In this thesis, a mobile robot equipped with a hybrid locomotion mechanism, consisting of caterpillars and wheels, is developed. The robot driving mode automatically changes from caterpillars to wheels and vice versa depending upon a driving road condition. The robot also uses three types of sensory data feedback such as sonar, infrared, and visual data to execute the desired navigation successfully.
The newly designed hybrid locomotion mechanism plays an important roll for robot to operate in natural environments including indoor and outdoor. Therefore the recognition of a driving road conditions in real time becomes essential criterion to path planning and scheduling. We take advantages of sensor fusion idea to an obstacle avoidance or a target tracking and measure the distance in real time to these objects. The cooperation of these sensory feedback with robot driving servo system is realized using hardware interrupts.
Micro switches are attached to the bumper of robot to protect the collision with obstacles caused by a miss detection or an error of sensory feedback.
Real experiments show that the driving mode changing is well operated on the stairs and planar ground and also the robot follows the predefined test path accurately at a low speed and an acceleration in accordance with sensory feedback.
