Bumper Logic Explored
	Posted 25 Oct 2006 at 16:54 UTC by Rog-a-matic

Chris Schur reasons through bumper sensor design and programming for mobile robots in this excellent article. Complete with pseudo-code for better obstacle detection and responses.

Nice piece of work, posted 25 Oct 2006 at 17:51 UTC by Solarbotics » (Master)

I don't think I've seen bumper sensors this well explained before. Nice piece of work. Definitely worth a view. Good job.

Thanks!, posted 25 Oct 2006 at 20:07 UTC by cschur » (Master)

Thanks Dave, were going to do one on IR prox navigation next...

Chris

Excellent piece of writing and research! Thanks!, posted 26 Oct 2006 at 00:03 UTC by tbenedict » (Master)

Hope you don't mind, I posted a link to the article on our club website. Outstanding explanantion! Even better, I found myself nodding at a number of your examples and thinking, "Boy I've seen THAT before." Now I have new tools to go back and remedy some of them!

Thanks for the work and energy you put into that.

Tom

Good indeed, posted 26 Oct 2006 at 02:04 UTC by marcin » (Journeyer)

I was wondering though, Chris, whether you consider the bumber design used in your vacbot to be obsolete? I mention this as I have just finished building a bumper very much derived from vacbot's bumper.

I also found the article to be very informative, but then I've been a fan since the explanation of subsumption architecture.

Marcin

Good Article, Thanks!, posted 26 Oct 2006 at 04:58 UTC by horar » (Journeyer)

Thanks Chris, your work will save me a lot of time when I resume working on my own robotics projects. I posted some notes and lisp code about bumpers and finite state automata on my site a while ago http://asmith.id.au/robotics.html but have not added to it since.

Your article is excellent and is the kind of thorough treatment of the subject that we all need. Thanks again.

Andrew

Vacbots bumper, posted 26 Oct 2006 at 12:47 UTC by cschur » (Master)

Marcin, That robots bumper is still certainly a valid type, following the guidelines of designing a mechanical system first, then adding the switches second. I use my vacbot up at our cabin in the mountains, where the floor surfaces are not so cluttered with household items like at home!

Chris

We started last night on our "IR Prox Logic" work, and quickly came to the conclusion that the IR beams MUST face forward looking to be able to navigate the robot through tight household confines. By pointing the beams radially, like most people do, you effectively increase the virtual diameter of ther robot substantially.

extensions to the theme, posted 31 Oct 2006 at 11:56 UTC by marcin » (Journeyer)

I've previously thought about going overboard with bumpers, along the lines of a honey-comb style pattern of buttons/bumpers densely stacked around the perimeter of the robot, but more than likely the 6-bumper design, together with some thoughtful logic does the trick just as well with a lot less hookup wire.

M