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From: cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us (Crash Gordon)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Need a position tracker for a mobile robot.
Message-ID: <272e0a3a-501.2sci.electronics-1@vpnet.chi.il.us>
Date: 31 Oct 90 02:55:11 GMT
References: <$M7%L=#@rpi.edu> <1990Oct29.055452.15714@phri.nyu.edu>
Lines: 25


>Author: [Albert Behar]
>Does any one have any idea where I can get some sort of
>tracking device or how others have treated this problem?

How large is the area to be covered by this vehicle?  If it's room-sized,
you might look into the Power-glove method; either sticking with acoustics,
or moving into RF for larger areas.  This won't give you global coverage
(unless you've got some _SERIOUS_ acoustic transducers ;-) but it might get
the job done for, say, a warehouse application.

Other small-scale solutions involve buried wires (linear or grid pattern)
and painting of distinctive reference marks on the vehicle path.

You might also look into a doppler based DR system for better accuracy,
periodically updated by LORAN/GPS to handle long-term error.

If you want total independence, you're probably breaking new ground.  NASA
has a couple of self-guided vehicles, but I think top speed is around 3 mph,
cost is to standard gov't specs, and the brains are networked Sun
workstations...

-----------------------------------------------------
Gordon S. Hlavenka            cgordon@vpnet.chi.il.us
Disclaimer:                Yeah, I said it.  So what?