Localization Details

Localization is the main part of this release. The robot must know exactly where it is, and that is a major problem to solve. If you tell a robot to move forward five feet, that does not necessarily mean the robot will go exactly five feet straight forward. Many factors come into play with making the robot be off of its destination. For example, one tire could have more pressure in it, or one wheel motor could work just a little faster than the other.

Apply Localization to Object Recognition Wander

This step will involve applying the Markov Localization routines and Gradient Path Finding to the object recognition module. With this extension, the robot should be able to traverse greater areas of the room.

Testing new Object Recognition Wander

We will test the robot’s new navigation functionality to see how it behaves in various areas of the room. This may expose certain areas of the room that are particularly difficult to maneuver in. Upon completion of this work, we should know if specific areas of the room require special attention.

Plot Located Chairs on EB2029 Map

In release 1 we detected chairs and logged the coordinates in relations to the robots current position. This was not much help because the coordinates were not such that we could revisit the chair with any sort of accuracy. With this improvement, we will construct a list of visited chairs and their coordinates in relations to the global map. This will allow us to revisit chairs more easily using setGoal function in the gradient path-finding library.

Polish EB2029 Map with New Saphira Tools

A new version of Saphira/Aria came out during this release. This unexpected software release triggered the need to evaluate the improvements to this suite of tools. One major improvement was the laser-mapping package. This new software will be used to refine our map and research the world file export option.

Devise Module Interaction Schema

This aspect of the programming has not been adequately addressed so far. Some time will be spent devising a schema that will enable our code modules to run concurrently and interact with each other. For example, the object recognition module will interrupt the wander module to assume control of the robot.

Write New Wander for Localization/Gradient Path Finding

We thought it would be best to rewrite this action to accommodate the new technologies used. This will entail generating a random point in the room and setting the point as the gradient path-finding goal. If the robot sees a chair along the way, object recognition will take over.

Fully Integrate New Code Modules

Release 2 will generate 2 new code modules and utilize 2 modules from our prototype. This stage will involve invoking and controlling these modules using the module interaction schema. Upon completion, we will have several code libraries interacting with each other to perform a complex action.

Briefing on Localization to the Rest of the Group

After the localization exercises are complete, Peter and Matt will present the basic ideas of the program to J.D. and Brad. Rather than having them shoulder all the research themselves, Peter and Matt will bring them up to speed with a series of tutorial sessions.