Thanks a lot ! !

By the way: Does Synthiam have a dedicated channel, where I could link a video from my 1 m large beetle, discovering our garden ?

You can upload the video here - and create a robot profile, which is cool to get exposure. We have a youtube channel here youtube.com/Synthiam

I'm whipping up a video that explains the Auto Position a bit more detail for ya - i'll post it in about half an hour. Just editing it now

BTW super stoked to see your robot

Here you go - check this out

Thanks very much - the code for my 1 m "insect" is now ready to run (need to wait for better weather).

But - before I forget:

You have this interesting Indoor Camera Navigation System ...

... for outdoor use, what about modifying this by:

-   Using one IR sensitive camera on top of an outdoor robot (my large "insect") -   Operating an omnidirectional high power IR transmitter at the charger station (on top of a corresponding shelter).

I have an EZ-B v4/2 plus the camera.

Application: The robot would crawl through the garden, until it is time for battery recharging. From thereon it would stop all current activities besides what is essential in the now active survival mode: Searching for the charger station. After some minutes of looking around it would recognise the IR-beacon and would crawl towards the station for charging.

This technical solution is based on real world ADF navigation that I tended to use during flying activities; quite simple and reliable.

Local navigation to finally establish electrical contact between the robot and the charger station is another task by itself. An optical VOR-based navigation principle could be used. If working properly, it could even replace the above ADF approach.

What do you think ?

Max. range would be some 50 m.

Cheers

Volker

Unfortunately IR doesn’t work outside because the sun emits ir. That’s the reason we called the ips the indoor positioning system.

However, there are options for outdoor navigation by using a high resolution camera and a glyph. Or even if the robot was a specific color. Outside is difficult for navigation with most lidar or intelrealsense as well.

maybe even buried electric fence and guides?

There is a quite simple solution for suppressing unwanted broadband sunlight: A small and extremely narrowband interference filter in front of the camera on top of the robot.

By these means, more than 99,9 % of sunlight will be blocked and the SNR for the narrow band IR transmitter is drastically increased by orders of magnitudes.

I spent some 30+ years in the development of REAL lidar stations (emitting some kW of laser power) and we always successfully used this technique.

Receing signals from some 10 km in zenith direction during bright midday summer conditions was never a problem. We could easily count single photons of the backscattered laser signals; just by suppressing unwanted sunlight by these means.

Sounds really awesome - your lasers were not in the infrared spectrum. I'm not sure how you could filter IR outside in sunlight. How would you "suppress unwanted sunlight" in the infrared spectrum outside?

Sounds like you have done some great stuff - if you can create an outside IR beacon navigation system. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with because a lot of people would be excited

Hi,

we used lasers in the near and far IR region (Optical Parametric Oscillators near 1500 nm and CO2 laser @ 10 m, respectively) as well as visible lasers (dye laser @ 589 nm) and UV lasers (tripled Nd:YAG @ 358 nm)and more.

Physically, IR light or UV light is nothing else than visible light; just characterised by longer or shorter wavelength.

Only difference to VIS light: The human eye does not recognise it.

The optical spectrum (intensity distribution as function of wavelength) of the sun is following Planck's law; meaning that the maximum intensity is somewhere in the green (--> plants have green leaves; optimised absorption of sun light).

The solar spectrum, however is also extending into the UV section as well as in the IR section.

Applying a narrowband filter in front of a camera is simply rejection all unwanted wavelength of the complete solar spectrum besides a specified and extremely narrow wavelength band. Only light with this wavelength will pass to the camera chip.

In other words: For such a camera it is nearly pitch dark even in the sun at noon, but an IR LED will pass such a filter without intensity losses; finally increasing the above mention SNR.

I know, this stuff is a bit hard to explain, but - be assured - it works :-)   .

Therefore, I guess - your navigation principle could really be a quite useful tool for my large insect.

We could do some joined dvelopment, if you like ...

... but at first my insect needs to walk and navigate autonomously (ultrasonic sensors and tentacles, both in the head front section).

Cheers

Volker