Efficient Software Design for an Automatic Signal Measurement System with Path Planning
Wei-Chien Chang, Guan-Jie Chen, Alan Liu · 2021
In order to measure the coverage of 5G signals in a room, we have developed a software system to control a mobile robot to carry a system for measuring signals and to navigate autonomously through the room according to the result of path planning. We have proposed a software development process utilizing a robot simulation system to validate the navigation of a mobile robot before deploying the software to the physical robot. Besides the development process, the main research topic presented in this paper is to produce an efficient route for the system to collect signal data while navigating through the room. Each room may have different layout, so the system first explores the room and builds a map. After building a map, a coverage path planning algorithm is executed. This paper presents the requirements of the signal measurement system and the path planning technique for meeting the requirements. For user interface, a web-based sytem provides the main functions for initial configuration, map bulding, measuring point setting, and navigation. The navigation system is implemented in the Robot Operating System (ROS) environment for various experiments.