Design, construction and control of an autonomous mobile rescue robot with visual feedback

The construction of a smart autonomous mobile robot system that can operate in an anonymous environment can be difficult [4]. Building an autonomous mobile robot requires collecting data from sensors and cameras in order to recognize the surrounding environment, get knowledge of existing landmarks, and figure out its position and orientation. The most common platform utilized for robot motion design is ROS (Robot Operating System) [29][35] and for object detection YOLO v3 (You Only Look Once, version 3) is a common choice [1]. Additionally, the autonomous system needs motion planning in a systematic way to avoid obstacles by using RPLIDAR A1 or other sensing methods generating the feedback signals required for control of motion around occupied spaces [2]. One of the most effective and versatile feedback systems for mobile robot control can be constructed using visual feedback, which relies on a high-resolution camera that processes the image in real-time and the result is fed back to the control system for decision making. In this research, results of design and construction of an autonomous mobile rescue robot for finding victims in hazardous disaster areas through video data are presented. It is aimed to find victims via applying video as a data collection and feedback generation tool in the autonomous mobile robot control system. The visual feedback and YOLO v3 are used not only for finding victims but also for motion control. Our autonomous mobile robot is designed to move smoothly to the victim's direction and avoids obstacles by using ROS Global Planner.