JOHOR BAHRU, 8 October 2012: – A Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) team from Faculty of Electrical Engineering bagged two awards in National Instrument ASEAN Graphical System Design Achievement Award 2012 in Singapore on 5th October 2012.
The team headed by Dr Yeong Che Fai won Best Innovation of Robotics and Honorary Mention in academic category through the project Omnidirectional Mobile Robot Using NI sbRIO9632xt.
Other team members were Tey Wei Kang and Dr Eileen Su.
More than 60 submissions from six countries such as Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia have been received in this competition.
Dr Yeong said, the robot can navigate in any direction with or without changing its orientation, surpassing the conventional differential-drive method in propelling a mobile robot.
NIsbRIO9632xt made the integration simple and straight forward, and its fast processor allows in-time computation for actuator speed and direction for smooth motion.
The navigation algorithm has been implemented easily using LabVIEW.
He cited, the whole system is integrated with wireless modem, allowing the robot to communicate wirelessly with control unit.
“The robot has the capability to move autonomously, and can also be controlled wirelessly if over-riding commands by the user is needed.
“The potential application for this robot is vast including applications for Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) for transport, commercial automobiles and even surveillance system,” he explained.