Design and implementation of a RF controlled robotic environmental survey assistant system

Survey operation to collect information about environmental parameters is an inevitable part in various cases. But manual data logging by human is dangerous in perilous places. This paper deals with design and implementation of a RF Controlled Robotic Environmental Survey Assistant System for remote survey operations, which can assist in remote data acquisition of environmental parameters like temperature, humidity and the presence and level of LPG gas in the air. Technically, two individual units make up the complete survey assistant system. First one is the wireless control unit for controlling and monitoring the survey process, whereas the second one is a remote controlled data collector robot unit which executes the survey process. The survey robot is equipped with sensor units required for measurement of temperature, humidity and combustible gas level as environmental parameters of the survey zone, ultrasonic sensor for obstacle detection in the path of the robot and GPS receiver for collecting information about position of the robot. A Radio Frequency (RF) Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) transceiver channel enables the communication between the robot and control panel. The robot can be operated in two different modes. In autonomous mode, the robot travels a random path depending on obstacle avoidance technique and stores or collects and broadcasts live data stream to the control panel. Each time the robot is set to autonomous mode, after completion of a limited time survey operation, the robot comes back to it's starting position where autonomous mode was started. Obstacle sensor units installed in the robot helps it to detect and avoid obstacles in its path. The real-time data visualization is achieved on a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) in the control panel and the mode of operation can be select from the control panel by operator.