Sistema de navegaci\'on de cobertura para veh\'iculos no holon\'omicos en ambientes de exterior

TL;DR

This paper presents a coverage navigation system for non-holonomic robots in outdoor environments, capable of handling dynamic obstacles and ensuring near-complete area coverage, with applications in mining and industrial processes.

Contribution

It introduces a novel coverage navigation system with recovery behaviors for non-holonomic robots in outdoor environments, demonstrated through simulations and real-world tests.

Findings

Achieved near 90% coverage in experiments

Successfully handled dynamic and unmapped obstacles

Validated system performance in outdoor environments

Abstract

In mobile robotics, coverage navigation refers to the deliberate movement of a robot with the purpose of covering a certain area or volume. Performing this task properly is fundamental for the execution of several activities, for instance, cleaning a facility with a robotic vacuum cleaner. In the mining industry, it is required to perform coverage in several unit processes related with material movement using industrial machinery, for example, in cleaning tasks, in dumps, and in the construction of tailings dam walls. The automation of these processes is fundamental to enhance the security associated with their execution. In this work, a coverage navigation system for a non-holonomic robot is presented. This work is intended to be a proof of concept for the potential automation of various unit processes that require coverage navigation like the ones mentioned before. The developed system includes the calculation of routes that allow a mobile platform to cover a specific area, and incorporates recovery behaviors in case that an unforeseen event occurs, such as the arising of dynamic or previously unmapped obstacles in the terrain to be covered, e.g., other machines or pedestrians passing through the area, being able to perform evasive maneuvers and post-recovery to ensure a complete coverage of the terrain. The system was tested in different simulated and real outdoor environments, obtaining results near 90% of coverage in the majority of experiments. The next step of development is to scale up the utilized robot to a mining machine/vehicle whose operation will be validated in a real environment. The result of one of the tests performed in the real world can be seen in the video available in https://youtu.be/gK7_3bK1P5g.