RoboSavvy Forum

RE: Pics and Vids

2007-08-16T14:39:45+01:00

As soon as I and the bot are in the same town, I'm currently travelling for work. Should be able to get something up next weekend.

MadDog Joe

Statistics: Posted by MadDogJoe — Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:39 pm

Old Roboticist - New Here Though!

2007-08-16T00:00:15+01:00

Can you (MadDogJoe)please post photos/vidoes of your modified Robonova?

Charles

Statistics: Posted by JavaRN — Thu Aug 16, 2007 12:00 am

Old Roboticist - New Here Though!

2007-08-15T22:45:35+01:00

If I can find a UK supplier (under £150) I might buy my self one for Christmas, I'm not much of a C programmer (or should I say I've tried but I can't think in C) so I'll need a small tutorial (or month intensive course?)

I've already chosen one quicker solution ie I built a kit instead of designing a Humanoid robot from scratch......I'd still be cutting and bending aluminium this time next year. For now I will continue with my cheap alternative...I might learn something...?
Maybe a CMUCAM4 for RoboNova-2

Thanks for information

Chris

Statistics: Posted by NovaOne — Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:45 pm

RE: Intelligent Camera System

2007-08-15T22:12:12+01:00

JavaRN,

Don't get me wrong, the CMU algorithms are OK, but they need a tremendous amount of refinement to really work well for my applications. I've optimized most (and thrown away several) of the algorithms, but that is the great thing about this particular system, it is really opened up so you can use it for your own stuff.

Since I was a Field App Engineer for most every micro line at one point I've got all the tools, but the tools necessary for the great little ARM micros they used (NXP formerly Philips) are free and I didn't have to whip up a board for the eye on my 'bot. Just a big time saver.

NovaRN,

You can use ANY CIF camera, another cool idea. It is an industry standard so if you can make an adapter for it, you can make it work. The board they have their camera mounted on is ~42x30mm, which for me wasnt too big, but you could probably trim it down to the size of the camera ~15x15mm if you made a cable to fan it out the the boards pins.

I noticed on your RN1 you have what look like the gameboy units with the Mitshubishi chip. With a little code hacking you could change the interface to read the data out of them, but the algorithms would suffer since the data is at a lower resolution.

MadDog Joe

Statistics: Posted by MadDogJoe — Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:12 pm

Vision Systems

2007-08-15T21:27:23+01:00

At this point I might sound "strange" or conservative but I prefer coding my own algorithms, do some research and then coding them using Java and communicate my results to the robot (you know my system by now) rather than buying "ready-made" products that can do object detection.

The cameras that can do object detection are surely fantastic but I've chosen the area of robotics as my hobby so that I find time to investigate and do research on various topics - Object detection, shortest paths, OCR etc that in my opinion is what makes this hobby so interesting.

Charles

Statistics: Posted by JavaRN — Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:27 pm

Old Roboticist - New Here Though!

2007-08-15T19:44:39+01:00

That really impressive.....I've just started making a very simple vision system (I'm at the capture stage) and reading your description and the data sheet make me think, that I'm reinventing the wheel............except my wheel is square...

How small can the cameras be "hacked" down to..dimensions please...in millimeters?

Chris

Statistics: Posted by NovaOne — Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:44 pm

Re: Intelligent Camera System

2007-08-15T14:51:01+01:00

It is based on the Carnegie-Mellon University CMUCam3.

http://www.seattlerobotics.com/cmucam3.htm

It automatically runs different detection algorithms (finding walls and safe places to move to, locating objects, etc.) Since it is an open platform, I modified it to feed me the pan and tilt information. I remotely located the camera in the pan and tilt and mounted the rest of the processor in the body. (I'm making some custom body panels from carbon fiber to change the chest shape for all the electronics.

That tells me what it is looking at and lets me adjust the body to match and move. (Think of the way a dog moves when it chases a frisbee, it constantly tracks the frisbee with its head and then moves its whole body around to match the head, I'm doing basically the same thing.)

MadDog Joe

Statistics: Posted by MadDogJoe — Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:51 pm

Old Roboticist - New Here Though!

2007-08-15T06:39:21+01:00

Please tell me more about your intelligent camera system.

Chris

Statistics: Posted by NovaOne — Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:39 am

Old Roboticist - New Here Though!

2007-08-15T00:06:01+01:00

Just a quick intro, I'm an Electrical Engineer that is a member of a consultant group. Been designing and building 'bots since I was 14, (gad that's almost 30 years now!) Currently working on several but I recently acquired a RN-1.

Added 3-axis gyro, Bluesmirf, Quadravox, Devantec sensors, Bauermechs grippers, and currently adding intelligent camera system.

I'll get some photos and videos up in the near future. Mean time, most of my expertise is in electronics, robot physics, and AI systems. So look for improved walking / movement algorithms, etc. soon.

MadDog Joe

Statistics: Posted by MadDogJoe — Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:06 am