I have worked on an inertia navigation system for aircraft (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inertial_navigation_system) and was thinking of how to do something similar on the cheap. Last year I was able to see how different teams located themselves on the field for autonomous systems. Some worked well and others, eh...
So I am curious if anyone has ever tried using one or more laser computer mice to replicate an INS system. As long as my tolerance is over 12 inches in the x and y it should work great. In fact if I put two or three on their and was really picky about my starting position I bet it could hold a tolerance of less than a few inches. It’s cheap, the drivers exist and it does not rely on any external references.
Any thoughts?