<div dir="ltr"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial">John,</span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> I think
first it would be best to think about what type of obstacles are likely in the
search area of the contest. We will ask spectators to move to the edge of the
room to give the robots as much room as possible. The search area will be
most of the room. That means there will be arenas (some on tables), chairs, an
odd person (judge, or robot owner), and stuff I don't currently know about in
the room. Of course, there is also the home base in the search area. The intent
of obstacles is to make finding the target objects more difficult than simple straight-line
shots. The robot will have to "search" to find the objects. I suspect
there will be an easy target in the mix.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> Since
most of these objects weight substantially more than the robot, I suspect that
obstacle movement due to the robot will be minimal. My thoughts are; if a chair
was moved or shoved a bit that would be okay. If the robot tried to move a table
with an arena or an arena on the floor (Can-Can Soccer arena), I would be more concerned.
The obstacles shouldn't be an issue for the robots to maneuver about the floor.
There should be no need or reason for shoving things except for poor obstacle detection
and avoidance. I would not recommend a strategy that required shoving obstacles.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> BTW, a Neato has excellent obstacle detection and avoidance. Also, obstacles will generally (except for people) be static features that could be to provide navigation orientation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"> Less annoying would be good..., but get'her done. We can hand out ear plugs at the competition with proper planning.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Regards,</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Doug P.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><br></span></p><div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 2:38 PM John Swindle via DPRGlist <<a href="mailto:dprglist@lists.dprg.org">dprglist@lists.dprg.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><font color="black" size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Doug,</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">For Sample Retrieval:</span></div>
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</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Is it OK for the robot to shove obstacles, such as chairs, and leave them where they were pushed to (until the judge possibly puts them back)?</span></div>
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</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Will obstacles (not samples) be at least as far apart as the max allowed dimensions of the robot?</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">I think I'll do like Neato vacs: constantly keep track of the largest, farthest-away, static reflections, which are assumed to be the walls. That gives orientation, kinda like how competitors square-up with the walls of the arena for some of the contests, but with no assumptions about the arena, just creating signatures, like what Neato does. And use early reflections to identify obstacles. The localizer used to run at about 2kHz which was great for "seeing" around chairs and people and even around corners, but it was annoying. 2kHz is no good for seeing a half-inch-diameter cylinder such as a chair leg. So, I think the mapping part will still be low-frequency (but at much lower volume so it isn't annoying) and the targeting part will be ultrasonic. I think the same emitters and receivers can do both frequency ranges simultaneously.</span></div>
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</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Still largely armchair stuff.</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">Later,</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size:13.3333px">John Swindle</span></div>
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