AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOT SIMULATION

MARBLE ASSOCIATES, INC., PROPOSES TO BUILD A SOPHISTICATED, MODULARIZED SIMULATION OF A COMPLETE AUTONOMOUS, MULTIPLE HETEROGENEOUS SENSOR BASED, MOBILE ROBOTIC PLATFORM. PLUG-IN MODULES INCLUDE THE USER INTERFACE, THE PLATFORM ITSELF, THE SENSOR INTERFACE, THE STRATEGIC CONTROL CENTER, AND THE VARIOUS ALGORITHMS AND HURISTICS RESPONSIBLE FOR PATH PLANNING, ENVIRONMENT MAPPING, AND AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION. A USER OF THE SIMULATOR WILL BE ABLE TO QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY TEST HIS ALGORITHMS ON THE DATA AVAILABLE FROM OFF-THE-SHELF SENSOR DEVICES WITHOUT HAVING TO BUILD CUSTOM HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE INTERFACES FOR EVERY DIFFERENT SENSOR. HE WILL ALSO BE ABLE TO EXPERIMENT WITH COMBINATIONS OF SENSORS IN PARTICULAR ENVIRONMENTS BEFORE MAKING A COMMITMENT TO USE ONE OR MORE OF THEM ON HIS ROBOT. ROBOTIC CONTROL SYSTEMS CAN BE COMPLETELY DESIGNED AND DEVELOPED ON THE SIMULATOR BEFORE THE ROBOT IS CONSTRUCTED.