Enhancing Autonomous Guided Robots using Software Agents and UWB Technology

Autonomous Guided Vehicles are mobile robots that can use various technologies and techniques for their navigation such as line following, indoor localisation, image recognition, GPS, laser- and gyro-based. These mobile robots are widely used in the manufacturing industry to achieve goals around their operation area. In this research, we benefit from the ultra-wide-band (UWB) technology to enhance the navigation of the mobile robot's indoor area independent from any physical line. The mobile robots move along a given way-point which is defined by the remote agent. Moreover, we use a high-level programming approach using software agents, specifically the JADE framework. In order to show the feasibility of creating such a complex and a mobile system, three requirements should be satisfied. Firstly, an architectural design is needed to reduce the design complexity, secondly the interplay between agent behaviour types and the API functions should be satisfied to allow agents control over the low-level device features. Lastly, the mobile robot should be able to consume the given points while creating the paths towards them using the data provided by the UWB service. As a result, we have seen that the UWB technology provided the required independence and flexibility. The mobile robots were implemented using LEGO, BrickPI 3 hardware interface and RaspberryPI 3.