Author Topic: Just wanted to share my project (Read 3707 times)

zozie · « **on:** March 18, 2009, 07:09:21 PM »

Well I started this project about 4 years ago in hopes that I can make it to the Darpa challenge but I never managed to get there so I'm thinking of making it an open source project and just let people play with it and see where it goes.
It uses the phidget 8/8/8 board with a sonar sensor and 3 IR sensors along with a volt meter for the batteries. For obstacle avoidance it uses the sensors and a webcam running a software somwhat based on Aforge. It is powered by an Intel Atom in an Acer aspire one. It uses a GPS for navigation. It avoids any obstacles if it's deemed too high or too low to climb, and if it runs into something it thinks it can't get around it chooses another route while avoiding the previous one. It can also keep a set distance between moving objects. GPS co-ordinates are either entered on the laptop or you can enter them (like I did on the video) via a cell phone or pocket PC with bluetooth or WIFI.

It is entirely written in C# and Assembler. At this point its about 7900 lines of C code and 1100 lines of ASM.


Rotoconcept Proximiter test runs

the video's still processing so the quality isn't that great...

Let me know what you think.
Thanx
BTW. 1st post here.

SeagullOne · « **Reply #1 on:** March 21, 2009, 02:34:38 PM »

Welcome to SoR!

That's a cool robot!

Almost looks like something they'd use on Mars. A very impressive project.

airman00 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 21, 2009, 03:24:52 PM »

Please do make it open source

I am especially curious to see how you got obstacle avoidance to work on one webcam

zozie · « **Reply #3 on:** March 21, 2009, 03:49:19 PM »

The obstacle avoidance is partially done with IR/Sonar and the camera. I'm in the process right now of putting a Quad core CPU on it cause the Atom is a BIT sluggish

, but I'm having a hard time finding a mini-ITX board capable of running a Quad core. I may have to go with a Core 2 Duo, but with a Quad or i7 extreme it will be much much faster.
That way I'll have stereo vision and with pan and tilt to make it more accurate. Object following is purely achived with the camera tho, along with distinguishing between solid obstacles and grass and smaller branches.
You can see another example on my site http://www.rotoconcept.com/Projects.html

Plus the Web cam I'm using right isn't exactly very hightech. I got it for $20 in tigerdirect 2 years ago so there is certainly room for improvement but pointless without a strong processor.
I'll have a few more vids posted tomorrow. Right now I'm working on GPS fail-safe. I want it to be able to come back to the starting point if the GPS goes haywire while realying only on visual aid.
BTW in the vid you see a part where it's thinking about crossing between the two concrete barriers. It takes a while with the Atom. When I simulate in on my i7 extreme CPU in my desktop, it's done in about a second instead of 15

Stay tuned for more videos.

As you can see on the short clip I attached, things don't always go too smooth. Now I have the laptop properly secured.... I gotta say tho that in the 5 hours of runtime I accumulated to date, this was the only glitch and it didn't even damae anything tho I was worried about the HDD but it survived

offy · « **Reply #4 on:** March 21, 2009, 08:30:41 PM »

Very nice robot. Good work, and welcome to SoR!

superchiku · « **Reply #5 on:** March 22, 2009, 02:52:58 AM »

noisy but sexy.....

zozie · « **Reply #6 on:** March 22, 2009, 05:21:41 AM »

Quote from: superchiku on March 22, 2009, 02:52:58 AM

noisy but sexy.....

Ar you talking about my wife???

or my robot?

superchiku · « **Reply #7 on:** March 22, 2009, 11:20:17 AM »

both

zozie · « **Reply #8 on:** March 22, 2009, 12:58:25 PM »

Well I've run into a problem today. All seemed to work perfect until I hit a wire fence. MY camera and the sonar are not picking that up so I gotta sort that out. Tried climbing it and it ended up doing a back flip

Today I'm working on camera pan/tilt for more accurate object following. Also made a bigger board for all the stuff on it.

Rebelgium · « **Reply #9 on:** March 22, 2009, 03:25:41 PM »

looks great, you've given me some inspiration for my current robot. Thanks!

btw, what a coincidence, is that car a Traxxas E-Revo?
I just ordered one!

zozie · « **Reply #10 on:** March 22, 2009, 03:37:38 PM »

It's actually a summit

I choose that cause the remote locking diffs and tranny. I got 2 wheel speed sensors on it so when one of the wheels slip, it stops and goes into "crawling mode". Which really means changing the gear ratio and locking the diffs.

zozie · « **Reply #11 on:** March 24, 2009, 08:05:33 PM »

And after a painfull process, here is a new one


Rotoconcept Proximiter

No filming wasn't painful but getiing it to recognize a basic hand signal was....

offy · « **Reply #12 on:** March 24, 2009, 08:10:08 PM »

That is sweet. If the person starts to run, will the robot increase speed?

zozie · « **Reply #13 on:** March 24, 2009, 08:16:51 PM »

Yes but right now its as accurate as a blind person

. Well not that bad.... If you accelerate too fast, it will loose you. Needs more work in that department. We'll see if it gets better with the core 2 duo CPU
It will constatly try to maintain a set distance regardless of speed. It will get more accurate in the next few weeks.

superchiku · « **Reply #14 on:** March 27, 2009, 01:17:51 AM »

zozie.... mayi knw what kinda object detection algo's u used with the camera ... blob detection and object trzacking

zozie · « **Reply #15 on:** May 25, 2009, 07:00:42 PM »

Just an update:
I have made a completely waterproof box for the whole thing, and it got a real motherboard with a fanless Dual core Intel Atom CPU and an SSD HDD cause all the bumps killed the HDD in the laptop

You now log into it via WIFI.
Speed has significatly been improved. (both image processing and driving as well

)
I'm just editing all the videos I got (aboot 8 hours worth of testing), trying to compress it into a 10 min vut so that noone will fall asleep watching it....
Should have the vid up before the weekend.

BANE · « **Reply #16 on:** May 29, 2009, 04:57:27 AM »

nice, is that electrical tape on the wheels? if so, ha ha i did that too to get the grass out of the wheels

high five for ghetto style

Bane

zozie · « **Reply #17 on:** May 29, 2009, 06:05:56 AM »

I actually did that to leep the nut in case it falls off

I just cut a polycarbonate cover out that I'll stick on soon.

Hydrogen · « **Reply #18 on:** June 17, 2009, 09:36:32 PM »

awesome! anyword on going open source?

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Author Topic: Just wanted to share my project (Read 3707 times)

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