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Dead-Reckoning System for Mobile Robots

Project Type: Sensor interfacing, Signal Processing, Hardware Integration, Robotics

Advisors: Ricardo Gutierrez-Osuna, Siddharth Choudhuri

Project Description:

The objective of this project is to design and integrate a dead-reckoning system for mobile robots based on odometry and inertial navigation. Odometry will be achieved by measuring the rotations of the wheel axles in the vehicle with potentiometers or optical encoders. The principle of operation for inertial navigation involves continuous sensing of minute accelerations in each of the two or three directional axes, and integration overtime to derive velocity and position. It is expected that the inertial navigation component will be based on commercially-available integrated MEMS accelerometers.

Major Goals:

  1. Learn about mobile robot localization, inertial navigation and odometry
  2. Design a printed circuit board (PCB) to interface the accelerometers and encoders
  3. Analyze the position estimation accuracy that can be achieved with each dead-reckoning modality, and with the combination of both

Deliverables:

  1. PCB prototype for encoders and accelerometers mounted on a mobile robot
  2. Schematic diagrams, parts list and instructions to assemble the system
  3. Project documentation, as described in the course syllabus
  4. Live demonstration