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Project Idea | Assist Bot

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VR/AR Based Autonomous transportation robot for indoor as well as outdoor travel & Navigation using Google Project Tango

Project Title : Assist Bot

Abstract : This project aims at making a solar-powered voice automated autonomous bot that can be used for indoors as well as outdoors travel by people. The project is based on a new innovative way of using the accelerometer and GPS mapping from a VR based device that could be used for to ensure maximum accuracy in autonomous driving without the use of any complex artificial intelligence based technology. Furthermore, it also comes with a manual drive mode in which the user can drive the bot himself using a gamepad.
Since the bot can be given instructions by voice as well as touch, therefore, it is essential in order to help people with disabilities to travel and due to its small size, it can be used to indoor travel as well (in big airports as well as railways stations). Moreover, since the bot is solar powered hence it does not create any carbon emissions and problems such as traffic and noise which is quite a bit of an issue in the case of traditional cars. The bot is designated to be connected to a server consisting of all the path of every destination in a particular city with it being updated by the people who drive manually. In this way, it can be used to make transportation at any place faster, cleaner, less noisy and easy for all.
Virtual Reality is a fast-growing area of research and its true potential is yet to be discovered. Its wide range of applications in gaming, health, training, etc. proves it to be a promising technology. Oculus recently is working on using mixed reality to scan a room to teleport a user to another virtual world. The potential of using Virtual Reality to scan a vicinity can be humongous. One of such tasks is accomplished by Google’s Project Tango. We can use its accelerometer to precisely track the area and specify each point distinguished coordinates. The accuracy of the points can be estimated from the fact that it can locate up to 1000 thousand coordinates within a meter. That’s 1/10th time of a GPS. While keeping in mind its accuracy Project Tango can be used to scan a complete area and locate a point 1/10th precise of GPS. We can think of it as a way to create a ‘Marauder’s Map’ from Harry Potter to create a precise map of an area to track all the coordinates specified by Project Tango. Thus, we propose to develop a method which can use the tracking potential of Virtual Reality to map down an area and can be used for better location tracking, mapping an area and navigation.

In present times, a huge problem lies in the transportation field with the problem of pollution from vehicles being the major one. Though the introduction of hybrid cars, as well as electric cars in the field of transportation, has been done, but the problems associated with them such as their high cost as well as less range has made people hesitant towards buying. Moreover, even after the introduction of these more energy efficient cars, the problem of traffic, as well as noise, still remains the same. Furthermore, the inability of people with disabilities to travel around the city with ease still remains the same without a driver.
Use and introduction of more and more on road cars is leading to several problems as mentioned above. No matter if the car is efficient or not, the major problem of it leading to secondary problems makes it a bit of serious concern.
To ensure faster, easy to use, affordable as well as an eco-friendly way of transportation, we have introduced assist-bot.

Technologies Used:

1) Raspberry Pi/Intel Edison board – stored the coordinates obtained from the Tango on an Apache Server. It is then sent over to a web application via WebSockets.
2) Google Speech API – used Google APIs to enable speech recognition in the app.
3) Android Studio – used the framework for developing algorithms to devise a check for obstacles and co-ordinates storing.
4) Sensors – For obstacles detection we are now using – Xbox Kinect or Infrared sensors.
5) Google Project Tango – Used the developers’ edition hardware. Using its accelerometer – records a point cloud as the robot progresses.

Application:

1) City Guide – The robot can be used by people who are new to the city, and travel to places by just saying the name.
2) Maps – Can be used to track paths in forest, mountains & even in Antarctica to correctly devise a travel map from location to the destination.
3) Eco-Friendly rides- Since it is solar-powered, it is eco-friendly and can be used in cities and places to minimize pollution. It is also 3 times precise than Google GPS.

Current Status:
1) MHacks Nano Winner – https://devpost.com/software/assit-bot
2) KPIT Sparkle – Top 35 Project from 1600 projects from India
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7_Cv7QmUx4CdHpZUGtTSkstcjQ
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7_Cv7QmUx4CX1lzYTUtRHA1bUk
3) ABBIE Patent – AR/VR Sensor Based robot for Intuitive Exploration Provisional Patent Filed, Application No: 201741015905

Following additional links:
1) Video: https://youtu.be/QKRvNG1-pEg
2) Full Description: https://devpost.com/software/assit-bot/

By Team : Prolific
1) Sanket Thakur, School of Engineering, CUSAT
2) Shreyasvi Natraj, RV College Engineering
3) Md Islam, RIT, USA
4) Debanjana Haldar, IIT Bombay


Last Updated : 25 Apr, 2019
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