
Zigbee modules. Zigbee is widely used in embedded
applications like industries. This project is designed
with an inbuilt wireless video camera, ultrasonic
sensor and metal detector to continuously monitor the
surrounding areas for the presence of unauthorized
people and to detect the presence of explosives.
Implementation of Zigbee wireless sensor network
(WSN) in search and rescue applications involves the
use of mobile robot integrated with wireless camera.
The system uses the camera to monitor, in real time
the situation around which the robot is placed, such
as obstacles, bombs, entrances and exit. The main
elements of the system are the central control system,
where human operators remotely monitor the
ISSN: 2231-5381
surrounding infrastructure providing data streams
generated by wireless visual system from the camera.
II. RELATED WORK:
The wireless communication technologies are rapidly
spreading to many new areas, including the
automation, use of wireless technologies in the data
acquisition, building control, monitoring system and
automation of manufacturing processes. Zigbee is
one of the new technologies designed to enable
wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) based
around the new and emerging IEEE 802.15.4
standard. As such, Zigbee has great potential for
incorporation into personal robotics for control
purposes, for telemetry and for just plain
programming, to name a few applications. This paper
presents the development of a combined system of
mobile robotic concept and wireless Zigbee
application.
The technology defined by the Zigbee
specification is intended to be simpler and less
expensive than other WPANs, such as Bluetooth.
Zigbee is targeted at radio-frequency (RF)
applications that require a low data rate, long battery
life, and secure networking. For these reasons,
Zigbee is chosen as the communication medium for
the mobile robot. Successful implementation of
wireless mobile robot using Zigbee protocol will
serve as a basis for building actual search and rescue
mobile units capable of performing dangerous and
almost impossible missions which a man cannot
handle.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM:
In the proposed system a camera is attached to the
robot which continuously monitors and sends the real
time video data wirelessly on a separate channel to
the PC simultaneously. A mini sized robot with
ultrasonic sensor, mine sweeping sensor and Zigbee
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 4 Issue 9- Sep 2013
wireless
communication
is
designed
for
implementation of this project. The robot uses the
ultrasonic sensor for detecting obstacles found in its
path. Mine sweeping sensor is used to detect the
presence of mines in the surrounding location. After
detecting the mine, the controller sends an alarm
message to the monitoring center using Zigbee
communication.
IV. SYSTEM DESIGN, HARDWARE AND
SOFTWARE:
The block diagram consists of the hardware modules
like ultrasonic sensor, metal sensor, ARM7
microcontroller, GPS, Zigbee protocol and wireless
web camera.
The robot is controlled by the PC, which has the
application design for the system. The user interface
consists of a Zigbee transmitter, PC with video
receiver, tuner card and display terminal. The
video/wireless receiver is analogous to the eye of the
robot as it shows the path to be travelled by the robot.
The Zigbee transmitter can be used to control the
movement of the robot. Tuner card is a kind of
television tuner that allows signal to be received by a
computer. The PC can also be configured to
automatically acquire the data and store it into
customized network data base at frequent intervals of
time. Fig2 shows the block diagram of user interface.
The snap shots can be viewed through internet from
anywhere.
Fig 2: Block diagram of user interface
SOFTWARE:
Fig 1: Block diagram of autonomous mobile robot
The main working module of the robot consists of
LPC2148 microcontroller interfaced to ultrasonic
sensor and mine detector sensor. The device
framework of the robot works with L293D device
drivers and location of the robot is traced with
camera and the Zigbee transceiver. Zigbee protocol
makes the implementation simpler with low power
consumption and allows the robot to be controlled
wirelessly, with freedom of movement. Two Zigbee
modules were used to implement wireless
communication from controller to PC and from PC to
robot. The sensor signals received by the controller
were processed and sent to PC, which in turn sends
the necessary instructions through the second Zigbee
module to control the movement of robot.
ISSN: 2231-5381
The code was developed using Keil software.
Integrated development environment popularly
known as IDE is a suite of software tools that
facilitates microcontroller programming. The Keil
IDE enables the embedded professional to develop
the program in C and assembly as well. The
compilation leads to a hex file to be dumped in the
microcontroller on chip ROM using flash Magic
which is a PC tool for programming flash based
microcontroller from NXP using serial or Ethernet
protocol. A quick session of simulation and
debugging using the IDE ensures the desired results.
V. CIRCUIT OPERATION:
In this project two sensor systems i.e., ultrasonic
sensor and metal sensor are used for the control of
autonomous mobile robot. The ultrasonic sensor
identifies and recognizes the object in its path and
sends a message which is displayed on lcd display.
The range of ultrasonic sensor is 400 cm. The metal
detector is a device that can detect metal, and can
produce a sound, when it is close to some metal. An
advanced metal detector can identify the kind of
metal and at what depth it is located. This system is
primarily based on a PC operated, Zigbee based
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 4 Issue 9- Sep 2013
Fig 3: Autonomous Robot
Fig5: Robot operation displayed in hyper terminal
mobile robot with a wireless web camera, which can
move in forward, backward, right and left directions,
by using the keys on the PC keyboard, using Zigbee
communication. The robot is controlled by the
ARM7 based LPC2148 microcontroller. The robot is
connected with two DC motors which are controlled
by the L293D driver and a Zigbee transceiver which
receives commands from the user and sends them to
the microcontroller. The Wireless web camera acts as
the eye of the robot to monitor the entire surrounding
area and provides live streaming of the path to be
followed by the robot. The robot vehicle captures the
images of the surrounding area and sends them to the
PC so that necessary action may be taken in case of
emergency.
VI. RESULTS:
Fig6: Directions of robot movement
The video display of the surrounding area is depicted
in fig4 and Fig5 displays the robot operation in hyper
terminal.
Fig6. Depicts the total operation displayed on PC
(HyperTerminal) i.e., the movement of robot in
forward, backward, left, and right directions,
ultrasonic sensor to recognize the object at a distance
and metal detector to detect the metal.
VII. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK:
Fig4: Video Monitoring
ISSN: 2231-5381
Autonomous mobile platform was controlled using
GPS and ultrasonic sensor and metal sensor. Robot
detects the bomb in an inaccessible or unknown area
where human intervention is impossible. Zigbee has
proven to be a practical solution for low cost
monitoring and controlling devices. The project
demonstrated that implementation of Zigbee network
protocol 802.15.4 with microcontroller PIC 16F877A
was done successfully. An advanced and expensive
type of metal detector can be used to identify the type
of metal or explosive and its location even at a depth
easily.
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International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology (IJETT) – Volume 4 Issue 9- Sep 2013
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