Autonomous Ground Vehicles
Mobile Robotics in cooperation with research teams at FOI and LiU have developed an unmanned ground vehicle based on a standard ATV. It can perform tasks autonomously or be manually or semi-automatically operated from a remote location.
The preRunners Project
The Ragvald security robot was developed as part of the preRunners project together with FOI and LiU. The preRunners project was funded by FMV and Vinnova.
RAGVALD Mini UGV
Video of the mini UGV prototype operating in light terrain. Video link
It is designed to be flexible, robust and reliable. The base is a standard ATV chassis, that is easy to maintain, repair or replace in case of damage. The standard contruction also means that it is comparatively inexpensive in relation to fully custom vehicles. It has an electric motor with a battery power source, which makes it quiet and clean and can even be used indoors since there are no exhaust gases.
Fitting or removal of the sensor and control modules can be done quickly. Conversion from standard ATV to unmanned AGV is done with minimal modifications to the chassis. The vehicle can even be quickly converted back to a manual vehicle.
The RAGVALD is well suited for urban and rural areas, sealed or unsealed roads and lighter offroad conditions. It offers higher speeds compared to some typical all terrain UGVs that operate only at walking pace. It is small enough to fit on a standard EU pallet and can be transported in a small transport vehicle or even a station wagon.
Examples of standard sensors fitted on the RAGVALD are laser scanners for mapping and obstacle detection, gyro for inertial navigation, GPS for positioning and navigation, cameras with pan, tilt and zoom for live video and recording.
Features
- Four wheeled vehicle for light offroad conditions.
- Weight is less than 100 kg. Takes 50+ kg payload.
- Standard sensors include:
- Inertial sensors
- Laser scanners
- Pan, tilt & zoom cameras
- GPS
- Communication over WiFi, 3G or application specific communication channels.
- Scalable bandwidth requirements from teleoperation with high quality video, over laser scan feedback for automatic patrolling.
- High level functions like FollowMe for setting up patrol patterns, obstacle avoidance and detect changes in the environment and trigger alarm functions.
Application areas
- Civilian security e.g. surveillance and patrolling.
- Military applications where higher speed preferred and the terrain capability of track drive is not required.
- Open research and developement platform.
Demonstration of FollowMe mode with the mini UGV prototype. Video link