Assorted projects and pontifications.
I finally set some time aside to build some maps of my apartment using a SLAM algorithm! I ended up using the hector_slam package in ROS to do the job. There was a lot of trial and error involved in tuning my odometry and the hector_slam algorithm, but it eventually worked just fine. Check out the screenshots below! Links Mecanumbot ROS package
One of the sensors I intend on integrating into my Mecanumbot is the 2D laser range finder from the Neato XV-11 robot. To make the connection between the laser and the computer cleaner, I decided to make a PCB. (My first PCB! Woohoo!) I followed the schematic from the Neato Laser guide on the ROS wiki. I later found out that there was one error in the schematic – the…