Navigation Software Skill for Robot4Care (10.45hr)

Project description

The goal of this project is to design, test, and implement a new navigation software for Pepper and adapt his dynamic mobility inside the Heart Lounge of the Catharina Ziekenhuis.

Context

The Catharina Ziekenhuis in Eindhoven has a special wing where people with coronary artery issues can go and get treatments for their conditions, called the Heart Lounge. Since the treatment classifies as a day procedure, a lot of people come and go from the wing.
Pepper is a humanoid robot well known for its nice and friendly behavior which attracts people of all ages making him the perfect service robot that can help the healthcare workers with patient/visitor interaction in the Heart Lounge.
In order to do that, Pepper needs to be able to wander around the area and intuitively interact with people in the lounge. Although Pepper is a humanoid robot with various sensors, such as a head camera and laser in its pedestal, it does not navigate naturally. Which is why, a model and programs need to be developed for the robot to be able to perform its duties during any situations that could occur in the Heart Lounge.

Results

For our project, our team developed through the virtual environment provided, a navigation software that uses the correct mapping of the hospital area, makes Pepper acknowledge his location in the map and it is able to wander around the area while avoiding static and dynamic obstacles. At this moment, Pepper does all the above mentioned parts through a behavior tree, where we also have checks for battery level, in order for him to go to his predefined charging spot, and to detect when an emergency occurs.
With that the navigation software is open for further development and to be able to work in parallel with Pepper's interaction ability.