AutoCone: An OmniDirectional Robot for Lane-Level Cone Placement

TL;DR

This paper presents AutoCone, a low-cost, omnidirectional robot network capable of precise lane-level traffic delineation using GPS and sensor fusion, with potential for autonomous traffic management.

Contribution

Development of a rugged, affordable omnidirectional robot platform with integrated GPS and sensor fusion for lane-level traffic delineation, reducing costs and improving accuracy in GPS-denied environments.

Findings

RTK GPS achieves 2 cm position error

Platform costs less than $1,600

Maintains lane-level accuracy with sensor fusion

Abstract

This paper summarizes the progress in developing a rugged, low-cost, automated ground cone robot network capable of traffic delineation at lane-level precision. A holonomic omnidirectional base with a traffic delineator was developed to allow flexibility in initialization. RTK GPS was utilized to reduce minimum position error to 2 centimeters. Due to recent developments, the cost of the platform is now less than $1,600. To minimize the effects of GPS-denied environments, wheel encoders and an Extended Kalman Filter were implemented to maintain lane-level accuracy during operation and a maximum error of 1.97 meters through 50 meters with little to no GPS signal. Future work includes increasing the operational speed of the platforms, incorporating lanelet information for path planning, and cross-platform estimation.