Emulation system for a distribution center using mobile robot, controlled by artificial vision and fuzzy logic

Abstract

A wheeled robot for object transportation in a distribution center is emulated and presented in this paper. The robot follows a free trajectory which is controlled by artificial vision and fuzzy logic modules. The artificial vision system includes a webcam located in the upper part of the distribution center and it is used to calculate the location of the robot. Specifically, image segmentation technique of red color was implemented in the artificial vision system to determine the robot’s position and orientation. The information obtained from the webcam is also used by the fuzzy controller to estimate the robot’s velocity which is then send to the mobile robot wirelessly. The control of the motors and the wireless communication of the robot are performed by an Arduino platform which supports an Xbee module for communications. The image processing and fuzzy control are implemented on a PC using Matlab.