Lidar-Based Unmanned System of Mobile Robot for Pipeline Networks

To address the problem of automated control of robotic movement in pipeline network, this paper presents an unmanned system of mobile robot, which based on Lidar(Light Detection and Ranging) point cloud data that can autonomously and steadily control the robot to move smoothly in the pipeline network. We utilize conditional filtering to obtain point cloud data from three different-sized circular regions, and calculate the movement angle based on the characteristic of different circular regions. And we design a fuzzy controller with the movement angle as input and the wheels speeds as output. The circular regions, ranging from small to large detection ranges, are defined as avoidance ring, guidance ring, and detection ring. The avoidance ring enables the robot to detect and avoid obstacles when approaching them. The guidance ring is responsible for determining the movement direction. The detection ring ensures the robot moves in the correct direction when entering special areas. Experimental results in a simplified pipeline environment validate the effectiveness and stability of the proposed unmanned system of mobile robot in pipeline scenarios.