Innovative Systems Design and Engineering www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1727 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2871 (Online) Vol.4, No.7, 2013 - National Conference on Emerging Trends in Electrical, Instrumentation & Communication Engineering 28 Simulation Study of an Autonomous Ground Vehicle Model Ajeet Gaur Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra Email: ajeetgaur@gmail.com Manish Bhatnagar Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra Email: bhatnagarmanish.agra@gmail.com D Bhagwan Das Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra Abstract The focus of the paper is to understand what an Autonomous Vehicle (AV) is, and realising a simulation model of intended vehicle for coarse testing of autonomous guidance navigation and control (AGNC) algorithm. MATLAB and SIMULINK are used as platform for development of this model. The model is developed to calculate the next position and direction of the vehicle based on the steering angle as commanded by the AGNC algorithm. This would lead towards the design of an scaled down model of AV using a modified radio control car chassis. The AV would then be equipped with a GPS and ultrasonic or infrared sensors to navigate it to a predetermined geographical location with obstacle avoidance. Keywords: Autonomous, Control, GPS, Model, Simulink, Vehicle 1. Introduction Autonomous Vehicle (AV) or Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) is a driverless mobile robot that can be controlled and navigated across a surface (terrestrial AGV) or through some medium (air or water) remotely. Autonomous vehicles are a recently developed subset of robotics and can come in three general forms; air, ground and submarine. AVs are being explored for widespread use in many applications such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), underwater exploration, industrial transport etc. Possible applications of AV include precision formation flying, investigating areas too dangerous for human life for example radioactive areas or chemical fires, inspecting line integrity of underwater pipelines and for exploring the surface of other planets. UAV are the common class of automated vehicles that are mainly being used for reconnaissance by military forces. The terrestrial AGVs are still in the stage of development, although most of these vehicles are used by military these days for instance for bomb disposal, yet the concept that the AGVs can replace many current transportation means is highly possible. The primary task of an autonomous vehicle is to navigate a pre- programmed route while avoiding any obstacles the vehicle may encounter. The vehicle can accomplish this task by using sensors to “see” where it is and what is around it. These sensors vary from close range infrared sensors to longer ranged high frequency radar and global positioning system etc. Apart from integrating the sensors with vehicle the main functionality is derived from the resident AGNC algorithm. Guidance and Control are vital aspects of AV research and many techniques have been proposed in literature which range from simple line followers to fully autonomous and intelligent systems. In general, most of the AVs utilises a microcontroller based navigation and control unit along with necessary sensors for intended operation of AV. However, to navigate a vehicle autonomously, the control system must know at least two things, its own current position and direction of travel. Location can be determined either from an outside source with technology such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), or by calculating a traveled path from a known starting point with the use of electronic compasses, inclinometers, and rotational counters. However, under any scheme, the outcome is to somehow generate the positional information of the vehicle so that the vehicle could be guided to follow a path and reach the target. In addition of this, the direction sensing devices are also used for getting the values of current heading of vehicle so that it could be steered to move towards target point. GPS has advantage over other position detection mechanism that it also provides an estimate of vehicle’s current heading based on the previous two positional coordinates. While the current heading provided by GPS is not accurate enough under some conditions, it is envisaged to accommodate GPS as the only sensor for guiding the autonomous vehicle to follow the trajectory in outdoor applications. This simulation study was undertaken with the aim of developing a platform for testing of the guidance and control law which has to be incorporated in the software of intended controller of AGV. 2. Functional Requirements for Proposed AV Autonomous vehicle is required to navigate a pre-programmed route while avoiding any obstacles the vehicle may encounter.