The Unity engine has been around since Apple started using Intel chips, and has made quite a splash in the gaming world. Unity allows developers to create 2D and 3D games, but there are some other interesting applications of this gaming engine as well. For example, [matthewhallberg] used it to build a robot that can map rooms in 3D.

The impetus for this project was a robotics company that used a series of robots around their business. The robots navigate using computer vision, but couldn’t map the rooms from scratch. They hired [matthewhallberg] to tackle this problem, and this robot is a preliminary result. Using the Unity engine and an iPhone, the robot can perform in one of three modes. The first is a user-controlled mode, the second is object following, and the third is 3D mapping.

The robot seems fairly easy to construct and only carries and iPhone, a Node MCU, some motors, and a battery. Most of the computational work is done remotely, with the robot simply receiving its movement commands from another computer. There’s a lot going on here, software-wise, and a lot of toolkits and software packages to install and communicate with one another, but the video below does a good job of showing what you’ll need and how it all works together. If that’s all too much, there are other robots with a form of computer vision that can get you started into the world of computer vision and mapping.

Last year, we featured an awesome audiovisual project from ANGLE that applied videomapping techniques to their livesets. Now, the Florence-based duo is back with their latest A/V system, “Shining Back,” which was designed in collaboration with JoinT Studio’s Stefano Bonifazi.

Essentially, it’s a grid structure consisting of LED lights that pulse in a geometric matrix to the duo’s live rhythms. The installation runs on an Arduino Uno and uses Mad Mapper and Modul8 software.

The immersive atmosphere created by the music is emphasized by a new research in the visual realm. Taking an architectural form of a kaleidoscope the lighting visually weaves and refracts the music into a surreal yet symbiotic form.

Last year, we featured an awesome audiovisual project from ANGLE that applied videomapping techniques to their livesets. Now, the Florence-based duo is back with their latest A/V system, “Shining Back,” which was designed in collaboration with JoinT Studio’s Stefano Bonifazi.

Essentially, it’s a grid structure consisting of LED lights that pulse in a geometric matrix to the duo’s live rhythms. The installation runs on an Arduino Uno and uses Mad Mapper and Modul8 software.

The immersive atmosphere created by the music is emphasized by a new research in the visual realm. Taking an architectural form of a kaleidoscope the lighting visually weaves and refracts the music into a surreal yet symbiotic form.

Hi, LMRians. I've been reading up on this Wavefront Algorithm Navigation and I understand bits and pieces of it, but not everything. I'm trying to learn up on it so I can use it in my next robot : Project 4L-FRED (Alfred), a butler robot. The robot is suppose to navigate around the house from the dining area to the living room and serve drinks to guests. The robot will have pre-recorded messages like greetings and stuff like asking what drinks the guest would prefer.

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In a reply to this post: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/31641 I have exposed one of my software problems that I encountered on one of my robots. I am re-posting this separately with some added info:

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