With the world's population expected to reach nine billion by 2050, agricultural production will have to double to meet this growing demand. Hence, a need for better infrastructure to enhance farming efficiency becomes apparent. There are a number of solutions that have been developed to date that are commercially available. They range from genetically modified seeds and bio/green fertilizers to advanced farming machinery amongst others. However most of the farming equipment developed has drawbacks such as: heavy weight – this leads to reduced yields due to soil compacting; human dependency – constant monitoring and controlling is needed; light dependency – excludes usage during the night or when visibility is poor. Therefore, a possible solution will be researched to enhance the evolution of farming equipment. Furthermore, a model will be developed for testing and verifying the research.

The goal of this thesis is to simulate, design and build an automated device that allows unmanned vessels to anchor themselves in specified locations while being United States Coast Guard Navigation Rules compliant. This is a part of a larger project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy for Florida Atlantic University to build an unmanned platform with an Undershot Water Wheel on it. By simulating the environment of the South Florida Intercoastal Water Ways, forces acting on the line, anchor and the vessel are analyzed. These forces are used as the guide for the design and build of a line locking mechanism that takes the tension off the winch and a sensor package to monitor the environment the platform is in as well as control of the system. Based off experimental testing, the system was successful in handling all emulated environments with loads exceeding 150lbs of tension. / Includes bibliography. / Thesis (M.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2021. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

The field of robotics and mechatronics is advancing at an ever-increasing rate and we are starting to see robots making the transition from the factories to the workplace and homes as cost is reduced and they become more useful. In recent years quadrotors have become a popular unmanned air vehicle (UAV) platform. These UAVs or micro air vehicles (MAV) are being used for many new and exciting applications such as aerial monitoring of wildlife, disaster sites, riots and protests. They are also being used in the film industry, as they are significantly cheaper means of getting aerial footage. While quadrotors are not extremely expensive a good system can cost in the range of $3000 - $8000 and thus too costly as a research platform for many. There are a number of cheaper open source platforms. The ArduCopter is under constant development, has the largest community and is inexpensive making it an ideal platform to work with. The goal of this thesis was to implement video processing on a ground control station allowing for the ArduCopter to track moving objects. This was achieved by using the OpenCV video-processing library to implement object tracking and the MAVLink communication protocol, available on the ArduCopter platform, for communication.

This report concerns the concept development of an autonomous load carrier whichneeds to be integrated with the autonomous truck NXT. The main purpose of thethesis is to develop a load carrier which can be used during off peak times with theautonomous truck which reduces the traffic, pollution and congestion in cities.Toachieve this a lot of pre- study in terms of research and survey is conducted on thetopics which are going to be used during the course of the thesis. The problemswhich were investigated during the thesis are the problems related to goods loadingand unloading from the warehouse to the truck and from the truck to the customer.To bridge the gap between these two processes an autonomous load carrier is thesolution. The product development methodology used by Ulrich and Eppinger [1] isused in this thesis. The findings from the pre-study was the need and type of the loadcarrier needed by the customers. Based on the requirements the concepts for the loadcarrier is developed and brainstormed. After the brainstorming process a concept isfinalised and a system level design of the concept is designed and presented in thethesis. The concept is designed to load and unload roll cages and pallets carryingfood products as the goods as it is one of the busy and essential services beingtransported today. The concept is made to be compact, safe, affordable, strong forit be integrated to the autonomous truck. The dimensions and specifications of theload carrier are approximated based on the study and research.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / An autonomous car is a self-driving vehicle, that operates without human intervention and has the capability of sensing the environment around it. To achieve this, the autonomous vehicle mostly depends on multiple Sensors, Actuators, Machine learning, complex algorithms and processors for software execution. Developed Software, at that point, processes all the information obtained from sensors, plans the path, and the instructions are passed to the vehicle’s actuators, which are capable of controlling acceleration, steering, and brake systems. The rules that are hard-coded, algorithms for detection of object and obstacle avoidance, and predictive modelling control algorithms assist the software with observing traffic guidelines and navigate the vehicle accordingly. Free driving is anything but a simple assignment, and to make independent driving game plans is an extraordinarily critical capacity in the current programming planning field. Engineers and Researchers have been keeping huge endeavors to develop safe and precise algorithms to be incorporated in autonomous vehicles. ROS is a flexible and perfect middle ware tool for robotic applications. ROS offers the necessary tools to effortlessly get the sensors information, process that information, and produce a suitable response to actuators of the vehicle. This thesis work plans to exhibit how ROS could be utilized as a middle- ware tool to make the vehicle move autonomously by examining the surroundings and taking decision. The main focus of this thesis is to develop a one-tenth scale of an autonomous Racecar equipped with Jetson Nano as the on-board computer, ROS based software architecture, sensors, and a PWM driver and implement ADAS features such as Emergency Brake system, Lane Detection and Lane change on the autonomous Race car vehicle. At last, by following the strategies introduced in this thesis work, it is possible to build and develop an autonomousvehicle that uses ROS framework.

This thesis summarizes an approach for building a trajectory-tracking framework for autonomous robots working in low-speed and controlled space. A modularized robot framework can provide easy access to hardware and software replacement, which can be a tool for validating trajectory-tracking algorithms in controlled laboratory conditions. An introduction to other existing methods for trajectory tracking is presented. These advanced trajectory control methods and studies aim to improve trajectory tracking control for better performance under different environments. This research uses ROS as the middleware for connecting the actuators and computing units. A market-existing global position measurement tool, the UWB system, was selected as the primary localization sensor. A Raspberry Pi and an Arduino Uno are used for high-level and low-level control. The separation of the control units benefits the modularization design of the framework. A robust control approach has also been introduced to prevent the disturbance of uneven terrain to improve the framework's capability to drive arbitrary robot chassis in different testing grounds. During each stage of development, there are offline and online tests for live control tests. The trajectory tracking controller requires a robot kinematic model and tracking control program for better results of controlled behaviour. A custom trajectory control program was made and implemented into the tests. A digital simulation and a physical robot are built to validate the algorithm and the designed framework for performance validation. This framework aims to suit the other scholar's developments and can be used as a testing platform to implement their autonomous driving algorithms or additional sensors. By replacing the control algorithm in the existing trajectory-tracking robotic framework, this autonomous, universal platform may benefit the validation of these algorithms' performance in the field experiment. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc) / This thesis contains five chapters. Chapter 1 provided the information and background for this research topic regarding the key components, methods, and tools for creating trajectory tracking. Chapter 2 focuses on the existing methods and deep study of tools, equipment and hardware setups for trajectory tracking in simulation and physical setups. The experiments referenced from other studies can benefit the research and development work for the current trajectory tracking development work. The review provides different kinematics models for robot layouts, which impacts the final design of the field experiment robot. Chapter 3 presents the design work process for creating a controller based on the final field experiment robot. This chapter provides steps and considerations while building the control system for a trajectory-tracking robot from scratch. Chapter 4 demonstrates the simulation results and field experiment results. A study of error analysis and repeatability justification can also be found in this chapter. Chapter 5 summarizes the research and development contribution, primary findings, and concerns for identified problems.

Design and development of a 1/10 scale prototype of a Full Dimension Continuous Haulage System manufactured by the Long-Airdox Company. The prototype, which will allow development and testing of path-planning and control algorithms for autonomous navigation and operation in underground coal mines, has been completed. The prototype system, though not an identical copy, clones all full-scale model degrees of freedom and functions necessary for navigation. In addition to the physical structure, a microcontroller-based system was developed for providing the necessary low-level motor controls, data gathering and multiple processor communications. High level software running on a laptop PC with the windows operating system is used for analyzing all measurement data, execution of path-planning and control algorithms and issuing the command data. / Master of Science

The goal of this study is to determine if trust in autonomous vehicles is affected by whether the vehicle is being operated in a closed or open system. A PRQF survey method was used to complete this study. The survey contained items to assess pedestrian behavior, personal innovativeness, and receptivity to autonomous vehicles. Scenario questions were also utilized to determine differences in the trust of automated vehicles in open and closed settings. The results from this study indicated increased pedestrian receptivity scores for the closed system (M=14.11, SD=3.78), compared to the open system (M=13.70, SD=3.90). Average trust scores were also increased for the closed system (M=4.68, SD=1.82) compared to the open system (M=4.56, SD=1.85). These results were used to conclude that trust and receptivity of autonomous vehicles were increased for closed systems.

This thesis describes the development of a new zero-turn-radius (ZTR) differentially driven robotic vehicle hereinafter referred to as NEVEL. The primary objective of this work was to develop a device that could be used as a test-bed for continued autonomous vehicle research at Virginia Tech while meeting the entry requirements of the Annual International Unmanned Ground Robotics Competition. In developing NEVEL, consideration was given to the vehicle's mechanical and electrical design, sensing and computing systems, and navigation strategy. Each of these areas was addressed individually, but always within the context of optimal integration to produce the best overall vehicle system. A constraint that directed much of the design process was the desire to integrate industrially available and proven components rather than creating custom designed systems. This thesis also includes a review of the relevant literature as it pertains to both subsystem and overall vehicle design. NEVEL, the vehicle that was created from this research effort, is novel in several respects. It is one of the few true embodiments of a fully functioning, three-wheel, differential drive autonomous vehicle. Several previous studies have developed this concept for indoor applications, but none has resulted in a working test-bed that can be applied to an unstructured, outdoor environment. NEVEL also appears to be one of the few autonomous vehicle systems to fully incorporate a commercially available laser range finder. These features alone would make NEVEL a useful platform for continued research. In addition, however, by using common, off-the-shelf components and a personal computer platform for all computation and control, NEVEL has been created to facilitate testing of new navigation and control strategies. As testimony to the success of this design, NEVEL was recognized at the Sixth Annual International Unmanned Ground Robotics Competition as the best overall design. / Master of Science

A comparison of viscous hydrodynamic force models is presented, with application on an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). The models considered here are \emph{quasi-steady}, meaning that force is expressed as a function of instantaneous vehicle state. This is in contrast to physical reality, where the force applied to a rigid body moving through a viscous fluid is history-dependent. As a result, the comparison of models is restricted to how well they are able to recreate a force history, rather than how closely they represent the underlying physics. Of the models under consideration, no single model performs significantly better than the others, but several perform worse. Each viscous hydrodynamic force model presented here is expressed as a linear combination of basis functions, which are nonlinear functions of body-relative velocity. The greater dynamical model is presented in a rigid-body framework with six degrees of freedom, with terms which account for inviscid fluid flow, restoring forces due to gravity, and control forces due to actuator motion. The models are selected from several that have been proposed in the literature, which include empirically-derived and physics-based models. Some models assume that the relationship between force and velocity is fundamentally linear or quadratic in nature, or make assumptions about coupled motion. The models are compared by their relative complexities, and also by their ability to reproduce data sets generated from field experiments. The complete dynamical equations are presented for each model, including coefficients suitable for use with the Virginia Tech 690 AUV. / Master of Science