EGA366 Coursework
Background:
Mobile robots are often used in industry to transport items around warehouses and to
transport parts between different areas. In your robotics lab tour, you were shown a
particular robot called the robot called the ‘Robotino’. Some images of the Robotino are
shown in Figures 2 and 3.
Figure 1: The Robotino Figure 2: Wheel layout of the Robotino
The Robotino is an omnidirectional robot (a Swedish wheeled robot), which is used in our
lab to transport mobile phone parts between two industry 4.0 stations. This means that the
two stations do not need to be physically connected to each other as the robot is able to
transport parts between them. A floor plan of the lab and the two Industry 4.0 stations is
given below:
In the Figure 3, it can be seen that there are 3 main points that the robot must visit which
are labelled from A to C. The robot’s initial position is located at point A (the robot’s
charging station). The robot then travels from point A to point B where it collects some
mobile phone parts from Industry 4.0 Station 1. To do this, it must stop at point B for 5
seconds in order for the parts to be loaded. The robot then travels to point C to unload the
parts onto Industry 4.0 Station 2. Again, the robot must stop at point C for 5 seconds in
order to offload the parts. Once it has done this, the robot returns to its charging station
and the process is completed.
In order for the parts to be loaded and unloaded, the robot must be facing the Industry 4.0
stations (its heading direction must be pointing towards the station). On the other hand, to
dock with the charging station the robot must be facing away from the charging station as
its charging port is located on the rear of the robot. In total, the process is given as follows:
Figure 3: The lab floor plan. The red circles labelled from A to C are points that the robot must visit.
1. The robot’s initial position is at point A, with its initial heading direction facing away
from the charging station.
2. The robot travels from point A to point B, by the time the robot reaches point B, its
heading direction should be pointing towards the Industry 4.0 Station.
3. The robot waits at point B for 5 seconds.
4. The robot travels from point B to point C, its heading direction should still be
pointing towards the Industry 4.0 Station.
5. The robot waits at point C for 5 seconds.
6. The robot travels from point C to point A, by the time the robot reaches point A its
heading direction should be pointing away from the charging station.
The Brief
Your task for this coursework is to code this process and simulate the robot using the
Matlab scripts taught to you during the PC labs (primarily those used in Tutorial 4 and
Tutorial 5). This will involve planning a smooth trajectory between points A to C and
following that trajectory by calculating the wheel velocities at each time step. A script has
also been given to help you select coordinates from the lab floor plan (given on the
assignment Canvas page). You must then write a short report which explains the underlying
theory of your code (the modelling and kinematics), and presents the results of your
simulations. Your report could include headings like those given below:
• Motivation: What is the project brief, what are you trying to achieve with this
report?
• Problem formulation: What is the problem, and how do you intend to solve it?
• System modelling: How is the robot simulated? What are the Kinematics that need
to be modelled? How are trajectories planned?
• Programming: What are key parts of your code and how do they work?
• Results and analysis: What are the results of your simulations, were you able to
simulate the robot successfully? Here you would try to show how you have
simulated the process explained above.
• Conclusion and further works: What are your conclusions on your work? What would
you do in future to improve the code further?
Marking Criteria
The coursework will be marked on the following:
1. Solution Soundness 30%: How well have you explained the code and your solution to
the problem?
2. Coding 40%: Does your code work and does it simulate the process correctly?
3. Results and analysis 30%: Are your figures labelled correctly, are your results
meaningful? Are they clear and understandable? Has a conclusion been given?
Submission Date
Upload your report to Canvas by 11.59pm on the 12TH of December