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[DPRG] BOOTSTRAP RoboMagellan Project at PARTS
Subject: [DPRG] BOOTSTRAP RoboMagellan Project at PARTS
From: Robert F. Scheer
rfscheer at speakeasy.net
Date: Sat Jan 5 22:02:35 CST 2008
Hi all,
At today's monthly Portland Area Robotics Society meeting there was
tremendous interest (~15 people wanting to be part) in a project that
I've spent a little time organizing but is still in the formative
stages. Maybe some of you know of similar efforts elsewhere or perhaps
you have a keen interest in participating yourself.
The goal of the BOOTSTRAP project is to design, build, thoroughly test
and document a $500 RoboMagellan so that virtually anyone could order up
the parts, put it together in a week or two and have a working robot
that could make it around an SRS RoboMagellan course successfully.
The $500 is definitely very aggressive and may not be feasible. But
that's the goal. That does not include the main "computer" and camera
because everyone wants to do that their own way. So we're intending to
support any main processor that can host Linux, provide a host USB port
and also interface either a USB cam or an RS232 cam like CMUcam 1,2 or 3
or AVRcam.
We're imagining some people would want to use laptops, maybe XO's, Eee
PC's, Intel Classmates, mini-ITX's and perhaps Tin Can Tools' Hammer
(miniature ARM9 board) and probably others.
Hopefully, the first BOOTSTRAP(s) would debut at the May 2009 PDXBot
here in Portland. That's the goal.
The project would develop along 4 fronts:
1. the chassis (frame, wheels, motors, shell....)
2. sensorimotor board(s) (along with sonar, touch, encoder interface,
motor drivers, battery supply...)
3. AHRS (IMU-compass)
4. main navigation and vision code for the main processor
The point is to make it easier for everyone to get involved with SRS
RoboMagellan. No more excuses. Of course, there are endless
possibilities for modifications and improvements to the standard
BOOTSTRAP robot and that's part of the point.
Separate groups are forming around each of the above 4 sections of the
project. The first and maybe in some ways most important one is already
starting prototyping, ie #3. We're hoping to be able to provide the
important gyro/accel/magnetometer AHRS unit for $150 and that's with
software running either on the main processor to do extended Kalman
filtering or on a local micro. There is some documentation on the
Sparkfun forums and Sourceforge and the PSAS project at PSU and this
will be a very useful head start.
The chassis group is not yet organized but has the commitment of one of
our members for full machining of chassis parts in his advanced fab
(multi-mega-axis-automated-CNC-do-it-all-machines) at cost. We believe
this will result in a low cost but high quality chassis well adapted for
RoboMagellan. We're not thinking of a jBot style platform unfortunately
because that would probably be too expensive. In fact, the intense
pressure to keep the cost to around $150 will likely result in a low
center-of-gravity trike with 2WD and a passive encoder wheel. It is
supposed to look attractive and defy the common perception of 3-wheelers
as 3-legged dogs. The performance goal is 1.5 m/s and good
maneuverability in all expected conditions for SRS RoboMagellan. 1%
dead-reckoning navigation accuracy is the current goal, which is similar
to jBot.
Part of the reason for this early announcement is to find out if any of
you are aware of other projects already attempting or perhaps have
already succeeded at any of the 4 goals. No reason to duplicate the
wheel.
Another reason is to see how much interest is "out there" and perhaps
recruit some expert developers. I believe we are especially weak at the
moment in the area of computer vision. The goal for vision is to
acquire and track the cone (the actual cone and nothing but the cone)
while on full-speed approach and some day in the future to hope for
visual odometry, obstacle detection and path planning. That may be
projecting a year or two out but just in case there are any CV fanatics
who might join up and shorten that development, now's the time to make
yourself known!
I'm monitoring both SRS and DPRG forums for discussion and of course you
can contact me by private email.
Happy Autonomizing!
- Robert
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