FINAL YEAR PROJECT 1 PROPOSAL

Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia
SEMESTER 1 SESSION 2014/2015

Design and Development of an Arduino-Based Differential Mobile Robot: From

Title
Simulation to Reality
Name Norafidah binti Hassan
Matric No. AE1100129
Supervisor Mr. Mohamad Fauzi bin Zakaria

PROBLEM STATEMENT
A mobile robotics system needs a lot of works and time to design, develop and test in certain
application and environment. The best practice to start is through creating a model and simulate in the
computer. This way can reduce the development cost and time. Through simulation, the robot can be
tested in virtual realistic scenarios that are the danger, impossible and too expensive environment [1].
One of the suitable software that can be used is Webots. A lot of research and commercial robot
supported by Webots where that robot can be simulated in a different environment of workspace and
integrated with different customized control algorithm for various applications [2]-[8]. This software also
allows the user to create a new robotics platform easily with existing microcontroller system that
available for commercial robot such as e-Puck, Nao, and Pioneer AT/DX [9][10]. However, this software
has a gap for implementing in popular open microcontroller system such as Arduino. Therefore, this
project is aimed to create a bridge between Webots and Arduino by implementing for differential mobile
robot system.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this project are:
1. To design and develop a differential mobile robot in the Webots software and the real system.
2. To test the performance of the proposed system for odometry and positioning control.

SCOPE OF STUDY
1. The mobile robot configuration is differential wheel that consists of two DC motors and two
incremental encoders.
2. This robot is controlled by Arduino Uno microcontroller where its source code can be integrated
with Webots for simulation purpose and then downloaded through Webots to Arduino
microcontroller via USB cable.
3. The size of the robot is limited to 15cm length and 15cm width.
4. The operating system voltage is 5V that supplied by DC power bank.
5. A PID control system algorithm is used for odometry and position control application.
6. The workspace area is limited to 80cm x 80cm for testing its control algorithm.
METHODOLOGY
This research project will be carried out by executing the following steps:
1. Design a system architecture and identify the suitable components to be used.
2. Design a mechanical drawing of the proposed system and its environment in Webots.
3. Design and implement the interface components and programming codes in Webots.
4. Design and implement the algorithm of odometry and position control in Webots.
5. Develop a real robot.
6. Test the interface part between software and hardware of the real robot.
7. Test the odometry and position accuracy of the real robot navigation that based on proportional,
integral, and differential (PID) control algorithm.

EXPECTED RESULT
This project is expected to have results based on testing works as follow:
1. Mechanical drawing of mobile robot model for Webots simulation and real system.
2. Hardware and software interface testing for Webots and real system.
a. Programming from Webots to Arduino board through USB cable testing result.
b. Motor testing and differential wheel motion control testing result.
c. Encoder testing result.
3. Position and odometry testing result to verify and reduce their errors by manual tuning of PID
variables.

REFERENCES
[1] A. Maria, Introduction to Modeling and Simulation, in Proceedings of the Winter Simulation
Conference, 1997, pp. 713.
[2] L. Wang, K. Tan, and V. Prahlad, Developing Khepera robot applications in a Webots
environment, in International Symposium on Micromechatronics and Human Science, 2000, pp.
7176.
[3] F. Mondada, M. Bonani, X. Raemy, J. Pugh, C. Cianci, A. Klaptocz, J. Zufferey, D. Floreano, and A.
Martinoli, The e-puck , a Robot Designed for Education in Engineering, in Proceedings of the 9th
Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions, 2009, pp. 5965.
[4] L. Hohl, R. Tellez, O. Michel, and A. J. Ijspeert, Aibo and Webots: Simulation, wireless remote
control and controller transfer, Rob. Auton. Syst., vol. 54, no. 6, pp. 472485, Jun. 2006.
[5] S. H. A. Mohammad, M. A. Jeffril, and N. Sariff, Mobile robot obstacle avoidance by using Fuzzy
Logic technique, in 2013 IEEE 3rd International Conference on System Engineering and
Technology, 2013, pp. 331335.
[6] Z. Xing-long, W. Xu-dong, and Y. Zhe, Mobile Robot Simulation Based on Webots, in Seventh
International Conference on Natural Computation, 2013.
[7] M. Shayestegan and S. Din, Fuzzy logic controller for robot navigation in an unknown
environment, in 2013 IEEE International Conference on Control System, Computing and
Engineering, 2013, pp. 6973.
[8] M. S. Couceiro, P. A. Vargas, and R. P. Rocha, Bridging the reality gap between the Webots
simulator and e-puck robots, Rob. Auton. Syst., vol. 62, no. 10, pp. 15491567, Oct. 2014.
[9] Cyberbotics, Webots User Guide. Cyberbotics Ltd., 2014.
[10] Cyberbotics, Webots Reference Manual. Cyberbotics Ltd., 2014.