Autonomous Mobile Robot for Industrial Material Handling: A ROS2-Based Implementation with Real-Time Navigation

In industrial settings, there is a growing demand for flexible automation systems that can dynamically navigate and transport payloads. This paper describes a fully autonomous mobile robot (AMR) system which was built following the Robot Operating System 2 (ROS2) Humble framework. The robot has a modular design for mechanical construction and implementation of a control system in software. The hardware implementation is based on an aluminum frame supporting a custom-built electrical distribution network. The power for the robot is provided by a lithium-ion energy storage system operating at 48 volts. The voltage regulation process utilizes switched-mode power supplies with LM2596 step-down converters for output voltage regulation.The motor actuation employs dual-channel Moov servo controllers and uses optical encoders to measure motor position and speed. The computational architecture employs an Intel Next Unit of Computing (NUC) system running SLAM algorithms in a Gazebo Harmonic simulation environment that is visualized using the Navigation2 stack interface in RViz. Additionally, low-level components communicate with an Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller since it can generate PWM signals, read encoder values, and manage proximity sensor outputs from in-house digital measurement displays. The environmental perception employed for the robot utilizes RP LIDAR A2 M12 scanner sensor to capture distance in a full 360 -degree range; also, the environmental proximity sensors provide additional information regarding obstacles detected in near-range environments.The electrical system features power sequencing circuits with relays and emergency kill circuits and allows monitoring of operational state parameters in real-time on a 7-inch touch screen user interface. The performance experiments provided evidence for robotic navigation capabilities and required obstacle avoidance characteristics.