Preliminary Development of a Test Method for Obstacle Detection and Avoidance in Industrial Environments

There is currently no standard method for comparing autonomous capabilities between systems. We propose a test method for evaluating an automated mobile system’s ability to detect and avoid obstacles, specifically those in an industrial environment. To this end, a taxonomy is being generated to determine the relevant physical characteristics of obstacles so that they can be accurately represented in the test method. Our preliminary development includes the design of an apparatus, props, procedures, and metrics. We have fabricated a series of obstacle test props that reflect a variety of physical characteristics and performed a series of tests with a small mobile robot towards validation of the test method. Future work includes expanding the taxonomy, designing more obstacle test props, collecting test data with more AGVs and robots, and formalizing our work as a potential standard test method through the ASTM F45 Committee on Driverless Automatic Guided Industrial Vehicles, specifically F45.03 Object Detection and Protection.