Progress
This week, I worked on the building a mapping algorithm and improving the Roomba control protocols. For the mapping algorithm, I initially intended to use Roomba’s internal “clean” function to scan the room. However, it turns out that I cannot directly control or get sensor reading once it is in the clean mode. Thus, it was necessary to build our own mapping algorithm. First method I plan to test is to make the robot 1) follow the wall, 2) move back and forth in the area in between. This seems to be the method iRobot is using as well. This would be done autonomously. During this process, it became clear that some kind of threading would be necessary. Since the data packet is being streamed constantly, having a thread dedicated to processing the odometry was necessary. I was able to control the Roomba using threading with my local computer, but haven’t tested on the RPi yet.
Deliverables next week
Next week I would focus on 1) completing the mapping algorithm and 2) making sure the control protocol is robust.
Schedule
On Schedule.