[bheller]

It looks like there is the potential this year to use the IR beacons for triangulation. I would LOVE to see a robot use triangulation instead of dead reckoning for navigation. A ball-collector robot could knock down both teams' 10pt balls, then navigate to their side of the field, run patterns to collect balls and return to the team's original side of the field - all during the autonomous period!

There are two ways to do this triangulation, and both assume two pairs of IR detectors constantly tracking an IR beacon, similar to the setup demonstrated during the kickoff, but for each side of the robot. Method one would use the intensity measurement from each beacon to estimate the distance to each beacon, solving positions from a 3-known sides triangle. Method two would use the angle between the two sensors to determine position. There would be multiple solutions with this method, but constantly tracking position could help out.

That said, both methods would blow in real life. The IR beacon's line of sight to the receiver could be blocked by another robot or all the poles in the way. Not to mention calibration and multiple equation solutions... dead reckoning would be easier and more reliable.

Still, it'd be cool to see.

MUCH more useful would be the ability to alter a preprogrammed (dead-reckoned / line-followed) course if another autonomous robot was in the way. This could be done with an IR sender/receiver pair or more easily with Sharp GP2D12 IR Distance Sensors from Digikey. However, this sensing tech could be much more insidious, and used to lock-onto and disrupt the motion of an opposing autonomous robot.

Hmmmm....

-Brandon Heller
Team 449 Alum mentoring Team 931