Old Roboticist - New Here Though!
Old Roboticist - New Here Though!
by MadDogJoe
Wed Aug 15, 2007 12:06 am
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
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
Re: Intelligent Camera System
by MadDogJoe
Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:51 pm
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
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
by NovaOne
Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:44 pm
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
Vision Systems
by JavaRN
Wed Aug 15, 2007 9:27 pm
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
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
F'dan il-passatemp ghandek bzonn zewg affarijiet - FLUS u HIN. Zewg affarijiet li huma skarsi hafna u li jien minnhom ghandi vera ftit!
RE: Intelligent Camera System
by MadDogJoe
Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:12 pm
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
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
by NovaOne
Wed Aug 15, 2007 10:45 pm
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
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
RE: Pics and Vids
by MadDogJoe
Thu Aug 16, 2007 2:39 pm
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
MadDog Joe