I thought this video was pretty cool in showing in real time a bot using an “inexpensive” laser range finder and the SLAM technique to map a room full of obstacles (and a person walking around- the purple foot prints in the video).
The following is a video showing an early XV-11 prototype (floor cleaning bot) mapping a room. Notice those purple footprints moving around? That’s a person walking through the area. Using simultaneous localization and mapping and its laser, the bot is able to constantly find its position in the context of the room, and its able to compensate for changes in the environment. When you walk through a room the bot knows to avoid you. It can also avoid obstacles you place in its way and will go back and cover areas that become open when an object is removed. While you may be inclined to challenge the robot’s skills by maniacally placing chairs in its way, the intended application is that the robot can cover an entire area using straight lines and with a minimum of overlap.
“Inexpensive”???
Like, how inexpensive? When the price drops to somewhere around a hundred bucks, THEN you can call it inexpensive. Until then it is merely “not as costly”.
And while I would love to have one, I’ve recently become enamored with NOT over-engineering something. I’ve been looking (informally) at how Nature solves problems, and “good enough” is, well, good enough! A low-res map is easy to generate (relatively speaking) and simpler, cheaper sensors like sonar or IR can ‘fill in the missing pieces’ on the fly, at a cost I can bear. And it would probably be easier on the MCU too. Accuracy to within a centimeter may be more accuracy than is needed for straight obstacle detection, when generating the large-scale map. Let a secondary sonar or IR detector do the finer close-up imaging. The larger scale might just need something like “lots of room this way, less in that direction, and this way is blocked”! Especially since we’re talking about a dynamic changeable environment.
I’ve hit too many speedbumps trying to over-engineer something, I make better progress with many methods doing it ‘quick n dirty’. Then again, my bots are crude, like me LOL.
I’d like the ability to do this laser ranging, but unless I win the lottery sometime soon, I’m stuck with low-res low-tech. And lots of times it is enough.
um, YEAH, I overlooked that part… damn, now I GOTTA get me one (or more) of those!
I was under the thankfully false impression we were talking about the usual 2k and up models. My bots are financed by ME (like most of you!) but for $30 or so I’ll go mug a granny!
One really needs to read closely what is being said on the range finder page.You can’t currently buy one. There is no real basis for the $30 figure other than they want to develop the range finder for under $30.
If I were to get one of these when it comes in stock somewhere how do you think it could be hooked up to the BAP and Bot Board 2 then,what do you think the best code for it would be? I suppose maybe a serout and serin command would work.
A while back I looked at making a crude laser range finder using the inexpensive laser pointers. My idea was to modulate the laser beam at 38khz and then modify a 38khz IR detector to be able to detect the modulated laser dot. I did some tinkering but got side tracked by some other projects.
Well, the complete robot (vacuum) costs $399, so only the laser range finder portion can’t be very much.
FTA link: “Abstract: Many indoor robotics systems use laser rangeflnders as their primary sensor for mapping, localization, and obstacle avoidance. The cost and power of such systems is a major roadblock to the deployment of low-cost, efficient consumer robot platforms for home use. In this paper, we describe a compact, planar laser distance sensor (LDS) that has capabilities comparable to current laser scanners: 3 cm accuracy out to 6 m, 10 Hz acquisition, and 1 degree resolution over a full 360 degree scan. The build cost of this device, using COTS electronics and custom mechanical tooling, is under $30.”
Well, you can only “preorder” the vac, and there is no place you can currently purchase a $30 range finder (at least that I know of). The picture of the range finder looks like it cost more than $30. That being said, with some clever engineering, a $30 range finder is probably possible in mass production.
So, at this time, it is still only ‘promiseware’. Dang, I knew there would be a problem! But the fact that they are even considering this is a good sign. If it comes in as more expensive, it will still be a hit. (Just not as widespread.) But it might have to hurry up, before the true laser TOF systems (“time-of-flight”) beat them to the market.
Yes, these are exciting, if expensive, times. Thankfully, we can leverage a great deal of our ‘investments’. But I’m runnin’ faster and faster just to stay in place!
UPDATE!!!
We’ve invented a low-cost laser rangefinder which we call the LDS (Laser Distance Sensor). You can buy one from Japan which is very accurate up to 100 meters, but they will cost you $2,000-3,000. We were able to design something that is accurate up to 5 meters radius for $30 at most.
Q. Are you willing to sell the LDS unit separately?
A. Neato does not currently have a plan to sell the LDS unit as a separate product but could consider it if the business terms are favorable.
We have a complete layer of API on the robot that developers can actually use and program to do their own thing. In the middle of this year, I don’t know when exactly, we are going to open that up. So if hobbyists want to use it to do interesting projects, I hope they will buy the robot.
I followed your links through a lot of publicicy material - and could not find this product on the web site I actually ended on…
Can you post a direct link to the inexpensive laser range finder here, please?
There is no $30 laser range finder that is currently available as a commercial stand alone product. However, the Neato robotic floor cleaner will have one in it, and, according to the CEO of Neato, “We have a complete layer of API on the robot that developers can actually use and program to do their own thing. In the middle of this year, I don’t know when exactly, we are going to open that up. So if hobbyists want to use it to do interesting projects, I hope they will buy the robot.”
That means for now that you will have to buy the robot ($399) to get the laser range finder. (Even though $399 is a lot of dough, its still WAY cheaper than the any other laser range finder alone, which typically start in the $2000-4000 price range, and you get the rest the robot to boot).
I didn’t think these kinds of robots were capable of that much.