Help with Autonomous Rover

[madsci1016]

Because of my new found googlebilty, sometimes I get some people emailing me asking for help/recommendations. I like to bring them here into a community setting so more people can help, and it's documented to help others with similar questions. Here's one such person. I'm going to answer in a follow on in this thread. Everyone else feel free to chime in.

The email follows:



I am working on an autonomous robot and I needed to google some information, and luckily
google showed me ur website
 
Its the first time I visited your website and woooooooooooooooooooooooooow
really... IT IS AMAZING, i'm going to tell my friends about it
 
It gaaaaave me a lot of ideas..... especially the PS2controller library and you really seem an expert (in almost everything =P) so if it is ok, I need your feedback for some points. I was working on a project that is almost exactly as urs except that i'm using arduino mega (please don't tell me that will cause problems in the future)
 
Im using a 4 wheeled differential drive robot (2 geared motors each draw 10A)
Im using a motor controller I baught, changes speed based on analog value using arduino pwm
I am using an EM406a GPS
I am using HMC6343, a 3-axis digital compass with tilt-compensation
I am using SRF04 range finders to avoid obstacles
I am using apc220 wireless RF modules (1.2km LOS using 433MHz)
A mini IR camera and AV wireless transmitter
 
So far, I am testing each system alone and everything seems to be working perfectly
I am now at the path planning stage... should I point the robot to the target and move straight (shortest distance) or is there another better way?
Is arduino mega good enough? or I should switch to axon (please say its ok)?

I also wanted to draw maps on the computer based on the sensor values from the robot, can labview do that? Since I am going to have ultrasonic sensors on the right, left and front of the robot, I wondered if i can use these values to plot the map on a computer (the operater) using a program and then do the path planning there and just send directions to the robot, since u can store more maps this way. if you have any suggestions please let me know
 
I am really admired by ur work and I am ready to make a donation to ur website, U really helped a lot and gave me a lot of ideas. I have accounts at different forums but ur website, woooow, I can use it as a guideline for my project, it gave me many ideas. Now i know it is possible to link it to goooooogle earth instead of sending values through wireless, what a great idea!!!


NOW because if ur ps2 library, I am going to add it for sure, and its going to be a semi-autonomous . I loove this library
 and I really liked ur labview interface, it looks so coooooool. Unfortunately,  I know nothing about labView but I have to ask, are you willing to share the labview platform u created or even sell it?

[madsci1016]

I am now at the path planning stage... should I point the robot to the target and move straight (shortest distance) or is there another better way?

Using GPS guidance, I always have the robot try to point at the current GPS waypoint it's trying to get to. So I guess the answer is yes, straight.

Is arduino mega good enough? or I should switch to axon (please say its ok)?

It's fine since you have it now. The mega has more memory, but the Axon is better suited for servos. So for what you need, it works for you.

I also wanted to draw maps on the computer based on the sensor values from the robot, can labview do that?

Labview could, but it is EXPENSIVE!! I used labview because I already had it, and it's something I know. And really, Labview is just creating a connection between my serial radio and Google Earth. You could also use something free like wiring to do the same thing. Have a wiring sketch feed data into a file the Google Earth plots on a map. That's all my Labview does.

Now i know it is possible to link it to goooooogle earth instead of sending values through wireless, what a great idea!!!

Well, I'm still sending the position values from my robot over wireless radios to Labview, which writes them into a file for Google Earth to read.

are you willing to share the labview platform u created or even sell it?

I can't. I only have the Student version of Labview which doesn't create executables, so I can't distribute it. But Like I said, you could use Wiring (very much like Arduino) to write your own interface that does the same thing.