Date of Graduation

5-2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Computer Engineering (MSCmpE)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Computer Science & Computer Engineering

Advisor/Mentor

Xiaoqing Liu

Committee Member

Christophe Bobda

Second Committee Member

Dale Thompson

Keywords

Robot, teleoperation

Abstract

The intent of this work was to develop, evaluate, and demonstrate a prototype robot platform on which ROS integrations could be explored. With observations of features and requirements of existing industrial and service mobile ground robots, a platform was designed and outfitted with appropriate components to enable the most common operational-critical functionalities and account for unforeseen components and features. The resulting Arlo Demonstration Robot accommodates basic mapping, localization, and navigation in both two and three-dimensional space as well as additional safety and teleoperation features. The control system is centered around the Zybo Z7 FPGA SoC hosting a custom hardware design. The platform is validated through an analysis of feature requirements and limitations and additional evaluations of a series of real-world use cases demonstrating high-level behaviors. In order to promote further development, this work serves as detailed documentation of the selection, implementation, and testing of this platform and complements initial binary releases for the Zybo Z7 control system and accompanying source code for the functionalities implemented. This prototype robot stack can be further developed to enable additional capabilities and validate its performance in other real-world scenarios or used as a reference for porting to alternative robot platforms.

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