SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE DESIGN OF A MINIATURIZED MOBILE AUTONOMOUS ROBOT, OPERATING IN A WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORK

Abstract

Nowadays wireless nodes are becoming more and more popular in the field of localization. Thanks to the high research effort in this area, wireless sensors become more and more sophisticated. From year to year the accuracy in terms of distance estimation increases. In comparison to other localization devices like a Local Positioning System (LPS) or Global Positioning System (GPS), the wireless nodes are considered as a cheap alternative. The Finnish defence department, police and fire department support current research activities within this area, in the hope that they will get beneficial applications. The target of this Master’s Thesis “Software and Hardware Design of a Miniaturized Mobile Autonomous Robot, Operating in a Wireless Sensor Network” was the construction of miniaturized autonomous robot acting within a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). The robot consists of an Embedded Linux PC, a wireless node and a mobile platform that are connected with each other. In this Master’s Thesis we describe the software and hardware tasks that were necessary for the interaction between the three mentioned components. We also discuss the software implementation for the communication between the wireless nodes and the results of the distance measurements.