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C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	
C00004 00003	                              THE GOAL.
C00005 00004	THE GROUND RULES.
C00008 00005		Dead Reckoning should be minimal.      Dead  Reckoning  is  a
C00010 00006	SYSTEMS
C00012 00007	PROCESSING SEQUENCES.
C00014 00008	Photometry
C00016 ENDMK
C⊗;

CONTENTS
		GOALS.

		DATA.
			1. TV images.
			2. Features 2D.
			3. Blobs 2d.
			4. Features 3D.
			5. Bodies 3D.
			6. Elevation Map.
			7. Cart Course Map.

		PROGRAMMING.
			1. Cart Running.
			2. Image Analysis.
			3. Locus Solving.
			4. World Modeling.
			5. Image Synthesis.

		HARDWARE.
                              THE GOAL.

	The goal of the Cart Project is to get a computer  controlled
cart  to  see  by  means  of  a TV camera so that it can drive around
outside the laboratory.

THE GROUND RULES.

	First,  the robot must operate in the Real World.  Reality of
course is subjective, good robot work can  be  done  in  a  simulated
world  or in a synthetic world; however it is part of the goal of the
Cart Project to deal with the world of roadways, parking lots, grassy
hills,  eucalyptus  trees,  sun,  sky,  dirt and horse manure that is
found outside of our laboratory.

	Second, the robot is allowed to have a map. In fact the map is
not  merely  an  incidental  thing  that  is  or  is not in the glove
compartment, but is essential to robot vision.   The  map  or  "world
model" is the robot's internal concept of the world it sees.

	Manual initialization of the world model is allowed. Although
a sophisticated robot should be able to automatically acquire a world
model  or map as it goes along, the mere representation of the map in
a computer is of such  difficult  that  I  have  had  to  settle  for
manually  constructing  a  world model.  Programmers should always be
warned by the old proverb: You can't automate  a  process  you  don't
know nothun' about.

	A line following automaton is not a solution. A line follower
can readily be made with a couple of photocells and  although  it  is
harder  to do it with a computer and a TV camera it has been done and
didn't readily lend itself to generality.

	Dead Reckoning should be minimal.      Dead  Reckoning  is  a
non-visual  means  of knowing where the camera is at.   To the extent
that a robot dead  reckons,  to  that  extent  is  its  visual  organ
irrelevant  to  navigation.     In  the  limit a robot with a precise
locomotion system and an accurate map could drive around blindly.

	Non-Visual  aides  to navigation aren't kosher.   The cart is
more a statement of a visual perception problem than it is a computer
control  cart. At present the cart has no inertial guidance, feelers,
speedometer, odometer or compass and  I  am  reluctant  to  add  them
because  they  are non visual aides to naviagtion.   However, I would
like to have non visual  means  of  measuring  the  position  of  the
wheels,  pan,  tilt,  target  voltage and f-stop of the camera; which
indicates that I do not strictly  follow  the  no  non  visual  aides
ground rule.

	The world can be assumed to be essentially static. Namely the
only  things  that  move are the cart and the sun.    Well now if the
robot can't deal with a static world then it won't have a chance in a
dynamic  one  -  or  -  a dynamic world can be sucessfully modeled by
using a large number of static worlds which differ slightly.
SYSTEMS

	The Cart's system problem is that the code and data for  cart
vision and control is larger than core.  I have tried multi-jobbing,
shared segments, overlays, ptys, mail, user interrupts,  and peeking.
I conclude that building sophisticated sub systems does not
lead directly to clear and powerful vision software. What  I  now  am
doing  is  writing  a  set of programs which have three steps: Input,
Compute, and Output.

	Accordingly, the Cart Running Sequence  is  merely  a  serial
loop  of  program  runs with no parallel processing and all inter job
communication is done via the disk file system.
PROCESSING SEQUENCES.

	For  our  first  solution,  the  cart will operate in a LOOK,
THINK, MOVE loop.

	First it LOOKS, it  takes  a  TV  picture.  Then  it
THINKS, it predicts what is in the picture then verifies that what it
anticipated is there, and if it finds what it wants  it  measures  it
and  deduces where the picture was taken from and how far off that is
from where the cart wants to be.  And then  it  MOVES,  the  steering
wheels  are  moved  a  certain amount if necessary and then the drive
motors are activated to move the cart blindly along its way from  one
to twnety feet.

A. Model Making Sequence.
	Ad Hoc Programming.
	Manual Commands.
	Image Analysis - computer assisted.

B. Cart Running Sequence.

	Initialization		Tell the cart where it is.

	INPUT			Take a television picture.
	Prediction		Elements of the image are anticipated.
	Analysis		Image elements are sought in the new image.
	Verification
	Measurement		Compute the locus of the camera.
	Course Calculation
	OUTPUT			Move the cart.
Photometry

	Sure its important to find  the  edges  and  T-joints  in  an
image,  however  knowing why a particular point in a particular image
is as bright as it is, is equally important, and can solve  the  same
sorts of problems and hasn't received enough attention.

	Basically my solution to the cart's problem is to model it to
death.  Namely enter into the computer everything  that  an  advanced
exploratory robot might be able to report back AFTER it has gone over
an area. Then I imagine that our primitive cart robot  has  the  duty
merely to check on the earlier exploration and verify and update it.

	The highest cognitive level of the cart software is a moral
imperative to trace along a predetermined course.