Hi all:

First public pictures of my 6x6 test bed. I am using a modified Wild Thumper chassis with an Arduino mega + motor shield driving the 6 motors. APM2.5 + LEO6H + 2.30(?) + MP 1.2.30 + 3DR wireless link. I also have Wixel wireless link to the Arduino so I can reprogram and debug without the need to hook and unhook USB cables.

I use three forward facing sonars for obstacle avoidance. One front bumper push switch (emergency collision stop). One rear facing sonar. I am going to add some IR sensors to compliment the sonars and also a cliff detection sensor. Any ideas on implementing a good cliff detector appreciated !

I have a Foscam wireless camera with integral pan and tilt. This can be controlled by ground station PC.You can do some rudimentary image processing on the ground station PC. We are all waiting for raspberry pi image processsing hadware.

It runs good auto (depending on satellite accuracy available). Obstacle avoidance is fair - needs more robust behaviour. I cannot get LEARN to work in the current setup. Maybe the developer gods will figure it out. My intention is not to muck around in the Ardurover code, but use my Arduino to arbitrate the nav output from the APM before it goes to the motors. This way I know exactly what the system is doing.

Thanks to everyone on the forum, especially TCIII.

_ Vijay