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Friday 14 March 2014

Mounting the OSLRF on Bottwo - Adding to my ranging arsenal

I've finally mounted the awesome Open Source Laser Range Finder (OSLRF01) onto Bottwo with a panning servo to provide mapping functionality.

I was previously attempting to do this with the Sonar, but was stymied by limited range and cone size.

The narrow beam and greater sensing distance of the LIDAR will give me the ability to accurately map out a room in near real time, and then use the other sensors for closer proximity measurements.

How much is too much? 

Yeah, I heard that!    Yes, I've got four  Sharp IR Sensors, two front and back for collision detection, two left and right for following walls at a specific distance.  
I've now got two more short range IR sensors  front and back facing the floor... so we don't fall down stairs again.


The purpose for keeping the front and rear panning MaxSonar is simply to fill the near field void that the LIDAR does not cover.  Because of the distance between the optics, the OSLRF cannot see closer than 1/2 a meter.  Also, like IR sensors, Laser is not fantastic at identifying thin objects like chair legs.  So I use the Sonar to sweep the near-field for collision avoidance as well.

I hope to have video up soon of this in action.

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