Robot Tank Vision System
Hello!
New to the forum here and looking to get some help regarding a vision system for a robotic tank. I am a senior manufacturing engineering student and this is my advanced robotics I and II project.
We use parallax and propeller tools in our programming embedded systems class, so we will use parallax products in this project as well. I am responsable for the programing of our tanks vision system. I'm no expert, but I was told to use a GPS module (from parallax) and use some sort of Lidar type of system with the GPS to get the tank to autonomosly position itself and move.
Does anyone have any experience with things like this? Any advice? I would like to use parallax products just to keep this simple so pleaes keep that in mind!
Thanks!
New to the forum here and looking to get some help regarding a vision system for a robotic tank. I am a senior manufacturing engineering student and this is my advanced robotics I and II project.
We use parallax and propeller tools in our programming embedded systems class, so we will use parallax products in this project as well. I am responsable for the programing of our tanks vision system. I'm no expert, but I was told to use a GPS module (from parallax) and use some sort of Lidar type of system with the GPS to get the tank to autonomosly position itself and move.
Does anyone have any experience with things like this? Any advice? I would like to use parallax products just to keep this simple so pleaes keep that in mind!
Thanks!
Comments
This is very interesting. Please keep us up to date on your progress.
I've used a wireless video camera to remotely/manually guide my tank 'bot around. 'Twas fun!
Amanda
http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/gps/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/396/Default.aspx
If you really do mean LIDAR I hope you've saved your milk money. They're very expensive, even surplus. If this is a model tank, as opposed to full-size tank, and the range is under about 10 feet, there's this form of laser-based distance measurement:
http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/rangefinder/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/774/Default.aspx
And, assuming your robot tank is in scale as opposed to full size, supplement sensor array with one or more of the following:
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Sensors/ObjectDetection/tabid/176/txtSearch/rangefinder/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/92/Default.aspx
http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/txtSearch/infrared/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/776/Default.aspx
-- Gordon
http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/
-dan
Another possiblity is to use the camera from a WiiMote.
I've toyed with Hanno's machine vision method.
Phil Pilgrim has figured out how to capture a color image using a Prop and a few passives. He also has a black and white capture method.
Duane
-Tommy
Were using the CMUcam3 on the weapon turret. We'll use it to identify a target. Has anyone used that type of camera in a simiar application?
Any other thoughts, advice would be greatly appreciate!!!
I was also wanted to add the CMUcam4 (used with a laser) to the list of of possible range finders. I looks like the CMUcam4 wont be availible until summer of 2012.
I think the WiiMote range finder would be the less expensive than using the the Parallax LRF.
I don't think any of the range finders metioned tie in directly to a GPS unit. That's what the Propeller is for.
Depending on the GPS object you use, you might be able to free up some cogs. I was able to save a cog by using F32 (only uses one cog and is faster than the two cog version) instead of the other floating point object. I think I saved two other cogs by using a multi port serial driver instead of having separate serial drivers for the GPS and terminal link.
Do plan to have a wireless connection to your tank?
I like the nRF24L01+ Nordic transceivers. They're faster, smaller and less expensive than XBees. They're more diffecult to use than XBees, but I've written an object that makes using them with the Propeller pretty easy.
Duane