Remote controlled, vision guided, mobile robot system

Automated Guided Vehicles (AGV's) have many potential applications in manufacturing, medicine, space and defense. The purpose of this paper is to describe exploratory research on the design of the remote controlled emergency stop and vision systems for an autonomous mobile robot. The remote control provides human supervision and emergency stop capabilities for the autonomous vehicle. The vision guidance provides automatic operation. A mobile robot test-bed has been constructed using a golf cart base. The mobile robot (Bearcat) was built for the Association far Unmanned Vehicle Systems (AUVS) 1997 competition. The mobile robot bar; full speed control with guidance provided by a vision system and an obstacle avoidance system using ultrasonic sensors systems. Vision guidance is accomplished using two CCD cameras with zoom lenses. The vision data is processed bq a high speed tracking device, communicating with the computer the X, Y coordinates of blobs along the lane markers. The system also has three emergency stop switches and a remote controlled emergency stop switch that can disable the traction motor and set the brake. Testing of these systems has been done in the lab as well as on an outside test track with positive results that show that at five mph the vehicle can follow a line and at the same time avoid obstacles.