Date of Award
2016
Document Type
Honors Thesis (Open Access)
Department
Colby College. Computer Science Dept.
Advisor(s)
Professor Bruce Maxwell
Abstract
The idea of a personal robotic assistant, while once made up the tales of science fiction, is now moving closer and closer to reality. It is easy for two humans to walk together where one person knows the directions and the other person follows along. However, it is not a trivial problem for a robot to recognize a human, and follow side by side along with them. There are three key parts to this problem: 1.) Detection of a human, 2.) Tracking the human, and 3.) the robot's Motion strategy. Using baseline assumptions, I can simplify the detection process allowing this work to focus on tracking and the robot's motion strategy. In looking at tracking and motion, I will assume the existence of an ideal location for the robot to follow a human, and that it is possible for me to send the robot to that location. I will then discuss two different methods to handle motion: a strict control law approach, and a path planning approach. I also include discussion of experimental results of the two methods.
Keywords
Robotics, Path Pursuit, Particle System, IPC Message Passing, Camera Calibration, Control Strategies, Magellan Pro Robot
Recommended Citation
Edwards, Victoria M., "Follow Me Robot" (2016). Honors Theses. Paper 942.https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/942