Robonova with a cmucam2

[vinny15]

Do you guys think that the cmucam2 can interface with the robonova via the I/O podrts.

I think that sending certain pulses to the robonovas I/O ports will allow them to communicate efficiently.

For thise who dont know. The cmucam2 is a color rec, object rec etc. camera running on a microprocessor.

[Ray]

hi,

any more details on the cam? and signal processing parts?

[Pev]

The CMUCAM I have is currently on a tracked bot rather than a Biped. It interfaces over a serial link but does transfer a lot of data. Not sure RoboBasic would be up to processing it but perhap it could be made to, or maybe the new code that is being worked on here will process serial data somewhat more effeciently

Pev

For anyone interested this is the CMUCAM details (well a bit more anyway)

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cmucam/

[HarryBotter]

There is also the AVRcam which may have a small advantage in that the code is open source and up to 8 colours can be tracked simultaneously.

http://www.jrobot.net/Projects/AVRcam.html

I'm like Pev in that I've got one on a tracked vehicle for now, but would really like to implement vision on a humanoid.

Cheers, Harry

[vinny15]

I was thinking that instead of using the serial port, you could use the open servo ports and recognize distinct outputs that tell them to turn right and than that would triger the nova to turn right in biped motion.

This should work as long as the nova has the ability to use any realtime sensor (wich they all are i.e. infrared, sonic, gyros) And I know it does.

[Pev]

I was thinking that instead of using the serial port, you could use the open servo ports and recognize distinct outputs that tell them to turn right and than that would triger the nova to turn right in biped motion.

This should work as long as the nova has the ability to use any realtime sensor (wich they all are i.e. infrared, sonic, gyros) And I know it does.

Interesting Idea. The CMUCAM does support both Pan and Tilt Servos and in their demo mode tracks a colour by using the pan and tilt servos connected to its own ports. I guess if you could read those values you could use those to trigger movement. Infact you'd only need to read pan to do left and right but tilt may be useful for forwards backwards (move closer to or further away from type stuff).

Could be very interesting.

Good luck

Pev

[vinny15]

Thanks.... I still need to get a nova though haha.... I'm working on raising the funds....

[POB-Forum]

Did you see that : http://robosavvy.com/modules.php?name=F ... 78&start=0

[vinny15]

Wow thats an amazing kit.... I'm want that really bad.

[ryann2k1]

I want to know that in your design, you replace the original board RGB-1 with your own board or you make a new configuration to the RGB-1 board?
Thank you.

[Humanoido]

I have a CMUcam-1 from Parallax Inc. Although it's designed for a BoeBot, it can work perfectly for the Robonova. The design here is to control it with a BS-2 using the serial connection. The BS-2 can be programmed in PBASIC to send prompts to the Robonova's controller. I'm also thinking of doing a connection with BlueTooth so small images can be sent to a computer during operating. This cam is setup, assembled, and ready to go!

IMO, Parallax has some of the most comprehensive technical support (toll free) and free support information and downloads in the industry. Here's some specs and their home page.

http://www.parallax.com/
http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=30051

Here's what a CMUcam-1 can do:
* Track user defined color blobs at 17 frames per second,
find the centroid of the blob
*Gather mean color and variance data
*80x143 resolution
*9600 baud serial communication
*Automatically detect a color and drive a servo to track an object
*Slave parallel image processing mode off a single camera bus -
advance function
*Ability to control 1 servo or have 1 digital I/O pin - advanced function
*Adjust the camera's image properties - advanced function.

Download a CMUcam manual here
http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/robo/cmucamman.pdf
chip information
http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/ro ... mnivis.pdf
source code
http://www.parallax.com/dl/src/prod/3rd ... ogram1.bs2
http://www.parallax.com/dl/src/prod/3rd ... ogram2.bs2
demo
http://www.parallax.com/dl/src/prod/3rd/cmucamdemo.bs2

Hope this helps.

Humanoido

[ryann2k1]

Thanks Humanoido,

It seems great to use it. But my friend has just purchased cmucam2 for our KHR-1.Any Idea whether we can still use the original RGB-1 board or we can use the cmucam2 board.
http://www.active-robots.com/products/a ... ucam.shtml

ryann2k1

[Humanoido]

There's an upgrade to turn a CMUcam1 into the new version, by switching over the camera part to a new purchased board. "If you already have the CMUcam1 and require the additional features of the CMUcam2 you can use this board-only option and swap the camera module over."

http://www.active-robots.com/products/a ... ucam.shtml

Since you now have the new CMUcam2, you have everything needed to get started.

Humanoido

[ryann2k1]

Thanks Humanoido,

We purchase this camera from another country, so probably there is still a long way to wait.
Thanks a lot. Once I get the camera, I will share our work.
By the way..since therea are only around 5 servos available in cmucam2. can we reprogram the board since KHR-1 has 17 servos. How do you work on your cmucam1?

ryann2k1

[Humanoido]

Currently I use the CMUcam1 for another humanoid robot hack. I use a serial servo controller and feed commands to it using a Parallax BS2. It's still in the development phase. In addition, I'm working on a serial feed that can send images at the frame rate to a pc computer. When this system is complete, it can be ported over to the Robonova or any other humanoid.

The dream is to have a computer terminal for Robonova that can not only show what RN sees, but also handle various autonomous behaviors. It will need some kind of serial feed, even with the BS2 feeding data to the RN's controller. The method I've used in the past is to flag a binary word across the robots port to have it read to indicate which proper sequence to activate. You can have a lot of combinations that way.

We'll see how easy this is with the CMUcam1. Maybe there's someone already sending images over a serial port to their pc computer?

Another thing is the lens is rather large. I'd like to experiment with smaller lenses. Anyone hacked the CMUcam?

Humanoido