KHR3-HV + Gumstix Overo / Fire

[limor]

The Gumstix + Summit board fit snuggly at an angle into the KHR3 top-part of the back-pack. Some velcro on the back ensures the gumstix stays in place when opening and closing the back-pack.



The aluminum bottom of the internal cavity has a small lip that was getting in the way of the Li-Po battery. We can see how with time the battery's plastic coating may start getting tears so we decided to hammer it down.




Now the battery can easily get in and out of the cavity. The battery's input charging cord can be folded and tucked in with the battery into the internal cavity. The cavity itself can be closed with plastic covers as you will see in later pictures. So the battery now can easily slide in and out without risk of injury. It is very important that battery changes can occur fast during a competition.




The smaller battery is used to power the Gumstix and USB peripherals. We figured that since there is enough space, why not add another battery so that the load is distributed. In fact, it is possible to add another big LiPo under the back-pack (robot's bum) but it would make the robot look awkward and may also interfere in the overall weight distribution.
The Gumstix can't handle 7.4V so we need to use a regulator. We used the Sparkfun DC-DC converter that can drive up to 6Amps and has quite high efficiency at 5V of around 85%. It requires a resistor to be soldered to the breakout board and in the specs there's a conversion table between the resistance and the output regulated voltage. We put a couple of resistors in series totaling around 1.3Ohm which generated around the desired 5V. We ended up replacing the original (red) output connector of the battery with our bulky yellow ones. probably not a good idea since they take up lots of space in the precious back-pack. In January we will make amends.


An old floppy disk flat cable ribbon connector provides some excellent cables for linking the various bits.


Finally for the ultimate photo shoot, all parts are installed inside the robot and external parts are velcroed (one foot bracket is still missing.. remember we used it for the pan-tilt head and we haven't received yet the extra bracket and servo to reconnect the foot).

• 2 wifi-N antennas - their cables just fit perfectly out of the back-pack's bottom side holes.
• USB hub - remember we chose this cheap hub because it has the much sought-after Chinese chip that is known to work with embedded linux systems at high speed driving multiple webcams. The hub has 2 items attached: the webcam and the USB/Serial connector linked to the RCB4. So the Gumstix sees both items through the hub. This whole thing should be reduced down to a strip of PCB with some cables soldered to it.. tbd in January
• Webcam (this webcam was not the one we ultimately chose and that funny retractable cable is definitely not needed.. but it looks good )

We finally finished setting up the KHR3HV with the Gumstix and webcam. The USB hub ended up being outside of the back-pack which is not ideal. In January we will dedicate some time to try and hack the hub and the webcam + USB/Serial Kondo adapter so that all can fit into the backpack

[xanhast]

You really crammed it in!

Good job

This is what my backpack looks like, it's changed a little bit since this was taken and I still need to work out batteries. (Will be doing a similar things with two LiPos as you have done, stop any current spikes from powering the gumstix down)

I have some extra space as I'm using a gumstix verdex pro with the netpro-vx and breakout-vx expansion boards.


The red pcb is an IMU that will be mounted in the chest.

[markv]

i am using gumstix overo fire with summit board, the linux version is
omap3-console-image-overo-201011150741.tar.bz2
from http://www.sakoman.com/feeds/omap3/glib ... 011150741/

i installed all the packages here
opkg install gcc
opkg install gcc-symlinks
opkg install libc6-dev
opkg install binutils
opkg install make
opkg install g++
opkg install g++-symlinks
opkg install libstdc++-dev
opkg install libstdc++6
opkg install task-native-sdk
opkg install cpp
opkg install libusb-0.1-4
opkg install libusb-0.1-dev
opkg install libusb-1.0-0
opkg install libusb-1.0-dev
opkg install libusb-1.0-static
opkg install usbutils
opkg install usbutils-dev
libftdi

when i compile a simple c or c++ file it goes ok but when i run make on libkondo files it give me lots of errors like this.
"
root@overo:/robot# make
gcc -fPIC -pipe -g -MMD -c rcb4.c -o rcb4.o
In file included from rcb4.h:28,
from rcb4.c:20:
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:1: error: expected '=', ',', ';', 'asm' or '__attribute__' before '<' token
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:1: error: stray '@' in program
In file included from rcb4.h:28,
from rcb4.c:20:
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:2:9: error: invalid suffix "d482ebc97ac1d9171dde3a6a34a4a79" on integer constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:4:46: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:4:54: error: invalid suffix "_armv7a.ipk" on floating constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:6: error: stray '@' in program
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:13:10: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:18: error: stray '@' in program
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:19:9: error: invalid suffix "b01713495de9721b6d325661009a7b" on integer constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:21:40: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:21:48: error: invalid suffix "_armv7a.ipk" on floating constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:30:10: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:35: error: stray '@' in program
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:36:9: error: invalid suffix "d09fcfb97a3c17008d6a588e0427" on integer constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:38:40: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:38:48: error: invalid suffix "_armv7a.ipk" on floating constant
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:47:10: error: too many decimal points in number
/usr/local/include/ftdi.h:52: error: stray '@' in program
"

and it goes on and on for more 300 or so lines.
idea someone?

[chrisvo]

and it goes on and on for more 300 or so lines.
idea someone?

Hello, I am the author of libkondo4. We use the library on the Gumstix + Summit using the default libftdi/libusb-0.1 recipe available in OpenEmbedded. We have gotten the RCB-4 to work with both a FTDI module connected to the Summit board host USB and also directly through serial pins on the Summit.

Can you send me a copy of the /usr/local/include/ftdi.h that you have installed on the gumstix? I can compare it to what we use on our Gumstix. I have never seen the error before.

[markv]

I found the error, like chrisvo said the libftdi.h was all wrong it was full of text which didn't look any thing like .h file.
now got it working.
now try to set up openCV on the gumstix.

[kemsulli]

We're having a problem with the voltage shifter and logic inversion circuit from RicardoMarinheiro. We're trying to talk between the Gumstix/Summit and RCB4 using the Rx/Tx pins on the summit board (pins 9 and 10). When we breadboard the circuit, we see 5V output on Tx2. However, when we connect the circuit to the RCB4, the voltage level drops to 1.2V (no matter if the RCB4 is plugged in or not). Thus, the RCB4 doesn't respond. Anyone have any thoughts and/or suggestions?

[markv]

we are trying to use opencv on gumstix. the code we wrote seems to be working fine on all of our pc's. but when we try to run it on the gumstix we are getting:

select timeout
select timeout
segmentation fault

we are getting select timeout twice for trying to capture a frame twice in a row from the camera. the camera we are using is creative webcam. the segmentation fault we assume comes from the fact the IplImage* stays on NULL since we didn't succeed in capturing the frame from the camera.

[chrisvo]

We have uploaded a demonstration video (our qualifying video for RoboCup 2011) featuring the new 2011 model robot we put together from KHR-3HV + Gumstix Overo Air + Dual SRV-1 Blackfin here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOXbjRxmmI

[RoboFlop]

Thats a great robot, I really like the gait.

Is it a standard KHR-3 gait or one you have designed yourself?

[chrisvo]

The forward walk is the standard KHR-3 gait, with some slight modifications to match the form factor of our robot. When the servos are brand new, the gait looks much smoother. Right now the servos are over a year old, and have experienced daily stress, so the robot shakes a lot while executing the motions. It is still amazing that the Kondo servos are so durable though.

I designed the turn gait, I spent only about 20 minutes on it. It looks very unnatural - I intend to make it look better and more stable for the actual competition.

[funk_e]

Hi All,

I came across this and thought you may all be interested... although you are probably already well aware

http://www.gumstix.com/store/catalog/pr ... cts_id=254

Looks like a great way to add robot vision to a gumstix project

[funk_e]

We have uploaded a demonstration video (our qualifying video for RoboCup 2011) featuring the new 2011 model robot we put together from KHR-3HV + Gumstix Overo Air + Dual SRV-1 Blackfin here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fOXbjRxmmI

Great video. I like the way he moves... Is that the standard KHR-3HV hip servo upgrade in action?

[chrisvo]

Great video. I like the way he moves... Is that the standard KHR-3HV hip servo upgrade in action?

No, it is a custom upgrade and custom motion because of the design of our torso. Luckily, the Heart2Heart4 software does support the two hip servos so we can design a motion that uses the extra servos.

[amuthelet]

Hi,
Thanks funk_e for the Gumstix link to their new cam. Good timing as I am currently fighting to find a webcam with correct vision capabilities + Linux compliance... CaspaFS/Aptina features look interesting to me (60fps for /InfraRed/Manual exposure/direct connection to Overo without USB hubs-kindof troubles/HDR (sort of)/etc..) for a decent price (at least more affordable than Point Grey hw). I ordered it today, and will check what I can get from it !
Cheers,
Arnaud.

[nunogato]

Hi guys,

I'm really down...

Yesterday started again with this project, get a new board, installed the operating system in the SD card and then all of this using external power adapter, then I went to make the circuit to power it through the lipo battery and made a huge mistake.

I've changed the GND with 5v...

Connected it, saw a strange light (a resistor burning) and disconnected in less than one second.

I thought f**k I've just burned this. Tried to power again using the external power adapter and nothing, I get a red light in the summit and a green in the overo...

So I thought that maybe only the overo was burned (and maybe it's "only" that) and connected to a Pinto, just soldered the power connections to the GND and V_BAT, the overo gets power but does not start, the green and blue LED in the overo goes on but nothing happens from there.

I think I've tried all the solutions I have, what else can I do?