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Laser guided robot — Parallax Forums

Laser guided robot

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2000-09-28 04:24 in General Discussion
I am interested in making a robot that will be able to track a laser dot on
a wall. Does any body have any ideas? Thanks!


Corby Allred

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2000-09-28 04:24
    Excerpts from Stamp_List: 27-Sep-100 [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] Laser guided .. by
    Corby·Allred@z...
    > I am interested in making a robot that will be able to track a laser dot on
    > a wall. Does any body have any ideas? Thanks!

    If you don't mind modulating the Laser, then it could be very easy. (if
    you don't modulate the laser, you'll have to worry about ambient light
    distracting your system.)

    I suggest trying 38 to 40 kHz. cicuits to detect this signal are easy
    to find since ir remotes use this carrier. (warning, this system may
    cause your robot to attack you if you use the remote. after all, the
    robot should be controlling the tv...) you may want to use a different
    carrier frequency. also warning, some electronic ballast floresent
    lights are modulated in this range.

    mount several detectors (which are sensitive to the wavelength of the
    laser) orthogonal to each other. (bad ASCII diagram to follow)

    |
    |
    (d) | (d)
    |

    where (d) is a detector.

    now, rigidly mount this to the front of your robot. when you see the
    laser with both detectors, you are facing the dot, with only the left
    detector, the dot is to your left... and so on.

    or, if you're really great with electronics, you could use a camera,
    frame grabber, or web cam, implement some vision algorithms, and have
    some real fun. but it's more of a hack to through a stamp into the
    video system.

    joshua
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