Hello awesome guys of robotshop forums,
I need some help, I am trying to put together a robot that will roam around a back yard seeking scorpions, blast them with a jet of this non-toxic scorpion spray, then move on to the next, there is a pool in the back yard, and would be a potential hazard, the few other requirements is that it would seek scorpions between the hours of say 11pm go till about 5am. also need to dawn it with black light leds, and a camera that can see the scorpions that light up under the glow of a black light, I made a start, with the [size=3]Lynxmotion Tri-Track Chassis Kit (no electronics)[/size] and robotshop.com/en/optical-flow-smart-camera-752x480-pixels.html, oh, needs return to dock software.
Thanks
Kyle
To confirm, do you need the robot to locate scorpions autonomously, or is R/C control sufficient?
If you have an incredibly pale lawn and the scorpions are an entirely different color, there is a chance you can use image processing to differentiate them from the background. However if they blend in nicely, there’s almost no way of automatically detecting them (body heat?). You can create an autonomous rover to follow a path around your lawn, but this is a project in and of itself. How much programming experience or robotic experience do you have? Do you have a particular budget in mind? the optical flow camera is best used on UAVs for positioning. The only robots we have which have docking stations are vacuums and lawn mowers, and a few indoor robots. If you want to have an outdoor docking station, you will either need to create your own or adapt one from a robotic lawn mower.
thanks CB, the area is covered in rocks, in photos using a black light the area shows darkly, only the scorpion show up as bright white blobs, and sadly have always wanted to work with robotics, but have little experiences
If you want it to be autonomous, the biggest challenge will be differentiating the scorpions from the background, and the main way is image analysis (which is not the easiest thing to do). If you opted for remote control, it would be a lot easier; essentially a remote controlled vehicle with video feedback to the operator. You indicate that the backyard is cull of rocks; that’s not the easiest thing for an autonomous robot to navigate.
How was the Sony Abio robot able to chase a ball? Because a scorpion shows up bright white under a black light, and I was thinking the same idea
http://www.tucsonhealth101.com/images/bark-black-light-r-wagner-s.jpg
The Aibo (and other similar systems) are able to distinguish a solid color and motion against a relatively solid color background.
If the image you provided is in fact the contrast you would get, then you stand a chance of using image recognition to detect them.
Since you are new to robotics and programming, it’s important to note that image recognition is one of the hardest things to do in robotics.
We would suggest starting using a normal desktop computer and a webcam and commercially available image recognition software.
Once you get something up and running on a PC which detects the scorpions correctly, you have two main choices: use a PC on the rover, or send the image from the rover back to a desktop computer which then detects the scorpion and relays commands back to the rover, telling it what to do. The rover part will be relatively easier than the image processing. Can you give us an idea of the terrain? Does the rover need to be waterproof as well?
