Autonomous Mobile Robotic System for On-the-Road Painting

-The development of an autonomous mobile robotic system for on-the-road marks painting is presented in this paper. The whole system involves two main parts, namely, the autonomous mobile robot navigation system and automated road mark painting system. The focus is on the painting system which is incorporated into the mobile robot platform and executed within the same computing environment. The main purpose of the proposed system is to accomplish its tasks using the autonomous navigation component for road detection and airless spray system for the painting. The painting of the marks on the road is performed while the autonomous system of mobile robot is continuously navigating the road. The benefit of such system is to minimise blocking of the roads during painting and repainting of the faded marks; also the time needed to perform the painting is smaller compared to the manual two-machines system. In addition, the autonomous system is accurate enough since the process is performed autonomously with minimal human intervention. The experimental results of the painting show the capability of the proposed algorithms in performing the road marks painting. Key-Words: Autonomous mobile robot, road marks, laser range finder, airless spray system, cold painting, thermoplastic road marks