Author Topic: Evolution Robotics, ER1 Robot, and ERSP Thread. (Read 113962 times)

Tesla · « **Reply #90 on:** July 06, 2009, 01:04:29 AM »

Hi Ro-Bot-X,

You're working on building your own RCM? Will it work with the ER1 software?

Thanks,
Tesla

Ro-Bot-X · « **Reply #91 on:** July 06, 2009, 04:45:13 AM »

Quote from: Tesla on July 06, 2009, 01:04:29 AM

Hi Ro-Bot-X,

You're working on building your own RCM? Will it work with the ER1 software?

Thanks,
Tesla

It's a long term project that I have. So far it's all an idea, nothing materialized... And it will not work directly with ER1 GUI, because I don't know how to replicate the RCM signature. Plus, that would be a copy cat and copyright infringement I guess. But I want it to respond to the same command format, just using a different access method.

Tesla · « **Reply #92 on:** July 11, 2009, 09:26:13 PM »

For those looking for ER1 Grippers. Seller supergreatdeals4u on eBay has them for $399.. just ask him to post as buy it now. He has ER1s and I think he might also have the IR senors, expansion packs, and extra batteries(??). I believe he bought all of Evolution's inventory when they decided to discontinue the ER1.. but now brought back. I've seen him list ER1s.. but for way too much.

http://myworld.ebay.com/supergreatdeals4u/

Tesla

bill black · « **Reply #93 on:** July 17, 2009, 09:46:25 AM »

Hi folks,
I've had an ER-1 for a few years. Anyone have an idea if it is possible to get the ER-1 software to incorporate GPS information?
Thanks,
Bill Black
Roseland, FL

wdbarnwell · « **Reply #94 on:** August 09, 2009, 02:28:21 PM »

Quote from: lupinoxp on January 29, 2009, 10:44:14 AM

Hello, here are the pictures of the new RCM 4.0

Hello,

I just got my RCM-D on Friday 8-7-09 and the outside cover looks the same as the old RCM. It even says 1.0 on it, but doesn't have RCM-D on it anywhere. On the inside they are different. Where did you get those pictures of the RCM 4.0? I've attached some pictures of the old and new RCM side by side. The RCM-D is on the left side in all pictures.

Tesla · « **Reply #95 on:** August 09, 2009, 02:55:27 PM »

Cool!! Thank you so much!

mishoo · « **Reply #96 on:** December 23, 2009, 03:21:19 PM »

Having said that ER-1 is pretty much an outdated product, is there any new product with similar functionality as ER-1 (I mean Robot Skeleton and added laptop; and probably a software)?

Homer

Tesla · « **Reply #97 on:** December 25, 2009, 02:54:43 AM »

Quote from: mishoo on December 23, 2009, 03:21:19 PM

Having said that ER-1 is pretty much an outdated product, is there any new product with similar functionality as ER-1 (I mean Robot Skeleton and added laptop; and probably a software)?

Homer

The ER1 has been around for awhile, but it's not outdated. Evolution's software is powerful and is now used in the WowWee Rovio.
Check it out here: http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/tech/telepresence/rovio:rovio

Another PC robot here: http://www.whiteboxrobotics.com/

But I like the ER1..

Some others that are cool..
iSobot - http://www.isobotrobot.com/eng/index.html
Roboquad - http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/toys/robots/robotics/robocreatures:roboquad
Wall-E - Ultimate - http://www.amazon.com/Wall-E-60260-Ultimate/dp/B001KSWVIA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1261730011&sr=1-5
R2D2 - http://www.amazon.com/Star-Interactive-Astromech-Droid-Robot/dp/B001E95SQ2
Erector Spykee - http://www.amazon.com/Erector-Spykee-The-Spy-Robot/dp/B000N6470A/ref=sr_1_43?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1261730398&sr=1-43
RSV2 - http://www.wowwee.com/en/products/toys/robots/robotics/robosapiens:robosapien-v2

There are other cool bots like hexapods.. but cost over a $1000.. also building a custom robot or hacking robots is fun.

Have fun!

Tesla

jamespeach · « **Reply #98 on:** February 19, 2010, 03:33:45 AM »

Hi,

I was hoping you shed some light my way..

I’ve been given a project from my university to find the accuracy of the Evolution IR sensors, I was wondering if you knew which brand the sensors are. I know that they are shipped with Sharp but also shipped which sensors named "Evolution IR Sensor".
While trying to find the accuracy and calibrate the sensors I’ve taken 700 reading and intervals of 10cm starting at 0cm- 50cm and taken the averages.... from your experience is the correct method?

A few people have told me to add a cap on the sharp sensors, but as I do not have the Sharp ones could I add a cap to give more accurate to the Evolution IR Sensors?

Thank You!

Admin · « **Reply #99 on:** February 19, 2010, 10:35:01 PM »

Quote

A few people have told me to add a cap on the sharp sensors, but as I do not have the Sharp ones could I add a cap to give more accurate to the Evolution IR Sensors?

With Sharp IR, the output value bounces around a *lot*. If the sensor value is stable, you won't need to add a capacitor.

Quote

While trying to find the accuracy and calibrate the sensors I’ve taken 700 reading and intervals of 10cm starting at 0cm- 50cm and taken the averages.... from your experience is the correct method?

700 readings?! I would have probably taken 20, with more readings up close and fewer further away. Plug into excel, get a trendline equation, done.

urro · « **Reply #100 on:** February 27, 2010, 06:16:03 PM »

Hi all!

For those interested in using the player/stage platform....

There are is a driver developed by people from the DIKU university (Denmark) (thank you, guys!) that allows using ERSP robots with player/stage, but it is only for Linux. For those that have only the Windows version of the ERSP 2.0 (like me) I have ported the driver to windows. It works well to access motors, battery level, oddometry and IR sensors, but I plan to add more staff (gripper, speech, vision) in the future.

The advantages of using Player/Stage instead of directly program for ERSP are quite interesting (copy/paste from the authors’ web site, sorry):

* The client program and the player server can run in different machines
* You can use the Stage-simulator
* You can use algorithm, virtual drivers and other utils for Player/Stage
* The interfaces on player are simpler
* You can program player clients in C, C++, Java, Python and... maybe more, I'm not sure

Let me know if anyone is interested in trying the driver to post it here. I suppose there are no problems with distributing/modifying it, as it is GNU-licensed. I hope it will help someone...

Thanks to the authors: Bue Petersen, Jonas Fonseca and Jesper Carlson.

lync · « **Reply #101 on:** August 10, 2010, 11:25:06 AM »

Sorry to resurrect an old thread on my first post, but this seems to be the catchall thread for ER1s, so:

Hello ER1 Experts, if any of you are still kicking around I would greatly appreciate it if you could answer a few quick questions.

I recently inherited a couple ER1 robots and am trying to make a quick navigation interface for them with position/heading feedback.

So far I have been using the text command interface over tcp/ip:
1) How strictly does the ER1 follow movement commands? For example if I give a "move 5 cm" the robot only moves forward about 2.8 cm as reported by the GUI and "position" command, and longer movements also seems to give up ~2.5 cm from the destination. Is this the best I can expect or is something wrong.
2) I think it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but to be clear: Is the heading portion of the "position" command broken? The x and y coordinates appear to be fairly accurate but no matter what rotations I do it always reports the angle as "0.0"

I see from the thread that there are other options to control the robot: a python API, the player/stage interface, and the ERSP software?
3) Can any of these pieces of software give me the heading value? I would like to poll the position/heading during movement commands so that I can continually keep track of the robot.

Thank you for your time

Fatfrank69 · « **Reply #102 on:** September 25, 2010, 07:59:38 AM »

Hi all, I'm new, just signed up because of the existence of this thread! Just wondering if there's anyone out there still using ER1's?

I've just bought one, having a bit of trouble getting it to work, I believe the battery isn't holding the charge, am I right in thinking I can replace it with any 12v battery?

PS. I like how when you register you have to verify you're human...especially as the forums called society of robots. $:-\$

Ro-Bot-X · « **Reply #103 on:** September 25, 2010, 10:04:26 AM »

Quote from: Fatfrank69 on September 25, 2010, 07:59:38 AM

Hi all, I'm new, just signed up because of the existence of this thread! Just wondering if there's anyone out there still using ER1's?

I've just bought one, having a bit of trouble getting it to work, I believe the battery isn't holding the charge, am I right in thinking I can replace it with any 12v battery?

PS. I like how when you register you have to verify you're human...especially as the forums called society of robots. $:-\$

Wellcome to SoR!
Yes, we are still humans, the robots did not take over... yet. We hope we'll manage to keep them from getting evil.

You are right, you can replace the battery with a similar 12V 5AH or a 12V 7AH (double physical size). A larger battery takes longer to charge and discharge, but we usually add more stuff that sometimes even with a larger battery the number of working hours is reduced. Just open the box, unplug the old battery, get a larger case and mount everything inside (battery, switch, charger and power connectors). I added a second power connector (wired in parallel with the original one) for additional devices.

Good luck!

Slawek · « **Reply #104 on:** October 15, 2010, 05:46:40 AM »

Hi everyone,

I am student and I am studying at University of Science and Technology. I am on the 4th year and
I am writing Bachelor's dissertation with the usage of your ERSP Behavior Composer. I am making a vision control system but I have got a little problem and I would be gratefull if you could help me.
Before I implement my program into a robot I need to test it on my computer. To do that I need to
load "unreal" data about odometry or IR sensors outputs. I know that behavior "constant" can load simple data for
example like this:

\doublearray(0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 70.0)

But these data refers to one reading. I need to load data for some readings, for example like:

[ 15.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
[ 12.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
[ 10.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
[ 8.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
[ 7.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]
[ 5.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ]

but I do not know how to do that. I tried to load some data in the *.txt format but it did not work.
It is very importart for me and I would be very gratefull if you could help me.

kevinvr · « **Reply #105 on:** November 13, 2010, 11:54:08 AM »

I am so happy that this thread is still alive.
Kendy my er1 robot is still functioning and I basically just use it to play with. i would like to do something useful with it, but am not a programmer and only have vacation times to work/play with it.
Will post some pics when I get a chance.

Fatfrank69 · « **Reply #106 on:** December 16, 2010, 09:29:29 AM »

Hi again everyone,

I have a bunch of questions I hope you don't mind me asking.

Has anyone else seen the Heathkit Hero 1 from the 80's. A great bit of robot kit, they company have brought out a new one (basically a White Box rebadged with a different OS) but they want about $10,000 for the top model?! Crazy. Makes you realise how good value the ER1 is.

So basically I'd like to make my ER1 a bit more like a conventional robot ie not relying upon the Robot Control Centre software, how do I go about this? And also is it possible to interface other sensors into it? I'm finding it pretty hard to find an ER1 gripper arm anywhere, so I'm thinking the best way is to use another gripper/robotic arm and interface this with the ER1, any ideas how to go about this?

Cheers,
Tim

lupinoxp · « **Reply #107 on:** December 16, 2010, 03:06:10 PM »

Quote from: Fatfrank69 on December 16, 2010, 09:29:29 AM

Hi again everyone,

I have a bunch of questions I hope you don't mind me asking.

Has anyone else seen the Heathkit Hero 1 from the 80's. A great bit of robot kit, they company have brought out a new one (basically a White Box rebadged with a different OS) but they want about $10,000 for the top model?! Crazy. Makes you realise how good value the ER1 is.

So basically I'd like to make my ER1 a bit more like a conventional robot ie not relying upon the Robot Control Centre software, how do I go about this? And also is it possible to interface other sensors into it? I'm finding it pretty hard to find an ER1 gripper arm anywhere, so I'm thinking the best way is to use another gripper/robotic arm and interface this with the ER1, any ideas how to go about this?

Cheers,
Tim

Hello, I'm doing something similar
http://picasaweb.google.com/lupinoxp/RobotZeus?feat=directlink

Fatfrank69 · « **Reply #108 on:** December 21, 2010, 09:27:50 AM »

Thats very nice, looks really good. Alot cheaper than the actual White Box's I'm guessing? How are you planning on doing the electronics?

Would a solution to my above question be to use something like Roborealm or Robotsee? Does anyone know if these will interface with an ER1?

dmikits · « **Reply #109 on:** February 05, 2011, 03:28:47 PM »

Hello all,
Is anyone still running their er1. I got mine late 2003 and have reconfigured it many times. From the stock er1 model to the last couple being built inside trash cans and running with mini itx boards. This last version is definely the most robust hardware wise. I have never seen the ersp software. Does it help with the limitations of the rcc? -sequencing from multiple behaviors, triggering from hobby ports, interrupt motion behaviors while waiting to load others...... Has anyone got slick solutions to behavior dilemmas? I've played with this GUI a long time and feel like I'm stagnating. My bot is always on, charges itself, navigates the house and watches the door when i'm gone. Guests always laugh when we enter and the robot challenges us and threatens to email the boss.
dm

dmikits · « **Reply #110 on:** February 05, 2011, 03:41:51 PM »

Picts

kevinvr · « **Reply #111 on:** February 06, 2011, 06:30:13 AM »

nice pictures!

Can anyone help me?
I am trying to use Abe's Er1 remote program and having problems with it. It keeps telling me I have a bad password and if I remove the password part from the config file it still gives an error message.
Thanks
Kevin.

Ro-Bot-X · « **Reply #112 on:** February 06, 2011, 08:18:43 AM »

If anyone interested, make me an offer!
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=13175.0

sparta98 · « **Reply #113 on:** February 20, 2011, 01:14:55 PM »

Quote from: SciTech02 on November 22, 2008, 08:23:41 PM

The reason I created this thread is because the ER1 robot is officially dead to the company that created it. The original forums are gone, there is no more customer service, and you can no longer buy one (except off eBay). Finding in-depth information about it on the web is nearly impossible, as most websites dedicated to it were forgoten about when support was terminated. The few people that still own, use, and customize them are scattered across the world wide web. Some have moved on to other projects, while a few others (like me) may have discovered the ER1 robot for the first time and have no place to discuss it. That is the reason I created this thread; to create a place where we can discuss, ask questions, give answers, and document the ER1 robot, ERSP and any other related concept. Another reason is to bring the scattered ER1 users together, so we may better answer each others questions and display what can be done with the ER1, ERSP, etc.

At the time of this post's writting, there are two ER1 robot owners on this forum; me (SciTech02) and Ro-Bot-X. We are still developing ours, but the information we've gathered and shared is large. We will now discuss our ER1s here. If there are any ER1 robot owners or anyone interested, feel free to post and let us know that there are still interested people out there.

I'll start the thread with a short summary of my ER1. It is currently in an original, unmodified state (no accessories, yet). I have developed a pathfinding program for it that is written in Python, uses an A* (A-star) based algorithm, and uses the RCC API commands. Here's a link with more details: http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=5666.0 My current goal is to create a map of my entire house, so it can find its way to any location in it and find a place to charge its batteries (an eventual docking port).

The phrases I've highlighted include most of the reasons robots kill people. =D

jmurray5 · « **Reply #114 on:** March 27, 2011, 12:03:51 AM »

Hello all,
I purchased my er-1 And by the time I got around to playing with it the company dumped the support. SO I will be asking for oodles of help.
thanks in advance

urro · « **Reply #115 on:** April 04, 2011, 04:56:42 PM »

Hello! I'm happy to see this thread awaked again!

My ER1 can be viewed at www.mundorobot.info (see the hardware section)

The web is still under construction. In the following weeks I will make available the ERSP wrapper I use to control the ER1 with Player (see my previous post in this thread)

to lync: yes, ERSP API works pretty well. It overcomes all limitations of the RCC

to Fatfrank69: you can connect sensors to the RCM as long as they provide readings as an analog voltage, as the Sharp IR, or MaxSonar range-finders

Er1 · « **Reply #116 on:** April 23, 2011, 07:05:53 PM »

Howdy everyone, I too have an ER1. I ordered it in late 2002 for Christmas after stumbling upon it on the internet. I put it together, did some simple tasks, drove it around like a remote control car (my favorite) then put it in my closet. It has sat there at my parents house for the last 9 years. I just pulled it out today, looks like both batteries aren't working anymore. $:-\$ Looks like i'll be ordering some..

ER1_Hack · « **Reply #117 on:** May 17, 2011, 04:49:59 PM »

I bought my ER-1 shortly after it was released and was lucky enough to purchase expansion packs, the gripper and some other goodies while they were still available.

At the time I had it rigged to grab beers from a table in the kitchen and bring them to me in the living room, as well as greet people at the door and lead back to the living room - that got some pretty good looks.

I put it away in about 2005 and it's been collecting dust since then. But now that I've found this thread, it's kind of rekindled my curiosity -- y'all are GENIUSES!!

I'm looking forward to getting back into seeing what can be done with the ER1. Too bad it was 10 years ahead of it's time; perhaps Evolution would have been able to stay with it.

HEROman · « **Reply #118 on:** May 18, 2011, 04:29:39 PM »

Amazing the old ER1 links are dead!
I just finished restoring and upgrading my old HERO robots and decided to put together a custom version Of the ER1 robot using the unassembled parts I purchased some time ago. It has all the original parts, including an expansion kit, gripper arm and IR sensors.
I found that the ER1 RCC software CD ( v. 1.2.0.127 on label) loaded as ER1 1.0.0.93-2 (on the computer description).
After loading, I found that the program was not as shown in the downloaded User Manual version 1.20, in that it lacked the IR sensor tab,push to talk, and display functions.
I tried to contact the Evolution technical support via their website contact window, offering to buy the latest ER1 CD they made, with no response.
Can any one tell me if they have latest version of RCC software that matches the functionality shown in the v. 1.20 User Manual i.e. IR sensor interface, etc., and, what version it is, and if I can get a copy.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you

HEROman · « **Reply #119 on:** May 19, 2011, 04:05:19 PM »

Thanks to Ro-Bot-X for sharing the latest ER1 RCC software update, my ER1 has a new lease on life and unlimited future possibilities.
It looked like a pile of junk when I started and now it looks like my ZTR riding lawnmower!
Used all but a few of the parts I had on hand.
Using a Panasonic Toughbook CF-29 for the brains, and wondering what would be a good web cam to use in place of the original one, that would have a microphone built-in for sufficient audio input.
Any suggestions regarding voice recognition experience would be welcome.

News:

Author Topic: Evolution Robotics, ER1 Robot, and ERSP Thread. (Read 113962 times)