MapBot : An experiment in robotic mapping :: Robotics

Includes Source CodeMapBot An experiment in robotic mappingAbstractToday Robots are often employ to look dangerousplaces where humans cannot go. However, what if there was amore easily accessible robot that could be apply to exploreplaces here on macrocosm? This project is an attempt to build avery simple version of such a robot a robot that follows aline, then creates a graph of the line on a computer.Exercises I did early in COSMOS gave me thebacking I needed to attempt such an undertaking. I usedbasic line-following programs as the base, with a recordingelement thrown in. A C program was written to run on thecomputer and turn the selective information the robot collects into a graph.It took a lot of tweaking, but eventually I got adecently accurate representation of the line. Sadly,MapBot 2though, I learned that if I want to graph another line, Iwould have to change the program all over again.With a little more work, I believe I could fix that,and the other problems plaguing this program as it stands.Also, I still believe that a personal MapBot is a viableidea, though I learned that it would fill a lot of work.MapBot 3Background/PurposeThere has always been a human drive to explore, to find outmore about the world. capital of Ohio sailed to America, and Cook toAustralia, each driven by the promise of new unchartedterritory. Recently this task of exploring new frontiers hasbeen turned over to robots, as robots can explore locales thathumans cannot. Robots have explored volcanoes, the planets inour solar system, and the deep sealocations no person couldsurvive. So far robots have been limited to exploring just suchlocations, those available exclusively to them, but I believethat there are earthly applications for exploring robots.Imagine, if you will, an inexpensive mapping robot. Itoperates very simply simply set it down someplace in thedesired area, give it a set of bounds, and leave. The robot willsend live data from the terrain to the user, creatin g a realtimemap of the area. This map will be based on whatever datathe robots sensors have collected with add-ons, this could beanything from soil composition to topographic data. And whenmapping is complete, the user simply returns to the robot andpicks it up. such a robot would be useful to many professions.Cartographers could create online maps that changed as theplanet did. Field scientists could use them to take readingsover a large wrap of terrain without taking any of their owntime. With a camera attached, they could make a 3-dimensional