Robot localisation

#1

I’m thinking about making a graffiti robot that would wander around and spray water on the ground to make images.

As part of this it will need to know where it is.

Let’s say it’s working in a 10m square, outside. Here are my ideas for knowing where the robot is.

  1. Sort of differential gps. I have a fixed gps station and a second gps mounted on the robot. The difference in the two position gives an idea where the robot s relative to the ground station… This should correct for gps ‘drift’

  2. A remote camera, openCV, a yellow ball on top of the robot. I won’t be able to mount the camera directly overhead as were outside but I suppose I could do some maths to correct for parralax.

  3. Beacons. IR, bluetooth? Two beacons, find the angle to each and triangulate?

  4. Dead reckoning, but using an IMU to increase accuracy.

  5. Another answer that I’ve missed.

I want this to be cheap, accurate and easy to put together. Timescale about a month.

Any suggestions as to the best approach?

#2

If you want simple, how about quality wheel encoders to accurately measure distance and an ir laser fence to keep it honest ?

Courty

#3

If is outside forget IR, on direct sun will be a mess.

I think that good encoders gps+imu does the trick, but software could be complicated…

#4

If AAI (artificial artificial inteligence) will do I did an IOT Trike with web page remote control and google hangouts video monitoring. The project is documented here:

The trike is a bit wobbly but does the rounds.

#5

Depending on how flat the canvas is, how about hacking a mouse!

#6

“.stls, gcode, arduino and cloud”

wow, you basically ticked all the box for a click bait news site XD

p.s. wonderful job, well done :slight_smile:

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#7

How accurate does the position have to be?

#8

Maybe +/- 5cm?

#9

The canvas will be flagstones, mostly.

#10

LIDAR modules are available now too

#11

How about making a giant “mouse”? i.e. motor-driven rollers, sensors etc. For that kind of tolerance, how about a laser location system - you know, rotating laser directed at static mirrors on each corner of the canvas?

I think this talk of hacking a mouse is unnecessary - putting your food away and using sealed containers is a more humane solution…

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