Intelligent robotic system for autonomous airport trolley collection

Abstract

A robotic trolley collection system and methods for automatically collecting baggage/luggage trolleys are provided. The system includes a differential-driven mobile base; a manipulator mounted on the differential-driven mobile base for forking a trolley, having a structure same as a head portion of the trolley; a sensory and measurement assembly for providing sensing and measurement dataflow; and a main processing case for processing the sensing and measurement dataflow provided by the sensory and measurement assembly and for controlling the differential-driven mobile base, the manipulator, and the sensory and measurement assembly. The method includes localizing and mapping the robotic trolley collection system; detecting an idle trolley to be collected and estimating pose of the idle trolley; visually servoing control of the robotic trolley collection system; and issuing motion control commands to the robotic trolley collection system for automatically collecting the idle trolley.