Requirements Specification

Project Background

What we envision from our design is an autonomous robotics platform that will be capable of entering a room and capturing information about it's surroundings. This information will be transferred back to the user's laptop or PDA where the data may be used to construct an approximate bird's eye view of the environment.

Project Deliverables

• MAPPER robotics platform
• Java-based graphical user interface software to display
• Documentation

Special Restrictions

• Project budget of $500 set by course standard.
• Room Dimensions have been limited to a 20' x 20' room that contains objects larger than 1 cubic foot.

Principle of Operation

The user will place the MAPPER robot at the entrance of a room and activate it. Upon activation, the device will begin performing a 360 degree sweep of the objects around it. The distance data that is captured from the sensor is relayed back to the user's PDA or computer where it will be used to triangulate the positions of obstacles and free-space in the room. The robot will continue to perform a loop of movement, measurement, and transmission until it reaches an end wall. In this case, it would stop, and the user would possess a