Bachelor’s working plan

Jackal robot GPS waypoint based navigation

Description: The main goal of this projectis tonavigate with the Jackal robot based on previously chosen waypoints in an outdoor environment.The Clearpath Jackal robot is a small research robotic platform, which has an onboard computer together with a GPS and an IMU fully integrated with ROS (Kinematic). For a great variety of applications it is very useful  to  provide  a  predefined  trajectory  to  a  mobile  robot:  patrolling,  shuttles,  deliver  services,  etc. Therefore,  the  intention  of  this  work  is  to  feed  to  the  robot  the  positions  that  define  the  predefined trajectory for it to move. To ease the acquisition of absolute coordinates in the real world to construct the trajectory, a georeferenced image will be used, where the user will have the freedom to plan and choose the path that the robot will follow.Finally, the student willread GNSSpositions from another source that is not the Jackal ́s integrated GPS antennabut theANavSnavigation module, which should provide a more accurate positioning.

 

Tasks :

  • Get  familiarized  with  ROS  and  the  Jackal  robot.  Run  some  of  the  demos  already  provided  by Clearpathand  implement  a  first  version  of  the  robot  moving  given  displacements  instead  of absolute positions.
  • Develop a GUI that allows the user to construct the trajectory that the robot will follow based on waypoints.  A  georeferenced  image  of  the  university  will  be  provided  in  order  to  choose  the waypoints. The output of this task should be a text file containingthe chosen pointsin absolute coordinates.
  • Read the trajectory file from ROS and use the waypointsto navigate with the robot from one point to another in a direct route until the end of the trajectory.For this task the Jackal will be using the integrated GPS antenna to achieve the next waypoint goal.
  • Switch from  the integrated  GPS  antenna  to  the  ANavS  navigation  module,  read  the  NMEA message and use the positioning solutionto navigate.
  • Testing and evaluation of the implementation through the design of different routes/paths.

 

Requirements:

  • Interest in robotics, navigation and sensors
  • Disciplined and organized work
  • Programing skills: Python, C++, ROS, MATLAB, Linux
  • Ability to work independently and to answer scientific questions

 

The duration is 3 months. Contact Person Daniela Sánchez Morales and Max Hofacker