Developing a Robot

The aim of developing this robot is to learn more about low level electronics and practice low-level software engineering, which is a rare opportunity in the high-level net enabled world. The technical goal is to have the robot autonomously explore a room and map it out via use of its sensors. Then, after a 'cold start' in an unknown position in the room it should be able to locate itself as quicky as possible by identifying the nearest unique features. Much of this challenge comes later at the software stage. For now I am assembling the motor and drive electronics, as well as the ultrasound sensor based radar, IR reflectance sensors and wheel encoder and connecting these to an AVR microprocessor. This microprocessor will present the sensors and actuators to the host PC via an uplink provided by a bluetooth enabled mobile phone.