Data Fusion For Brian: Couldn't find the right contact info and didnt know where to put this. Anyway the approach I would take is that if I am going to use the Kalman filter I would try to reduce the reading error in each of the sensor (compass, rotation). Then I would fuse them at the interval where I could get both of them. For the faster sensor I might get the average. So Compass=5 reading/second and wheel=1 reading/second. AdjustedReading = weight1*(5 filtered readings /5) + weight2*(wheel filtered reading)

Mapping

• I've sent emails to a few faculty members (one in Geography and one in Civil Engineering) asking about advice for obtaining maps of the campus.
• I've tested out Keyhole (some thin-client style software) that may be useful for obtaining latitude-longitude coordinates for various paths along campus.
• I think we need data to represent a grid corresponding to actual locations on campus. Each point on the grid will have a value to represent whether or not the robot can travel there. We also need this grid to be georeferenced (i.e. grid points have latitude and longitude associated with them)
• WE GOT DATA!! Conrad and I (Levi) met with Dr. Andronikov at the GIS center to discuss the usage of their data with our project. One of his assistants provided us with data containing georeferenced map data of the campus along with aerial photographs.
• GOOD NEWS!! I met with Dave Strong at the GIS Center and he provided me with some raster data along with the tools necessary to create our own.
  • The raster data is pretty much a text file with a bunch of 1's (can travel) and 0's (cannot travel). Each number corresponds to (approximately) a 1-foot cell.
  • At the beginning of the file are the real world (e.g. lat-long) coordinates of the map's corner. From there, we can theoretically extrapolate the lat-long coordinates of the entire map.

Using GIS (Fenwick)

• Go to computers in government documents section (behind elevators)
• Use machine with "Census 2000" sticker
• Email Levi Lister for computer's password (or ask person at front desk)
• Copy GIS data files to hard drive to match expected path of Robot Toolbox (e.g. C:\robot)
• Run model to create raster files from vector data