Use Of A Low Cost Camera Based Positioning System In A First Year Engineering Cornerstone Design Project

Abstract

Although the concept of autonomous robot design projects has existed in engineering education for years as a tool for giving engineering students hands-on experience, in practice, the autonomy of these projects has been limited due to cost. Student programmers participating in these projects often have limited ways to interact with their environment autonomously, relying on low-cost sensors such as touch sensors instead of interacting with a high-cost camera-based positioning system. This not only limits the autonomy of the robot, but robs the student of valuable design and programming experience, since professional engineers often have access to tools such as the Global Positioning System (GPS).