The journey of building Edward
An Autonomous Robot
Edward is an autonomous 4-wheel differential drive robot. DF Robot’s Baron platform is used as the robot’s chassis. Multiple other sensors are used to perform the task of object identification and retrieval. It has a servo-motor controlled gripper which is useful for picking up objects of interest. Edward’s core controlling system is a Raspberry Pi which runs Python code on a Linux environment. The Pi Camera is the primary perception module.
Ultrasonic SODAR sensors are used to perceive distances to the target object as well as for obstacle avoidance. An Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) in combination with optical encoder odometry data from the wheels is used to localize the robot in the environment.
The primary motivation behind building Edward is the upcoming Mars exploratory missions. Setting up temporary habitats for astronauts to conduct long term experiments can be cumbersome due to the presence of debris at the landing site. Robots like Edward can be programmed to identify the necessary building blocks in a cluttered environment and retrieve them to the building site. This will greatly simplify the astronauts’ task to build a habitat.
