Volume 6, No. 11, October 2015
Journal of Global Research in Computer Science
RESEARCH PAPER
1 © JGRCS 2015, All Rights Reserved
http://rroij.com/global-research-in-computer-science.php
ISSN-2229-371X
STRAIGHT-LINE MOBILE ROBOT USING VIDEO PROCESSING
TECHNIQUE
Mohd Fauzi Alias*, Mohamad Amir Adni Mansor, Mohamad Rosyidi Ahmad, Norzalina Othman
Electrical, Electronics and Automation Section, Universiti Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian Spanish Institute, Kulim
fauzialias@unikl.edu.my
Keywords- Video processing, Arduino, Line detection, Path
recovery, Motor Control.
INTRODUCTION
Navigation is an important factor of mobile robot movement
effciency. Robot’s movement is controlled by relocation and
localization terms which determine the positioning of a mobile
robot respect to a global reference frame [1]. High accuracy in
localization and relocation determine good initial position of a
mobile robot and error correction in positioning respectively.
There has been a lot of works on localization of mobile robot
using sonar, IR sensor, but less work has been done on relocation
[1]. Based on this factor, this project implements localization but
focused on relocation of a mobile robot using image processing
technique.
Straight-line detection mobile robot is one of navigation robot’s
types. The current researches of line tracking mobile robot using
image processing based are quite popular instead of sensors.
Based on the image processing technique, the vision-based
systems of mobile robots are designed to extract the desired
information from the images. Using the vision-based mobile
robot, improvement in line tracking robot can be done accurately
by applying related engineering equations. Furthermore,
implementation of virtual line based can also be done for robot’s
control purpose especially on autonomous surface.
Vision-based line tracking system offers a lot of advantages in
term of variety of informations compared to the ranging devices
[2]. Therefore, the vision-based tracking mobile robot becomes
an interesting topic to the research community due to the ability
to extract information about the environment, which is not
available in any combination of other types of sensors [3]. It
offers better accuracy and reliability in vary lighting condition
[4]. Besides, the price of the vision system especially high
defnition webcams are cheaper than any other sensors because
the increasing of application to mobile robots [5].
Application of the CCD camera as image acquisition technique
has been proven to result good performance in line detection
[6]. Wuhan University applied the CCD image sensor in the
four-wheeled line track robot and proved resulting better
performance in line detection. This proved that the vision-based
mobile robot results better detection rather than sensor based.
The vision based system offers a lot of information in a single
image thus makes the system more fexible. The Vision-Based
Automated Guided Vehicle (V-AGV) from Universiti Teknikal
Melaka (UTeM) was used to identify the guideline, signboard
and obstacle simultaneously [7]. The V-AGV has successfully
developed with functioning straight line detector.
VISION BASED MOBILE ROBOT
This paper uses vision based mobile robot system in detecting
straight mapped line as well as robot’s relocation. It consists
of camera 1080hd, a mobile robot, MATLAB and Arduino
board. The project has been divided into 2 units namely line
detection and path recovery units as shown as Figure 1. Line
detection unit implements image acquisition, binarization and
line detection techniques. These techniques have been applied
purposely for detecting error pathway by obtaining the accuracy
of line detection from the robot’s eyes. Image acquisition
technique controls the quantity of framed images collected from
camera. Image quantity refects to the line detection’s sensitivity
and accuracy. Large quantity of image frames indicates high
sensitivity of line detection.
Figure 1: Method fowchart.
Line detection technique contributes the path’s error data in
form of degree unit. In order to return to the right position, these
data will be implemented in the path recovery unit to determine
speed and time period needed to be supplied to the robot’s
wheels. Based on the robot’s eyes application, the system maps
the virtual line and compares with the actual detected line
(from the robot’s eyes). The concept of comparing the virtual
Abstract: This paper presents a method for relocation a mobile robot using video processing technique. This method is able to detect the
mapped line and followed by the mobile robot. This method consists of line detection and path recovery techniques to relocate the mobile robot
automatically. Based on the application, images captured from webcam are used for detecting the line trajectory. Error pathway followed by
mobile robot generates path’s error data using line detection technique. Based on path’s error data, speed and time period supplied to the mobile
robot’s wheels have been measured and experimented. The project implemented high defnition webcam 1080hd and Arduino board to capture
the video and relocate the mobile robot respectively. This video was framed and formed into 2D sequential images.