| APRIL - Autonomous Parking Robot Implemented in Lego - is a self parking car built with Lego Mindstorms NXT. Its control software executes both on the NXT brick and on a laptop which communicates over bluetooth. The control software is developed in C#/.Net and NXT-G. When the autonomous parking control system (APCS) is activated, the system detects free parking places along the road, and plans feasible paths into them when they are found. If the driver wants to park in a found parking place, he or she simply commands the vehicle to autonomously execute the planned parking maneuver. The software constantly generates and updates an image of the map with the position estimations of the vehicle itself, surrounding objects and most importantly, the found parking place. It also plots the planned path into the parking place if applicable. This map-image is used to verify the correctness of the system and to debug the program. It also has a simple collision avoidance system which makes the car stop if a sudden or unexpected obstacle is detected. In general, the software contains two parts. One part is executed on the NXT-Brick and controls the low level execution of motor commands and sensor monitoring. It was necessary to run some of the program on the onboard computer due to lag in the bluetooth communication. It added responsiveness to the solution. The other part is executed on a laptop and contains components that: - implements functionality to control the hardware (the ... |
