CONTROL SYSTEM FOR OBJECT TRANSPORTATION BY A MOBILE ROBOT WITH MANIPULATOR COMBINED WITH MANUAL OPERATION AND AUTONOMOUS CONTROL

In this paper, a control system of a mobile robot with manipulator for object transportation is developed by using image processing and distance measurement. As the control methods, manual operation and autonomous control are considered. First, mobile robot is operated manually until USB camera captures a target object to be transported. Then, the control method is switched from manual operation to autonomous control. In the autonomous control, to detect the target object, HSV color recognition is used. A distance sensor is used to measure the distance between the target and the mobile robot when the mobile robot sufficiently approaches to the target. The target object is grasped by the manipulator. Secondly, a destination object for the target object to be put into is detected by USB camera and distance sensor after the mobile robot is manually operated. Then, the mobile robot is controlled autonomously to transport the target object. The usefulness of the proposed control system was verified by experiments.