A New Design of a Robot Prototype for Intelligent Navigation and Parallel Parking

Nowadays, the design of industrial vehicles and movable cars is based on the automation of their different tasks, which are currently handled by humans. These tasks, such as maneuvering robots in complex environments, require high level of precision that cannot be guaranteed by humans. Manual operations are likely to produce errors of computation and optimization of navigation and manoeuvre (left, right, veering…). In this paper, a novel prototype of a well-structured robot for intelligent navigation and parallel parking applications is presented. The robot have two axels, the front one is composed of two wheels that are manoeuvred by a stepper motor, and a pinion rack system for controlling the rotation of the wheels, and also the orientation of the robot. The driving wheels are mounted in the rear axle of the robot and are commanded by two DC motors. The design allows modification of the robot structural components whenever required. In addition to the mechanical components, the prototype is equipped with a DC power supply, three infra-red sensors, one ultrasound sensor, and control modules composed of an FPGA card, microcontroller card and two cards which are responsible for commanding actuators. The parameters of the mechanical and electronics components are optimised to perform multiple tasks for training and instruction applications. A mathematical model that describes the dynamics of the robot prototype is also developed. Simulation, experimental and theoretical investigations were carried out consisting in navigation and parallel parking manoeuvres. It was confirmed that the experimental and theoretical results agree well in both applications.