Mapping with your Robot

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Mapping with your Robot
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What is mapping?

• The process of using a sensor to determine the
  location of objects or holes in a remote area

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What is mapping?

• Mapping can be done with satellite images, sonar,
  radar, etc.

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Why map?

• July 2002, nine miners dug through a wall into
  another tunnel
• The other tunnel was filled with groundwater,
  which trapped them in a tiny air pocket
• The other tunnel was part of an abandoned mine
  that had filled with groundwater

If the miners had stopped excavating earlier,
this could have been avoided.
Why didnt they stop when they got too close?
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Why map?

• They didnt have an accurate map of the abandoned
  mine to know when they would hit it
• They were rescued after 77 hours, but it could
  happen again

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Why robots?

• Abandoned mines fill with groundwater
• Groundwater mixes with dust leftover from mining
  to produce toxic, slippery sludge
• Support timbers rot, leaving the mine
  structurally unstable

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Why robots?

• This is a dirty, dangerous job!
• Robots can map just as well as humans
• Robots dont complain
• This method wont endanger human life

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Mapping with Ultrasonic Sensor

• Ultrasonic sensor works by bouncing sound waves
  off of an object
• We cannot heard ultrasonic noise

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Mapping with Ultrasonic Sensor

• Records how quickly the waves bounce back

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Mapping with Ultrasonic Sensor

• That tells it how close or far an object is
• The farther it is, the longer it takes for the
  waves to bounce back

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Mapping with Ultrasonic Sensor

• We can measure the area first and compare
  measurement to the sensor readings
• Shows us how accurate the sensor is

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Bluetooth Technology

• Every NXT is equipped with Bluetooth technology
• Allows it to send information to anything else
  that has Bluetooth

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NXT to NXT Communication

• NXT can send data to any other NXT using
  Bluetooth
• Will be using one NXT to map and send data,
  another to receive data

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Project Goals

• Prototype that can take accurate measurements of
  interior of model mineshaft
• Organized group structure, well-defined
  individual tasks
• Presentation of your prototype and your work