Quote Originally Posted by dragons_fire View Post
the mapping idea is just for the challenge of trying it, but im still debating my method of using the revolutions to tell how far its gone.. the room (the main floor of the house) has linoleum, hardwood and a couple rugs.. i can almost guarantee its going to slide trying to go from one to the other.. it looks like i may need to add a compass into it somehow, or add IR transmitters on different frequencies around the room, and have the robot detect them and figure out where it is...

im curious as to what other people think about what it can do, or how to figure out where it is...
Mapping - are you using stepper motors or regular 'just add volts and it spins' motors? Regular motors - good luck getting them to spin EXACTLY the same speed to go straight! Not saying it's impossible, but it'll be tough without good electronics. And what happens when the treads slip on the floor? The 'bot could think it's moving forward, when it's actually getting nowhere. Keep an eye on current draw could help with that. Motor draws X current, it's moving normally, motor draws 2X current, tracks are probably hanging up, motor draws .5X current, tracks are probably slipping like they're on ice.

Compass - magnetic compass 'could' work. How about an RF/IR link? A master RF TX sends out a pulse at X intervals, say 10 seconds. 1 second later, an IR LED on wall X1 pulses, 1 second later, an IR LED on wall X2 pulses, and so on and so on. The 'bot 'hears' the master pulse and starts looking for IR pulses. Depending on which IR sensor sees it and at what time, it can figure out which way it's pointing, limited accuracy of course.