[Dprglist] Creating a line following course with tape on wood floor - safe for the floor?

[Chris N]

All,

I’d like to create a line following course on my hardwood floor (dark finish), by putting down some light colored masking tape.

My concern is this:  I did end up damaging the polyurethane finish on a wood floor in my old house by leaving tape on for a few weeks.   I don’t recall what tape I used back then – I’m sure it was not “low tack” or anything that was specifically advertised as “safe for delicate surfaces”.

Question:  has anybody ever left some masking tape, specifically the kind that is supposedly safe for delicate surfaces,  on a wood floor for an extended period of time (e.g. a few weeks) without damaging the floor’s finish when peeling it off?  If so, which tape brand/model ?

I’m getting mixed opinions on the internet so if anybody on this list has ever done a line following course in this fashion (i.e. tape on floor), please share your experience.

Background:

The purpose of this line following course is not so much to practice line following.   This will be a simple “course”, specifically designed to allow a robot to traverse it smoothly.  So no sharp corners, etc.   

Basically I’m looking for a way by which I can have my robot travel on a certain path in a repeatable manner, so that I can collect data from various sensors (e.g. Lidar) for subsequent analysis.   (for example, feed the data offline into various mapping algorithms to see which one is best able to deal with the data and/or tune the parameters of a specific mapping and navigation algorithm )

I find that teleoperating is not all that repeatable except at really low speeds.   I also don’t want to use any obstacle avoidance + wall following logic, because I do want to collect data while being close to obstacles and while travelling at speeds of up to 3 feet/sec.

So if you have any other suggestions for how to meet my intent of collecting data in a repeatable fashion, without following a line, please do let me know.

Thanks.



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