Next Generation Navigation (NeNa)

The NeNa project is centred around providing open-source safe, robust, accurate and reliable autonomous navigation for mobile robots in industry, with a focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

As a matter of fact, autonomous self-driving robots (or AGVs – automated guided vehicles) are already used in different domains, like e.g. precision farming, health care and industry. Traditionally, AGVs follow external, installed infrastructure, such as induction wires or RFID tags in the floor. These techniques have certain drawbacks and limitations, including costs incurred for adapting infrastructure and lack of independence of AGVs outside of the adapted infrastructure.

In the NeNa project, we would like to satisfy the demand of Dutch SMEs for practical knowledge on AGVs, that do not rely on external infrastructure. An important aspect is to also provide affordable and adaptable non-black box open-source software solutions to Dutch SMEs for AGV localization, (fleet-)planning and navigation.

Topic

Automated guided vehicles, Autonomous navigation, Sensor fusion, Computer vision, Machine learning.

Program objectives

  • Develop a test platform to provide practical knowledge on fully autonomous robots that are:
    • independent of external infrastructure,
    • able to adapt to different circumstances,
    • able to drive independently and safely in areas with people and other moving vehicles.
  • Providing an adaptable, non-black box, open-source software solution for AGV localization and navigation.
  • Integrate the solution into the existing automation pyramid, by controlling the robot from an existing open source fleet manager.
  • Apply ROS and ROS2 to implement navigation on the robot

Partners

Saxion (Mechatronica & Ambient Intelligence), Demcon, Hencon, Hollander Techniek, Indes, Opteq Mechatronics B.V., Riwo, Romias, Singa, Wewo.

Project page

Next Generation Navigation

Duration

2019 - 2021.

Financing

This project is funded by Raak mkb.

More information

Dr.ir. Wilco Bonestroo
Hoofddocent / Onderzoeker
Mechatronica
w.j.bonestroo@saxion.nl

Dr. Miha Lavrič
Docent / Onderzoeker
Ambient Intelligence
m.lavric@saxion.nl