Inter national J our nal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) V ol. 9, No. 3, June 2019, pp. 1773 1779 ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v9i3.pp1773-1779 r 1773 Robot na vigation in unkno wn en vir onment with obstacle r ecognition using laser sensor Neer endra K umar 1 , Zoltán Vámossy 2 1,2 John v on Neumann F aculty of Informatics, Ób uda Uni v ersity , Hung ary 1 Department of Computer Science & IT , Central Uni v ersity of Jammu, India Article Inf o Article history: Recei v ed Jun 5, 2018 Re vised No v 19, 2018 Accepted Des 15, 2018 K eyw ords: Laser scan Obstacle a v oidance Obstacle recognition Robot na vig ation T urtlebot ABSTRA CT Robot na vig ation in unkno wn and dynamic en vironments may result in aimless w an- dering, corner traps and repetiti v e path loops. T o address these issues, this paper presents the solution by compar ing the standard de viation of the distance ranges of the obstacles appeared in the robot na vig ation path. F or the similar obstacles, The standard de viations of distance range v ectors, obtained from the laser range finder sensor of the robot at similar pose, are v ery close to each other . Therefore, the measurements of odometer sensor are also combined with the standard de viation to recognize the loca- tion of the obstacles. A no v el algorithm, with obstacle detection feature, is presented for robot na vig ation in unkno wn and dynamic en vironments. The algorithm checks the similarity of the distance range v ectors of the obstacles in the path and uses this information in combination with t he odometer measurements to identify the obstacles and their locations. The e xperimental w ork is carried out using Gazebo simulator . Copyright c 2019 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science . All rights r eserved. Corresponding A uthor: Neerendra K umar , John v on Neumann F aculty of Informatics, Ób uda Uni v ersity , Bécsi út 96/b, H-1034 Budapest, Hung ary . Email: neerendra.kumar@phd.uni-ob uda.hu 1. INTR ODUCTION Autonomous na vig ation of robots is g aining popularity among the researchers day by day . R e g ardl ess of the uncertainties in the sensors observ ations, robot may na vig ate safely from start to goal [1]. Using range finder sensors (e.g. laser scan sensors), the robot can na vig ate from start to goal with obstacle a v oidance in unkno wn and dynamic en vironments en vironment [2]. The obstacle size and v elocity v ector of the unmanned surf ace v ehicles can be used to achie v e the obstacle a v oidance. Moreo v er , fusion of more than one na vig ation algorithms can result more accurate outcomes [3]. V arious requirements of obstacle a v oidance can be satisfied for the changing distance between robot and the obstacles [4]. The issue of obstacle a v oidance is treated as an optimization problem in [5]. On the unmark ed path, dynamic colour perception model for the autonomous na vig ation is e xplained in [6]. Ne v ertheless, this model is not suitable for the laser range finder sensors. The comple xity of the object matching task rises for similar objects [7]. Pre vious e xperiences during the robot na vig ation are helpful to predict the path with obstacle a v oidance of static and dynamic obstacles [8]. T ool based learning for robots is presented by [9]. In case of industrial robots, an algorithm for condition monitoring using artificial intelligence is studied in [10]. An algorithm for obstacles a v oidance in unkno wn en vironment using b umper e v ents of the robot is proposed in [11]. Ho we v er , the algorithm presented in [11] has the limitation that the robot m ay struck in the corners and may follo w the same loop of the path ag ain and ag ain. A fuzzy controller for ob s tacle a v oidance in unkno wn en vironment is presented in [12]. Although, the fuzzy rules, for the obstacles in the central part of the laser scan area, are right or left biased. Therefore, the robot may trap in a repetiti v e na vig ation path loop in some situations. In this paper , the scan range v ectors are compared to detect the pre viously occurred obstacles on the same locations of the na vig ation path. J ournal homepage: http://iaescor e .com/journals/inde x.php/IJECE Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1774 r ISSN: 2088-8708 2. PR OBLEM DEFINITION AND PR OPOSED ALGORITHM During robot na vig ation in unkno wn en vironment, the robot may trap in a loop and may repeat the same path ag ain and ag ain. This may be due to the presence of static or dynamic obst acles. T o deal with this type of problem, there is a need to find a method which can recognize the pre viously occurred obstacles in successi v e repetition of the path. So that, the robot can be directed to re v erse the angular v elocity applied so f ar . In this w ay , the robot will come out of the repetiti v e na vig ation path loop. Algorithm 1 Obstacle recognition using laser sensor and odometer 1: Create v ectors: U , V , X , Y , T , S ; 2: Initialize: R max ; g ; D t ; c; T s ; T f ; t ; P t ; v c ; ! c ; v b ; 3: while ( T ime < T f ) do 4: R   scan ranges recei v ed; 5: f or i   1 to length of R do 6: if R ( i ) == N aN then 7: R ( i )   R max ; 8: end if 9: end f or 10: g   g + 1 ; 11: Collect odometer readings at the time of scan; X ( g )   X coordinate from odometer; Y ( g )   Y coordinate from odometer; 12: D min   minimum of R ; 13: if D min < D t then 14: c   c + 1 ; 15:   standard de viation of R ; 16: S ( c )   ; 17: U ( c )   X coordinate from odometer; 18: V ( c )   Y coordinate from odometer; 19: T ( c )   time of scan; 20: f or j   1 to (length of S 1) do 21: D j ;c   p ( U ( c ) U ( j )) 2 + ( V ( c ) V ( j )) 2 ; 22: r   j ( S ( c ) S ( j )) j ; 23: if ( r < t and D j ;c < P t ) then 24: Match found between scans j and c . Record corresponding scan times and positions of robot with respect to j and c .; 25: end if 26: end f or 27: v   j v b j ; 28: !   ! c ; 29: else 30: v   v c ; 31: !   0 ; 32: end if 33: Send v ; ! to robot; 34: end while The laser scanning is a reliable method for obstacles range finding. Generally , the laser scanner produces a v ector of ranges ( R ) of obstacles. If there are n number of readings in a scan then R can be e xpressed by (1) as follo ws: R = [ d k ] ; for k = 1 to n: (1) Where, d is a distance range. Int J Elec & Comp Eng, V ol. 9, No. 3, June 2019 : 1773 – 1779 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 r 1775 Standard de viation ( ) of R can be e xpressed by (2) as gi v en belo w: = s P n k ( d k d ) 2 n : (2) Where, d is the mean of R . Standard de viations of tw o range v ectors can be compared to find the similarity between them. If the standard de viations of the tw o scan range v ectors are close enough then there is the possibility that these scans bel ongs to the same obstacle. Further , the standard de viation in combination of the robot position coor - dinates can be used to confirm that the scan ranges belongs to the same obstacle. T o achie v e this solution, the Algorithm 1 is presented. 3. EXPERIMENT AL RESUL TS AND DISCUSSION The proposed Algorithm 1 is implemented using a notebook computer equipped with 4xIntel Cor e i3 CPU @ 230 GHz . The memory of the system is 3952MB. Ub untu 14.04.5 L TS operating system is used. Robotics System T oolbox The memory of the system is 3952MB. Ub untu 14.04.5 L TS operating system is used. Robotics System T oolbox in MA TLAB (R2018a) is applied for computer programs. Simulated T urtlebot robot model is tak en in Gazebo 2.2.6 simulator . The numerical v alues of the v ariables, init ialized in Algorithm 1, are presented in T able 1. T able 1. Description of v ariables and initialized v alues V ariable Description Initialized V alue R max Maximum range of the laser scanner Def ault g a counter v ariable 0 D t Threshold distance of robot and obstacles 0.6 (meter) c a counter v ariable 0 T s Starting time 0 T f Finish time 80 (seconds) t Threshold dif ference between of tw o scans 0.0005 P t Threshold distance between tw o positions 0.2 (meter) v c F orw ard linear v elocity 0.5 (meter/sec.) ! c Angular v elocity 0 : 6 (radian/sec.) v b Backw ard linear v elocity 0 : 02 (meter/sec.) v Published linear v elocity - ! Published angular v elocity - U X coordinates of poses when obstacles are near - V Y coordinates of poses when obstacles are near - X X coordinates of all poses - Y Y coordinates of all poses - T T ime at scans performed - S Standard de viations scan range v ectors - The robot is dri v en, using Algorithm 1, in the Gazebo world as gi v en by Figure 1. In the be ginning, in Figure 1, the T urtlebot is located at the centre of the w orld and heading to w ards positi v e X axis. In Figure 1, coordinate ax es and their measurement mark er are added to pro vide the understanding of the coordinate po- sitions in the Gazebo world . The Gazebo world is constructed by using bric k boxes of the dimensions 3x1x3 from the model database of the Gazebo simulator . Purposely , The Gazebo wor ld is constr ucted using only one model so that the same type of obstacle encountered each time to increase the comple xity in dif ferentiating the obstacles and their respecti v e locations. In addition, t he maze structure is k ept closed so that the robot can be forced to follo w a repeated path in a loop. The Gazebo world and the simulated T urtlebot can be brought up in the system by e x ecuting the follo wing command in a terminal of Ub untu : Robot navigation in unknown en vir onment with obstacle r eco gnition using laser sensor (Neer endr a K umar) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1776 r ISSN: 2088-8708 r oslaunc h turtlebot_gazebo turtlebot_world.launc h world_file:=file name -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 X (meters) -2.5 -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 Y (meters) Figure 1. Simulated w orld in Gazebo. Robot is dri v en at a constant forw ard linear v elocity and zero angular v elocity until an y closed obstacle is encountered. In this na vig ation process, if an y obstacle is closed enough to the robot then a backw ard linear v elocity and a constant non zero angular v elocity is pro vided to the robot. Using Algorithm 1, the robot na vig ates in a path loop. Figure 2 sho ws the resultant path of the robot. It is clear from Figure 2 that robot is dri v en in a na vig ation loop so that it can observ e the same obstacles more than once. During the na vig ation process, the obstacles distances are measured by laser scan ranges. F or T urtlebot , a laser scan message contains a v ector of 640 range readings of the scan area from right to left. If robot pose is same, each time, the laser scan of an obstacle produces same v ector of ranges. T o find the similarity between tw o v ectors of ranges, standard de viations of the tw o v ectors are compared. -2 -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 X (meters) -1.5 -1 -0.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 Y (meters) Robot navigation path Robot positions Figure 2. Robot path generated from odometer measurements. Figure 3 presents the standard de viations of the range v ectors of dif ferent scans performed during the na vig ation of the robot. Figure 3 depicts that there are periodic spik es which are due to the similarity of the obstacles and repetiti v e path loop. Further , the pattern of the graph in the periods is found v ery similar to each other because of the similarity of the obstacles. Subsequently , it can be inferred that the standard de viations of the similar obstacles are observ ed close to each other . Ho we v er , in addition to the standard de viation, the odometer measurements , for the robot locations during the na vig ation, are used to determine the location of the obstacles. Further , on the basis of the standard de viations and odometer measurements, it can not be identified that ei ther the obs tacle w as visited by the robot pre vi ously or the obstacle i s encountered first time during the na vig ation. F or this reason, there is the need for additional method to recognize that whether an y particular obstacle is found first time or it is repeated. The occurrence number (i.e. first time encountered or repeated) of Int J Elec & Comp Eng, V ol. 9, No. 3, June 2019 : 1773 – 1779 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 r 1777 an obstacle can be described on the basis of the time of the scan. Ob viously , the standard de viations and robot positions of tw o nearby scans at v ery short time of dif ference will not v ary lar gely . On the other hand, if the standard de viations of the distance range v ectors of an y tw o scans and the robot positions recei v ed from the odometer at the time of scans are v ery close to each for both of the scans and the time dif ference between the tw o scans is lar ge than a threshold v alue then it can be said that the obstacle is same and the occurrence of this obstacle is the repeated one. 0 50 100 150 200 Scan number 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95 2 2.05 Standard deviation (meters) Standard deviation of scans Figure 3. Standard de viation of scan ranges. T able 2 pre sents the positions of the robot and their corresponding times with respect to scan range matches. It can be observ ed from the T able 2 that using standard de viat ions and robot positions the similarity between the tw o scan range v ectors are found either at times with short dif ference or at times wh e re the time interv al is lar ger . The matches at short and lar ge time interv als indicates about the occurrence time of the obstacles. F or e xample, the first ro w of T able 2 indicates that the match between the range v ectors is found at the scan times 10.23 (seconds) and 10.46 (seconds). Thus, the time interv al (Time2 Time1) between these scans is less than a second. K eeping in mind the forw ard linear v elocity of the robot (i.e. 0.5 meter/seconds), it is clear t hat the scans were performed at nearly same time therefore the match is found between the first appearance of the obstacle and this is not the case of repetition. Similarly , the last ro w of the T able 2 presents the time interv al between the scans as 34.57 (seconds). Therefore, on the basis of robot’ s linear and angular v elocities it can be deduced that the occurrence of the obstacle at T ime2 (at last ro w) is repeated in na vig ation path loop. T able 2. Laser scan range v ectors matches and robot positions T ime1 (Sec.) T ime2 (Sec.) Scan Numbers Matched Robot Position at T ime1 Robot Position at T ime2 10.23 10.46 35, 37 (1.59, -1.11) (1.59, -1.11) 19.08 21.28 48, 63 (-1.66, -0.99) (-1.67, -0.93) 21.73 21.84 64, 65 (-1.69, -0.86) (-1.70, -0.81) 26.32 26.44 69, 70 (-1.64, 1.05) (-1.64, 1.05) 28.68 28.8 85, 86 (-1.60, 1.05) (-1.55, 1.06) 37.62 38.64 95, 103 (1.59, 1.01) (1.57, 1.02) 37.17 39.66 92, 107 (1.59, 1.01) (1.61, 0.89) 9.68 44.91 31, 113 (1.59, -1.12) (1.51, -1.07) 9.68 45.13 31, 115 (1.59, -1.12) (1.51, -1.08) 10.56 45.13 38, 115 (1.60, -1.11) (1.51, -1.08) Robot navigation in unknown en vir onment with obstacle r eco gnition using laser sensor (Neer endr a K umar) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
1778 r ISSN: 2088-8708 4. CONCLUSION Using the standard de viation of laser scan range v ectors, the similarity of obstacles is e xamined in unkno wn en vironment. In addition to the standard de viation, the robot position is also used to identify whether the obstacle position is same as of some earlier position during the na vig ation path loop. It is e vident from the T able 2 that the matches between scan range v ectors are found at the closed positions of the robot in each round of the na vig ation loop. T ime interv al between the scans plays an important role in the detection of the repetiti v e occurrences of the obstacles. Using the standard de viation of laser scan range v ectors, robot positions and time of scan, the angular v elocity can be re v ersed to break the path loop. A CKNO WLEDGEMENT This study is inspired by the T ekiContr ol research project of J ohn von Neumann F aculty of Informatics, Ób uda Univer sity , Budapest, Hungary . REFERENCES [1] I. Arv anitakis, A. Tzes, and K. Giannousakis, “Mobile robot na vig ation under pose uncertainty in un- kno wn en vironments, ” IF A C-P aper sOnLine , v ol. 50, no. 1, pp. 12 710 – 12 714, 2017. [2] F . Kamil, T . S. Hong, W . Khaksar , M. Y . Moghrabiah, N. Zulkifli, and S. A. Ahmad, “Ne w robot na v- ig ation algorithm for arbitrary unkno wn dynamic en vironments based on future prediction and priority beha vior , ” Expert Systems with Applications , v ol. 86, pp. 274 – 291, 2017. [3] H. Mousazadeh, H. Jaf arbiglu, H. Abdolmaleki, E. Omrani, F . Monhaseri, M. reza Abdollahzadeh, A. Mohammadi-Aghdam, A. Kiapei, Y . Salmani-Zakaria, and A. Makhsoos, “De v eloping a na vig ation, guidance and obstacle a v oidance algorithm for an unmanned surf ace v ehicle (usv) by algorithms fusion, ” Ocean Engineering , v ol. 159, pp. 56 – 65, 2018. [4] L. Zong, J. Luo, M. W ang, and J. Y uan, “Obstacl e a v oidance handling and mix ed inte ger predicti v e control for space robots, ” Advances in Space Resear c h , v ol. 61, no. 8, pp. 1997 – 2009, 2018. [5] Y . Zhao, X. Chai, F . Gao, and C. Qi, “Obstacle a v oidance and motion planning scheme for a he xapod robot octopus-iii, ” Robotics and A utonomous Systems , v ol. 103, pp. 199 – 212, 2018. [6] A. Narayan, E. T uci, F . Labrosse, and M. H. M. Alkilabi, “ A dynamic colour perception system for autonomous robot na vig ation on unmark ed roads, ” Neur ocomputing , v ol. 275, pp. 2251 – 2263, 2018. [7] G. K ertész, S. Szénási, and Z. Vámossy , “Multi-directional image projections with fix ed resolution for object matching, ” Acta P olytec hnica Hungarica , v ol. 15, no. 2, pp. 211 – 229, 2018. [8] L. Nardi and C. Stachniss, “User preferred beha viors for robot na vig ation e xploiting pre vious e xperi- ences, ” Robotics and A utonomous Systems , v ol. 97, pp. 204 – 216, 2017. [9] H. W icaksono and C. Sammut, “T ool use learning for a real robot, ” International J ournal of Electrical and Computer Engineering , v ol. 8, no. 2, pp. 1230–1237, 2018. [10] A. A. Jaber and R. Bick er , “De v elopment of a condition monitoring algorithm for industrial robots based on artificial intelligence and si gn a l processing techniques, ” International J ournal of Electrical and Com- puter Engineering , v ol. 8, no. 2, pp. 996–1009, 2018. [11] N. K umar , Z. Vámossy , and Z. M. Szabó-Resch, “Robot obstacle a v oidance using b umper e v ent, ” in 2016 IEEE 11th International Symposium on Applied Computational Intellig ence and Infor matics (SA CI) , May 2016, pp. 485–490. [12] N. K umar , M. T akács, and Z. Vámossy , “ Robot na vig ation in unkno wn en vironment using fuzzy logic, ” in 2017 IEEE 15th International Symposium on Applied Mac hine Intellig ence and Informatics (SAMI) , Jan 2017, pp. 279–284. Int J Elec & Comp Eng, V ol. 9, No. 3, June 2019 : 1773 – 1779 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
Int J Elec & Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708 r 1779 BIOGRAPHY OF A UTHORS Neer endra K umar is Assistant Professor at Department of Computer Science and IT , Central Uni v ersity of Jammu, India. His teaching interest are in Artificial i ntelligence, Programming languages, Algorithm analysis and Robotics. He has recei v ed St ipendium Hung aricum Schol- arship a w ard in 2015 for the duration of three years. He is doing his PhD studies at John v on Neumann F aculty of Informatics, Ób uda Uni v ersity , Budapest, Hung ary . His research area is robot na vig ation. His Scopus and ORCID IDs are 57190585849 and 0000-0002-6609-8974, respecti v ely . The detailed information can be accessed on the follo wing URL: http://cujammu.ac.in//5084/5084_media/nareendra.pdf Zoltán Vámossy is Associate Professor at John v on Neumann F aculty of Informatics, Ób uda Uni v ersity , Budapest, Hung ary . He has completed his PhD from Budapest Uni v ersity of T echnology and Economics, Hung ary in 2010. The area of his PhD studie s include Na vig ating mobile robots with machine vision based on P AL optics. His current research interests are focused on mobile robotics, robot na vig ati on, image processing and computer vision. He has recei v ed v arious a w ards including the János Neumann A w ard (János Neumann Computer Science Association) in 2016. F or Further information please visit the URL: http://uni-ob uda.hu/en/node/701 Robot navigation in unknown en vir onment with obstacle r eco gnition using laser sensor (Neer endr a K umar) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.