Demo: a small delivery robot is moving fully autonomously in an office/factory environment using the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System:
- A mobile beacon is installed on the robot
- Stationary beacons are installed on the walls
- Blue dots – location of the robot (mobile beacon) measured by the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System
- Yellow dots – location of the robot obtained from its own inertial/odometry system
- Big green dots – stationary beacons installed on the walls
Note that the robot and the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System handles the shadows of ultrasonic signal from the beacons under the tables and chairs. This lets the robot perform its tasks in a real-life environment pretty well.
The distances between stationary beacons can be up to 30 meters. The general requirement of the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System is to provide visibility of the mobile beacon to three stationary beacons at any given time. But, as the demo shows, using other sources of information (IMU/odometry), the robot can handle 1-10 seconds without full ultrasonic coverage needed for the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System – purely relying on its IMU/odometry.
However, the IMU/odometry has inherent drift. And the drift is measured and corrected with the help of the Marvelmind Indoor Navigation System when robust and reliable data is available.