Mapping Interior Spaces With Robots And GIS 47
Roland Piquepaille writes "In an article about GIS and Robotics, Directions Magazine reports that architects and other professionals can now use spatially intelligent robots to collect interior space data. With such mapping robots, it's possible to capture accurate data for over 10,000 square meters per day and to easily integrate it with existing software. The article doesn't mention the sources for its illustrations about these robotic systems, so I thought I'd point them out: a company in Maine called Penobscot Bay Media. You'll find more details and pictures about these mapping robots at ZDNet."
This first attempted application for these... (Score:3, Funny)
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Actually, it will be pretty handy for something closely related - a lot of older cities don't have accurate blueprints of their sewer systems ... oops, it depends on GPS - no satellite signal in "the tubes" ... guess that's one more idea in the toilet ...
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The more advanced ones are highly accurate
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TFA: Don't be a robot, use one! (Score:1)
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Here's the Video (Score:3, Informative)
15 MB http://www.penbaymedia.com.nyud.net:8080/demos/Sp
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For everyone else: They suggest that you could use the robot as a sentry to patrol buildings and detect movement/changes in the environment. Which makes me wonder what its runtime is.
Robots vs Sensors for Surveillance (Score:2)
I don't really get this. Would using a robot really have any advantages over building a sensor network? Seems like you could build and deploy a lot of sensors for the cost of a robot, and have much better coverage besides.
Plus, a robot following any sort of predictable rounds is vulnerable to being diverted or otherwise disable
robots monitoring (Score:1)
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Cool (Score:3, Funny)
Seriously though, I don't see many uses for this isolated tech. It is, however, necessary to have something like this in 'intelligent' robots.
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30 years in the making (Score:2)
Re:30 years in the making (Score:4, Informative)
Wow (Score:1)
Also.. its one step closer to our favorite person ever made.
DATA! WOOT!
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Actually, the current technology is quite capable of mapping a room in a few seconds - essentially as fast as you can drive a robot through the room with line of sight to all the co
How to Block Roland Piquepaille (Score:2, Insightful)
Enjoy
Re:How to Block Roland Piquepaille (Score:5, Funny)
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The Porn Industry... (Score:2)
Mapping on the interior of a space (Score:2)
complicated (Score:1)
A shameless plug :) (Score:4, Interesting)
Each robot is aware of its location through odometry (measuring the distance traveled by both the of the bot's wheels) and collision detection using, in our case, a rotating straw due to the fact we were limited to Lego Mindstorms.
Using odometry inserts a lot of error to the calculations. To counter these errors, the robots communicate over a short distance (touching distance) and average their expected location and heading.
In theory, and simulation, the algorithm proved very successful. Especially for a large number of agents.
In practice the errors were too large compared to the very small number of agents (4) we had at our disposal.
The project page [technion.ac.il].
And the simulation [technion.ac.il] applet, written with NetLogo.
I wonder if they use such averaging algorithms with these robots aswell.
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Another nice visual SLAM (Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping) page is
Impromptu quiz (Score:1)
a) punt it
2) hack it
c) disassemble it for useful parts
d) melt it down for useful chemicals and metals
and although I can't imagine a
e) let it map the interior of your personal space
Alternative: Time Difference of Arrival (Score:3, Interesting)
The very same code could be used for EM for a sort of total situation awareness radar, passive and active.
Next up: death ray! Mwahahahaah!
Web 2.0 compatible! (Score:1)
WTF is GIS? (Score:1)
Looks like a pioneer (Score:2)
From the article it looks a lot like an ActivMedia [activrobots.com] Pioneer with a SICK laser which you can control through Player/Stage [sourceforge.net] and includes all of the mapping algrothims, still have to do work to make it work however.
This looks like a fairly standard reasearch project for undergrad student, player/stage is littered with uni students asking questions about using these type of modules
I am not suprised by the lack of accuracy in the shown map, you normally get a lot of errors due to the robot not accurately figurin
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Kurt3D: http://www.ais.fraunhofer.de/ARC/kurt3D/ [fraunhofer.de]
Videomaterial available.
Seen on German television on November 27, 2003
http://www.3sat.de/nano/cstuecke/53575/index.html [3sat.de] [in german]
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Questionable Utility (Score:1)
GIS and Geospatial technologies slashsite... (Score:2)