Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1991

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Computer Science

Major Professor

Seung-Chul Lee

Committee Members

Moonis Ali, Bruce Whitehead

Abstract

Applications exist in many fields for autonomous mobile robots. A self-guided robot capable of navigating through an unfamiliar environment can achieve missions dangerous or infeasible for people. For example, a robot rover on the surface of Mars could perform most, if not all, the experiments and data collection that a manned team could. The expense and danger of a manned mission to Mars is many times greater than one using autonomous robots. Radio remote control of military vehicles is vulnerable to electronic jamming and other forms of interference. The radio communication can also jeopardize the secrecy of the mission or disclose the location of the rover. However, a self-guided robot is unaffected by these problems. Additionally, an autonomous vehicle used in geological surveys can position remote sensing devices, gather samples from many locations, and perform on-site experiments over a wide area, freeing the geologist for more complex tasks. These are only a few examples of potential applications of autonomous robots.

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