Development of an autonomous ATV for real-life surveillance operations

Mobile robots are becoming an essential participant in perimeter security, reconnaissance missions and search & rescue operations. Most mobile robots available for the surveillance are not designed for outdoor use and have limited payload capability. In this paper, the Zoiros-kinito-Mati (smart-mobile-eye/ZKM-1) using off the shelf components with high load capability and off-road navigation is introduced. ZKM-1 is built on a modified ATV platform and is capable of autonomous as well as remote controlled operations. ZKM-1 is built for outdoor demonstration purposes. A sub-meter GPS receiver is used for position updates and an electronic magnetic compass used for obtaining heading information. ZKM-1 has an onboard network for connecting different modules. This network can be connected wirelessly to other networks or computers. A network camera mounted on a pantilt platform with a built-in microphone is installed on the ATV for video and audio feedback. ZKM-1 can also be remotely operated using a regular gaming joystick over the network. In this paper, design, development and deployment of the ZKM-1 are presented in details.