Wheeled autonomous mobile robots for use in harsh environments: a survey of recent publications

Research in the area of autonomous mobile robots has increased over the last several years. Autonomous mobile robots are now being used in a wide variety of applications, including nuclear plant maintenance, interplanetary exploration, military missions and smart highway systems. This thesis is a su...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Larkin, Susan M.
Other Authors: Mechanical Engineering
Format: Others
Language:en
Published: Virginia Tech 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10919/40846
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-01312009-063343/
Description
Summary:Research in the area of autonomous mobile robots has increased over the last several years. Autonomous mobile robots are now being used in a wide variety of applications, including nuclear plant maintenance, interplanetary exploration, military missions and smart highway systems. This thesis is a survey of recent publications, 1990-1996, of wheeled autonomous mobile robots for harsh environments. Various sensing, navigation, and motion control strategies commonly used on autonomous mobile robots are compared. The integration of all three systems in a system architecture is also presented. Following a general discussion of autonomous mobile robot technology, vehicles that have entered the Unmanned Ground Robotics Competition are presented as a focused study of the application of this broad field of research. === Master of Science