Autonomous Buoy Navigation System

This project implements a Buoy Navigation system for a 3-motor Unmanned Surface Vehicle (USV), leveraging Computer Vision to detect and follow red buoys autonomously.

📋 Overview

The system combines an Arduino Mega for motor control and mission management, with a Raspberry Pi 5 for real-time image processing.

• Manual Mode: Full control of the boat via a remote control (NRF24L01).
• Automatic Mode: The boat navigates autonomously towards a red buoy detected by the camera.
• Search Mode: If the buoy is lost from view, the boat rotates on its axis until it finds it again.

📸 Media Gallery

USV Visualization

Navigation Demo

Raspberry Pi Code Demo

🛠️ Hardware

• Main Controller: Arduino Mega 2560
• Vision Processing: Raspberry Pi 5
• Camera: Picamera2 (Resolution set to 1280x720)
• Actuators: 3 Servo Motors (Motors A, B, and C)
• Communication: NRF24L01 Module (Radio Frequency)
• Indicators: RGB LED (Yellow for Manual, Green for Automatic)
• Remote Controller: Arduino Nano with Joystick & NRF24L01

💻 Software

Arduino Mega (Arduino_Mega_Main.ino)

The Arduino firmware manages:

• Receiving RF commands for manual control.
• Receiving coordinates (cx, cy) from the Raspberry Pi via Serial.
• PID control to keep the buoy centered in the image.
• State machine for switching between modes (Manual/Automatic).

Arduino Nano (Arduino_Nano_Controller.ino)

The remote controller firmware handles:

• Reading joystick inputs for directional control.
• Sending control packets via NRF24L01.
• Switching between Manual and Automatic modes.

Raspberry Pi (Main.py)

The Python script performs:

• Video capture with Picamera2.
• Image processing with OpenCV (HSV color space) to detect red color.
• Calculation of centroid and circularity of detected objects.
• Sending coordinates to the Arduino via serial port (/dev/ttyAMA0).

🚀 Installation & Setup

Arduino Requirements

Ensure you have the following libraries installed in your Arduino IDE:

• RF24
• Servo
• SPI

Raspberry Pi Requirements

The Python environment needs the following dependencies:

pip install opencv-python pyserial picamera2 numpy

🎮 Usage

1. Power On: Upon startup, the system defaults to Manual Mode (Yellow LED).
2. Mode Switching:
   • Toggle the switch on the Remote Controller to "Automatic" to activate visual navigation (Green LED).
   • Toggle back to "Manual" to regain control.
3. Automatic Operation:
   • The boat will advance towards the red buoy.
   • If the buoy is lost for more than 1 second, Motor C will activate to rotate the boat and search for the target.

🔧 Calibration

The HSV color ranges for detection can be adjusted in Main.py depending on lighting conditions (values for "Generalized" and "Calibrated" are included).