To create A General Multipurpose platform for Robotics Applications.

Google Summer of Code
1

PROPOSAL:To create A General Multipurpose platform for Robotics Applications.

The platform will have,

Hardware Interface Board

  1. An IMU device (3 axis Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, GPS, Pressure sensor,etc.)
  2. Wireless Link ( RF- Remote Control System, Wireless Comms (for sensor data and video link))
  3. Motor Control and Actuator ports
  4. Camera mount with pan and tilt capabilities
  5. Misc expansion ports for other sensors depending on application

Software Side:

  1. Software API’s to interface sensors and collect data
  2. PID control software for motor control and actuators
  3. Signal Processing and Autonomous control
  4. API’s for video processing and streaming
  5. Implementaion of OSD for video feed
  6. GUI frontend
  7. Diagnostic software for entire system
  8. Tutorial for DIYers

DESCRIPTION

  1. The hardware platform is a basic interface cape with the barebone sensors
    for the IMU device along with expansion ports for other sensors. There
    will be sockets to connect the Wireless connectivity devices and ports
    to plugin ESC’s for motors and actuators. The camera mount can either be
    integrated on the cape or as a seperate unit.
  2. The sensors are interfaced using appropriate APIs for each type of sensor depending
    on the connectors used. Appropriate drivers will be written or included for the wireless
    link used.
  3. There will be APIs made for collecting all the data from the sensors and logging it on
    the onboard memory or an external SD card for retrieval at a later date by the user.
  4. PID control blocks will be implemented, one for each type of motor or actuator to enable
    the user to accurately control the motion of the vehicle in the required direction and set
    parameters such as speed, orientation and location.
  5. A skeletal code is created which uses the sensor data and basic DSP algorithms to provide
    an effective and easy control system by providing a fly/drive by wire interface. This is
    basically an autopilot system which will make minute corrections to the flight/drive characteristics
    to ensure stabilization and smoother movement.
  6. Autonomous control will be implemented for simple tasks such as object avoidance, point to point travel and
    following of predefined path which will be created using the GUI frontend.
  7. Drivers for different webcams will be implemented and tested with the gstreamer plugin to obtain real time
    feed. The video will also be processed onboard and overlayed with the sensor data to provide an on screed display
    akin to a Heads Up Display (HUD).
  8. The Graphical User Interface will provide means to control the robot, program the path, display the video feed,
    overlay current position over a moving map display, and an interface to access logged data.
  9. The diagnostic software will evaluate the system by performing simple system and hardware checks to ensure
    that it is fully functional and only then allow deployment.
  10. Full documentation will be available along with the software and hardware schematics under the
    Creative Commons License. Documentation will provide step by step instructions for building of the system
    from scratch.

Experience:

I am an Electrical Engineering student, I have worked with MSP430, BBxM and Beaglebone. I have constructed a Wirelessly controlled
Robot with live video stream, motor control and object avoidance. I have used an IMU device for indoor positioning on this robot.
I also have experience with the CC2530 zigbee kit and ez430-rf256X Bluetooth kit.

My Friend and I are very interested in working on this Project as team (we will split the stipend)

My Friends Experience:
An Electronics Engineering Student, has experience with PCB design. Has done Arduino programming for many robotics related projects
Knows C++ and Java, has experience with Android Development.

I request mentors and fellow students to give inputs on this proposal.

Thank You

Siddhartha Kumar

2

PROPOSAL:To create A General Multipurpose platform for Robotics Applications.

The platform will have,

Hardware Interface Board

  1. An IMU device (3 axis Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, GPS, Pressure sensor,etc.)
  2. Wireless Link ( RF- Remote Control System, Wireless Comms (for sensor data and video link))
  3. Motor Control and Actuator ports
  4. Camera mount with pan and tilt capabilities
  5. Misc expansion ports for other sensors depending on application

There needs to be a way to use the software component using stuff that can be fairly easily acquired today.

Software Side:

  1. Software API’s to interface sensors and collect data
  2. PID control software for motor control and actuators
  3. Signal Processing and Autonomous control
  4. API’s for video processing and streaming
  5. Implementaion of OSD for video feed
  6. GUI frontend
  7. Diagnostic software for entire system
  8. Tutorial for DIYers

Do you have a starting point for this? Why should we be confident you can define a highly reusable API?

DESCRIPTION

  1. The hardware platform is a basic interface cape with the barebone sensors
    for the IMU device along with expansion ports for other sensors. There
    will be sockets to connect the Wireless connectivity devices and ports
    to plugin ESC’s for motors and actuators. The camera mount can either be
    integrated on the cape or as a seperate unit.
  2. The sensors are interfaced using appropriate APIs for each type of sensor depending
    on the connectors used. Appropriate drivers will be written or included for the wireless
    link used.
  3. There will be APIs made for collecting all the data from the sensors and logging it on
    the onboard memory or an external SD card for retrieval at a later date by the user.
  4. PID control blocks will be implemented, one for each type of motor or actuator to enable
    the user to accurately control the motion of the vehicle in the required direction and set
    parameters such as speed, orientation and location.
  5. A skeletal code is created which uses the sensor data and basic DSP algorithms to provide
    an effective and easy control system by providing a fly/drive by wire interface. This is
    basically an autopilot system which will make minute corrections to the flight/drive characteristics
    to ensure stabilization and smoother movement.
  6. Autonomous control will be implemented for simple tasks such as object avoidance, point to point travel and
    following of predefined path which will be created using the GUI frontend.
  7. Drivers for different webcams will be implemented and tested with the gstreamer plugin to obtain real time
    feed. The video will also be processed onboard and overlayed with the sensor data to provide an on screed display
    akin to a Heads Up Display (HUD).
  8. The Graphical User Interface will provide means to control the robot, program the path, display the video feed,
    overlay current position over a moving map display, and an interface to access logged data.
  9. The diagnostic software will evaluate the system by performing simple system and hardware checks to ensure
    that it is fully functional and only then allow deployment.
  10. Full documentation will be available along with the software and hardware schematics under the
    Creative Commons License. Documentation will provide step by step instructions for building of the system
    from scratch.

I appreciate how you’ve broken out the steps, but some of them still seem pretty big.

Experience:

I am an Electrical Engineering student, I have worked with MSP430, BBxM and Beaglebone. I have constructed a Wirelessly controlled
Robot with live video stream, motor control and object avoidance. I have used an IMU device for indoor positioning on this robot.
I also have experience with the CC2530 zigbee kit and ez430-rf256X Bluetooth kit.

Do you have any experience making sure other people could reproduce your work?

My Friend and I are very interested in working on this Project as team (we will split the stipend)

My Friends Experience:
An Electronics Engineering Student, has experience with PCB design. Has done Arduino programming for many robotics related projects
Knows C++ and Java, has experience with Android Development.

I request mentors and fellow students to give inputs on this proposal.

Have you been engaging with the mentors on #beagle and #beagle-gsoc? Have any of them given you any feedback yet?

3

Thank you for looking into my project proposal

I have built API’s for Serial Communication with UART enabled devices for the beaglebone. and A simple API for motor control for the Beaglboard -XM(using PWM) that was utilized by many in my group for different tasks. It is true that i have never produced any software till date that can be utilized by the general public and this is something I will need mentoring in. I am confident that I can produce the API’s but to make them user friendly, easy to understand and debug would be the main challenge.
As for a starting point I do have code that can interface with MSP430, Arduinos and Zigbee/Wifi Modules. The main part that i will have to start work on is building API’s for off the shelf sensor interfaces. IMUs and GPS modules usually use I2C to relay data and other Analog sensors can be connected to the many ADC’s available on the beaglebone.

We are looking only to use off the shelf components for this project.

I have received no positive responses or feedback as of now . This is actually my first reply, I was loosing all hope.

If required we could break down the project to a more achievable size,
( We could remove the the Frontend GUI and OSD parts for now and work on them if time permits)

Please let me know if any other information is required . I will try my luck again on the IRC to see if any mentors are interested.