Localize itself in a room.

The laser bearing sensor alone is all you need.

On one wall put two reflectors side-by-side so it can tell it apart from the rest, and on the other three walls put single reflectors. Then triangulate. (two reflectors are enough but four lef you get out of sight of one or two of them).

You can preload a map of the room or use the other sensors to build one as the robot moves around.

Dear Group

I think you will find that 3 measurements are necessary. For somebody who does this in a professional way:

Sjur

"Indoor environment" doesn't necessarily means a single room but a maze of halls, rooms and corridors. Which means that bearing only solution must be somehow intelligent to figureout which reflectors are detected. I'm not not expert on this topic but I beleive you should also use the other sensory information and fuse them together. But I do not know how..

Excellent point. Here is one way; put up closely spaced rows of reflectors, spaced so that the detector can tell them apart even at an angle. Like so: (R = reflector, - - no reflector)

Location 1: - - - - - R Location 2: - - - - R R Location 3: - - - R R R Location 4: - - R R R R Location 5: - R R R R R Location 7: R R R R R R Location 8: R - R R R R Location 9: R R - R R R Location 10: R R R - R R Location 11: R R R R - R Location 11: R - - R R R Location 11: R R - - R R Location 11: R R R - - R Location 11: R R - - - R Location 11: R - - - R R

Note that the sensor can't tell "- - - - R R" from "- - R R - -" and can't tell "- - R R - -" from "- - R - R -" seen from an angle or a greater distance, so you can't use all possible combinations. You must avoid any that can look like an existing one by shifting to the left or right or by shrinking/expanding.

My error. I was thinking "three" and typed "two." Thanks for the correction.

Hi Folks,

I've been following this thread/line of thought very closely; correlating available information from multiple sources is definately the best way to go, and I have some ideas . . . ;-)

-KC.

Michael wrote:

Hi Folks,

I've been following this thread/line of thought very closely; correlating available information from multiple sources is definately the best way to go, and I have some ideas . . . ;-)

-KC.

Michael wrote:

None of this reflector stuff is practical

But the excercise reminds me of the old text adventure games where the computer describes a room, and you had to draw a map of it, then the adjacent rooms just so you can remember where you are at.

have the robot do the same thing

the wheel encoders will be immensely helpful for this

either you want to:

a) map and remember a familiar area b) navigate unfamiliar or changing territory c) solve mazes

which is it?

Evidence, please.