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How To Build South Pointing Chariot (electronic)?

What is a South Pointing Chariot?:
The chariot is a two-wheeled vehicle upon which is a pointing figure that always point in the same direction (of the compass) as the chariot moves.
South Pointing Chariot - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Requirements:
The figure on top of the chariot should always point to the same direction of the compass regardless of the chariot’s motion.
The pointing direction is read from the PC.
As the chariot moves, the distance that the wheel(s) travel should be collected.
The trajectory (direction and distance) that the chariot follows
is recorded in the PC.
Hardware must be on stripboard or PCB.
I know how to build this mechanically, but not electronically. I need ideas on how to implement this electronically.
Any assistance or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

2 Responses to “How To Build South Pointing Chariot (electronic)?”

1. robotfan Says:
   October 30th, 2009 at 6:01 am

   Use a encoder in each wheel to calculate distance traveled and use a electronic compass to tell you the direction. Encoder are not really accurate to compute the orientation. You need a microprocessor to do the calculations. To know how to do the calculations make a Yahoo search for “Dead Reckoning” in the context of Robotics.
   You can get all from:http://www.lynxmotion.comhttp://www.robot-electronics.co.ukhttp://www.acroname.comhttp://www.parallax.comhttp://www.robotshop.cahttp://www.pololu.com
   If you get the Lego Mindstorms NXT you can do this and many more projects easily.

2. Dave D Says:
   October 30th, 2009 at 10:40 am

   Just mount a shaft encoder on each wheel. Feed the outputs to a PIC chip, and write some code to convert the pulses to X Y coordinates. You need a chip that contains two TPU circuits. Most high end chips do this but the real low cost ones do not.

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