I am thinking about building a small robot that will drive around, judge distance to objects and avoid obstacles (hopefully it will) – nothing complex, just a home fun project.
I am planning on using two webcams to decide distances and track objects, and AForge.Net as the framework. I have never done anything AI and robotics related, so I have no idea where to start.
What sort of components would I need (wheels and engine, etc., that can be programmatically manipulated, programmable controller of some sort?) and where do I get all this stuff?
Overall, where do I start with this to make it happen? I am looking for a set of tools that would solve the basic problems and allow me to concentrate on programming of my robot.
For the robot if you don’t have prior knowledge and know-how I’d recommend to buy a premade solution such as the Roomba.
The Roomba (certain models) comes with a hacking kit that will allow you to program it. Plus it will clean your floor when you are bored.
Also for the vision part, OpenCV is a good start.
Be warned that its not and “easy” project you are journeying in