IIIT Hyderabad Publications |
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Transportation of Deformable Payload through Static and Dynamic Obstacles using Loosely Coupled Nonholonomic RobotsAuthor: Subhasis Chand Date: 2021-08-25 Report no: IIIT/TH/2021/101 Advisor:Kamalakar Karlapalem AbstractMulti-robot systems have many applications where a group of robots carry out a certain task more efficiently than a single robot. One of the most practical implementations of such a system is to transport large payloads using multiple small robots. Such a payload transportation system can be used in large warehouses, rescue operations during natural disasters and patient transportation in hospitals. Food and package delivery systems are also possible to design by extending these concepts to multiple drones. In the case of rigid payloads, the robots must group in a static formation as per the shape of the payload so that it can be transported. However, when it comes to deformable payloads, the process becomes complicated due to the flexible nature of the payload. In addition to that for efficient transportation of the deformable payload the robots must be able to reshape the formation to squeeze through the narrow gaps among the obstacles. In this thesis, we present a methodology for transportation of deformable payloads using a formation of non-holonomic mobile robots, while avoiding static and dynamic obstacles. This work is an endto-end solution which includes creating initial formation of the robots, path planning to avoid static obstacles, dynamic obstacle avoidance, control signal generation for individual robots and building a local positioning system for localization of individual robots as well as the formation. We assume the center of the formation to be a virtual robot which also plays the role of the leader of the formation. Rapidly exploring Random Tree star (RRT*) algorithm is used to determine static obstacle free trajectory for the virtual leader while a custom path planning algorithm is incorporated for the follower robots. Individual trajectories are planned for each of the robots. A decentralized leaderfollower formation control is applied for the robots to traverse on their respective trajectories without breaking the formation while following the constraints of the deformable payload. The virtual leader moves forward or backward on the initially generated path with variable velocity depending on the proximity of dynamic obstacles. All the other robots follow it so that the formation can avoid dynamic obstacles while remaining on the path leading towards the destination. In order to carry out the process smoothly we created a local position system using Ultra Wide Band (UWB) modules which can localize each of the robots in the formation in real time. Full thesis: pdf Centre for Others |
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