Unmanned Ground Vehicle Control using IoT

A small unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) prototype is designed, assembled, and tested. The objective is to implement a control system for UGV via Internet of Things (IoT) to explore the environment while streaming/recording videos. The UGV communicates with a mobile phone through the cloud. The software architecture has two main modes: manual and autonomous. In manual mode, the operator controls the speed and direction of the vehicle's movement using an Android application called Blynk platform. The operator's control decision is based on the live-streaming. In autonomous mode, a control algorithm uses information from three ultrasonic sensors and GPS to avoid obstacles and explore the area while recording the videos in the memory. The hardware and software design uses two processors: Raspberry Pi and Arduino. The Raspberry Pi is programmed in Python and used for communication between the UGV/camera and the cloud. The Arduino Mega is programmed in C++ and used for the UGV's low-level Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) motor control.