Hi
For a school project I have to design a robot that is capable of clean a beach all by him self.
My question to you guys is. What do you recommend to use as a navigation tool for the robot ?
Im new in this space and would like some tips.
Greats a motivated student
A GPS receiver.
That way at the Host, you can define a box around an actual map location to stay within using just the four GPS coordinate corners of the area to clean. Allow the bot to roam freely within the GPS fenced area. They like their freedom.
Since it is a beach, it is outside and satellite signals will be clear and unobscured by objects.
Also a vision camera and ultra sonic ranger.
Capture the camera image and then filter out “sand”. Meaning the color of sand in the image. Anything that then remains in the image would be either something to take care in the cleaning process, or something such as a rock or obstacle to maneuver around and avoid.
As a step at power up would be to capture a current image of the ground (sand) and store it, so that it can be used as the reference image for the filter. This would allow for different times of day where a beach changes color or even different types of beach terrain (sandy, pebbles, rocky, lava sand, ect) Then anything that doesnt match that initial image coloring, once overlaid upon a current image capture is your target material. If you are software savy, this would be similar to an XOR operation of two images, where only the differences between the two result in a third image to then process from.
But a GPS fence would be the way to keep the bot within a confined area. You could get creative with the outlines of the fence, but for starters a basic four corner box to define the area. Bells and whistles in software come later for polygon shaped areas. Get it functional with a box first, then enhance.
Hope this gives you some Idea Directions
Acigan International
Design Division