Smart Toy Car Localization and Navigation Using Projected Light

In this paper, we present the design and implementation of toy car localization and navigation system, which enables toy cars and "passengers" to learn and exchange their fine-grained locations in an indoor environment with the help of the projected light based localization technique. The projected light consists of a sequence of gray code images which assigns each pixel in the projection area a unique gray code to distinguish their coordination. The light sensors installed on a toy cars and a potential "passenger" receive the light streams from the projected light, based on which their locations are inferred. The toy car then utilizes A* algorithm to plan a route based on its location, its orientation, the target's location and the map of "roads". The fast speed of projected light based localization technique enables the toy car to adjust its own orientation while "driving" and keep itself on "roads". The toy car system demonstrates that the localization technique and the client-server architecture can benefit similar applications that require fine-grained location information of multiple objects simultaneously.