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Pusat Khidmat Makiumat Aka'
UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARF 94300 Kula Samarahan
A ROBOTWALL SIMULATOR
P. KHIDMATMAKLUMATAKADEMIK UNIMAS
uummniuimiiiui 1000133690
HOR KENG SENG (Software Engineering)
This project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Computer Science
with Honours
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SARAWAK
2005
ACKNOWLEGDEMENT
This final year project would not have been successful without the contribution of many
individuals for their kind support and help. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity
deeply indebted to those peoples in the realization of this project.
First of all, I appreciate the help and support from my beloved supervisor, Madam Eaqerzilla
Pang, who had sacrificed a lot of time and effort to lead and guide me during the development
of this project.
Secondly, I would like to thank my co-operative supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Narayanan
Kulathuramaiyer for his kind support, guidance and abundant ideas.
Finally, I would like to thank to my dearest family, who had offer unlimited morale and
financial supports in the development of this project. Once again, I would like thanks to
everyone that helped me in realizing this project. Thank you!
Ill
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF TABLES
ABSTRACT
ABSTRAK
CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION
Page
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III
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1.0 Introduction I
1.1 Overview 1
1.1.1 Research Background 1
1.1.2 Why This Project's Worth 2
1.2 Problem Statement 3
1.2.1 Problem for a RW Moving Forward 4
1.2.2 Problem for a RW Turning a Corner 4
1.2.3 Problem for a RW While Too Far or Too Close From the Wall 4
1.2.4 Problem for a RW Turn Toward, Away From and Parallel to
Closest Wall 4
1.3 Proposed Solution 4
1.3.1 Solution to a RW Moving Forward 5
1.3.2 Solution to a RW Turning a Corner 5
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1.3.3 Solution to a RW While Too Far or Too Close From the Wall 5
1.3.4 Solution to a RW Turn Toward, Away From and Parallel to
Closest Wall 5
1.4 Objectives 6
1.5 Scope of Study 6
1.6 Procedures/Methodologies 7
1.7 Significant of Research 8
1.7.1 Solve Janitorial Problem 8
1.7.2 Help Human Conduct Difficult Jobs 8
1.7.3 Firefighting 8
1.7.4 Security 9
1.8 Project Schedule 9
1.9 Outline Of The Project 10
1.9.1 Chapter 01
1.9.2 Chapter 02
1.9.3 Chapter 03
1.9.4 Chapter 04
1.9.5 Chapter 05
1.9.6 Chapter 06
1.9.7 Chapter 07
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1.10 Conclusion 12
CHAPTER 02: RESEARCH BACKGROUND
2.0 Literature Review 13
V
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Definitions and Concepts
2.2.1 The Term "Robot" and "Robotics"
2.2.2 The Word "Wall"
2.2.3 The Term "Simulator"
2.2.4 RobotWall Simulator (RWS)
2.3 History of Robotic
2.4 Current System Study
A) 2D Robot Simulator
2.4.1 WSU Khepera Robot Simulator v7.0 (WSU KRSv7)
2.4.2 Saphira/Pioneer Robot Simulator (S/PRS)
2.4.3 EyeSim Robot Simulator
B) 3D Robot Simulator
2.4.4 GLBot Mobile Robot Simulator (GLBot v3.921)
2.4.5 Webots 2.0 Robot Simulator
2.5 Comparison of Reviewed System
2.6 Artificial Intelligence (AI)
2.6.1 Gamma-Level Intelligence (Heuristic)
2.6.2 Al-Based Problem Solving
2.6.3 Genetic Algorithm (GA)
2.6.4 Metric Path Planning (Quantitative Navigation)
2.7 Reviews on Other Algorithms
2.8 Implementation Tools Study
2.8.1 C++ Object-Oriented Programming
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2.8.2 Java Object-Oriented Programming
2.8.3 Comparison between Java and C++
2.9 Proposed System
2.9.1 Determine the Locus of Wall
2.9.2 GA Algorithm
2.9.2.1 Advantages of GA
2.9.3 Backtracking
2.9.4 Proposed Implementation Tool
2.10 Conclusion
CHAPTER 03: DETAILED REQUIREMENTS AND METHODS OF
INVESTIGATION
3.0 Introduction
3.1 Methodology Approaches
3.2 System Design
3.2.1 User Interface Design
3.2.2 2D Interface
3.2.3 Object-oriented Design (OOD)
3.2.4 Class Design
3.3 System Implementation
3.3.1 System or Program Logic
3.3.2 Algorithm in Artificial Intelligence (AI)
3.3.3 Stages of Implementation
3.4 Evaluation
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3.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 04: SYSTEM DESIGN
4.0 Introduction
4.1 Bird Eye's View
4.1.1 Five Major Preparatory Steps for GP
4.2 Robot Simulation Design Concept
4.3 Key Features of Good Design in RWS
4.3.1 Identify Bottleneck
4.3.2 Flexibility and Extensibility
4.4 Object-oriented Design
4.4.1 Use Case Diagram
4.4.2 Sequence Diagram
4.4.2.1 Description of Sequence Diagram
4.4.3 Activity Diagram
4.4.3.1 Experimenter Activity Diagram
4.4.3.2 RobotWall Activity Diagram
4.4.4 Object Model (Class Diagram)
4.5 Conclusion
CHAPTER 05: SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
5.0 Introduction
5.1 Implementation Coverage
5.1.1 Genetic Programming
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5.1.2 Flowchart of Genetic Programming
5.2 Fitness Function
5.3 Selection
5.4 Genetic Operators
5.4.1 Reproduction
5.4.2 Crossover
5.5 RobotWall
5.6 Room
5.7 Collision Detection
5.8 Design of Experiment (DOE)
5.8.1 DOE 1
5.8.2 DOE 2
5.8.3 DOE 3
5.8.4 DOE 4
5.8.5 DOE 5
5.9 Conclusion
CHAPTER 06: SYSTEM TESTING AND EVALUATION
6.0 Introduction
6.1 Important of Testing
6.2 Software Quality Assurance
6.2.1 Evolving Wall-following Behaviors
6.2.2 RobotWall Movement
6.2.3 Room Painting
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6.3 Line Chart
6.3.1 Experiment Results for DOE 1
6.3.2 Experiment Results for DOE 2
6.3.3 Experiment Results for DOE 3
6.3.4 Experiment Results for DOE 4
6.3.5 Experiment Results for DOE 5
6.4 Experiment Results and Comparison
6.5 Approximations Problem
6.6 Disadvantages of GA
6.6.1 Deception Problem
6.6.2 Fitness Function
6.7 Conclusion
CHAPTER 07: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
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7.0 Introduction 82
7.1 Achievement 82
7.1.1 To Study Wall-following Problem 82
7.1.2 Create an Intelligent Program 82
7.1.3 Niche Targetability and Ease of Portability to Other Domains 83
7.1.4 To Study Genetic Algorithm 83
7.1.5 To Use an Object-oriented Design Method 84
7.1.6 A Prototype Program
7.2 Future Work
7.3 Conclusion
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REFERENCES
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A - PROJECT SCHEDULE
APPENDIX B - REVIEWS ON OTHER ALGORITHMS
APPENDIX C - DESCRIPTION OF USE CASE DIAGRAM
APPENDIX D - SEQUENCE DIAGRAM
APPENDIX E - DESCRIPTION OF CLASS DIAGRAM
APPENDIX F - DOE'S EXPERIMENT RESULTS
APPENDIX G - DOE'S EXPERIMENT SNAPSHOTS
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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1: WSU Khepera Robot Simulator v7.0 18
Figure 2.2: EyeSim Robot Simulator 21
Figure 2.3: GLBot Mobile Robot Simulator v3.921 22
Figure 2.4: Webots 2.0 Robot Simulator 24
Figure 2.5: Fixed-wall and robot with eight sensors located in the middle of the room 32
Figure 4.1: Bird's Eye View of 2D RWS Design 48
Figure 4.2: RobotWall Simulator Use Case Diagram 50
Figure 4.3: Activity Diagram to Show Experimenter Activities 55
Figure 4.4: Activity Diagram to Show RobotWall Activities 56
Figure 4.5: Class Diagram of RobotWall Simulator Program 57
Figure 5.1: The flowchart of Genetic Programming in RWS 61
Figure 5.2: The Reproduction Operation 63
Figure 5.3: The Crossover Operation 65
Figure 5.4: The Robot Position with Red Solid Oval 67
Figure 5.5: Room with 120 tiles on periphery showing robot at its starting position (8, 8) 68
Figure 6.1: Line Chart of DOE 1
Figure 6.2: Line Chart of DOE 2
Figure 6.3: Line Chart of DOE 3
Figure 6.4: Line Chart of DOE 4
Figure 6.5: Line Chart of DOE 5
Figure D 1: Set Room Sequence Diagram
Figure D2: Run GA Sequence Diagram
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Figure D3: Move Forward Sequence Diagram
Figure D4: Move Backward Sequence Diagram
Figure D5: Turn Left Sequence Diagram
Figure D6: Turn Right Sequence Diagram
Figure D7: Clear Steps Sequence Diagram
Figure D8: Rebuild Sequence Diagram
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1: Comparison of Review Robot Simulator
Table 2.2: Comparison between Java and C++
Table F1: 20 Experiment Results of DOE 1
Table F2: 20 Experiment Results of DOE 2
Table F3: 20 Experiment Results of DOE 3
Table F4: 20 Experiment Results of DOE 4
Table F5: 20 Experiment Results of DOE 5
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ABSTRACT
This report is written to study the Genetic Algorithm (GA) that applies to the development of
mobile robot wall-following behaviors. The purpose of the study is to have a better
understanding and a practical experience in robotic fields. GA has presented to be effective
procedures for solving wall-following problems. These algorithms are developed for a
simulated robot that uses an array of range finders for navigation. It mimics the model of
natural evolution and has the ability to adaptively search large spaces in near-optimal ways.
Also, this report will describe the use of genetic programming and path planning techniques
to the task of evolving robot behaviors for wall-following problem. This experiment involves
30 x 20 grids with four extrusions were designed and implemented to test the scalability of
GA to the solution. These experiments show that GA is capable to automatically produce
algorithms for wall-following task.
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ABSTRAK
Laporan ini telah ditulis untuk membuat kajian tentang Algorithma Genetik (GA) yang telah
diaplikasikan ke dalam perkembangan tingkah laku "dinding robotik". Kajian ini bertujuan
untuk mendapat pemahaman yang lebih mendalam dan pengalaman yang lebih praktikal
dalam bidang robotik. GA telah menjadi satu panduan kepada prosedur yang lebih efektif
dalam usaha penyelesaian masalah "dinding robotik". Kesemua algorithma ini
diperkembangkan selaras dengan simulasi robotik yang digunakan dalam bidang pencarian
navigasi dalam sesuatu kawasan. Ia menyerupai modul evolusi yang bersifat alam semulajadi
serta mempunyai kebolehupaya untuk mencari ruang yang lebih luas dan secara adaptif
apabila ia lebih menyerupai sifat optimal.
Selain itu, laporan ini turut menerangkan penggunuan program genetik dan teknik laluan
perancangan dalam bidang yang melibatkan tingkah laku robot untuk bidang penyelesaian
permasalahan yang mencari dinding. Eksperimen ini melibatkan 30x20 grids serta empal
ekstrusi yang telah direkabentuk dan diaplikasikan uniuk mengkaji kebolehupaya skala
penyelesaian. Kesemua eksperimen ini telah menunjukkan bahawa GA berupaya untuk
menghasilkan algorithma dalam bidang penyelesaian "dinding robotik" secara automatik.
xvi
CHAPTER 01: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Overview
Everyone has heard about the term `robot', and it has become common in
manufacturing facilities all around the world. But, not everyone is really sure about the
meaning of a robot. Therefore, as a software engineering student, the project will be
introducing a robot simulation prototype program to allow people to know more about
what simulated robot actually is. Also, the prototype program is designed based on
basic user interface so that it will not cause any difficulty when a user uses this
prototype program.
Hence, this chapter will show an in depth introduction of the basic knowledge that will
be used in the project. The knowledge that will be applied in this prototype program
are the fundamental study of the research problem, purposes or objectives of the
research study, scope of the study, methodologies that will be used in this research
study and the significance of the research study. In addition, a project schedule and the
outline of each chapter of this report will be included to make this interim report
throughout the development of this project.
1.1.1 Research Background
This report is produced for the Final Year Project with the title `A RobotWall
Simulator' (RWS). This prototype program is a wall-following program, which is
using wall-following behavior or algorithm to perform its functionality. It will outline
1
the program that would keep a robot within a certain range of the walls of an
enclosure. The term "robot" generally connotes some human-like (anthropomorphic)
appearance; consider robot "arms" for welding. An intelligent robot is a mechanical
creature which can function autonomously.
This project demonstrates the used of genetic algorithm or genetic (evolutionary)
programming to design and develop this proposed RWS. This algorithm will lay out
the fundamental of the solution for planned follow-on projects such as map
generation, maze traversal and so forth. This project will then give a positive result to
show sufficient promise to warrant further research into more complex and large
projects.
1.1.2 Why This Project's Worth
This topic is chosen to be my Final Year Project because it will fulfill the objectives of
the degree requirement. Hence, the project will include several methodologies such as
an object-oriented analysis and design, object-oriented programming and so forth to
develop this RWS. This project is worth implementing because robots are well-suited
for applications where a human is a significant risk such as nuclear, space and
military. The economics or menial nature of the application results in inefficient use of
human workers such as service industry and agriculture. Also, this project is good for
humanitarian uses where there are great risks, for example, demining an area of land
mines, urban search and rescue.
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Robot cannot make many decisions and receives little or no sensory input in present-
day. So, this project will enlarge the possibilities of using the Robotic Technology in
terms of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in RWS to answer to the
robot's problem that cannot be solved. Al is used in this project so that the RobotWall
(RW) can do things like a human can. It means that the RW will follow the shape of
the designed wall as a human being wall through it.
Robotics application has become a tool for a little more than 30 years. According to
Grant Fjermedal, "I met the tomorrow makers.. . Among them are the greatest
scientists, and they are in a desperate race to be first at downloading the contents of
the human mind into a computer housed within a robotic body so that we will never
have to die... Others expressed a fear that what was now being created was in fact a
new species that might soar beyond its human creators to become our evolutionary
successors. " [5] Therefore, this RWS can be used in future work and will improve
quality, enhance safety, and so forth.
1.2 Problem Statement
RWS will face different direction of movements when navigating in a desired closed
room. In order to develop this prototype program, it must first figure out the
requirements and the problem faced. Below are those problem statement faced and the
proposed solution to this project:
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1.2.1 Problem for a RW Moving Forward
When RW moves along the wall, it will not know whether there is a wall in the front
or at a corner.
1.2.2 Problem for a RW Turning a Corner
The RW will not know whether to turn left or turn right by itself when the RW have
reached a corner. Such case is possible to occur in this corner area. This means that it
will hit the wall from the side and front at the same time.
1.2.3 Problem for a RW While Too Far or Too Close From the Wall
This will happen when the robot is too far or too close from the wall. If it is too far,
the robot would not know where the position and direction is. If the robot is too close
to the wall, then the steps are as the above but the condition is now too close rather
than within acceptable range.
1.2.4 Problem for a RW Turn Toward, Away From and Parallel to Closest Wall
Here is another three problems that will be faced by a RW in this project. The RW
itself needs to think whether to turn towards or turn away from or turn parallel to the
closest wall.
1.3 Proposed Solution
Every problem statement must have at least one solution to solve it. At this point, all
the possible inputs and outputs will be formulating appropriate reactions that the RW
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should have in each specific problem area. Below are the suggested solutions that will
be applied into this proposed RWS:
1.3.1 Solution to a RW Moving Forward
To solve this problem, it is just set to return to 1 if RW completes this without hitting.
Otherwise, return to zero. If the RW collides with a wall, movement stops at that
point, it means that the RW is not allowed to move into or through the walls.
1.3.2 Solution to a RW Turning a Corner
The proposed solution is by rotating the RW 90 degrees to the right; return angle robot
is now facing the left corner. When the robot is at the right corner, follow the same
steps to turn right, excepted turn left 90 degrees.
1.3.3 Solution to a RW While Too Far or Too Close From the Wall
To solve this problem, it needs to set an acceptable range (in the corridor range), say
10 to 20 units (1 or 2 grids). This function will then repeatedly execute itself within
this range. If the robot goes out of the range, it will return to zero by the function.
1.3.4 Solution to a RW Turn Toward, Away From and Parallel to Closest Wall
In such circumstances, the RW will be set to find the closest wall and turn to face it if
it is towards closest wall. For RW turn away from the wall, it will be set to find the
closest wall. Also, to turn parallel to the closest wall, find the closest wall first, and
then turn 45 degrees sensor is facing the wall. All three conditions will return angle
RW its facing position.
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1.4 Objectives
The design of RWS is to discover the key principles by which how brains work and to
implement these in artificial systems that interact intelligently with the real world.
Below are the objectives of this project:
To study wall-following problem.
" Create an intelligent program.
" Niche targetability and ease of portability to other domains.
" To study genetic algorithm.
" To use an object-oriented design method.
" A prototype program.
1.5 Scope of Study
The scope of this study is to create a genetic algorithm (evolutionary programming)
program that will then be applied to this proposed RWS. Since this project is time
constraint and only one person is developing the whole project, therefore, the
limitation of the study in this project is that it only concentrates on one robot that will
follow the wall at one time during the process. Also, the shape of the wall will be
fixed at all times when the program runs each time. It means that other phenomenons
such as hitting between two or more robots are not included here. And, hitting two or
more times to the wall for the robot is also not covered here.
This RWS project is to navigate the RW through open spaces until it encounters a
wall. Then, it will navigate along the wall at some fairly constant distance. In this
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project, the robot will traverse the entire circumference of its environment at least
once without straying either too close, or too far from the wall.
To test these navigation algorithms, a two-dimensional simulated environment is
designed by using GP. Hence, this environment will only have a complete enclosed
room with walls. Each individual algorithm from the GP population is tested in the
same room in a sequence times. Therefore, this prototype program will be scored on
how well it performs the wall-following the behavior by applying this genetic
algorithm.
1.6 Procedures/Methodologies
The study on RWS is limited to the technologies and concepts that will be used to
develop this simulation. There are many procedures and methodologies used to design
a successful prototype.
In this RWS project, the suggestion is to use Object-Oriented System Development
Life Cycle (OOSDLC) to analyze it. Hence, Object-Oriented Analysis (OOA), Object-
Oriented Design (OOD), and Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) will be applied to
this project. In the evaluation phase, it will use the Rapid Application Development
(RAD) and Incremental Testing to analyze and test the program. In addition, CASE
tools such as Rational Rose will be used to develop the design prototype program.
In addition, the study of the concept of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) will also
be included in this project to ensure its usability. By interaction design, Winograd
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(1997) discusses it as "the design of spaces for human communication and
interaction. " [3] This means that this project will apply the design of an interactive
system to support people when in their working lives every day. Also, HCI can make
sure this prototype program will meet the usability criteria and user experience.
1.7 Significance of Research
This project is developed to study the performance of GP in robotic fields to evolve
the movements of a robot in wall-following problem.
1.7.1 Solve Janitorial Problem
One such activity is janitorial work, especially maintaining public rest rooms, which
has a high turnover of personnel regardless of pay scale.
1.7.2 Help Human Conduct Difficult Jobs
This project can be applied to manufacturing companies, where repetitious activities in
unpleasant surroundings make human workers inefficient or expensive to retain. One
reason is that it is an unpleasant job for a human to work in such working environment
that includes working in a hot environment, carrying sweaty and tedious work with a
low tolerance for inaccuracy.
1.7.3 Firefighting
This activity is hazardous work for human beings. This project can help humans to
fight fires in dangerous situations which are very dangerous especially to the
firefighters. In addition, it also could survive some conditions that will kill the human
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beings when this project integrates with other systems to make a robot firefighter. For
example, the robot firefighter will not be affected when faced with extremely heavy
smoke and very low levels of oxygen inside the area.
1.7.4 Security
This RWS is an intelligent simulator which may be applied to other systems to come
out with an intelligent system that can perform dangerous patrols. In this case, that
robot can move faster and remain alert better if compared with humans. Therefore, it
can also be instructed to inform a human security person if it found something amiss.
1.8 Project Schedule
This project is divided into two phases to complete the entire related chapter that is
starting from Chapter 1 until Chapter 7. The outline of every chapter will be discussed
in the next section.
During the first phase, the report has to come out with a research on the RWS that will
include some introduction of the proposed project, comparison for the similar existing
system and so forth. Here it needs to hand in the first two chapters, which are the
Overview of Introduction and Literature Review, as an interim report. For the second
phase, it includes Chapter 3 to Chapter 7. After that, a final report for this project will
be produced and handed in. This project started on Ist April 2004 and will end on 8th
April 2005.
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