ROS based multimode control of wheeled robot

Abstract

This research work mainly presents the design and development of a small-scaled wheeled robot, which can be controlled using multiple controlling interfaces using some new technological trends. Raspberry Pi 3 as the main controller, Python as the programming language integrated with the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Virtual Network Computing (VNC) for screen sharing are utilized in order to control the robot. Laptop Keys, Graphical User Interface (GUI) on PC, Virtual Network Computing on smart phones, Joystick connected to Laptop using python integrated with Robot Operating System, Voice commanding through an android app integrated with python and ROS and Internet of Things using a customized webpage with Node MCU as the controller are the dominant control interfaces. A Local Area Network is established in order to communicate with the micro-controllers wirelessly. The robot can be controlled with multiple interfaces by using its corresponding commands. The robot is made to survive in five different paths, controlled by all the six methods and the time for each response obtained was appraised and illustrated properly.