Simulation and Development of Mobile Robot Optimal Path Planning Based on Computer Vision Technique

The aim of the present work is to develop a mobile robot for path planning with obstacle avoidance using heuristic based computer vision technique. The dimension of the working environment is fixed as 900 x 1200 mm plane surface in which many obstacles are present. A web camera of is used to capture the 2D image of work area. The camera is fixed at a height of 170 cm at the focal length of the camera. The captured image of the working table is thresholded in order to get clear boundaries of the obstacles on the image using a code written in MATLAB 7.0 software. The area and centroid of the obstacles are determined and it gives the location of the obstacle on the working area with respect to the image reference. The wave front heuristic algorithm is implemented in order to develop navigation procedure for mobile robot through computer vision technique. The simulation module gives the resultant path with obstacle avoidance within the assumed environment. The actual experiments have been conducted and mobile robot is reaching target as per the path produced in the simulation.