INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE (IVR) ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT (ECU) FOR UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLE (UGV)

Abstract

Remote operation has almost gained its ground, but more research in the area, is giving rise to further enhancement which is not an exception in unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). The sophistication of UGV is increasing every day but the voice interaction of these UGV’s is somehow less obvious. In military and disaster recovery, UGV’s will be very busy in the field. It is important to speak out the status of key sensors while the remote operator is busy. It has been observed, that most UGV’s go down without knowing the cause of the problem, though this cause can be known after recalling past event, but the damage will cause setback that will be difficult to recover from. Since the UGV is operated remotely, the feedbacks received will help guide the operator in maneuvering, knowing status of vehicle and other systems attached to it for proper decision making. The aim of the this work is to come up with a design of IVR-ECU, that will be able to communicate with other ECU’s, to provide voice interaction for remote operators. This is important to complement existing graphic user interface (GUI), which is also helpful for those that have eye impediment. The ECU’s will be multiplexed to the IVR-ECU. Each sensor will be tagged, and the signal will have corresponding voice response via its ECU commanded by the IVR-ECU. When requested the sensor status internal text format will speak out output in real-time; eg give advice, warn for any eminent inherent danger pose by the vehicle etc.