When giving a second thought to the navigation system, a line-follower type of approach seemed to be just too oldskool. It also had a lot of problems, like the fact that the whole navigation system would stop working if a piece of paper drops on the floor and hides the line. The IR-array bar in front of the robot is also very inconvienient as it can easily hit objects on the floor due to very low ground clearance.
Instead, I'm planning on implementing an RFID based system. Current RFID readers can read a tag from 10-15cm distance, which is great for ground clearance. Also, it doesn't need visual contact with the tag, so it couldn't care less about debris on the floor. It works like this: My robot has an RFID reader on bottom of it and the destined path is marked with RFID tags on the floor. Each RFID tag is coded with the information where the robot can find the next tag. Just like orienteering. The information would be at least the angle the robot needs to turn to get straight to the next tag. The angle is calculated from imaginary lines from the previous tag to the next tag. The robot controls it's movements with gyroscope to meet the specific angle the tag is giving. I know this is a bit problematic, so I still need to figure out how the robot calibrates itself. It could be multiple RFID readers, special calibration tags or some sort of INS (Inertial Navigation System).
I'm also very interested to hear feedback or suggestions, so feel free to comment :)
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