A solar powered autonomous mobile vehicle for monitoring and surveillance missions of long duration

In this paper, an autonomous vehicle capable of operating during large periods of time for observation and monitoring is proposed. The vehicle integrates photovoltaic panels and a methanol fuel cell, together with a neurobiological inspired control architecture for intelligent navigation. In this work, the autonomy of the vehicle is evaluated in several scenarios, when the vehicle is moving in mission and when the vehicle is not moving. The energetical management module generates recharge missions with a variable priority level depending on the batteries level to the mission planner. The biologically inspired neural network architecture proposed for nonholonomic mobile robots makes the integration of a kinematic adaptive neuro-controller for trajectory tracking and an obstacle avoidance adaptive neuro- controller possible. © 2010 Praise Worthy Prize S.r.l. - All rights reserved.