[phrontist]

Max is right, accellerometers aren't required, or even desireable, as they are innaccurate. His plan is interesting, but very different from my own, and yet neither of ours use accellerometers or gyro's. I'll tell you a bit about my own.

Two optical sensors, manufactured by Agilent, that are rated for 800dpi at 14ips. Each optical sensor is in it's own housing with associated optics. One is mounted at the center of rotation, the other is mounted towards the "front" of the robot. Two axis of motion data from the center sensor and one axis from the "front" sensor in the form of quaderature pulses are read in via multiplexed binary counter chips. Estimated precision is a quarter of an inch. Estimated accuracy is less than a foot. Probably much less, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.