The Development of a General-Purpose Autonomous Robot

This paper presents the ongoing research into the design and development of a general-purpose autonomous robot. The major components of the robot are four ultrasonic sensors, one electronic compass, three microprocessors, a laptop computer, and three motors for three wheels. Software architecture was developed to process the information obtained from the sensors, plan the motion of the robot, and send the commands to the motors. This allows the robot to operate independently of human control thus fulfilling the definition of an autonomous robot. A preliminary test was conducted in the field. The results indicate that the robot is capable of sensing static and dynamic obstacles in the environment and avoiding contact with them during motion.