Obstacle Avoidance System (OAS) PER IRVALL

The goal of the Master thesis was to construct an obstacle avoidance system. It was the intent ion that this system can be used as part of a bigger project performed at the lab. The system was implemented and tested for a Pioneer 2DX mobile robot in the lab environment. The posit ioning of the robot was done with an external ultrasound system provided by the lab. The Digiclops 3D camera from Gray Point research was used for main vision sensor. The code was written in C and implemented in Windows environment. The obstacle avoidance system contains image processing, map building, and control. For control, the Vector Field Histogram theory was studied and implemented. Fixed Decomposit ion was used to describe the surrounding world. The OAS system was tested for 6 different sets of obstacle environments: a single obstacle, a gate, multiple obstacles, mobile obstacles, a corridor, and a maze. Each set were designed to test the l imits of the system. All tests were recorded on video, the posit ion data and the map were saved. In all obstacle sets, the system proved successful. There was no risk for coll ision and the efficient path planning created a smooth path to the goal