raspberry and arduino user following robot help

[manansh]

hey guys,i am completely new to raspberry pi am planning to make a pi based robot that will following the user.the main idea is to control the robot and call it from one room to the other with a phone or a Bluetooth device.it will also have an arduino i was thinking that i could place a gps on the user and the robot .the robot would create a map between itself and the users .the robot will be a normal obstacle detection robot so whenever it detects obstacle will will the make the necessary changes.will it work .thanks in advance and is this feasible

[joan]

It sounds very ambitious.

GPS doesn't work unless it has a clear view of the sky (it needs to talk to satellites).

[manansh]

thanks then could i use Bluetooth communication

[joan]

thanks then could i use Bluetooth communication

For what? It won't help you find a position.

I suggest you look through http://themagpi.com and search for similar projects.

[manansh]

i was thinking the bluetooth device could send its distance from the user .then it could move right,left,forward or backward and check the new distance .this way through trail and error it would move towards the user.thanks in advance

[Douglas6]

You can get the received signal strength (rssi) of a Bluetooth connection, but it's only a course indicator of distance. I suspect your bot would need a lot of wandering about, and some clever programming, to fix a location.

Ambitious, yes.

[PiGraham]

The best example of doing this I have seen uses Kinnect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_fre0E_J8s

Outdoors is an easier case, since there are no walls and furniture to be confused by.

If you carry an ultrasonic transmitter you could do this:
http://www.pocketmagic.net/android-cont ... ot-part-2/
Here it is following a person carrying the transmitter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?xv=omh-m_DDcfw

Something similar using audible sound and stereo microphones should be possible.

Another option could be to have the person wear a IR LED and track that. The Wii remote does that.
http://johnnylee.net/projects/wii/

You could use simple light sensors to follow torch light:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2m4yunnWnE

A robot can user a camera to follow a coloured ball relatively easily. Search for"open CV ball tracking raspberry"

You could also look at the Pixy Cam which seems to make this sort of simple tracking easy to do.

Bluetooth location is possible, but I don't think it will work for a person following robot. You can work out which bluetooth devices are nearby, and their relative signal strengths will give some indication of position, but you would need a network for bluetooth devices for that. Some explanation is given here:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/bl ... lance2.htm

Radio tracking is possible with directional antennas, but probably not effective at close range. Some info here:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~griffith/rdf.htm