Maze Maneuvering and Colored Object Tracking for Differential Drive Mobile Robot

Abstract

In maze maneuvering, it is needed for a mobile robot to feasibly plan the shortest path from its initial posture to the desired destination in a given environment. To achieve that, the mobile robot is combined with multiple distance sensors to assist the navigation while avoiding obstructing obstacles and following the shortest path toward the target. Additionally, a vision sensor is used to detect and track colored objects. A new algorithm is proposed based on different type of utilized sensors to aid the maneuvering of differential drive mobile robot in an unknown environment. In the proposed algorithm, the robot has the ability to traverse surrounding hindrances and seek for a particular object based on its color. Six infrared sensors are used to detect any located obstacles and one color detection sensor is used to locate the colored object. The Mobile Robotics Simulation Toolbox in Matlab is used to test the proposed algorithm. Three different scenarios are studied to prove the efficiency of the proposed algorithm. The simulation results demonstrate that the mobile robot has successfully accomplished the tracking and locating of a colored object without collision with hurdles.