by lordtct » Wed Oct 13, 2010 2:19 am
Your robot needs to be able to "seek out" the human by looking for signatures. This could be done by (in ascending order of "invasiveness" and price):
1. Machine vision - Detects and follow any humanoid object. If your bot runs LabVIEW this is probably the best solution. Camera: RM400. EEEPC: RM1000. LabVIEW: Academic license.
2. RF pinging - Your human subject needs to carry an RF transmitter. Your bot will receive the RF ping signal through at least 3 directional RF antennas, triangulate his direction and find him! RF xmitter: RM25, 3x receivers: RM75. Microcontroller: RM35.
3. visible light/IR pinging - Similar to 2. but instead of RF, you will use visible light or infrared. Good luck maintaining a line-of-sight btwn the transmitter and receiver though =)
High power IR LED: RM5, 8 phototransistors RM16. Microcontroller: RM35.
Have fun!