Author Topic: Robot Mech with Autonomous targeting system (Read 4790 times)

Admin · « **on:** November 21, 2009, 10:45:38 AM »

This is one of the mechs that will enter next years Mech Warfare competition. Really impressive tracking!

I was one of the minority believers that this was possible - most of last years participants were non-believers in autonomous mechs. I bet they are scared now


X-Brat Auto Firing Fully Autonomous Shooting2!!! Robot Mech Warfare Mechwarrior

Razor Concepts · « **Reply #1 on:** November 21, 2009, 01:32:57 PM »

It looks like it just has a database of points stored, and when it "sees" something with the ultrasonic rangefinder it shoots? I see no camera on it for pink color tracking...

SmAsH · « **Reply #2 on:** November 21, 2009, 05:38:37 PM »

Yeah, all i see is the ultrasonic sensor...
Fail with the bb's at the end, is it just on there loosely?

Admin · « **Reply #3 on:** November 21, 2009, 05:43:55 PM »

I'm really not sure what he is using for tracking, as this below video looks too good for just sonar. I sent him an email.

Quote

Fail with the bb's at the end, is it just on there loosely?

He said he just taped it on real quick for the test.


X-BRAT First Autonomous Targeting Test

Admin · « **Reply #4 on:** November 22, 2009, 12:30:39 PM »

He said:

Quote

It is a CMUcam2...yes I'm very happy with the speed at which it can track!

airman00 · « **Reply #5 on:** November 22, 2009, 02:52:01 PM »

Look right under the sonar, connected to it. It looks like a camera lense

kedminster · « **Reply #6 on:** November 22, 2009, 10:17:59 PM »

Very cool design. I need to talk to the guy who did this. I have a client looking for a similar application...

SmAsH · « **Reply #7 on:** November 22, 2009, 11:42:07 PM »

Quote from: airman00 on November 22, 2009, 02:52:01 PM

Look right under the sonar, connected to it. It looks like a camera lense

Ahh yes, i think i see it now.

airman00 · « **Reply #8 on:** November 23, 2009, 08:58:42 AM »

Do you think that he does some trig to angle the guns to hit the target?
It seems like he uses a camera to detect the object, uses sonar to get distance to object, and then angles the two guns to hit the target at that distance.

Cool stuff.

mfedasiuk · « **Reply #9 on:** November 24, 2009, 12:40:07 PM »

Hi! I'm the guy who is building X-BRAT. Thanks for all the interest.

Yes it is a CMUcam2(+) and it is completely autonomous tracking and firing in that video.

Also yes I'm using some floating point math and trig combined with the PING to get the distance to target allows me to calulate the angle the gun's need to be at to hit the target..

I plan to make the code opened sourced after the 2010 RoboGames and I see how he does!

I don't have too much time now to post...but I just joined here since I saw I was getting lots of hits on the video from here....looks like a great forum!

There is a dedicated forum to X-BRAT at the lynxmotion forums here: http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=5587

And you may also want to check out my X-Rover thread here: http://www.lynxmotion.net/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=5580

Mark

mfedasiuk · « **Reply #10 on:** November 24, 2009, 12:43:01 PM »

Quote from: Razor Concepts on November 21, 2009, 01:32:57 PM

It looks like it just has a database of points stored, and when it "sees" something with the ultrasonic rangefinder it shoots? I see no camera on it for pink color tracking...

Nope...no database...just simple Trigonometry and a bit of floating point math needed for the ATAN function....

There will be a complete tutorial on my X-Rover with lots of detailed information on how my tracking system works on X-Rover which is the basis for the tracking system of X-BRAT.

Thanks for the encouragment! Hope to post here more often!

Mark

gaurav.p · « **Reply #11 on:** November 25, 2009, 01:49:42 AM »

gr8 job

Razor Concepts · « **Reply #12 on:** November 25, 2009, 05:16:47 AM »

Quote from: mfedasiuk on November 24, 2009, 12:43:01 PM

Quote from: Razor Concepts on November 21, 2009, 01:32:57 PM
It looks like it just has a database of points stored, and when it "sees" something with the ultrasonic rangefinder it shoots? I see no camera on it for pink color tracking...

Nope...no database...just simple Trigonometry and a bit of floating point math needed for the ATAN function....

There will be a complete tutorial on my X-Rover with lots of detailed information on how my tracking system works on X-Rover which is the basis for the tracking system of X-BRAT.

Thanks for the encouragment! Hope to post here more often!

Mark

Don't forget to enter it in the contest

mfedasiuk · « **Reply #13 on:** November 25, 2009, 10:46:12 AM »

Which contest are you talking about?

SmAsH · « **Reply #14 on:** November 25, 2009, 02:04:29 PM »

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=9224.0

corrado33 · « **Reply #15 on:** November 29, 2009, 09:29:22 AM »

Does it hurt when you get shot by one?

It looks like you jumped when one almost hit you!!

Hertz32 · « **Reply #16 on:** February 02, 2010, 04:36:20 PM »

where did u get the guns u make them or online bought or other?

Ro-Bot-X · « **Reply #17 on:** February 02, 2010, 10:14:26 PM »

Hi Mark, welcome to SoR!

I just read all the xrover thread at Lynxmotion and I have to say I'm impressed. This is what I want my robot to be able to do. So, I'll go through your code and translate it to Arduino and AVRcam that I have. Hopefully it'll work out, although, if I remember correctly, the AVRcam returns bounding box of the color blob, so I need to calculate the center of mass (not a problem, I have a library written by one of our members that does all the calculations, thanks Frank!). A problem may be that a bounding box gets 2 sets of coordinates for the opposite corners, that's taking more time on the serial link. Perhaps the fact that I can use 115200 baud will even out the speed loss. The good part is, knowing the size of the tracked object, I can get distance info by the size of the bounding box (I'll play with this latter).

This will take some time until I'll have it ready, because I am also working on other stuff. Hopefully during the weekend I'll be able to do some preliminary testing.

Oh, and the targeting is also impressive, perhaps I should mount a gun to my robot's right arm to shoot the bad guys while the left arm puts out the fire started by all that firing...

Admin · « **Reply #18 on:** February 02, 2010, 10:26:44 PM »

Quote

The good part is, knowing the size of the tracked object, I can get distance info by the size of the bounding box (I'll play with this latter).

I've been playing around with that concept for years, but it has a few problems:

-lighting conditions can alter the 'size' of the object
-orientation of the object, if not a perfect sphere, will change the 'size'
-sometimes one big object might appear as two smaller objects next to each other
-bad if you only look at the largest object and ignore the rest

Another way to determine distance, assuming level terrain, is to just locate the y center of mass coordinate and assume a constant target height from the ground. It involves a little math, but isn't affected by the above problems.

RoboChan · « **Reply #19 on:** February 15, 2010, 04:45:25 PM »

That turret is one of the coolest things i have ever seen. I have ben wanting to something like that on a tank base forever I havent had the "funding" to do so until now. Can i ask what it would cost just to make a standalone turret like that?

Thanks,
Chandler

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Author Topic: Robot Mech with Autonomous targeting system (Read 4790 times)

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