GunBot: Design Concept of a Semi-Autonomous UGV with Omnidirectional Mobility and Auto-Target Tracking
Cardenas Irvin, Shao Leo, Jong-Hoon Kim Discovery Lab, School of Computing and Information Science Florida International University, 11200 SW 8th St, Miami, Florida 33199 icard005@fiu.edu, lshao002@fiu.edu, kimj@cis.fiu.edu
Abstract Modern day firefights during military operations in the Middle East have resulted in a high number of casualties and wounded soldiers due to the exposure of deadly attacks. However, those highly risky activities are inevitable for military operations. Unmanned robots will lead to a new era of reduced casualties. To perform dangerous activities without those casualties, unmanned robotics is a valuable approach. We have developed a semiautonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle, named GunBot, which is designed for battlefield operations as well as police patrol. GunBot has two superior features; Omni-directional Mobility based on the mecanum wheel mechanism which provides Gunbot with quick response to movement in any direction and an auto-Target Tracking system based on image processing techniques which enables one operator to drive GunBot and to track a target simultaneously. In this paper, we provide a prototype of GunBot and show the feasibility of the design of GunBot.