This week, I exhaustively tested out the success rate and the limitations of our obstacle-dodging algorithm.
- Due to limitations to the sensors on the robotic base, our algorithm can’t deal with transparent obstacles like a water bottle.
- It works with a 80% success rate of not touching the obstacle and going around it. The obstacle should be with a diameter that’s less than 15cm, otherwise it will be recognized as a wall
I identify the problem as the following:
- The robot uses a optical sensor that’s based on reflections, and having a transparent obstacle will not be detected by the sensors.
- The algorithm we are using essentially makes the robot turn when it comes close to a certain object, and continue moving forward when none of the sensors have readings. Problem with this approach is that there’s only around 120 degree of the front that’s covered by the 6 sensors. Although I did do a 0.25s extra turning, the larger the obstacle is, the likelier the robot will scratch with the obstacle.
- Simply adding the extra rotation time will not fix the problem because it will make our robot look kind of silly.