[ODE] Laser range finder

[Shamyl Zakariya]

> As you might see, because of the nature of sidewinding locomotion, 
> sensing the environment seems to be tricky: sometimes the ray shots at 
> the obstacle, sometimes at the ground, sometimes at the creature's 
> body, and sometimes at nothing...But, sure, in order to solve this 
> issue I

This is something I'm thinking about as well, as my quadruped sometimes 
gets confused when it senses an obstacle, decides is need to turn ( 
instead of sidestepping around it ) and as it turns its sensor inputs 
obviously give different readings than before and it gets "confused" 
(sometimes) as the sensor state no longer is what caused it to turn in 
the first place.

The approach I'm looking into is similar to what I understand the human 
brain does as we move our eyes ( while not tracking a moving object ) 
from one target to another ( "saccade", I think it's called ) -- the 
brain simply disregards the in-between while the eye is moving. I'm 
going to inhibit sensor output while the robot turns... this ought to 
allow it to have a clearer "image" of its surroundings. Heh. maybe.

I like your videos; the movement is really lifelike! Here's one of 
mine, climbing some obstacles. It's a little too sensitive right now, 
and its hind legs tend to wig out...

http://home.earthlink.net/~zakariya/files/Clumsy_2.mov


On Sep 30, 2004, at 7:12 AM, Ivan Tanev wrote:

> Hi Shamyl,
>
> Thank you very much for providing links to snapshots of your creature. 
> It seems quite nice. Good luck with your new terrain engine!
>
> Some movies of my snake are available at:
> http://isd-si.doshisha.ac.jp/itanev/Sidewinder_mov.htm
>
> and snapshots, including Laser Range Finders (at the bottom of the 
> page) are here:
> http://isd-si.doshisha.ac.jp/itanev/Sidewinder_pic.htm
>
> As you might see, because of the nature of sidewinding locomotion, 
> sensing the environment seems to be tricky: sometimes the ray shots at 
> the obstacle, sometimes at the ground, sometimes at the creature's 
> body, and sometimes at nothing...But, sure, in order to solve this 
> issue I needed to implement the Laser Range Finders first, and thank 
> you, and all the guys who responded for your help.
>
> I used the XML-based genetic programming framework to automatically 
> evolve the (fastest possible) locomotion gaits of snake:
> http://isd-si.doshisha.ac.jp/itanev/XGP_pic.htm
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Ivan
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shamyl Zakariya" 
> <shamyl at zakariya.net>
> To: "Ivan Tanev" <itanev at mail.doshisha.ac.jp>
> Cc: "ODE mailing list" <ode at q12.org>
> Sent: Thursday, September 30, 2004 4:16 AM
> Subject: Re: [ODE] Laser range finder
>
>
>> I'm glad to hear it!
>>
>> My quadruped is also autonomously exploring thanks to range-finder 
>> input for collision avoidance... though I've taken a short break from 
>> the AI to develop a better environment using dGeomTrimesh + 
>> heightmapping + LOD so my powerbook doesn't meltdown.
>>
>> Here you can see it after it was allowed to randomly explore a 
>> *simple* environment for a while
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~zakariya/files/Wandering.png
>>
>> Here it is in my new ( less than 1 day old ) terrain engine. No time 
>> for exploration yet, as I'm still debugging the terrain.
>>
>> http://home.earthlink.net/~zakariya/files/Wandering-Terrain.png
>>
>> On Sep 26, 2004, at 9:55 PM, Ivan Tanev wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Scott, Jon, John, Adam and Shamyl,
>>>
>>> Thank you very much for your posts regarding the Laser Range Finder. 
>>> I
>>> successfully implemented it and thanks to your help my creature 
>>> (simulated
>>> snake-like robot, Snakebot) now senses the environment in quite 
>>> realistic
>>> way. Hopefully, Snakebot will be able to integrate the sensor's 
>>> information
>>> into some useful autonomous behavior when situated in challenging
>>> environments.
>>>
>>> Best regards,
>>>
>>> Ivan
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> ODE mailing list
>>> ODE at q12.org
>>> http://q12.org/mailman/listinfo/ode
>>>
>
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