Indoor robotic positioning has been the subject of much research over the years. However the specific application of robotics in a theatre setting has not been the subject of much scientific work. An example case with performance artist Stijn Grupping is chosen to develop an entire robotic system for his "botsball" performance.
This report details the design, realisation and evaluations of such a system. One of the main design challenges was to have accurate positioning and orientation for the robot during a performance, which has considerable levels of noise from different sources. Several requirements are found in collaboration with the artist and after some experiments. These requirements led to a conceptual design with functions to be fulfilled for each sub-system. The final choice was to use the HTC VIVE technology for absolute localisation and an IMU/encoder combination for relative positioning. The VIVE system uses a set of laser sweeping base stations and a photodiode cluster to determine the absolute position of the platform. The data from this is combined with the IMU and encoder data using sensor fusion. The final result is evaluated for accuracy and noise resistance.
Furthermore a user-friendly calibration method is designed for the system as well as a communication method which allows the robot to be controlled via MIDI software. Evaluation is done via several experiments which validate the system to be a valid solution. A set of recommendations for the system gives handles on how to proceed with the implementation of the project.