Image processing

[rahulmagoo]

hello

I read a problem statement some where...which said..A bot mounted with camera is to be made such that it recognises the colour of the objects and place the object in there colour area..

As i am not a computer guy but really want to make this bot...can any one tell me any sort of tutorial from where i could learn how to program such that my bot recognises the colour of the objects and basic image processing.

thanks

[Steve Joblin]

check out www.roborealm.com

it is free image processing software that runs on a PC and provides the ability to communicate to your robot.  Very Powerful product... and it's free!

[rahulmagoo]

I downloaded the software...but it is not working properly it does not detect my camera...I have a USB camera.

Can you please tell me any tutorials from where i could read about basic Image Processing and any thing related to what is required to make(code) the bot which recognise the colors(like red green blue).

thanks a lot

[Steve Joblin]

the software does work and works quite well... you can easily use a USB camera... I would post the details of your set-up on their forum to understand why you are having trouble.  If you want to understand about color sensors, check out the tutorials on this site, such as url=http://www.societyofrobots.com/sensors_color.shtml]http://www.societyofrobots.com/sensors_color.shtm

[rahulmagoo]

Thanks for roborealm now it is working perfectly...

Thanks a lot sir

[rahulmagoo]

I have a doubt regarding RoboRealm....how will i use it in my bot

I mean it is a software which is in my computer and the camera attached to my bot will not be connected to my computer...so how will be able to use it.

[izua]

well, your bot will need that software (unless you can recode it from scratch).
how are you going to attach the camera to your bot (software/protocol speaking)? if it has a usb connector how are you going to interpret that singal without a computer?

i think the best guess here is to use a laptop or customized motherboard as the bot's brains.

[Steve Joblin]

the other approach is to create wireless connections between the robot and your PC.  For example, I am using an inexpensive wireless "spy cam" for getting the video from my robot to my PC running RoboRealm.  I then have an inexpensive RF transmitter from my PC to an inexpensive RF receiver on my robot.  The video processing all happens on my PC based on what the robot is looking at... the PC then sends simple serial commands back to the robot to tell it how to drive the motors.

[rahulmagoo]

hello

wireless camera idea is great...i dint understand one thing in your post sir..you are using a wireless cam for taking the video...
the video will get recorded in your laptop or PC..with the help of RoboRealm you can filter the required color...my doubt is how will you communicate back with the robot...i mean the robot has to pick the blocks of required color...how will it be able to know that this block is of our required color(say green)..because all the filtration is done in the laptop and no data is send back to the robot.

Thanks for the help.

[izua]

...the PC then sends simple serial commands back to the robot to tell it how to drive the motors...

the problem here is the transfer media, since the robot can't be tethered. This is one of the possible solutions for RF simplex communication.

[rahulmagoo]

Can you please tell me how will i be able to drive my motors serially or please tell me some tutorials from where i could read about serial programing...that how to control the motors serially
thanks

[Steve Joblin]

You would use a microcontroller on the robot.  it looks for a serial command from the receiver, then processes the command accordingly.

1.  wireless cam on robot captures image and transmits the image to your PC
2.  RoboRealm processes the image and, based on a script you write, determines what serial command to send (for example, based on the image being left of center, send the serial command for turning the robot to the left)
3.  Use the Serial module in RoboRealm to transmit that command out your serial port on your PC
4.  Use a microcontroller to receive the serial command from your PC and transmit it via the RF Transmitter
5.  The RF Receiver on your robot will pick up the signal and send it to a microcontroller on your robot.
6.  The microcontroller on the robot will take in the serial command, then based on the command send instructions to your motor controller on how to drive the motors
7.  Repeat steps 1 through 6.

All of this is clearly documented on the RoboRealm website under the "Color Object Tracking" tutorial at http://www.roborealm.com/tutorial/color_object_tracking_2/slide010.php

[rahulmagoo]

so I would be using two micro controllers 1 for receiving data serially from computer and send it to the other other micro controller which will drive the motors....

I even want you to ask you something if in any competitions if we use roborealm will they allow us to use it...as roborealm simplify the color filtration easily without much of coding required in it as it is required in Matlab or in openCV.

[izua]

First of all, I don't think you should be building this kind of stuff right now. You simply don't seem to have the knowledge to understand how it works, and if something goes wrong (or worse, goes wrong during a competition) you will how no idea how to debug it.

What you should do is start playing with microcontrollers, learn to send and capture serial data using your computer, or two microcontrollers, for example.

Anyway, use of roborealm depends on competition, and it might be allowed, although most competitions explicitly require no external communication.

[Steve Joblin]

I have no idea what the rules of your competition are, so I can't comment on that.  I can provide you this link on how to build a wireless serial solution between your PC and your robot ---> http://rentron.com/Stamp_RF.htm   If you are looking for more examples, try here ---> http://rentron.com/remote.htm

[Admin]

To control a robot, you need to tell Roborealm to output commands to your robot hardware. You can do this by serial to a microcontroller, for example.

It also has special drivers to control some hardware directly, such as the dimensionengineering motor drivers.