Beacon Based Path Finding

Project Title

Beacon Based Path Finding

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

The aim of this project is to build a toy vehicle or a small car, avoiding obstacles and following a path on a map, created with the help of beacons. The navigation system of this project is based on Indoor Positioning System (IPS). IPS has become a challenging problem in recent years. Existing IPS are developed around the following technologies:

• RFID
• ZigBee
• Bluetooth
• Wi-Fi, etc.

Among these IPS technologies, Wi-Fi IPS is the most used technology, as it is the most abundant available technology in this environment. Now for Wi-Fi IPS, there are several ways to achieve it, some of which based on Received Signal Strength (RSS) include

• Triangulation
• Trilateration
• Fingerprinting, etc.

Now, other than RSS, Time of Arrival and Phase of Arrival, etc., are also used for Wi-Fi IPS.  Among these methods, as observed, fingerprinting based on RSS is the most accurate method. So an IPS based on Wi-Fi Fingerprinting is now the most real method one could easily achieve with not much investment. Now in addition to developing a navigation system, the project aims to develop a vehicle to work on this system. As if this system becomes a successful one, it could show how an indoor system can be created, which in result would be the start of all those indoor applications, just waiting for an accurate navigation system. Since this project would be using Wi-Fi beacons, this could give control to what one wants to achieve at a specific location. But it all depends on the research, one wants to achieve from it.

Project Objectives

The automation system is one of the most demanding systems in the current world. And most automation needs a path to follow on, so to identify where it is and where it has to perform an action. Now, this path could be either in the outdoor environment or in the indoor environment. In an outdoor environment, Global Positioning System (GPS) is widely used as the main navigation system. But it’s services are limited for indoor environments. Now, here came the Indoor Positioning System (IPS) in action. IPS has become a challenging problem in recent years. Now this IPS is not much use of a person considering that a person is familiar with the environment. But considering the factor of automation, more specifically movement automation (Automation which requires movement from one point to another), IPS plays an important role. Now researchers used different techniques to achieve IPS, and others used it to develop an application. But no one thought (or probably thought but still not implemented it) to develop a General Navigating Device (General in the sense that most of the physical operation can be performed from a device while having an ability to move from one point to another). So this project’s aim is to develop a base of such a device. This project would build a device that finds and traverse a path with the help of beacons. Now to traverse a path, a simple Obstacle Avoiding Vehicle (OAV) is used, which will navigate and traverse a path. Consequently a base to a bigger picture. Other than these, other objectives are as follow:

• Find and examine the appropriate obstacle avoidance algorithm.
• Find and examine the appropriate pathfinding algorithm.
• Find and examine ways to send and receive information(like location) in hardware for processing
• Find the right way to bridge the gap between hardware and programming
• Finding and testing the right hardware to support the AI algorithms to the best possible extent (also taking into account or financial leverage).
• Finding limitations in the development and improvement of this system.
• Dealing with concepts like:
  • Path Finding algorithms
  • Machine Learning-Based Python Libraries (Tensorflow, Keras, etc.).
  • Transmission and Receiving of signals and their processing.
  • Robot Localization Problems.
  • Object-Oriented library development in Python.
  • Modifying RC cars.

Project Implementation Method

The project has 4 phases in which some are independent of others and some needs one or more phase to be completed. These 4 phases are stated below in the form of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):

The dependency of phase with its part is shown in the following diagram:

             

And almost every phase will follow the following path:

                  

Benefits of the Project

Following are some benefits of the project:

• For a home to automate things like bringing things from one position to another.
• Public areas like malls, stores, and restaurants, etc. to perform tasks assigned to it.
• At hospitals for patient care.

And many more, depending on what others can find it useful too.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

Some technical information about the project is given below:

User Characteristics:

Following are the users of the type of this system:

• Type1: The one who set up the system according to the tasks, the actual user wants to perform
• Type2: The one who's using the system to perform a task. He may not know how to program this system but he’s only using to perform a task that is stored in the system. Many different people belonging to different fields could be belonging to this type (Even the programmer of the device).

Hardware Interface:

Hardware interface on the OAV is given as below:

            

???????Software Interface:

The software interface is given as below:

        

???????Communication Interface:

Communication mean of Beacons and OAV is through Wi-Fi as shown below.

???????Performance:

Following are some of the performance requirements of this project, which should be kept so everything goes as flow:

• Should be able to control a minimum of 4 motors at once.
• Max error of RSS fingerprinting to be 3 m
• Less than 2 sec to identify RSS location
• We should be able to identify a minimum of 4 Wi-Fi Beacons.

???????Design

• Data Flow Diagram:

The data flow diagram is as

             

• Activity Diagrams:

Activity diagram is given as follow:

            

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry TransportationOther Industries IT , Others Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI), Internet of Things (IoT)Sustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	31000
Raspberry Pi 3 B+ or later	Equipment	1	14000	14000
Model Car	Equipment	1	3000	3000
Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04)	Equipment	4	130	520
Motor Driver (L298)	Equipment	1	300	300
Lithium Ion Battery (18650)	Equipment	4	250	1000
Slide Switch	Equipment	1	10	10
Access Points (NodeMCU-v3)	Equipment	4	500	2000
LCD Display	Equipment	1	7000	7000
Power Bank	Equipment	1	1200	1200
Jumper Wires	Equipment	3	90	270
Charger Module	Equipment	1	100	100
5v Charger	Equipment	1	600	600
Keyboard & Mouse	Miscellaneous	1	1000	1000