@Rich. Now with using the beacons would you use then to work like gps satellite? Like could you use it to calculate pos with like the sharp distance detect?

It would be easier to use it as a way point type of thing. If that makes any sense..

placing a beacon on the wall is like a indoor gps idea,i think i added a link to that design kinda like the ROVIO does with its design and famous northstar system

MAPPING IS one of best ways for navigation using a grid system,just work out how many SQUARE INCHES in your house and make a grid map and add furniture to the map,that easy part

second by using distance sensors you use them to navigate using the grid,on programming thats the hard part ,point A mostly your robot and point B is where you want to go (called path planning)

SOR website fas a lot on info on it that can explain it better then me

I don't think mapping would work for my place, its to dynamic of a house.

Could you not get a greater affect simply using a camera hooked up to the system? Would that not be a lot simpler thanks to 360 cameras? Then add it to a cheap overhead movement system, slap on all the goodies you want, and viola? Or would that be dependent on the camera, and thus not actual SLAM? That may be a whole different topic all together however.

Dynamic house? Haha, yeah, I know that feeling.

The camera I like my self but to program it is a big deal. I use 3d camera's for picking parts and placing parts on the production line. Its actually a regular camera and a laser camera for the 3rd measurement.

I like the idea Robotmaker has with lidar from the neato vacuum robot but I don't have the smarts to build an interface to the ez-b. Again on the AGV's i use at work we use LIDAR and its a self contained unit and just has few bits for input output. Like when it detects something in the slowdown zone it sets a bit to the plc and it slows the agv down. The same thing with the stop zone too. We even use the plc to change the LIDAR's range depending on where it is in the factory. So if they wern't so damn much money I'd use it for the collision detect, a little off topic.

But for what we have right now I like the glyph with the camera that Rich wants to use. But robotmaker makes a good point about having around the house. I would like to know how small can you make them and the camera still be able to read them from a ways back? I haven't had time to try it yet. That way I'd and others would be able to put them up discreetly and it can have an idea where it is. Plus you might be able to figure out better also the distance from the glyph by the size of it for better accuracy.

Going by previous tests it doesn't need to be that close (or the glyph doesn't need to be that big). I doubt I'd have a problem in my house but then my whole house is only about 10 meters long and 5 meters wide.

If I get chance I will do some tests. I have very low lighting levels in my house (warm white LED bulbs, not made for task lighting at all) so it's pretty safe to assume light levels will be the same or better than I have - unless you live in the dark or are still rocking candle power.

For my Hearoid I expect my glyph on the dock will be roughly 4" square (or 100mm if you prefer metric) so I will be basing it on that size. I know it can detect a 4" glyph from roughly 2 meters away but I'll do some proper testing when I get chance.

@rural geek on the neato lidar others are using the design alot more now,since its bee n hacked and has API codes and WINDOWS software.

So i think it can be added easy in EZ-SDK, i now a few from this forum bought some from me to to make it work with EZB ,and has code already made for ROS

So i think soon will have one ready,i just heard a lady in france that got one from me using it on ar parrot design,and in one of my robot clubs my friend is almost finish with a C# code that can used on EZB

so few ideas comming fast,will post the code at i get it

ARE you good at programming