Autonomous Surface Navigation Platform Michael Baxter Angel Berrocal Brandon Groff

Project Overview General platform capable of autonomous navigation and adaptable to land and sea surface environments. Apply sensor technology for a basic navigation software foundation on which to build more complex autonomous algorithms for homeland security. Primary client is multiple branches of the US Military. Estimate development costs at $41,000; initial cost of a prototype system, including instrumentation and wiring, should be less than $10,000.

Technical Objectives Basic Autonomous Navigation Collision Avoidance Path Planning and Following Propulsion System Control Recognition of Objective Object Color & Shape Recognition Built Using LabVIEW & CompactRIO Platforms Readily available LabVIEW Vision Module is easier to use than other solutions

Demonstration of Objectives

Navigation System Design

Actual Design Implementation

Overall Program Flow

Path Planning Requirements Enable vehicle to drive toward target object by determining direction in which it should proceed Requires a devices to determine the current position and angle of the robot. o GPS Device - Determination of absolute position o Inertial Motion Unit (IMU) - Information about robot yaw Software & Interface Requirements o LabVIEW 2009 o CompactRIO Serial Module for GPS Interface Caveats o GPS Module has accuracy of 3 meters or less using Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)

Path Planning Algorithm

Path Following Requirements Must allow robot to follow a planned path May initiate object avoidance while following path Needs sensors to track current heading, and watch for potential obstacles o IMU - Track heading can be reused from Path Planning o Vex Sonar - obstacle detection & avoidance Trade offs o Shaft Encoder - Less expensive, require more programming, propulsion-system dependent

Path Following Algorithm

Collision Avoidance Requirements Autonomous navigation without collisions which may stop, damage or otherwise hinder the vehicle's movement Requires sensor for detection of distances to objects o Laser Range Finders - very expensive o Vex Ultrasonic Sonar - very cheap and available Software Requirements o LabVIEW 2009 o LabVIEW FPGA Module (sonar interface) Caveats o Cheaper sensors require better software

Collision Avoidance Algorithm

Object Search & Recognition Requirements 360-degree view to scan for possible object color and shape recognition One camera facing forward and one facing backward for improved search time Requires two cameras that are compatible with micro- controller CompactRIO o Axis M1011 Ethernet cameras can be used simultaneously with CompactRIO o Wireless-G Linksys Router 2.4 GHz Software Requirements o LabVIEW 2009 & LabVIEW Vision Development Module Caveats o Better cameras with higher resolution are costly o Low resolution requires better image processing

Object Search

Object Recognition Algorithm LabVIEW Vision Assistant Block Diagram: LabVIEW Vision Module allows high- level development of vision algorithms in a block-diagram fashion

Propulsion System Control Requirements Must be able to control Thrusters for marine vehicles as well as Vex motors for land demonstration Both use 1-2 ms Pulse-Width Modulation signals Requires hardware interface between LabVIEW and propulsion system o CompactRIO Digital I/O Module Software Requirements o LabVIEW 2009 o LabVIEW FPGA Module

Schedule of Future Work

Design Issues GPS Device Payment issues purchasing first GPS CompactRIO module Received a pledge for a donated GPS CompactRIO module from Marine Innovations, however their driver appeared to be for an old version of LabVIEW Package from Marine Innovations showed up empty Just purchased a Garmin stand-alone unit with serial interface Vex sonar inaccuracies Sonars are relatively cheap and often provide inaccurate readings - requires averaging and filtering of data

Summary of current status of project Vehicle Status Test platform assembled Motors, Cameras, Router, IMU, Sonars, and cRIO mounted Garmin GPS has not arrived, driver available from National Instruments Power Plan designed - 24V & 7.2V batteries with 2 DC-DC converters Algorithm Status Able to gather usable data from sonars, cameras, and IMU Object recognition algorithm successfully differentiates between similar objects indoors and determines distance to object Successful propulsion system control with cRIO

LabVIEW Test Program Example