Publication: Autonomous navigation of a wheeled mobile robot to an undisclosed charging dock location
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Date
2024-07
Authors
Muhammad bin Mohd Affandi
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Abstract
Autonomous mobile robots are widely used in industries such as cleaning, security, office automation, hazardous environment detection, warehousing, healthcare,
and life sciences. One key challenge is their limited battery life. This project addresses the issue by developing an autonomous navigation for a wheeled mobile robot to an undisclosed charging dock location using Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) via ESP32 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology. The ESP32 microcontroller establishes BLE communication between the robot and the charging dock, measuring RSSI values to determine proximity. A navigation algorithm guides the robot based on these readings. Experimental results show that the robot successfully navigates to the charging dock when the battery voltage falls below 6V, detected by a voltage sensor. Within a 360 cm range, accurate and stable RSSI readings are obtained using Kalman filtering. The robot achieves good docking performance, with an average angular error of 35º and an average distance of 17.2 cm from the dock. The navigation area is approximately 360 cm x 360 cm, and the docking time ranges from 374 to 580 seconds. This study demonstrates the potential of RSSI-based BLE technology for effective and reliable autonomous navigation of mobile robots in industrial applications. By ensuring that robots can autonomously navigate to a charging dock, the system addresses a critical challenge of limited battery life, enhancing the efficiency and operational continuity of robots in various settings.