This project uses a Benewake TFMini Plus LiDAR module mounted to scan 225 degrees on a vertical axis. A hall effect angle encoder reports the angular position of the scan rotor.
More about Omni-Wheels can be found here.
By using the scan data, the car can navigate autonomously,
able to make a multi-leg trip through the house.
An onboard Raspberry Pi 3B+ runs a python program which:
- Collects data from the TFminiPlus on a USB serial port
- Collects readings from the angular encoder via ADC (on I2C bus)
- Finds the best fit lines through the scan points
- Displays a plot of the points and the best fit lines.
- Using OpenCV, calculates the best path forward, avoiding objects in its environment
- Sends motor drive commands to the Arduino on the serial port
(Arduino controls the motors through an Adafruit motor shield) - Keeps track of its position using data from an IMU and an odometer.
- The IMU is an Adafruit BNO085 operating in RVC mode, sending data via serial
- The odometer is a wheel mounted on the shaft of an incremental encoder,
- Encoder data is collected by an ESP32 and sent to RasPi via ADC
