Autonomous Exploration of a Building
ICT & Technology
Client company:Safety & Security Campus
Maikel van Bree
Thomas Schenk
Nathalie Westerweele
Johny Yang
Project description
This project runs over multiple semesters and thus also different groups. Our task was to add to its functionality. While we got a list of things that needed to happen, the most important ones were:
- Make a dashboard on which the generated map is visible.
- Add markers on the map when the robot detects a door or flight of stairs.
- Make the robot drive offline and turn it online again when it completes its exploration.
The rest of the tasks were either improvements over the existing functionalities or less important than those above.
Context
The Autonomous Exploration of a Building project, or AEB for short, is aimed at making a robot that can drive around a building on its own, thus autonomously, and map the insides. Then when finished, return to its starting/home location and deliver the map back to whoever started it.
The AEB robot is being developed for use cases by the Dutch military, police force, and firefighters to get the layout of a building before entering it. The knowledge gained from the map generated by the AEB robot increases safety for anyone entering the building as they wouldn't go in blind.
The leading focus currently is the use cases by the Dutch military, as they have the most involvement in the project.
Results
The work done over the past months combined into a new version of the AEB robot. This version has improved existing functionalities, like generating better maps, returning home after finishing an exploration, and better control over the actions it takes. But also new ones like, a browser-accessible dashboard, the option to extract the generated map as an image, object recognition, and the ability to go completely offline while exploring, turning off all wireless signals.
With most goals set by our customer finished, the project is ready for a new group to continue building upon the existing base.
About the project group
We are the third group working on this project. This semester the AEB team consists of four Technology students, two who did the Smart Industry specialization and two who did the Cyber Security specialization.
Since February, we spent roughly four days per week working on the project, with at least three days being in person.