This might be directed only to Grog and Gareth, but I am open to any thoughts.
My WiiDar is up and running and spitting out super-duper-awesome numbers. However, the fact that the whole sensor assembly is physically on the right side of the robot and the the fact that the laser is on an arm (even further to the side) has led to some problems. Basically, my center-line changes as we move closer and further away from the robot. It is like we are sitting on wrong "part" of the "arc" --like we should be sitting on a pivot, but we are instead sitting on the arm. The simple fact is, that because of the length of the arm and the angle of the laser, well, things are a little funny.
I have thought about a pretty simple solution, or at least one I want to try, but before I start making major hardware changes, I thought I would run it past you guys. What if the camera was on the arm (at an angle) and the laser was pointing straight forward, directly on top of the main pivot. Have you guys ever tried this configuration? --How about the "main pivot" in the center and both the camera and laser on a 1/2 arm each and each with 1/2 the angle?
The last thing I want to do here is damage "good" trying to get "perfect" but this could be a lot "straighter"
Whenever the camera is not attached to the laser, the math becomes a little more complex and the accuracy or resolution varies throughout the sweep.
I believe mounting the pivot 1/2 of the way between the camera and laser would work fine, your calculations might have to change a little.
Gareth and I knocked the idea around of being able to control the angle which the camera and laser were mounted on the arm itself. They would be parallel for maximum range / minimum resolution and then make them go cross-eyed for minimum range / maximum resolution…
Put the arm on another arm, so you can the “whole setup” to the other side of the bot
Well boys, I think Gareth got this one. Vertical seems to make the most sense in my head right now but the 2-arm is quite interesting to me.
I did get my answer though. The bottom line is that it IS worth it to do a little take-apart and experiment. Gotta make brackets. I love making brackets.
