Device to measure distance travelled, turnings made

Lightay

I am a complete newbie. This is my first post and I apologize if it is trivial.

May I ask if it is possible to have some sort of device that can move around, measure the distance travelled and the turnings made and then send these information via the UART? Can some expert here give me some starting point as a hint?

Thank you very much in advance.

NWCCTV

I am by no means an "expert" but I think this may be what you are looking for. http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/665/Default.aspx?txtSearch=position+controller

Mike or Phil or one of several others should be chiming in here shortly for more advice or to correct me if this is not the correct item.

Edit: Or, possibly this: http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/681/Default.aspx?txtSearch=quadrature+encoder+

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Lightray,

Welcome to the Parallax forum!

The answer to your question depends upon the distances involved and whether you're indoors or outdoors. For indoor use, dead-reckoning odometry via wheel encoders of the kind NWCCTV suggests can be effective. For large outdoor distances, a GPS module would be the sensor I'd choose.

-Phil

Lightay

Thank you for all the replies. May I ask if there is a complete solution to do this? Like some ready moving robot that can already do it and all I need is to buy the robotic development kit?

Thank you.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Again: indoors or outdoors? Short distances or long ones?

-Phil

Lightay

Again: indoors or outdoors? Short distances or long ones?

Sorry I missed that out earlier. It is indoors. Short distance at the moment.

Thank you for your help.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

In that case, one suggestion I might make is a BOE-Bot, equipped with an encoder. The documentation on the encoder product page includes a program for odometry.

-Phil

idbruce

For that matter, something as simple as a reed switch and a small magnet can be used to count full rotations.

EDIT: Oh, and welcome to the wonderful and ever so friendly Parallax forums.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Counting just full rotations will not provide enough info to detect turn angles.

-Phil

idbruce

This is true, however I assumed turnings to mean revolutions, instead of actual turn angles.

Bruce

idbruce

However the mere mention of a robot should also include the assumption of turn angles.

Mickster

idbruce wrote: »

For that matter, something as simple as a reed switch and a small magnet can be used to count full rotations.

Until the device decides to stop at the point where the magnet hovers over the reed switch and oscilates to and fro

Mickster

prof_braino

erco just demonstrated that using the chineese stepper motors, one can pretty well control using dead reckoning on a smooth floor.

We are going to be shoot for something like that, by combining an ultrsonic sensor with the stepper motors.

http://code.google.com/p/propforth/wiki/LittleRobot

This is still in development