|
David Coleman: At
the Forefront of Global Navigation
 Over the
past two years, senior computer engineering major David Coleman – along
with his faculty mentor, Dr. Joseph Wunderlich –
has worked to develop innovations in global positioning system (GPS) navigation.
In March 2008, David presented their peer-reviewed research, titled “O3: An
Optimal and Opportunitist Path Planner (with
Obstacle Avoidance) Using Voronoi Polygons,” at
the 10th International Workshop on Advanced Motion Control in Trento, Italy. And on
Scholarship and Creative Arts Day, David will reprise this presentation for
the Elizabethtown College community.
Today’s
GPS technology is making it easier for people to find their way around.
When Wunderbot – a robot research project now in
its fifth generation at Elizabethtown – competed in the 2006
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC), it had difficulty traversing
a GPS waypoint field. Seeking to resolve the problems before this summer’s
IGVC, David and his faculty mentor explored and added to currently
available technologies.
According
to David, their GPS work pushes the envelope beyond the traditional “from
here to there” navigation systems. “Using the techniques I have developed,
a user can input their list of errands for the day and leave the house
once. The GPS unit is capable of sorting the destinations taking into
account many variables, such as distance between destinations, traffic
alerts, etc.,” he explains. “Furthermore, if heavy traffic is encountered,
the errand list can be reordered to remain globally optimal and efficient,
save gas and time, etc.”
To see
a pictorial history of David’s trip to Italy, please click on this link. To learn more about David’s project, consider
attending his Scholarship Day presentation…
Project Titles: "O3: An Optimal and Opportunistic Path
Planner (with Obstacle Avoidance) Using
Voronoi Polygons"
Date: Scholarship and Creative Arts Day 2008 – Tuesday, April
22
Faculty Mentors: Dr. Joseph Wunderlich
David is one of several student scholars from Elizabethtown’s Department of
Physics and Engineering who will present during Scholarship and Creative
Arts Day 2008. A full schedule of this and other events featuring the
creativity and scholarship of Elizabethtown students will be available in mid-April on the
Scholarship and Creative Arts Day webpage.
|
