Posted Wednesday, February 18, 2009 9:47 PM:
I have been tweaking my test application. Over the weekend I added a
serial port connect / disconnect though I like Wingers (a Roboticsconnection.com forum menber)
serial connection better. I may borrow it and add to it as I don't like hard coding in things
like ports and their setup info.
Added graphic displays for ranges. My distance sensors are in inches
within their own ranges. Battery voltage is in volts DC.
' Home P/T' centers the Pan/Tilt servo's facing forward and upright.
'Disable P/T' is for conserving power. Once a servo has been sent a value it
stays loaded. For this application where there is no significant weight it is
ok to disable them when not needed to re-aim.
It is getting time to add some movement functionality but I am not too
excited about basic object avoidance where the bot wanders around until out
of power or I get bored and stop it. However, that being said, I still must
muddle through some object avoidance as it is a necessity for the robots free roaming.
Posted Sunday, April 19, 2009 6:09 PM:
This weekend I got some very simplistic navigation code together.
It is made up mostly from bits and pieces of the Roboticsconnection
libraries. It is of course tuned for my TracksBot with some of my own coding.
It uses two front Sharp GP2D12 for leftIr and rightIr and a MaxEZ3 for front,
rearIr is handled by a Sharp GP2D120. These Sharp Infrared distance meauring
devices are excellent for my applications. Here is a image of the control running.
Posted Sunday April 26, 2009 12:40 PM:
Having done more refinements on the Console application in the autonomous
portion, I am now up to an estimated 70% self navigation success. Some tests
of my obstacle course offer 100%. TracksBot travels about 50 feet round trip in a J shaped
course avoiding objects along the way, reaches a dead end (front door and staircase),
manuvers a turnaround and returns to the beginning. All this is being done with only the
Tri-track, Serializer WL with XBee, sensors and battery pack making up TracksBot. My
Sony laptop is recieving sensor data from and sending navigation data back to TracksBot.
This self navigation (autonomous) mode gives TracksBot a more lifelike persona.
Posted Wednesday, June 02, 2010 9:00 PM:
It's been a while since I made an update. Most recently i have been working on my C# TracksBot testing application.
I added a Sharp GP2Y0A02YK IR sensor to my Pan/Tilt assembly. This application has a radar like scan feature that
pans with the Maxbotix Ez3 or Sharp GP20A02YK to record data for graphing for future navigation use. A bonus
feature of this app is that it locates the nearest objects front center and reports that direction relative to
TracksBot's heading. In the image the Pan IR is obviously the GP20A02YK sensor.
In this sample I am scanning with the Sonar. I still need to modify the code to switch between the two sensors.
With the IR's narrow beam I hope for better accuracy in TracksBot's autonomous navigation.
I changed my power indicator to a continous bar which changed its accuracy. I'll be tweaking on that.
© , 2009 -2030
Created:4/25/2009, last edit 04/01/2018 by Don Lewis