The rangerfinder algorithm was calibrated. Measurements of pixel from center were taken every five inches from around 2 to eight feet. A power curve was fitted to the data and produced error that was less than 10%. Code should be released sometime next week.
The image processing algorithm has been written and tested. It does a reasonably good job at finding the brightest pixel from center, but reflections off the metal tool chest still gives it problems. We’ll try to calibrate the vision system to get some distance measurements off it. Look for the finished code sometime soon.
I never knew that one could write code for Microsoft Excel until last year. The macros are mostly used to automate repetitive tasks and perform complex calculations. (It could also be used to make music videos. Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9_YkXHCkgA) Since a spreadsheet is made out of individual cells, the spreadsheet itself could be looked upon [...]
The java version of the sample code was downloaded and recompiled and works like a charm after some initial compiling issues. Since it is a socket connection, it allows the image to be processed on another computer if needed. Now all that is needed is to modify the program to do what we needed. The [...]
The plan is to use the webcam and a laser to determine how far an object is from the robot. We wanted to use a horizontal laser line so multiple distance measurements could be made from each frame. The laser line proved to be too faint for the camera to detect it, even when various [...]
Realizing that no one seemed to post on the front page of the blog in 10 months, I figured that I should provide a brief upgrade on the robot. Roborealm is currently used as the backbone of this project. In addition to providing a substantial list of image processing capabilities, it also has the ability [...]