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Research and development of an intelligent AGV-based material handling system for industrial applicationsFerreira, Tremaine Pierre January 2015 (has links)
The use of autonomous robots in industrial applications is growing in popularity and possesses the following advantages: cost effectiveness, job efficiency and safety aspects. Despite the advantages, the major drawback to using autonomous robots is the cost involved to acquire such robots. It is the aim of GMSA to develop a low cost AGV capable of performing material handling in an industrial environment. Collective autonomous robots are often used to perform tasks, that is, more than one working together to achieve a common goal. The intelligent controller, responsible for establishing coordination between the individual robots, plays a key role in managing the tasks of each robot to achieve the common goal. This dissertation addresses the development of an AGV capable of such functionality. Key research areas include: the development of an autonomous coupling system, integration of key safety devices and the development of an intelligent control strategy that can be used to govern the operation of multiple AGVs in an area.
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Software integration for human detection in mining UAV systems.Motepe, Sibonelo. January 2013 (has links)
Mining is one of the main economic sectors in South Africa. Mining activity contains hazards
such collapsing of structures, presence of dangerous gases, accidental explosions and fires.
Even though most of these hazards are identified and minimized sometimes accidents occur.
These accidents lead to human injuries, direct fatalities and fatalities resulting from delays in
victims getting medical attention as a result of delays in search and rescue missions. The
rescue missions in underground mines present challenges where rescuers are not sure which
locations are victims in, what the area conditions like in the rescue path. A quad rotor
unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for search and rescue missions is presented. The UAV is
controlled from a remote location over Wi-Fi. The communication allows data relay to the
ground control station. The communication system is tested on the university’s Wi-Fi network.
The UAV also contains a vision system that contains a human detection algorithm to give an
indication of human presence to rescuers. The human detection system is based on Haar-
Cascade classifiers. The model developed was found to have a false alarm rate of 5×10-3% after
training. The model was further tested on streaming data and the overall average positive
human detection was found to be 97 %. In the same tests overall false average detection was
found to be 2.5 %. The video feed is streamed from the UAV to the ground station (GS) and the
flight control instructions are sent to the UAV from the GS via Wi-Fi. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2013.
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