Project 2: Develop a Tracking Algorithm for the Low Accurate Model of the Radio Controlled Car Like Robot

OTC

(supported by the OTC)

Authors: Hung M. La, Ronny S. Lim,  and Weihua Sheng

The problem of controlling a non-holonomic vehicle is well studied, but controlling a non-holonomic vehicle with low accuracy on dynamics such as steering angle and unchangeable velocity like cheap car-toy model is challenging problem. In this project we first focus on building an efficient control algorithm for the Radio Controlled car (RC car) to track arbitrary trajectory. Second, we design the hardware that can allow the car to receive the data (control signal) from the computer based on X-bee and also control the front wheel motor. Since we can not adjust the velocity of the RC car, and also the steering angel is not accurate in control we need to design a virtual vehicle which can let the RC car follow. The idea behind this design is if the car moves slowly then the virtual vehicle has to wait for based on decreasing its velocity gradually. Otherwise the virtual vehicle has to move with smooth velocity in order to allow the car to track. The numerical experiments are performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and the hardware design.

(This project is one part of the project “OKCARS: Oklahoma Collision Analysis and Response System”)

In the OKCARS project, we are developing an intelligent traffic monitoring system which can autonomously detect vehicle collisions and send warning signals to drivers and transportation administration personnel. Our system consists of a set of omnidirectional video-audio sensors mounted on the posts at an traffic intersection. Intelligent visual-audio sensor fusion algorithms will be developed to understand the traffic scene and extract meaningful information related to vehicle accidents.

Publications of this project:

  • Hung M. La, Ronny S. Lim, Jianhao Du, Sijian Zhang, Gangfeng Yan and Weihua Sheng, Development of a small-scale research platform for intelligent transportation systems, the IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Systems, 2011.
  • Hung M. La,   Ronny S. Lim, Jianhao Du, Weihua Sheng, Gang Li, Sijian Zhang, and Heping Chen, A small-scale research platform for intelligent transportation systems,  in the proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO), 2012.

 

 

 

 

 

RCmodel

This picture shows a full hardware setup for RC car tracking system.

 

RCcar_project

The overall RC cars tracking and control system.

 

RC car

The RC car is used in the experiment.

 

RCcar_tracking

Tracking result for the circle trajectory.