differential-drive-odometry

Differential-drive robot odometry with IR sensors and wheel encoders using simiam. Implemented as part of a Georgia Tech Mobile Robotics course project.

Simiam is a MATLAB-based educational bridge between theory and practice in robotics created at Georgia Tech GRITS Lab.

1. Robot goes straight if theta = 0:

2. Without odometry implemented, robot will rotate around its initial coordinate for a non-zero theta:

3. A P-regulator uses the theta calculated from odometry to steer the robot to a specified heading of 45 degrees:

The actual robot position can be compared to the odometry-estimated position to test odometry implementation.

initial pose:

final pose:

4. The five on-board IR range sensors independantly detect obstacles:

The IR sensors have a range of upto 30 cm or 0.3 m. Skirts from sensors 1, 2 and 5 are not yet in range of the wall corner and, therefore,
read approximately 0.3 m as no obstacle is detected in their skirts. Sensors 3 are 4 are closer than 0.3 m to the corner and, therefore,
read shorter distances.