Controlling a Robot with Sonic and Ultrasonic Means

Abstract

A robot controlled by connected speech commands uses an ultrasonic range finder to learn about objects in its workspace. Speech synthesis allows the robot to carry on conversations with the user. The robot learns the location, size, shape, and color of objects in the workspace using the range finder and asking questions of the user. The robot is then able to navigate in its environment, manipulating objects and avoiding obstacles, commanded with natural language sentences such as Move the large red cylinder to the left of the small green block. A lisp machine database maintains the robot's knowledge of its world.