Eddie bot Autonomous Example
Hey all,
I am just diving into this head first.
I am trying to help some college students revive an Eddiebot platform.
We have the base platform running, it is:
Microsoft Robotics Development Studio
The Parallax Eddie Distribution Kit
Kinect SDK1.0
The challenge I am having is the next step. We have the robot running and drivable, but the goal is to make it autonomous. I am struggling to figure out where in the distributed code to enable autonomous features.
If someone can give me a hint or even better sample code then I am sure we can take it from there.
We only have a couple of days to do this am I am hoping this group can jumpstart us.
Thanks All!
I am just diving into this head first.
I am trying to help some college students revive an Eddiebot platform.
We have the base platform running, it is:
Microsoft Robotics Development Studio
The Parallax Eddie Distribution Kit
Kinect SDK1.0
The challenge I am having is the next step. We have the robot running and drivable, but the goal is to make it autonomous. I am struggling to figure out where in the distributed code to enable autonomous features.
If someone can give me a hint or even better sample code then I am sure we can take it from there.
We only have a couple of days to do this am I am hoping this group can jumpstart us.
Thanks All!
Comments
Awhile back I ported the Eddie firmware for use with the Arlo hardware. Here's a link to the thread where Ken Gracey originally requested volunteers for this task.
In the process of converting the code to run on a Propeller Activity Board, I also modified the original Eddie firmware with the improvements Ken requested.
IMO, you'll be better off using the latest Eddie firmware available from my GitHub repository. You'll want to download the archive "Eddie - Archive [Date 2015.01.01 Time 20.21].zip."
Besides adding the ARC command, I also improved the speed control algorithm.
If you're using more than one Ping sensor, you'll want to make sure to use this latest firmware. The original firmware triggered all the Ping sensors simultaneously. This simultaneous technique caused interference between the sensors.
I think I also added a "SERVO" command which made it easy to add hobby servos to the robot.
I think these improvements will likely make updating the firmware worth the bother.
I don't have an original Eddie control board. I tested the firmware using a pair of MC33926 h-bridge chips. You can see an early test using this hardware here.
While I imagine the firmware should behave as expected using an Eddie control board, I have not heard of anyone using this firmware with the original hardware. I'm very interested to learn if the firmware behaves as expected.
I'll be glad to help with any firmware related questions.
I believe the code providing autonomous features would normally be written using Microsoft Robotics Development Studio. The Eddie control board acts a slave device to the PC. The PC requests data from the Propeller over a serial connection and issues commands over this same connection.
If you're using Ping sensors, the PC will need to request the distance information from the Propeller and make decision based on this information. I imagine data from the Kinects sensor would be used in combination with the Ping data to determine distances to various obstacles.
The PC would control the robot's movement by either issuing speed commands or distance commands to the Propeller.