"->forside

Ales Ruda is a Czech DIY/Maker, educated as an electroengineer from the Czech Technical University.

EN:
ARBot is a small autonomous robot designed for outdoor competitions similar to  Robotour and Robotem rovne, where robots have to get from the starting point to the destination ideally  using the shortest pathway. They move mainly along park roads, must not ride on the lawn, avoiding onlookers, natural and artificial obstacles and damaging flowers. It must all be done autonomously without assistance. ARBot wins Robotour 2013.

What is hidden under the hood?
The robot is controlled by a SRV -1 module, which contains the DSP Blackfin 537 and camera. For orientation in space  the AHRS unit VN- 100 is used. The robot has a 4WD chassis with an odometry encoder on each wheel. GPS determines its global position and as a last resort prior to contact with an obstacle the robot has 3 sonars. The robot is able to reach a top speed of 5km/h. A single charge of its batteries will last for 2-3 hours of full operation.

How does it work?
At the start the robot finds its position using GPS as you enter the map from the OpenStreetMap server to  determine the shortest path to the destination. The robot constantly compares its position on the local map with the data received  from the camera. The result of this comparison, together with the compass direction and distance specified odometry is used to update the position of the robot. The camera is also used to determine the center and the edge of the road on which the robot moves. All of this data is used to keep the robot on the path, along with sonars that provide obstacle avoidance.