bearcreek
Mar 15, 2006, 11:10 AM
I have been reading the RCAP autopilot thread and thinking about building a low cost autonomous RC vehicle (air/land or sea) that could be built and possibly used on missions where it could get lost/stolen or damaged or not found (which could be a problem if it were expensive).
It seems like many autonomous vehicles have technological limitations like satellite receiver accuracy which may not be good for land crafts or automatic aircraft landing, 2D vs. 3D coordinate positioning, slow data update rates (no rockets), weight, cost, etc.
For one thing there are quite a few streetlights in my neighborhood, but not many residents, so for a nightcrawler a couple of radio shack phototransistors hooked to a microcontroller (with a semi-transparent hood over each sensor for a stereo-optical effect) could probably guide my $5 Wally-World car to the end of my street and back automatically - possibly even further. Then some smart software could be used to take a picture with a disposable camera or drop off a package and return with only $10-$20 at risk if something went wrong with the mission.
For an offroad or water craft inexpensive magnetoresistors ($2?) might also be usable with a microcontroller measuring voltage differences.
If any of you guys might be interested in working together on a project like this please let me know.
It seems like many autonomous vehicles have technological limitations like satellite receiver accuracy which may not be good for land crafts or automatic aircraft landing, 2D vs. 3D coordinate positioning, slow data update rates (no rockets), weight, cost, etc.
For one thing there are quite a few streetlights in my neighborhood, but not many residents, so for a nightcrawler a couple of radio shack phototransistors hooked to a microcontroller (with a semi-transparent hood over each sensor for a stereo-optical effect) could probably guide my $5 Wally-World car to the end of my street and back automatically - possibly even further. Then some smart software could be used to take a picture with a disposable camera or drop off a package and return with only $10-$20 at risk if something went wrong with the mission.
For an offroad or water craft inexpensive magnetoresistors ($2?) might also be usable with a microcontroller measuring voltage differences.
If any of you guys might be interested in working together on a project like this please let me know.