CHAPTER 2

LITERATRURE REVIEW OF ANDROID CONTROLLED ROBOTIC

VEHICLE

This chapter will mainly discuss the literature review of the android. The
literature review will include the types of drive for mobile robots, WIFI enabled smart
robot, Bluetooth enabled smart robot and spy robot with android phone.

2.1. Overview of Mobile Robot

A mobile robot is commonly known as an autonomous machine capable of
performing a task. The robots in the industry have served to purpose of making tasks
easier and more agile, thus diminishing the execution time of the task as well as the
manpower used to perform such tasks. Industrial robots require an established
workspace and due to this fact, the robot cannot perform task in other places. Mobile
robots come from the need to reallocate those robots in other places where they have
to be used in order to turn aside human beings from dangerous and/or repetitive tasks,
thus providing support to the workers in the plant. A mobile robot is one that is
capable of moving around over a given terrain regardless of the type of locomotion
that is used. Mobile robots can be classified into: aerial, terrestrial or aquatic.
Terrestrial mobile robots are classified according to the type of movement or
locomotion they have.
Terrestrial mobile robots are always categorized into two groups: wheeled-
robots and legged-robots. Legged-robots have advantages over wheeled-robots for
moving on very rough surface. For smooth surface, wheeled-robots are always
quicker than legged-robots. Wheeled robots have no problem of stability or balance as
always occurred in legged-robots. Wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) are more energy
efficient than legged robot on hard, smooth surfaces. And they will potentially be the
first mobile robots to find widespread application in industry, because of the hard,
smooth plant floors in existing industrial environments. WMRs require fewer and
simpler parts and are thus easier to build than legged mobile robots. Wheeled Mobile
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robot are normally equipped with two wheels. So, these mobile robots fall into two
categories; these are
omnidirectional and non-omnidirectional. Omnidirectional mobile robot means it can
maneuver in any direction on the ground plane at any instance of time whereas non-
omnidirectional means there is a mechanical constraint at least in one direction.
Although both of them possess similar ways in control field, there are many
differences. For instance, the kinematics and dynamics of mobile robot are different.
Wheel control is less complex than the actuation of multi-joint leg.

2.2. Types of Drive for Mobile Robot

A mobile base must be capable of motion on a planar or near-planar surface
and the ground plane. The most popular mobile robot bases always differ depending
on four drive systems; differential drive, car drive (Ackerman steering), synchro drive
and omnidirectional drive. The simplest type of base has three degrees of freedom, its
x and y position and its orientation. More complex bases may have more degrees of
freedom, for example, articulated bases may have two coupled parts. But most bases
used for mobile robot research have a single body whose position and orientation can
be controlled. Even within this framework, there are still a large variety of locomotion
methods. Four specific wheel configurations are described in order to demonstrate
concrete applications of the concepts to mobile robots built for real-world activities.

2.2.1. Differential Drive

The differential drive is perhaps the simplest possible drive mechanism for a
ground contact mobile robot. It is a small, low-cost, indoor robots and larger
commercial bases. The differential drive is a two-wheel drive system with
independent actuators for each wheel shown in Figure 2.1.  The name refers to the
fact that the motion vector of the robot is sum of the independent wheel motions,
something that is also true of the mechanical differential.
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Figure 2.1. Simple Differential Drive Mobile Robot [04Ral]

The drive wheels are usually placed on each side of the robot and toward the
front. Unfortunately, castor wheels can cause problems if the robot reverses its
direction.  Then the caster wheel must turn 360 degrees and, in the process, the offset
swivel can impart an undesired motion vector to the robot. This may result in a
translational heading error.  However, if the robot always changes its direction by
moving forward and turning, a caster wheel may be okay.  Another alternative to a
caster wheel is a captive ball which does not use a swivel mechanism.
The vehicle’s motion can be considered by controlling the wheel velocities.
Under differential drive, for each of the two drive wheels to exhibit rolling motion,
the robot must rotate about a point that lies on the common axis of the two drive
wheels. By varying the relative velocity of the two wheels, the point of this rotation
can be varied and different vehicle trajectories chosen. At each instant in time, the
point at which the robot rotates must have the property that the left and right wheels
follow a path that moves around the instantaneous center of curvature (ICC) at the
same angular rate ω and these relations are defined as Equation 2.1 and Equation
2.2.

( L2 )=V
ω R+ R (2.1)

( L2 )=V
ω R− L (2.2)
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where L is the distance along the axle between the centers of the two wheels, the left

wheel moves with velocity V L along the around and the right with velocity VR

and R is the signed distance from the ICC to the midpoint between the two wheels.
V R , V L ,ω,R are all functions of time at any instant in time, solving for R and
ω results in Equation 2.3.

L(V R + V L ) (V R −V L ) (2.3)
R= , ω=
2(V R −V L ) L

A number of special cases are of interest. If V R =V L , then the radius R is

infinite, and the robot moves in a straight line. If V R =−V L , then the radius is zero,
and the robot rotates about a point midway between the two wheels, that is, it spins in
place. This makes differential drive attractive for robots that must navigate in narrow
environments [04Ral].
2.2.2. Car Drive (Skid Steering)
Skid-steering mobile robots (SSMRs) have been widely used in many
applications, such as terrain navigation and exploration, waste management, defense,
security, and household services. For a skid-steered robot is shown in Figure 2.2,
there is no steering mechanism and motion direction is provided by turning the left-
side and right-side wheels at different velocities. The absence of a steering system
makes the robot mechanically robust and simple for terrain or outdoor environment
navigation. Due to the varying tire/ground interactions and over-constrained contact,
it is quite challenging to obtain accurate kinematic and dynamic models, and therefore
robust tracking control scheme, for such mobile robots. Although there is a great deal
of research on dynamic modeling and tracking control of differential-driven mobile
robots that are under the non-holonomic constraint of zero lateral velocity, such as
unicycles or car-like robots. Wheel slip plays a critical role in both the kinematic and
dynamic modeling of skid-steered mobile robots. The slip information, in fact,
provides a connection between the wheel rotation velocity and the linear and angular
motion of the robot platform. The wheel slip also plays an important role in robot
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dynamics, as the wheel/ground interactions directly provide traction and braking

forces that affect the motion stability and maneuverability and they greatly depend on
the wheel slip. Thus, understanding the slip information is not only important for
trajectory control and localization applications, such as dead-reckoning, but it is even
more important for stabilization control applications when the roll and pitch motion
are not negligible and robot vibrations are not admissible.

Figure 2.2. Skid-Steering Mobile Robot [04Ral]

2.2.3. Synchro Drive

The synchro drive configuration in Figure 2.3 is a popular arrangement of
wheels in indoor mobile robot applications. It is an interesting configuration because
there are three driven and steered wheels, only two motors are used in total. The one
translation motor sets the speed of all three wheels together, and the one steering
motor spins all the wheels together about each of their individual vertical steering
axis.
The wheels are being steered with respect to the robot chassis, and therefore
there is no direct way of reorienting the robot chassis. In fact, the chassis orientation
does drift over time due to uneven tire slippage, causing rotational dead-reckoning
error.

Driving Pulley
Steering Pulley

Wheel Steering Axis Wheel

Drive Belt

Steering Belt
 Drive Motor
6 Rolling
Axis

+ +

Figure 2.3. Synchro Drive [04Ral]

The synchro drive is particularly advantageous in cases where

omnidirectionality is sought. So long as each vertical steering axis is aligned with the
contact path of each tire, the robot can always reorient its wheels and move along a
new trajectory without changing its base. Of course, if the robot chassis has
directionality and the designers intend to reorient the chassis purposefully, then
synchro drive is only appropriate when combined with an independently rotating
turret that attaches to the wheel chassis. In terms of dead reckoning, synchro drive
systems are generally superior to true omnidirectional configurations but inferior to
differential-drive and Ackerman steering systems. There are two main reasons for
this. First and foremost, the translation motor generally drives the three wheels using
a single belt. Because of slop and backlash in the drive train, whenever the drive
motor engages, the closest wheel begins spinning before the furthest wheel, causing a
small change in the orientation of the chassis. With additional changes in motor
speed, these small angular shifts accumulate to create a large error in orientation
during dead reckoning. Second, the mobile robot has no direct control over the
orientation of the chassis. Depending on the orientation of the chassis, the wheel
thrust can be highly asymmetric, with two wheels on one side and the third wheel
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alone, or symmetric, with one wheel on each side and one wheel straight ahead or
behind. The asymmetric cases result in a variety of errors when tire-ground slippage
can occur, again causing errors in dead reckoning of robot orientation [04Ral].

2.2.4. Omnidirectional Drive

Omnidirectional movement is the great interest for complete maneuverability.

Omnidirectional robots that are able to move in any direction ( x,y,θ ) at any time
are also holonomic. They can be realized by either using spherical, castor, or Swedish
wheels.
The omnidirectional arrangement depicted in Figure 2.4 has been used
successfully on several research robots, including the Carnegie Mellon Uranus. This
configuration consists of four Swedish 45-degree wheels, each driven by a separate
motor. By varying the direction of rotation and relative speeds of the four wheels, the
robot can move along any trajectory in the plane and, even more impressively, can
simultaneously spin around its vertical axis. For example, when all four wheels spin
“forward” or “backward”, the robot, as a whole, moves in a straight line forward or
backward, respectively. However, when one diagonal pair of wheels is spun in the
same direction and the other diagonal pair is spun in the opposite direction, the robot
moves laterally.
This four-wheel arrangement of Swedish wheels is not minimal in terms of
control motors. Because there are only three degrees of freedom in the plane, one can
build a three-wheel omnidirectional robot chassis using three Swedish 90-degree
wheels. One application for which such omnidirectional designs are particularly
amenable is mobile manipulation. In this case, it is desirable to reduce the degrees of
freedom of the manipulator arm to save arm mass by using the mobile robot chassis
motion for gross motion. As with humans, it would be ideal if the base could move
omnidirectionally without greatly impacting the position of the manipulator tip, and a
base can afford precisely such capabilities [04Ral].
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Figure 2.4. The Carnegie Mellon Uranus Robot, an Omnidirectional Robot with Four
Powered-Swedish 45 Wheels [04Ral]

2.3. WIFI Enabled Smart Robot

WIFI enabled smart robot is a system which can be controlled using a custom
designed webpage. To make this feasible, an Arduino microcontroller board with an
Arduino Ethernet Shield is used which guides the robot along the desired path. Switch
control mode of robot is controlled using joystick and can be appropriately guided
back, forth, left and right [16Sha].

WIFI
Connectivity

WIFI
Connectivity

Figure 2.5. Functional Block Diagram of WIFI Robot [16Sha]

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From the block diagram, it is evident that the control over robot can be
achieved from the custom designed webpage and hence the robot can be maneuvered
in the designated directions. When the allocated web address is entered in the web
browser, webpage containing the control of robot gets loaded. When clicked on the
respective direction controls on the webpage, the subsequent control packets are
generated. These packets are transferred via internet and is received by the Arduino
Ethernet Shield serially through the router at the receiver end. The data is then
transferred from the Ethernet Shield via an SPI interface into the Arduino board and
with the help of a motor driver circuit (L293D), the designated directions are hence
forth assumed.
In this research, it is chosen to program the control algorithm in Arduino
software by creating a webserver. The webpage contains icons clicking upon which
will guide the robot to move back, forth, left and right. The webpage is accessed via
internet and commands are sent via router in packets which is received at the receiver
end and transferred serially by the Ethernet port of Ethernet Shield into the Arduino
board to control the motion of robot [15Mar].

Figure 2.6. WiFi Controlled Mobile Robot [15Mar]

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2.4. Bluetooth Enabled Smart Robot

This module describes controlling the robot using Bluetooth. In this research,
Bluetooth module connected to the Arduino board which is encrypted by a MAC
address. It is created an android applet with Java which communicates serially with
the Arduino board. By entering the allocated MAC address of the Bluetooth module,
the connection between Arduino board and android phone is achieved. Controlling the
direction of motion of robot is achieved by tapping the specific icon on the android
phone. In this research, Java is used for programming to control the robot.
Programming is done in Eclipse, which is a tool for creating an applet from Java
programming language. The Java programming is so done that, the icons in applet
resembles the control done using a joystick Applet is saved in APK format and
transferred to android phone. By entering the MAC address of Bluetooth modem,
connection between Arduino board and the phone is established which allows the user
to control various motions of the robot [16Sha].

Figure 2.7. Block Diagram of Bluetooth Enabled Robot [16Sha]

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Figure 2.8. Arduino Interfaced with Bluetooth Module and Robot[16Sha]

User also watches the robot through wireless camera from the remote location. Most
important thing is that other sensors work normally in both modes. When sensors find
any deviation from normal values they transmit the signal wirelessly to the user side
where the detecting physical quantity is displayed on LCD and buzzer will ON which
alerts the user present on that side. Wireless camera sends the real-time audio and
video signals of areas where robot vehicle is doing its searching operation. The user
can feed the audio and video in computer for future purposes.

2.5. Robotic Vehicle with Android Phone

The robotic vehicle components consist of two android mobile devices, an
Arduino Uno, Arduino Motor Shield and a Bluetooth module. The user’s android
device is used as a Bluetooth controller, with a simple and intuitive GUI that anyone
can pick up and use without prior training. In order to be easy to use the android
application, a traditional “tank treads” movement system is used, which is very
intuitive to anyone with experience with RC cars. Several well-labeled options are
also available, while limiting the amount of on-screen information that could confuse
users.
The user’s phone communicates with the mounted android device using Wifi
direct to provide a streaming video feed from the robot’s point of view. The Bluetooth
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signals are interpreted by the Arduino Uno, which process the commands into
mechanical motion via PWM signals sent to the Arduino Motor Shield which drives
the motors. The Arduino code is designed to interpret signals received through
Bluetooth from the phone controller. For each state that the robot can be in, a different
code was assigned. Video streaming was accomplished by making use of WIFI direct.
WIFI direct is used to maintain the goal of the robot being mobile and able to be used
in any location and situation. It allows connections between two mobile devices
without the availability of a router. When compared to Bluetooth, WIFI direct
surpasses it in both speed and range with speeds of up to 250Mbps, which was a
perfect fit for video streaming purposes [14Eri].

Figure 2.9. Robot Prototype Design Including Mounted Second Cell Phone Which
Handles Video Streaming Function [14Eri]

2.11. Summary
The various types of the robotic vehicles with difference operation and
different configuration are expressed in this chapter. There are many types of robots
such as mobile robot, intelligent combat robots, smart robots, underwater robots and
aerial robots and so on. They can be used in many kinds of application with specific
function as recuse, detection and searching. Most of the robotic vehicle operates with
RF wireless technique and they use TV tuner cards. Some of the smart robotic vehicle
only use the WIFI, ZigBee and Bluetooth communication by controlling with smart
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android phones. The next chapter will describe the system components of the robotic
vehicle.