Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Electronics => Electronics => Topic started by: AceNZ on October 14, 2010, 08:28:41 AM

Title: Looking for parts for a stereo color camera with dual tilt-and-pan
Post by: AceNZ on October 14, 2010, 08:28:41 AM

I'm looking for parts to build a remote control type robot with two color cameras and two tilt-and-pan platforms to hold them.  I would like to be able to control the cameras from software running on my desktop.  I need at least 10 fps (pulse-per-frame, not free-running).  I'd like 1024x1024 non-interpeaved pixels or more, but I'll settle for 640x480 if I have to (prefer raw/lossless compression, but JPG is acceptable).  To help simplify the software, I would also like to be able to tell the cameras exactly when to capture a frame, both to keep them synchronized to within a few milliseconds or less and to avoid capturing images when the tilt-pan platform is moving.

I'm planning to add motors, wheels and a quite a few more sensors later, but I only need the cameras and the tilt-pan setup at first.

WiFi is probably best, although Bluetooth might be OK if it can support the range (50 to 60 ft) and data rate.

I've been a realtime/embedded software engineer for decades, but this is my first robotics project.  Any suggestions on parts, suppliers, software, etc, would be most appreciated.  Cost is always a factor, but quality and ease of use are important, too.

Title: Re: Looking for parts for a stereo color camera with dual tilt-and-pan
Post by: thx123 on October 14, 2010, 04:36:10 PM

For what your looking for, i'd start here:

http://www.surveyor.com/ (http://www.surveyor.com/)

Title: Re: Looking for parts for a stereo color camera with dual tilt-and-pan
Post by: AceNZ on October 14, 2010, 04:51:08 PM

I looked at the Surveyor product line.

Is it possible to control two of the Blackfin cameras from a single CPU, so that their image capture times can be synchronized?

I noticed their stereo setup, but it has a fixed mount, rather than two separately mountable cameras.  If I did use their products, I'm not quite sure exactly which components I would need to drive WiFi and two pan-and-tilt heads.

I've also heard that the Surveyor CPU line can only do one thing at a time (single-threaded), so it can be slow in responding to certain commands.

Is it possible to drive two Blackfin cameras from an Axon board, along with two pan-and-tilt heads and a WiFi card?