GPS Sensor for Lego Mindstorms NXT

[DLuders]

DxtrIndustries posted several YouTube videos of a new Global Positioning System (GPS) sensor for the Lego Mindstorms NXT brick:

"Now your robots can know exactly where in the world they are! The Dexter Industries GPS Sensor provides GPS coordinate information to your robot and calculates navigation information. The sensor provides latitude, longitude, time, speed and heading to your robot. It also has powerful navigational calculators that can be used to navigate to target coordinates.

"The Dexter Industries GPS Sensor can be used for any robot that needs to know where it is or where it’s going. You can do everything from

track road trips on Google Maps to build a satellite-guided robot.

The sensor hooks directly into any of the four sensor ports on the NXT and can be programmed in NXT-G, RobotC, and Lejos.

User Guide - Download the GPS Sensor user-guide here (1.9 MB): http://www.dexterindustries.com/files/DI_GPS_User_Guide.pdf .

Googlemaps Tutorial - A tutorial on how to gather GPS data with the NXT and publish it on GoogleMaps (500 kB): http://www.dexterindustries.com/files/DI_GPS_Sensor_and_Google_Maps.pdf ."

See the NXT-G blocks, example programs, and more at http://www.dexterindustries.com/dGPS.html .

[Toastie]

Very nice find!

I tried to find it in the manual, but at first glance no success

Does the sensor work inside a house? Probably not, but who knows what these guys are coming up with nowadays ...

And what is the resolution? I guess "train track resolution" is not realistic or is it? In that case, I could dream up a million things ...

Thanks again for sharing,

Thorsten

[RohanBeckett]

Very nice find!

I tried to find it in the manual, but at first glance no success

Does the sensor work inside a house? Probably not, but who knows what these guys are coming up with nowadays ...

And what is the resolution? I guess "train track resolution" is not realistic or is it? In that case, I could dream up a million things ...

Thanks again for sharing,

Thorsten

I doubt you'll get much accuracy inside... GPS is GPS.. and to get more accuracy, you need to rely on other sources of co-ordination (iphone uses mobile towers + GPS, to be more accurate)

My 4-yr old Magellen Outdoor/Hiking GPS used WAAS, where available, to improve its positioning. When that symbol appeared on the GPS, I could see that accuracy got much better, but still.. outdoors, on a cloudless day, the best I ever saw was 3metres accuracy.

RB