Landmark Based Outdoor Robot Localization

[DonRotolo]

Ideas:
First, imagine you wanted to do this in a gym. Perfect environment, flat floor, no slippage, etc. In this case, odometry (measure wheel roaions accurately) and a gyroscope (for turns) might be enough.

Move it outdoors, with uneven and slippery terrain.

Same odometry & gyro, but you can only be assured to get to 'about' the same place (I am ssuming a series of straight lines, connected by turns). So what you need is a "waypoint": a known location that, if your robot gets near enough, it can make a correction to be in exactly the right place at each 'turn'. (for a long straight, there could be one or more in the middle too).

A waypoint can be many things: Two laser beams that cross. A buried RFID tag. A QR-Code-Like target*. A pole that lines up with another pole. A seies of flashing lights, all flashing a different code, and a camera that scans 360 degrees to find its location. You can think of others I'm sure. If the location and path are always the same, it is a lot easier than when it changes all the time.

Hope this gets you thinking down a viable path.

*Look at a modern camera-based automotive wheel-alignment machine.

[Jalerre]

One simple (but not most precise/accurate) way of going about this would be to have to robot follow the line you draw out using infrared light sensors. While it is following the line, have the robot record data from encoders and a gyroscope. Then have the robot use this data to repeat the path it just followed using just the encoders and gyroscope and without the infrared sensors.

I have never tried this so I don't know how well it would work but it theoretically makes sense.

[gblake]

I stumbled on this article today. GA Tech Auton Dirt Track racing

It's about driving an autonomous vehicle as fast as possible around a dirt track.

The work being done and the solutions they are using might connect directly or indirectly to this project's needs.