Development of an autonomous mobile towing vehicle for logistic tasks

Rocha, Cláudia; Sousa, Ivo; Ferreira, Francisco; Sobreira, Héber; Lima, José; Veiga, Germano; Moreira, António Paulo G. M.

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/20978

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Authors

Moreira, António Paulo G. M.

Abstract(s)

Frequently carrying high loads and performing repetitive tasks compromises the ergonomics of individuals, a recurrent scenario in hospital environments. In this paper, we design a logistic planner of a fleet of autonomous mobile robots for the automation of transporting trolleys around the hospital, which is independent of the space configuration, and robust to loss of network and deadlocks. Our robotic solution has an innovative gripping system capable of grasping and pulling nonmodified standard trolleys just by coupling a plate. Robots are able to navigate autonomously, to avoid obstacles assuring the safety of operators, to identify and dock a trolley, to access charging stations and elevators, and to communicate with the latter. An interface was built allowing users to command the robots through a web server. It is shown how the proposed methodology behaves in experiments conducted at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porta and Braga's Hospital.

Keywords

Mobile robot Autonomous driving Trolley docking Ergonomics

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10198/20978

Citation

Rocha, Cláudia; Sousa, Ivo; Ferreira, Francisco; Sobreira, Héber; Lima, José; Veiga, Germano; Moreira, A. Paulo (2020). Development of an autonomous mobile towing vehicle for logistic tasks. In 4th Iberian Robotics Conference, ROBOT 2019; Porto. p. 669- 681. ISBN 978-3-030-35989-8