Optical mouse as ground speed sensor

prof_braino

Dave just pointed me to Optical Flow Sensor in UAV

Appears to be optical mouse for quad copter.

Link to basic Optical Flow Sensor with “how it works”:
http://store.diydrones.com/Optical_Flow_Sensor_p/br-0016-01.htm
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/AC2_OptFlow

New optical Flow Sensor that currently uses ultrasonic rangefinder about to be released:
http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ros-interface-for-px4flow-board

The suggestion was to add alternate parts for high speed altitude sensing. [IE for fixed wing]

Anybody know about this tech?

I was thinking, with that GA144 from the other thread, perhaps we could image process with a better camera, and get usable results for a reasonable cost?

Martin_H

That is a cool idea. Using the lens allows the mouse sensor to sense movement far away and estimate the amount. I tried using the mouse sensor for odometery on the ground like this

But my approach required ground contact which worked on a smooth table, but proved problematic on floors which are uneven. Using a lens would allow me to raise the sensor off the ground to solve this problem.

vanmunch

Here's at the bottom of the page is a video of 3D Robotics using the new one to control horizontal movement about 3 feet off the ground.

https://pixhawk.ethz.ch/px4/modules/px4flow

vanmunch

Hey, if you're talking about building something from the ground up. What do you think of hacking Lytro's light field camera? Since the camera records the direction of each photon, I think that a person could extrapolate the realitive distance everything the camera "sees." It would be like a multiplane laser rangefinder/ video camera system in one!

Hacking the camera is way, way above my level so I've just been waiting for someone else to do it, but I haven't heard of anyone even thinking about it. I've even posted the idea on their forum, but no response. I don't think the camera is selling very well (~$400) so I figure this could be its "killer app."

If people are intrested, we can start a separate thread to talk about it more. And yes, I'll preorder one today Plus, I'm sure it's impossible

Dave

Light Field camera
https://www.lytro.com/

Forum post, add your vote to my question and they'll answer it. (weird way to do customer support, but oh well)
http://support.lytro.com/entries/22206337-lytro-as-a-robotic-sensor