Telepresence Robot (XMOS Challenge)
@ September 2, 2009
- Control method: autonomous (very), Wifi connection to Internet
- CPU: XMOS processor(s) performing the low level motor control, pose control etc, mini-ITX PC running linux performing the higher level functions
- Operating system: Pupply Linux
- Power source: 4.5AH 12V NIMH for logic, 2 x 6V 2.5AH NIMH for drive
- Programming language: C++, C, XC, Lisp
- Sensors / input devices: Gameboy Camera, WII Remote IR Camera
- Target environment: indoors mainly
This is a Telepresence robot, it is intended to be connected to the Intenet (Wifi) and allow a remote person to interact with the (remote) environment. Whilst not in telepresence mode it will interact with people locally.
The project is based on the work of the leaf.org with some components from NASA's Claraty project.
High level functions, planning/mapping/video processing is done on a mini-ITX with cut down Linux (puppy) running software ported from the leaf project and Calarity.
Low level functions such as Physical interface management, gyro, servo, motor control and low level sensor fusion and filtering via XMOS processor(s) communitating to the mini-ITX via serial.
Power via two battery packs 1 x 12V NIMH for the logic and 2 x 6v NIMH for drive.
Drive is via 4 320 series motors using spur reduction boxs,
Steering using all four wheel, the principle challenge is that it is intended that this robot to be able to navigate stairs by alternatively balancing on the front and rear wheel sets, the geometery of the "leg"s may be altered to increase and decrease the height and move the CG over the wheels.
The above photo is the back bone of the robot, I am using the head off a Robot Quad, I contacted Wowee and they sold me the neck and head, I could not bring my self to hacking mine! The head will contain 1 x Gameboy Camera and one Wii remot IR Camera and the mic. The head will be mounted to allow yaw, pitch and roll for expression. The PC is running puppy linux with the the graphics removed (all the apps at this stage) and boots from flash. I have built a PC running a similar build except it boots from disk and has the GUI interface left in.
This is a view of the rear, the mini-ITX Board is mounted to a fiberglass sheet which is attached to the backbone using fokker clips, top hat shaped flanges are turned for the top and bottom mounting.
This is one of the wheels, they are Roller Blade wheels with and Alu hub fitted, RC car roller bearing with an RC car gear as the final drive, the wheel mount has a gearbox (18:1) to give approx 49:1. Motor control will be softstart & constant G. I think the Plastic gear will be ok, I am a little concerned about power especially when balancing the motors will bang back and forth a lot.
@ Fri, 2009-09-18 08:30
Ambitious project!
Ambitious project! I will look forward to see more of your progress.. we can learn a lot from here!!!
Keep it up ;)
@ Fri, 2009-09-18 23:31
Ambitious
Hi Guibot,
thank you, I hope I will produce some bits and peices worthy of note.
It is ambitious, I have been building robots for awhile but they have been reasonably simple and stuff which have been done before.
I was planning on building this robot for more than twelve months, then I came across a YDM video and thought I gotta have one of those so I got side tracked a little. The YDM video lead me to LMR so alls good, it is a great site.
thanks again
CW
@ Tue, 2009-09-15 11:53
Wowwee
@ Fri, 2009-09-18 23:26
Wowwee's Head
Hey Benbo,
Sorry to take so long, work is trying to kill me.
I must say the guys at Wowwee were great, from memory it cost my about $40 (aud) including freight.
You get the head and neck, there is a gearmotor/servo in the upper neck, and in the hear there are a few LEDs and IR detectors with a Circuit board for them.
all the best
CW
@ Tue, 2009-09-15 14:11
Would love to see your
Would love to see your port. I really wanted it ported to an arduino mega myself.. that's my processor of choice.. but there was just sooooo much code in the nav and command files that i was very intimidated.
The Quad head from wowwee that I had actually came off a quad that met an untimely end.. it had an ir detector/receiver, a few leds and an ir led. That's all I remember being in there. On a side note, the paralax ping units fit the head perfectly, with no modification. Just pop them in with a little hot glue, and it works perfectly. I never thought about buying one right from wowwee.. that makes a lot more sense than stripping one down.
@ Mon, 2009-09-14 17:18
interesting
Good luck with porting the leaf software over to xmos.. i was attempting this about 5 months ago with arduino.
It seems when you ask questions on their group boards about porting the leaf software over to arduino, they delete your messages. I have posted about 20 messages on there, of which 5 were actually posted, and they did not relate to arduino. The rest of the posts did.
I had considered using leaf in combo with xmos myself for my xmos challenge bot, but I just dont think I am capable of reporting the nav and control software from the leaf project.
Now if you wanted to go in together to see if we can port it to xmos , I would be more than happy to help, as I have already learned quite abit about the leaf project. I really think that the porting of all the work the have already done to a more common processor, or even one that is more avaiilable is a good thing. The processor they are using is $$ and not many places carry it.
Good luck with your adventure in to leaf land.
As a side note, The leaf project is pretty cool, you should all check it out. I have the leaf software running on an old pc now, and it actually does facial recognition, voice recog, and a lot more.
very cool.
LOL, i recognize the head in those pics too! I have it on three of my bots. Think there are a couple of pics of mine on my robots page.
@ Tue, 2009-09-15 04:36
Porting Leaf
Hello Grinan,
If you want I am happy to share the ported code with you.
I will be porting the controller code, but mine will be significantly different to Leaf as I am controlling 4 wheels (drive and steering) leg positions and spine as well as the head pose, very different to leaf, the robot has two distinct kinematic modes, 4 wheel mode, static balance and a 2 wheel inverted pendulm mode.
The south bound side of the interface will be different, I will be using the FTDI interface in the direct connection mode.
all the best
cliff
@ Mon, 2009-09-14 11:23
I assume that the mobo will
@ Mon, 2009-09-14 12:02
Water Proof
Hi Krumlink,
I have not thought about the box yet, its for indoors at the moment.
Suspension is via (at this stage) rubber dampers in the hip joints.
When balancing the suspension works againts me, flexible inverted pendulms are a can of worms!
thank you for the questions
all the best
Cliff
@ Thu, 2009-09-03 06:20
320 series?
What are the 320 series motors? Tell more.