Path-planning in a known environment with unexpected obstacles: Potential application to an automatic alarm testing robot

Technical Report · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 1988

OSTI ID:5023490

Sreenath, N

The feasibility of using an expanded version of a path planning algorithm in the development of an Automatic Alarm Testing Robot (AATR) was investigated. Use of an AATR for security tasks implies the requirement that communication exists between the robot and the security systems or personnel except in the event of a site emergency or mechanical failure aboard the robot. Furthermore, the execution of the actual alarm testing needs to be carried out in narrow, pre-defined time windows. Thus the path planning algorithm for such a robot should be capable of not only taking the robot from one point to another in a known environment with unexpected (a priori unknown) obstacles in real time, but also time-synchronization with the security systems. Here we propose such an algorithm which uses a breadth-first search technique and discuss its implementation onboard the HERMIES IIB robot. A demonstration of the algorithm in a hard real-time environment is presented and some future desirable enhancements of the algorithm are discussed. 3 figs., 1 tab.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA). Center for Engineering Systems Advanced Research
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5023490
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-10726; CESAR-88/09; ON: DE88010968
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
ALARM SYSTEMS
TESTING
ROBOTS
ALGORITHMS
AUTOMATION
COMPUTER CODES
FLOWSHEETS
SECURITY
SIMULATION
DIAGRAMS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
420200* - Engineering- Facilities
Equipment
& Techniques
990210 - Supercomputers- (1987-1989)