Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: dogheli on May 12, 2013, 09:55:24 AM

Title: Dog following heli
Post by: dogheli on May 12, 2013, 09:55:24 AM
I would like t create dog following heli (dog will have a sensor). please advise what should I have for it. may be you can give me a link to a manual  ;)

Title: Re: Dog following heli
Post by: newInRobotics on May 13, 2013, 01:14:14 AM
Hi

If You are thinking of something like mini helicopter following dog in a city or a forest while dog is roaming free, it might be very difficult to achieve, as heli would have to have 360° awareness of objects around it and follow clever algorithms to avoid them. If, however, You want dog to be followed in a football field or a park with no trees (or other objects in the way), depending on the accuracy required, You might get away with GPS chip only as a sensor and then microcontroller to gather and dispatch coordinates of the dog to the heli, and some means to transfer data (WiFi, 3G, 4G, RC, Bluetooth, etc.).
Title: Re: Dog following heli
Post by: jwatte on May 13, 2013, 11:22:56 AM
I think an IR beacon on the dog, and both an IR camera and a regular camera, running IR following and image recognition, on the heli, might be a decent way to "lock on and follow."

As soon as the dog walks under a bush, or a culvert, or a carport, or similar covering, you'll likely lose lock. There's really no way around this -- helicopters shouldn't fly as low as dogs walk...

Also, what he said: If you're thinking of doing this for real, consider safety very carefully. It's all fun and games until your unattended helicopter rotor cuts into the eye of a kid or shorts out some power lines, starting a fire!