PROJECT PROPOSAL

For
Hazardous Area Mapping Robot (Mapbot)

Supervised By:
Dr. Sisil Kumarawadu

Project Group (15):

T.Selvamoorthy (060442J)
S.P.T.N Senadheera (060444R)
H.R Senavirathne (060452N)
D.R Thotagamuwa (060492K)

Department of Electrical Engineering,

Faculty of Engineering,
University of Moratuwa,
Sri Lanka.

Approval of Project Supervisor

The project “Area Mapping Robot (Mapbot)” System is supervised by me and is acceptable as a
final year project.

………………………………………
Dr. Sisil Kumarawadu
BSc Eng(Moratuwa), MEng(Saga), PhD(Saga)
Senior Lecture in Electrical Engineering
Department of Electrical Engineering,
University of Moratuwa,
Sri Lanka

Date: …………………………………

Introduction
The Robotics and Automation technology has developed in a very rapid manner in the
present modern world. Robotics and Automation Technology has imfiltrated many Industrial
applications, as it ensdures accuracy and reduces the risk of danger to human life. We decided to
use the above technology to map a hazardous surface and create a contour map of a certain
terrain. The project is named “MAPBOT”.
The Primary Objective of the Project is to build a Robot to create a contour map of a
terrain, which cannot be mapped using Aerial mapping or human interference. Some terrains
cannot be easily mapped, as it can involve high risk of human life. For example, in a nuclear
power plant setting where a meltdown has occurred, information of the various hallways are too
dangerous to be mapped from human effort. Further, Aerial mapping might be impossible in
certainn cases where the area is covered from obstacles. Eventhough Robots with real time
cameras are built for such applications, mapping a terrain can become extremely difficult in bad
lighting conditions, We have decided to use Ultrasonic sensors in the robot for utility at bad
lighting conditions. Ultimately “MAPBOT” will be a perfect solution to overcome the above
mentioned problems.
“MAPBOT” will be basically placed in a hazardous surface, on which it will travel along
the surface on a predefined algorithm, and collect information about the path it travelled.
Ultimately it will have the complete terrain information including all the obstacles it met along
the path. This information will then be used by the receiver at a remote place for mapping
processes.

Project type
The proposed project is simply a robotics and automation based project. The final outcome
would be a practical and automated area mapping robot.

Objectives
Primary objectives
➢ To develop a robot can operate remotely and helps to the mapping procedure.
 ➢ Introduce surface area mapping system to the robot based on a sensor system.
➢ Introduce obstacle mapping for the robot system based on sonar technology.
➢ Robot system can operate/drive manually in any emergency case.

Optional objectives
➢Monitoring of the area placing accessories such as a Geiger counter, temperature
sensors and mounted cameras to allow real time

Resources Requirement

Hardware
➢Motors/Servomotors
➢Ultrasonic Sensors
➢Compass Sensor
➢Gyroscope/level sensors
➢Microcontrollers
➢Touch Sensors
➢Optical Sensors

Software
➢ Matlab
➢ MikroC
➢ Java/C#