Sound Localization And A Treaded Rover

soundlocalization_and_a_robot

[Jad] recently wrote in to share a pair of projects that have been keeping him busy as of late.

The first is a sound localization system not unlike one we showed you a few weeks ago. The difference is that his system displays the sound source via a set of LEDs rather than by motion, making it far less prone to interference by things like servo noise. His system uses four identical circuits, each of which are wired to a separate analog input on the Arduino. Each channel is adjustable, making it easy to tweak how the system responds to a particular sound.

His second project is a sizable robot built on the Motoruino platform. His contraption features several stacked control boards that handle the bots locomotion as well as camera control. It connects to his computer via a Bluetooth module that boasts a 1 mile range, allowing him to control everything from his PC. [Jad] is using the robot as a prototype for a much larger scale creation, and he says that his current focus is getting the robot to track and follow objects automatically using the on-board camera.

Continue reading to see a small preview of his bot’s progress so far.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV5s_XPdzX0&w=470]

3 thoughts on “Sound Localization And A Treaded Rover

  1. Is there a schematic for the sound localization project? All I see are many photographs of the PCB.

    I wonder if it uses sound amplitude as the determining factor for direction. Perhaps spacing the microphones out a bit (10 cm–20 cm apart) and then using sound phase rather than amplitude would be a superior method of detecting the direction of a gunshot.

  2. I think the phase of the sound would be more challenging for a lot of reasons (most having to do with precision timing) but I’m also going to guess it would give a lot more range.

    For a limited range system coarse accuracy should be quite effective.

    I’d like a look at the schematic but I wonder if this would benefit from faster processing enough to be worth a redesign.

Leave a Reply to ColinBCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.