Advice on location finding

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi,

This is a very broad question, I'm interested in creating a small robot-car which can travel to a fixed point and do simple obstacle avoidance to get there.
Basically just like a robot-Hoover returning to it's charging base. It's a hobby project, so I don't plan on spending huge amounts of money or creating phd-level code. I have reasonable coding skills, but want to learn more about electronics.
Can I get some high level thoughts on doing this?
So far I'm thinking of perhaps

  • a distance monitor for obstacle avoidance
  • a servo to mount the distance monitor, to get an understanding of the surroundings.
  • Push switches for bumper notification
  • Compass for direction

I still can't think of a simple way to home in on a particular spot though. I think gps is not accurate enough at small distances.

Any thoughts are welcome.

2

That is correct. Particularly indoors.

Finding an absolute position indoors is not an easy task.

Perhaps an IR beacon on the charging station could guide the robot home.

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3

Start small. Build something. The ideas will flow from there.

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4

For a charger or home location, an IR beacon is simple to spot and directional indicator modules are available to assist with robot steering.

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5

Anyone that has released their iRobot from a capture by furniture has come to realize this truth.

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6

  • this would only work in an environment you control.

  • this is not a plan, this is a brainstorm

  • I worked in government research labs my entire career. we did not have a budget. we had funding. more results; more funding. more spending increases the likelihood of more results. we had a cost plus contract - the more we spent, the more we made. this is how a guy with access to unlimited funding thinks.

  • put reference points around the room. RFID tags, mirrors, colored reflectors.

  • put one or more LIDAR sensors on the robot, or on stepper motors on the robot. pivot the LIDAR sensors around and look first for the highest level of return signal ( a valid echo from a reference source ) then measure the distance to that reference source

  • if you have a colored marble as a reflector you could use the LIDAR sensors to detect them, then shine a bright white light source at them and use a color sensor to verify the identity of the reflector

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8

That's a cool device!!

9

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