Metal pipes beneath the floor provide enough local disturbance of Earth’s magnetic field for an autonomous robot to work out where it is and navigate around a lab
This robot can tell where it is by detecting disturbances in magnetic fields
Autonomous Vehicles Lab/University of Florida
A robot can autonomously navigate inside a building using nothing but a magnetometer and a detailed map of local magnetic anomalies.
The technique could provide a means for people and robots to find their way around large buildings, but the technology may be some way off commercial application because of the hefty cost and the size of the sensors.
Satellite navigation systems like Russia’s GLONASS, the European Union’s Galileo and China’s BeiDou can provide accurate location information all …