When learning something new you can study and discuss or you can study and do. NTR techies like to do.

Back in 2013 some of our developers were spending time after work at a colleague’s home. Idly kicking ideas around, they looked at a table and thought it would be really cool if table could move on its own, place itself in space and avoid obstacles in an unfamiliar indoor space. A clever table that could bring drinks, documents, whatever, all on it’s own.

People are fascinated by autonomous robots tricked out with navigation systems that can reach targets hundreds of meters from their initial position, especially when they are flying inside an unmapped premises and have to find their path with no help.

Back to the table. While the talk was interesting, making it real was more so. Our developers started to learn and to develop with SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping). Our autonomous table became a reality, but more as a techie toy; a by-product, if you will.

They added high quality sensors to the table’s navigation stack: LIDAR (light identification detection and ranging), a visual odometer based on a camera, an inertial measurement unit (IMU) consisting of a gyroscope and accelerometer.

Using these sensors our table can build its own map.

The blue line shows how sensors help the table “see” walls, obstacles, places where it will get stuck, etc., so it can bypass them.

You can see the results of our autonomous table in action in this video.

Source: NTR Lab

Having our navigation stack, the table can independently navigate and reach the desired location on a map, independently avoiding obstacles.

Our table is cute and fun, but when our R&D guys placed the same navigation stack in a drone the result was mesmerizing and led to the developed of an autonomous UAV (drone) for technical inspections.

NTR’s development and experience with indoor navigation systems means we have the skill to modify and adapt it to fit your requirements. All you need to do is contact us to set the project in motion.

Contacts:

NTR CEO Nick Mikhailovsky nickm@ntrlab.com.

NTR Head of R&D Aleksandr Evdokimov aevdokimov@ntrlab.com

NTR CRO Yana Kazantseva ykazantseva@ntrlab.com, Skype: yana.kazantseva.

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