ROS-based human leader and robot follower using a Pioneer 3-DX robot.

Abstract

Robot operating system (ROS) provides algorithms and services to control different kind of robots. ROS is a useful tool in many issues in the field of autonomous robots, especially in applications as mapping, localization and autonomous navigation in an indoor environment.  Autonomous navigation in a dynamic environment is not only challenging, but also uncovers many indoor environmental factors which affect the navigation process. The presented work describes how a ROS-Based control system is used with a Pioneer 3-DX robot for a human leader and robot follower system. The approach for this work is develop a modular system to reach a human follower using PIONEER 3-DX and Carmine Prime sense Sensor supported by threads for each processing steps  through ROS packages, these stages are divided in: coordinate human acquisition, robot´s pose estimation,  angular and linear speed control and obstacles security module.