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Best Way to Track Things — Parallax Forums

Best Way to Track Things

Jonathan MorrisonJonathan Morrison Posts: 23
edited 2005-09-19 18:08 in Robotics
Hello all. I have a little bot that I want to be able to "follow" something (i.e. a cat, my smallest son, etc.), but not based on any heuristics (like color or heat). What is the best way to accomplish this feat? Currently it uses IR to do object avoidance. Ultimately I would like to have it·continue to do object avoidance while it "follows" some master "signal". I had envisioned some type of pulsing emitter that the bot could "follow" - and thus follow whomever the emitter was attached to at the time. But I can't seem to put the right pieces together in my head to find a way to make this work. It seems like Ping(((·and/or a·RF transmitter/receiver would fit in here - but I can't figure it out. Any pointers are appreciated. Thanks.

Comments

  • quick questionquick question Posts: 50
    edited 2005-09-17 14:47
    see chapter 8 of http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/books/edu/Roboticsv2_2.pdf
    If you have a boebot, you can do it with the IR sensors. (I think)
    If not, it will show you the theory ....
  • Jonathan MorrisonJonathan Morrison Posts: 23
    edited 2005-09-19 17:37
    Right - I saw that and implemented it - but the problem is - I want a way for it to track a specific something. I was thinking like an RFID maybe? Not sure. Thanks.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-09-19 17:57
    RFID wont work, it only has a distance of 4 inches and doesn't provide a direction indication. You can use the principles in chapter 8 and combined with a seperate module carried by the object to be followed. The module will wait until it sees a specific IR code then responds with an acknowledge IR code. These codes will be different than the navigation IR pulses used. So the IR sensors on the bot will serve two purposes, the first to find the object to follow, the second to guide itself to the object. It will send the "Are you the object that I follow" IR code, when it gets a "Yes I am" response from the module on the object, the bot performs the following excercise detailed in chapter 8.

    ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
    ·1+1=10
  • quick questionquick question Posts: 50
    edited 2005-09-19 18:08
    I would look at the CMUCAM or CMUCAM2.
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