So I've been busy with my MSc
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Sorry I haven't had that much to contribute lately, but I've been doing real work instead ;-) Anyway, I thought you might like to take a peak at a small by-product of my work over the last year and a half - this is a map of one of the floors of the building next to (and above) my lab (caution! 4813x4168 image!)
This is all done with kD-Trees and a bunch of linear algebra on the software side, the hardware side uses a Hokuyo laser scanner and an Inertial Measurement Unit (integrated gyro, accelerometer and 3D compass) all mounted on the top of a radio control car. The map can be built in real-time and shows me a nice position of the car on it as it drives around, so I can easily tell what still needs mapping =)
I hope to be back with something to liven up the rumble soon!
That sounds cool! And pretty fun. =) So the car navigates itself, too? Do you do any pathfinding like with graphs or just trace your way along walls?
Btw, what kind of R/C car is it? Just curious. I was into R/C cars quite a bit when I was really young. (Like too young to build my own cars, just tagging along with Dad and older brother and racing.)
I have some simple wall following in, but right now the car is manually controlled. My project is more based on getting good maps out of it.
It's a pretty tough 4WD thing with knobbly tires. Overkill, but it means that some time in the future we can switch to 3D mapping and send it anywhere.
What brand / model is it? This conversation got me looking at the modern RC10's from Team Associated. :-) But maybe I'm just assuming it's a "real" / expensive R/C car since I remember you were into R/C helicopters too.
