Mobile robotic design. Robotic colour and accelerometer sensor.

Abstract

This thesis investigates the problem of sensors used with mobile robots. Firstly, a colour sensor is considered, for its ability to detect objects having the three primary colours Red, Green and Blue (RGB). Secondly, an accelerometer was investigated, from which velocity was derived from the raw data using numerical integration. The purpose of the design and development of the sensors was to use them for robotic navigation and collision avoidance. This report presents the results of experiments carried out on the colour sensor and the accelerometer. A discussion of the results and some conclusions are also presented. It proved feasible to achieve the goal of detecting colours successfully but only for a limited distance. The accelerometer proved reliable but is not yet being applied in real time. Both the colour sensor and the accelerometer proved to be inexpensive. Some recommendations are made to improve both the colour sensor and the accelerometer sensors.