Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot
Completed area coverage planning (CACP) plays an essential role in various fields of robotics, such as area exploration, search, rescue, security, cleaning, and maintenance. Tiling robots with the ability to change their shape is a feasible solution to enhance the ability to cover predefined map are...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-06-01
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| Series: | Sensors |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/11/3170 |
| _version_ | 1827715636506132480 |
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| author | Anh Vu Le Rizuwana Parween Rajesh Elara Mohan Nguyen Huu Khanh Nhan Raihan Enjikalayil Abdulkader |
| author_facet | Anh Vu Le Rizuwana Parween Rajesh Elara Mohan Nguyen Huu Khanh Nhan Raihan Enjikalayil Abdulkader |
| author_sort | Anh Vu Le |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Completed area coverage planning (CACP) plays an essential role in various fields of robotics, such as area exploration, search, rescue, security, cleaning, and maintenance. Tiling robots with the ability to change their shape is a feasible solution to enhance the ability to cover predefined map areas with flexible sizes and to access the narrow space constraints. By dividing the map into sub-areas with the same size as the changeable robot shapes, the robot can plan the optimal movement to predetermined locations, transform its morphologies to cover the specific area, and ensure that the map is completely covered. The optimal navigation planning problem, including the least changing shape, shortest travel distance, and the lowest travel time while ensuring complete coverage of the map area, are solved in this paper. To this end, we propose the CACP framework for a tiling robot called hTrihex with three honeycomb shape modules. The robot can shift its shape into three different morphologies ensuring coverage of the map with a predetermined size. However, the ability to change shape also raises the complexity issues of the moving mechanisms. Therefore, the process of optimizing trajectories of the complete coverage is modeled according to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) problem and solved by evolutionary approaches Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Hence, the costweight to clear a pair of waypoints in the TSP is defined as the required energy shift the robot between the two locations. This energy corresponds to the three operating processes of the hTrihex robot: transformation, translation, and orientation correction. The CACP framework is verified both in the simulation environment and in the real environment. From the experimental results, proposed CACP capable of generating the Pareto-optimal outcome that navigates the robot from the goal to destination in various workspaces, and the algorithm could be adopted to other tiling robot platforms with multiple configurations. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T19:23:41Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-56acf18290a74c8aad9b2c88986e2613 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T19:23:41Z |
| publishDate | 2020-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-56acf18290a74c8aad9b2c88986e26132023-11-20T02:43:10ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202020-06-012011317010.3390/s20113170Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling RobotAnh Vu Le0Rizuwana Parween1Rajesh Elara Mohan2Nguyen Huu Khanh Nhan3Raihan Enjikalayil Abdulkader4ROAR Lab, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, SingaporeROAR Lab, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, SingaporeROAR Lab, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, SingaporeOptoelectronics Research Group, Faculty of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, VietnamROAR Lab, Engineering Product Development, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore 487372, SingaporeCompleted area coverage planning (CACP) plays an essential role in various fields of robotics, such as area exploration, search, rescue, security, cleaning, and maintenance. Tiling robots with the ability to change their shape is a feasible solution to enhance the ability to cover predefined map areas with flexible sizes and to access the narrow space constraints. By dividing the map into sub-areas with the same size as the changeable robot shapes, the robot can plan the optimal movement to predetermined locations, transform its morphologies to cover the specific area, and ensure that the map is completely covered. The optimal navigation planning problem, including the least changing shape, shortest travel distance, and the lowest travel time while ensuring complete coverage of the map area, are solved in this paper. To this end, we propose the CACP framework for a tiling robot called hTrihex with three honeycomb shape modules. The robot can shift its shape into three different morphologies ensuring coverage of the map with a predetermined size. However, the ability to change shape also raises the complexity issues of the moving mechanisms. Therefore, the process of optimizing trajectories of the complete coverage is modeled according to the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) problem and solved by evolutionary approaches Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO). Hence, the costweight to clear a pair of waypoints in the TSP is defined as the required energy shift the robot between the two locations. This energy corresponds to the three operating processes of the hTrihex robot: transformation, translation, and orientation correction. The CACP framework is verified both in the simulation environment and in the real environment. From the experimental results, proposed CACP capable of generating the Pareto-optimal outcome that navigates the robot from the goal to destination in various workspaces, and the algorithm could be adopted to other tiling robot platforms with multiple configurations.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/11/3170shapeshifting robottiling roboticpath planningcomplete coverageenergy optimization |
| spellingShingle | Anh Vu Le Rizuwana Parween Rajesh Elara Mohan Nguyen Huu Khanh Nhan Raihan Enjikalayil Abdulkader Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot Sensors shapeshifting robot tiling robotic path planning complete coverage energy optimization |
| title | Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot |
| title_full | Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot |
| title_fullStr | Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot |
| title_short | Optimization Complete Area Coverage by Reconfigurable hTrihex Tiling Robot |
| title_sort | optimization complete area coverage by reconfigurable htrihex tiling robot |
| topic | shapeshifting robot tiling robotic path planning complete coverage energy optimization |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/11/3170 |
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