Development of autonomous robot using fuzzy inference system (FIS) for indoor ultraviolet (UV) disinfection

In the situation of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, a solution to disinfect public rooms in a faster and more effective way is needed. This paper presents a design of an autonomous robot that can avoid obstacles in an unknown environment using a Fuzzy inference system (FIS) as the initial step to develop autonomous UV disinfection robot. The advantage of using a Fuzzy inference system for the obstacle avoidance algorithm in the robot is the more effective respond in avoiding static and dynamic obstacles. The Fuzzy inference system enables the robot to vary the speed of the right and left wheels depending on the distance of obstacles at the front, left, and right. Therefore, the robot could vary both the degrees and speed when it turns away from the obstacles according to the rule base made. Hence, implementing FIS in the obstacle avoidance algorithm can increase the effectiveness of the robot in avoiding obstacles, thus make the robot reach the target faster. The experimental result shows that the robot prototype can avoid the obstacles at the front, left, and right, with various turning angle and speed depending on the distance of obstacles.