Abstract:
The main goal for this thesis project is to develop a 3-D image scanner that will be used as part of a larger effort in robotics and obstacle detection and avoidance. The scanner developed will be added to another robotics project being done by Dr. Seong-Jin Lee, Wanrui He, and Andres Garcia at Alfred University. Known as the Bubblebot, this robot is currently being designed to expand and contract to maneuver through different size spaces. The Bubblebot will use the scanner designed and built during this thesis project to map the area and determine the optimal size it needs to be to navigate through its environment. When researching previous 3-D mapping methods, i.e. RGB-D and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), three main flaws in many of the current techniques were determined and corrected. First was the inability to determine the distances of the objects in the scanner's range. Second was the size of the equipment needed for the 3-D scanner. Finally, the third was the large processing power needed to run the 3-D image generator program. To correct these problems as best as possible, simple parts and programs were used including a web cam and bilinear line laser along with the Arduino and Processing programs. During the testing stage, the 3-D scanner was completed and mounted onto a sample robot for testing. With the use of a Raspberry Pi model 3B the robot was programmed to map its environment, identify any obstacles in its path, and avoid them during navigation without the need of any human interaction. Overall the result of this project looked positive and when tested successfully worked. The final step for this 3-D scanner will be integrating it to the Bubblebot upon its completion.
