Hospital Delivery Robot

Problem

The coursework brief for Mechatronics and Mobile Robotics was a robot that could deliver packages around a hospital autonomously. It needed to detect when a package had been placed on it, roam the environment to locate the right member of staff, and confirm their identity before completing the handover, all while navigating safely around obstacles and people.

Process

The robot ran a repeating delivery cycle. On detecting a package placed on it, it roamed the hospital environment searching for a designated colour, which identified a particular member of staff. Once the colour was spotted, the robot navigated towards it, using proximity sensors to steer around obstacles, with collision functions handling anything the avoidance logic missed. On reaching the staff member, a final verification step recognised their identification badge, a number sequence, before the package was handed over. The robot then returned to roaming freely until a new package was placed on it, restarting the cycle. All of the dynamics, motion simulation, and colour detection ran in Webots, while the badge recognition used a neural network built and trained in MATLAB.

Outcome

The full cycle ran as a staged demonstration: package detection, roaming, colour recognition, approach, badge verification, and handover, repeating on each new package. The project was awarded highest score in cohort for this coursework.