Yes, you can teach robots to "see." Using the web camera service available with Microsoft Robotics Development Studio, you can program a simulated robot to follow lines autonomously.
by Sara Morgan Rea
August 21, 2008
ost people do not realize how difficult it can be to process a digital image and extract meaningful data, such as information required to drive a robot or operate an embedded platform. Humans see the world as a series of concrete images, but robots using a web cam see it as an array of red, green, and blue pixel values. To extract meaningful visual data out of this array of pixel values, you need special software. That's what the robot example in this article does.
To better understand how a robot can process digital images, this article describes how to use Microsoft Robotics Development Studio (MRDS), version 2.0 to create a simulation in which a LEGO NXT Tribot follows a black line. The article code creates a simulated robotics service that processes images from an onboard web camera (webcam). Using the simple technique of computing the center of gravity along the X-Axis, you can direct the robot to follow the black line autonomously.
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ost people do not realize how difficult it can be to process a digital image and extract meaningful data, such as information required to drive a robot or operate an embedded platform. Humans see the world as a series of concrete images, but robots using a web cam see it as an array of red, green, and blue pixel values. To extract meaningful visual data out of this array of pixel values, you need special software. That's what the robot example in this article does.
