சுருக்கம்

Design and Development of Autonomous Ground Vehicle for Wild Life Monitoring

J. Anupama, A. Kavitha, S. Harsha, M. Karthick

The objective of this work was to develop a cost effective autonomous ground vehicle which would carry out surveillance and tracking missions with respect to animal movements in forest area. The developed system was equipped with a high frequency GPS module and Auto pilot controller, which enabled the user to define the mission path. Thedeveloped system operates on its own, once the way points are assigned, leaving the user free to monitor the mission. Live status of the system’s current position, speed, battery status etc. can be viewed from the ground station. If necessary, the ground vehicle would be switched over from autonomous mode to manual mode, enabling full control. The system was equipped with a down facing optical flow sensor and forward facing SONAR sensor for obstacle avoidance.It was also equipped with a high end wireless, infrared camera for capture and transmission of video under low light conditions. The vehicle is pre-programmed to return to base in case of communication breakdown, thereby minimizing the chances of system loss.