Plan of approach

Marco Maissan
0949830

Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Festo BV

supervised by:
G. Maas
W. Volders

February 15, 2021

Contents
1 Introduction 2
1.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 Problem definition 3
2.1 Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 Delineation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.3 Research questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

3 Objectives 5
3.1 Explanation main final product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

4 Theoretical framework 7

5 Study design 7

6 Risk analysis 8
6.1 Internal and external risk factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.2 Measures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
6.3 Risk table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

7 Planning 11

A Planning 13

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1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Festo is a company that is active in industrial automation and its applications. The
company produces many industrial automation components, like actuators, sensors,
motors and servo drives, industrial robots, vacuum technology, and more. Besides,
Festo develops its own pneumatic and electric controllers to drive those components.
These components can also interface with controllers from external companies, like
Siemens, Beckhoff, Schneider Electric, or Allen-Bradley.
One unfamiliar area for Festo is the control technology called Robot Operating Sys-
tem (ROS). ROS is an open-source robotic middleware and provides many advantages
in comparison with proprietary brands. For example, advantages include the following:

• Accessing hardware directly via drivers;

• Maintaining memory and processes;

• Implementing concurrency, parallelism and data merging;

• Implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI);

• Being an open-source middleware.

1.2 Assignment
The research will be conducted to explore the capabilities of ROS for Festo. The
research will be performed around the development of a Proof of Concept (PoC). For
this PoC, one of Festo’s own products will be used, the Robotino. The Robotino
is an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) and is part of the didactic branch of the
company. The Robotino contains various sensors and actuators, which makes it be
used for a plethora of purposes. This PoC aims to guide customers from the reception
to different places on the ground floor. The navigation process should be completely
autonomous, with the only human intervention being to determine to which location the
Robotino should drive. Developing this PoC requires research on many different fields,
like algorithmics for environment mapping, obstacle detection, and indoor position
detection. Implementing this PoC provides Festo with information about implementing
ROS for robotics. Besides, the PoC will function as a showcase for the technical
capabilities of Festo.

1.3 Client
Festo started in 1925 in Esslingen by Gottlieb Stoll. The name Festo is made up of
the two founders, Albert Fezer and Gottlieb Stoll. Festo started as a manufacturer
of woodwork machinery, which was later on transferred to the company Festool and

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Protool. Currently, Festo specializes in the production and development of components
for industrial automation. One of Festo’s branches is Festo Didactic, which focuses on
producing learning material for educational institutes.
Facts and figures [1]:

• Business sectors: Automation, Didactic;

• Year of foundation: 1925;

• Turnover: 3,07 billion euros;

• Employees: 21.000;

• R&D Investment: 8% of turnover;

• Offices: 250;

• Customers: 300.000 in 176 countries;

2 Problem definition
2.1 Problem statement
Problem Developing an AGV for guiding visitors through the office environment
using ROS is not a trivial task. To implement autonomous navigation, several aspects
require research. Firstly, it is important to define what “autonomous” means in the
context of the problem. This word is widely interpretable and differentiates between
use cases. Next, the Robotino must know how to navigate and locate itself in the
environment while also avoiding obstacles. The navigation must be solved using a path-
finding algorithm and must work together with the navigation algorithms to reroute
itself when an obstacle occurs.

Owner The problem owner is Festo, and the solution will be made for Festo.

Previous solutions There are no previous solutions for autonomous navigation of

the Robotino. There are also no existing solutions of other AVGs that guide Festo
visitors through the office building. Thus, the entire process and all research will be
done from scratch.

Consequences There are no direct consequences that could occur by solving the
problem.

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2.2 Delineation
A limited time frame is given for solving the problem. The problem will be solved
during the graduation internship period. The period is a total of 20 weeks. The
internship period starts on February 8th of 2021, and will end around the first week of
July. The deadline for the PoC is June 25th of 2021.
A proper delineation is necessary to make sure that solving the problem is feasible
within the given time. The following statements define what is contained within the
scope:

• Analyzing standard hardware of the Robotino;

• Developing the connection between sensors, actuators and software/firmware;

• Usage of ROS packages for autonomous navigation;

• Using the Robotino ROS API for interfacing with actuators/sensors;

• Writing new ROS packages;

• Adding extra hardware to the Robotino;

• Determining the correct programming languages;

• Using a web interface to set start- and end locations.

The following statements define what is not contained within the scope:

• No User Experience design for interaction with visitors;

• The Robotino does not have to go to other floors in the office;

• Not necessarily developing new libraries for technologies that already exist (e.g.,
libraries for Artificial Intelligence or Path Finding).

• No development of hardware from scratch; use pre-built solutions;

• Security aspects are out of the scope;

The Robotino that is available for the project is the 3rd generation. It will navigate
around the ground floor of the office. It must, however, be able to adapt to other
spaces as well. More requirements are written in another document.

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2.3 Research questions
This section describes the research questions that are used to solve the problem. The
main research question is: In which way can Robot Operating System be ap-
plied for controlling the Festo Robotino to autonomously navigate to pre-
determined locations within the office building?

This main research question can be split up into several sub-questions. The sub-
questions are the following:

• Which combination of hardware and algorithmics is suitable to be used with

Robot Operating System to localize the Robotino within the Festo office during
autonomous navigation?

• Which combination of hardware and algorithmics is suitable to be used with

Robot Operating System to detect obstacles during autonomous navigation?

• In which way can the destination of the Robotino be indicated?

• Which pathfinding algorithms are suitable to determine the path of the Robotino,
taking obstacle detection into consideration?

• In which way can obstacle avoidance be implemented in combination with the

chosen pathfinding and localization algorithms?

3 Objectives
Objectives The objectives assure that both the client as the researcher has the same
expectations about the to be conducted research. These objectives and expectations
are based on what is expected of the final research product. All objectives have been
discussed and approved by Festo. There are two main objectives.
The first objective is based on customer experience when visiting the Festo building.
When a visitor arrives, they will first be received at the reception. After being received,
they mostly go to the eXperience Center, which is an “open” area for prototyping,
meetings, coffee time, and more. The eXperience center is on the ground floor of
the Festo building. The Robotino will guide the customer to a predetermined location,
which will be set via a simple web interface. Guiding customers to their location makes
sure that customers don’t have to wait for someone to pick them up when they arrive
at the office. Besides, it will be a great showcase demonstration of the possibilities and
technologies of Festo.
The second objective is for Festo to discover the possibilities of ROS. The thesis will
give insight into what ROS can mean for Festo and how it can be integrated into their
technologies. The project will show the strengths and weaknesses of ROS compared to
other (proprietary) control platforms (e.g., Siemens, Allen-Bradley, Schneider, etc.).

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Final products The final product consists of multiple items. They are the following:

• Hardware and software analysis of Robotino;

• Robotino with potential hardware modifications;

• Source code for autonomous navigation:

– Software for localization;

– Software for object detection and handling;
– Software for pathfinding algorithm;

• Webinterface for installing start- and end points;

• System designs;

• Documents:

– Plan of approach;
– Risk analysis;
– Accept criteria;
– Requirements and specifications;
– Test plan and report;
– Manual;
– Transfer documents;

• Analysis and advise of extra hardware/software;

• Remaining research and documents ;

• Thesis.

3.1 Explanation main final product

The final product will be the Robotino with possibly modified hardware to fulfill its
purpose. The purpose of the Robotino is to drive visitors to the Festo office in Delft
from the entrance lobby to the eXperience Center. The navigation will happen au-
tonomously and will be executed using path-finding algorithms and indoor navigation
methods.

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4 Theoretical framework
This theory provides a broad overview of the techniques that will be used to solve the
problem. The final thesis provides an in-depth overview of the theory, which will be
the project’s foundation. This section discusses the basics and models required to solve
the problem.
The Robotino is an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) used for research and edu-
cation. AGVs are internal transport systems commonly used in manufacturing plants,
warehouses, distribution centers, and transshipment terminals [2]. Automating this
task brings many difficult problems. Examples are pathfinding, scheduling, determin-
ing indoor positions, battery management, and deadlock prevention. When designing
an AGV and its functionality, it is important to define if the AGV can drive freely or
operate on a fixed track.
The Robotino provides the possibility to integrate the new competencies of Indus-
try 4.0. The term Industry 4.0 relates to the fourth industrial revolution. The goal
of Industry 4.0 is to change production processes in such a way that makes individ-
ualized customer requirements during a fabrication process more feasible [3]. Human
interaction plays an important role, which makes Industry 4.0 unique compared to
completely automated production lines. Industry 4.0 allows humans to interact with
the machinery via, e.g., the Internet of Things (IoT). It promotes the connection of an
agent’s sensors to other sensors on other agents via the internet or via other methods.
One of the key points of Industry 4.0 is to convert regular machines to self-aware and
self-learning machines that interact with other machines in an autonomous manner.
These problems relate directly to the research problem: to autonomously drive the
Robotino through the Festo office.
ROS

5 Study design
Several types of research will be used to gather knowledge to successfully build the
final product.
Firstly, both literature research and explorative research will be performed to gather
knowledge about the Robotino. This will answer which hardware is currently available
on the Robotino, useful information for determining unnecessary or newly required
hardware. To determine the navigational techniques, it is important to gather all rel-
evant information about the environment in which the Robotino will operate. The
observative research will be held in the Festo office, specifically on the ground floor.
This research will tell which sizes the areas of the environment are and which obsta-
cles can occur. The Robotino will be controlled via Robot Operating System (ROS).
For this reason, it is necessary to do literature research on the foundations and work-
ing of ROS. Without research about ROS, it will be impossible to guarantee a stable
and safe system. Autonomous navigation will be solved using algorithms for localiza-

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tion, obstacle detection, and pathfinding. Finding the right algorithms to solve these
problems will be based on literature research. Finally, field research will tell if the
Robotino performs as expected based on test cases and the defined requirements and
specifications.

6 Risk analysis
This risk analysis maps the internal and/or external risks of the thesis project. It
combines each risk with its likelihood and preventive measures. This thesis project
takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic, which means that analyzing project risks
is of great importance.

6.1 Internal and external risk factors

Internal risks Internal risks are the risks that could occur directly in the company.
One of the risks is that financial budgets change. This could influence the project
since additional hardware and/or software might be required. It could also be possible
that colleagues will be re-positioned or start working from home. This could result
in making information less accessible. Another risk might be that the Festo Didactic
department files a claim on the Robotino. This could result in a delay when waiting
for another Robotino to be available.

External risks External risks are the risks that influence the company and the thesis
project from outside the company. Currently, the biggest external risk is the Covid-19
pandemic. Ever since the pandemic started, offices had to undertake new policies and
regulations regarding the working environment. At the time of writing, only 25 people
are allowed to be in the Festo office at any given time. This value might change based
on the positive or negative infection rate of the virus. Besides the pandemic, other
risks might occur as well. Since the graduate student travels by train and starts in
February, weather circumstances might prohibit traveling. This could result in delays.

Project risks Besides the business-related risks, there are also several project-related
risks. For example, the project might seem to be too difficult to implement during the
internship period. It is also possible that the prototype does not function as described
in the acceptance criteria. Also, hard- or software failures should be taken into account.

6.2 Measures
Five measures can be taken into account:
• Preventing

• Detecting

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 • Reducing

• Correcting

• Accepting

• Transferring

6.3 Risk table

Abbreviations:

• C = Chance

• I = Impact

• Ext. = external risk

• Int. = internal risk

• Proj. = project risk

• 0% = lowest chance/impact

• 100% = highest chance/impact

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 Before After
measure measure
Risk Type C I Measure C I
Detecting: follow newspapers
Not able to work
Ext. 75% 90% Reducing: ask coworker to deliver 75% 10%
in office due to Covid
Robotino to house
Severe weather, no Detecting: follow weather forecast
Ext. 75% 20% 75% 10%
public transport Reducing: prepare work from home
Financial budgets
Accepting: find a workaround to
restrict acquisition of
Int. 10% 50% solve problem with currently 10% 50%
new hardware or soft-
available products.
ware
Repositioning or
Reducing: networking with other
dismissal of direct Int. 10% 50% 10% 5%
colleagues to not rely on 1 person
colleague
Preventing: make sure manager
Didactic department communicates with Didactic
Int. 10% 90% 1% 1%
claims Robotino department and makes written
agreement
Preventing: make goals realistic
without introducing too many
Deadline not feasible Proj. 50% 90% challenges. Discuss goals with 10% 10%
supervisors. Leave room for open
interpretation.
Preventing: define scope and
Proof of Concept does
proper delineation. Write require-
not fulfill acceptance Proj. 30% 90% 10% 75%
ments and acceptance criteria in
criteria
early stage
Preventing: read documentation
New hardware does on hardware before purchase.
Proj. 30% 30% 10% 5%
not work with ROS Correcting: return or sell hardware
and buy new hardware
Preventing: implement 3-2-1
Work gets lost Proj. 5% 100% backup rule and use Concurrent 0% 0%
Versions System (CVS)
Correcting: reserve budget for
Hardware defect Proj. 20% 80% 20% 5%
buying replacement hardware

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7 Planning
The planning provided in appendix A shows the order and timespan of the activities.
Additionally, two days of vacation are available per month of the internship.

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References
[1] Festo figures, data, facts. [Online]. Available: https://www.festo.com/group/
en/cms/10250.htm.
[2] T. Le-Anh and M. De Koster, “A review of design and control of automated guided
vehicle systems,” European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 171, no. 1, pp. 1–
23, 2006, issn: 0377-2217. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.01.
036. [Online]. Available: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S0377221705001840.
[3] S. Vaidya, P. Ambad, and S. Bhosle, “Industry 4.0–a glimpse,” Procedia manu-
facturing, vol. 20, pp. 233–238, 2018.

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A Planning

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