Page 127 - Designing Autonomous Mobile Robots : Inside the Mindo f an Intellegent Machine
P. 127
Chapter 7
require no programming, and use a variety of strategies to cover the area they are
placed into.
At the low end, these robots have incorporated strategies that do not represent true
navigation, but rather movement patterns that should eventually cover the area. For
example, lawn-mowing robots have been developed that randomly cross an area
until they detect a boundary marker and then turn away to cross the area again.
While most of the area is covered quickly, some areas may never be covered. The
method is extremely inefficient.
TM
The Roomba vacuuming robot produced by iRobot uses a much more effective
area-covering strategy to cover a contiguous area, and has a rudimentary sense of
position. For the job of cleaning a room in one’s home, this strategy is sufficient, and
the price is low enough that the robot does not need to be more independent to be
cost effective. The only programming required is to set the room size and possibly
install an infrared beam called a “virtual wall” to prevent a robot from moving into
undesirable areas.
TM
Figure 7.2. Roomba area vacuum robot
(Photo courtesy of iRobot, Inc.)
110
