The Journal of Korea Robotics Society (로봇학회논문지)

Korea Robotics Society (한국로봇학회)
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Route Planning and Elevator Boarding Algorithms for Last Mile Delivery Service in Multi-floor Environments

다층 환경에서의 라스트 마일 배송 서비스를 위한 경로 계획 및 엘리베이터 탑승 알고리즘

  • Received : 2022.09.02
  • Accepted : 2022.12.03
  • Published : 2023.02.28
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Abstract

Recently, robots have been actively utilized for logistics and delivery services in various places such as restaurants, hotels, and hospitals. In addition, it provides a safer environment, convenience, and cost efficiency to the customers. However, when it comes to autonomous delivery in a multi-floor environment, the task is still challenging. Especially for wheeled mobile robots, it is necessary to deal with elevators to perform the last-mile delivery services. Therefore, we present a multi-floor route planning algorithm that enables a wheeled mobile robot to traverse an elevator for the delivery service. In addition, an elevator boarding mission algorithm was developed to perceive the drivable region within the elevator and generate a feasible path that is collision-free. The algorithm was tested with real-world experiments and was demonstrated to perform autonomous postal delivery service in a multi-floor building. We concluded that our study could contribute to building a stable autonomous driving robot system for a multi-floor environment.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) grant funded by the Korean government. [21YR2900, Logis-Dronia(Untact Last Mile Delivery Service based on Unmanned Vehicle)]

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