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[edit] People
[edit] Overview
Ursa Minor (the old bear-lookin' robot) is in need of some software attention. We intend to turn it into an outreach robot (something we can display all nice to other people) so it needs some work. Currently, it can do hobo-mode (drive around and avoid people using its laser range finder) and it can be driven using the remote.
[edit] What's to be done
The current software is fairly close to atrocious; It's relatively undocumented, over-complicated, and there's a half-ton of unused code. What we would like to do is rewrite the low level drivers to ease development of high level software. We wouldn't need much, just a bit of an abstraction for the serial communication to the microcontroller so that we can send some motor commands. We would also need to get access to the images coming in off the cameras, and the data from the GPS. We may even be able to do this in Java.
[edit] Current restoration goals
- Wiimote control: Use a wiimote to drive Ursa Minor around.
- This would require writing some abstraction for the serial communication to the microcontroller
- Live feed of the cameras: Display what the robot is seeing through its firewire cameras.
- We would need to access the data coming in off each of the 3 cameras.
- GPS Tours: Have Ursa Minor give guided tours of campus
- We would need to access GPS data, write something to store and drive to waypoints as well as a text-to-speech type of thing.
[edit] Progress
A new 'hardware abstraction layer' is in the works. This will consist of a library of objects which makes manipulation of the hardware easier.
To start, we will have a few objects representing a MicroController, and a Motor, and we will develop these as part of the integration of a wiimote. This will make it much easier for future programs to control the motors and reduce the hassle in developing new modes of operation.
