Self-Driving Robot Using ROS

Abstract

Autonomous or self-driving is the capability of a robot to operate itself with no input from human. To accomplish this, the robot utilizes mechanical and electronic components that includes sensors, actuators and dedicated operating system. The system runs advanced software which helps the robot to identify and recognize its surroundings based on sensors inputs, localize itself in that environment and plan the best possible route from starting point to destination. Autonomous driving is no longer a thing of the future, and to develop autonomous driving is a greatly useful skill in the present era specially in Computer Engineering field. The Robot Operating System (ROS) is an open-source operating system that makes robot programmers to operate software like Gazebo for a wide range of robot applications. This project includes the combination of ROS and the Microsoft Kinect sensor (Kinect Xbox 360) for synchronized localization, creating maps and navigating the robot (TurtleBot2) in an unfamiliar and vibrant environment. The Microsoft Kinect (Kinect Xbox 360) produces realistic point-cloud information of the surrounding environment i.e., the observable world. The point-cloud information is then used to simulate a map and also to recognize objects in it. Once self-localization and mapping are accomplished, a ROS navigation package is used to produce a global and local plan through odometry node, the data from odometry is then provided to teleop node, which issues commands of movements to robot, resulting in the movement of robot to destination. The ultimate result demonstrates that by combining ROS and the Microsoft Kinect, simultaneous localization, mapping, and autonomous navigation can be accomplished. The research methods used in this bachelor’s thesis are design science research (DSR) and a literature review. A TurtleBot and ROS-based software are operated and appraised as an artefact. It is feasible to construct an autonomous driving Robot that operates on ROS by following the methods outlined in this thesis.