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1. Step 19 You need e 1 10 beam Instructions e Slide the 10 beam onto the end of the 7 beam using the U clip and center it as shown A 20 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need e 2 whole gussets 4 halves e Set screws Instructions e Snap the gussets halves together e Snap the gussets into place e Remember to add the set screws There will be some very small holes toward the center of the gusset Do not put set screws in these holes Only place set screws as shown see arrows Step 21 You need e 22 beams e 2 whole 135 connectors 4 halves e Set screws Instructions e Press the 135 connector halves together e Slide the 135 connectors onto the ends of the 2 beams e Add the set screws to all four sides of both of the connectors see arrows not all set screws are shown ER1 User Guide A 21 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e 2 whole 90 connectors 4 halves e Set screws Instructions e Press the 90 connector halves together e Attach them to the end of the 2 pieces as shown e Add the set screws to all four sides of the 90 connectors see arrows not all set screws shown Step 23 You need Subassemblies from previous steps e Set screws Instructions
2. e Connect the subassemblies by attaching the 2 beams either end of to the 10 beam using the 90 connectors e Add set screws to all four sides of the 90 connectors where they attach to the 10 beam see arrows not all set screws shown A 22 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need Previous subassemblies Setscrews Instructions Attach the subassembly from the last step to the robot body using the 135 connectors Add set screws on all four sides of the 135 connectors that attach to the body of the robot see arrows not all set screws shown WARNING Do not pick up the robot by the crossbar circled Step 25 You need 1 hinge half Set screws Instructions Attach a hinge half to the 7 beam Add set screws on both sides of the hinge see arrows ER1 User Guide E Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e 1 Philips screw e 1 Locking washer Instructions e Thread a Philips screw through the hole in the hinge half e Place the locking washer on the screw as shown see arrow Step 27 You need e 1 Camera subassembly e Thumbnut Instructions e Slide the hinge half on the bottom of the camera subassembly onto the screw post e Make sure to position camera subassembly facing forward see picture
3. 13 Detects driver and gives Digital Signature Not Found message Select Yes 14 If you have purchased a microphone connect the robot s microphone to a USB port on the laptop using the microphone s cable Configure your laptop to use that microphone 15 Go through the same process to add any new hardware such as an additional camera Note that you will may a USB hub 16 Power cycle the robot power reseat both the USB cables and launch the ER1 software on the laptop Windows 98 users You may need to reboot your laptop Important Note UNPLUG THE LAPTOP S CHARGER BEFORE INSTRUCTING THE ROBOT TO MOVE The robot should detect whether or not the laptop is plugged into a wall outlet and should not move until the laptop is unplugged However take care to ensure that the laptop is unplugged because if the robot fails to detect that the laptop is plugged in it will move in response to your commands until it reaches the limit of the laptop s power cord then will continue to try to move potentially damaging the laptop the laptop s charger the robot and the electrical outlet This could start an electrical fire Testing the Robot The ERI has a behavior file included to help you test your ERT robot and software Before we start with an example try moving your robot with the arrow keys on your keyboard If the robot does not move recheck your cable connections The following example will teach your robot to follow the box
4. e Angular Axis This is the left right motion of the robot e Linear Axis This is the forward backward motion of the robot e With the joystick enabled the user can reverse if needed the control axes on the joystick map To do this just check the appropriate Reverse checkbox There is also a sensitivity setting Sensitivity for the joystick that allows the user to create a dead zone where joystick motion will not move the robot This can be useful for noisy joysticks or those that will not center properly The lower the sensitivity the farther the joystick has to be moved before the robot and the red plus sign will move Once outside the dead range the remainder of the range is used for the full range of velocities Thus if the sensitivity is set very low the joystick will be more like an on off switch because the fill velocity range will be squeezed into a very narrow range of joystick positions Because of this sensitivity setting for the joystick the minimum velocity limits which were previously used to create Hi Chapter 8 Settings a dead zone were removed This makes it possible to move the robot much more slowly than was previously possible less than 5 cm sec 5 deg sec e Graphic Display To illustrate what effect your axis settings will have on the robot s movements the square graphics box on the right hand side of the menu displays a red which moves in response to your joystick commands to simulate t
5. e Gripper Condition To activate the parameters for these conditions just click in any textbox or pulldown menu within the section s area and the checkbox will automatically be checked To disable a programmed trigger or action you need to click on the checkbox or the checkbox s label For example click on the word Sight next to the Sight checkbox to enable or disable this trigger ER1 User Guide 6 1 E Chapter 6 If Conditions Sight Condition The Sight section allows you to set visual I Sight C Color v Ss 2 e conditions Click on the Sight checkbox to make it Object active vo 1ODIF C Motion Color Selection Tool This tool allows you to specify a specific color as the trigger condition You can choose from the 256 colors on the pull down color palette or you can use the dropper tool to capture a color displayed in the Video area Either way when the robot sees an object of that color the corresponding action is triggered When you click on the dropper tool a pop up menu displays a frozen image of the current video feed and your cursor changes to an dropper Move the dropper to the pop up window and click on the color you want to specify That color appears in the color bar See Trying Out the Software for a tutorial that uses this function If you have already specified a color in the Move action section you will have the option to Use same color as Move This allows you to use the same color as
6. DSL routers should have information on where this IP address can be found Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Disable remote control Allow remote control of this instance gt Ge Control robot at IP address 123 45 6 255 Allow API control of this instance Port 3000 gt Password e j J Reset the network connection now Once the IP address and teleoperation port number are identified they can be entered into the Remote Control tab of the Settings menu on the user s work computer Click on the Settings button and then the Remote Control tab Click on the Control robot at this IP address checkbox and enter the IP address The port number should not need to be changed Remember to have the Allow remote control of this instance set on your robot s laptop After the IP address and port for teleoperation are located and entered into the RCC software there is one last step setting up port forwarding to allow the work computer to connect to the robot laptop at home through the your home firewall The most common network setup between a user at work and the robot at home is a double firewall situation At work you are behind your workplace s firewall At home the robot is on a wireless network connected to a combination of wireless access point router and cable or DSL modem that also functions as a fi
7. Microphone Line In and Phone Line Talk values are on the left and Listen values are on the right x Record Control l Microphone e d 5 F Mute a T Mute IV Select Crystal WDM Audio Display Tab The Display tab allows you to determine the order in which the behavior tabs are shown and the order of the behaviors in the Run menu in the Sequence section of the If column This is a local setting similar to the Log tab settings which affects only the system on which it is adjusted Once set it applies to all subsequent behavior files which are used until you change it There are four sort orders 1 Numeric This is the default which is the same as previous versions of ERI RCC The behaviors are always sorted from 1 to 288 no matter what behavior name they are given 2 Alphabetic If you change a behavior s name it will appear in alphabetical order with all other behaviors you have named at the beginning of the behavior list Any behaviors which still have their default names will appear at the end of the list sorted numerically This avoids the problem of alphabetically sorting the default names which would result in an order of Behavior 1 Behavior 10 Behavior 11 etc 8 26 ER1 User Guide Display Tab 3 Priority order lowest to highest Behaviors are displayed in order of their priority starting with the lowest priority behavior Any of the behaviors that have the same priority are sorted numerically
8. Play Commands The play command allows the robot to play sounds Like the move command the API s response comes before the sound has completed playing and playing another sound interrupts the previous sound The events command is used to determine when the command completes There are two forms to the play command Play File Format play file lt file name gt Parameters file_name This is the name of the file to play The file must exist on the robot s system at the specified path Quotes single or double are required if there are spaces in the name of the file Examples play file sounds Laugh wav play file c mp3 Linkin Park Hybrid Theory In The End mp3 Play Phrase Format play phrase lt phrase to speak gt voice lt voice name gt Parameters lt phrase to This is what you want the robot to say Quotes are required if there are spaces in it speak gt ER1 User Guide 10 15 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface You can also specify a voice for this particular phrase The name of the voice is assigned by the system e g Microsoft Sam If the voice is not found there is no error indication and the phrase is played using the system default Quotes are required if there are spaces in the voice name Examples play phrase Hello voice Microsoft Mary play phrase You have mail Position Command Position Format postion This returns the robot s current x y position relative to the position where the r
9. This will either require a long cable or a wireless microphone system both optional accessories available from many sources Both of these help significantly Short of that you must be quite close to the microphone for speech 6 6 ER1 User Guide Time Condition recognition to work because of all the extra noise and reflections that come from the room where the robot is located Consult one of our Customer Support specialists before purchasing a microphone Time Condition e Level Select one of the six sound levels by clicking on one of the six radio buttons When the robot hears a sound that crosses the threshold sound level selected the behavior s Then condition s will be triggered You might want to test the level you have chosen to determine the appropriate level The Time set up on the GUI lets you specify a start time Behaviors will be repeated at the specified interval after that If no start time is specified the behavior will begin when the Run it button is clicked A Couple of Tips ER1 User Guide M Time at 3 08 v 20 fa PM RE Hours The first pulldown menu specifies the hour at which to start You must select a value for this field Minutes The second pulldown menu selects the number of minutes If you do not select a value for this field 00 is assumed Seconds The third pulldown menu specifies the number of seconds If you do not select a value for this field 00 is assumed A M or P M
10. e e Quality 50 Smoothing jo 3 eeeeee eo JV Add a sequence number to each photo Next number to use fi Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help e Resolution This box allows you to set the resolution of the photo The higher values mean higher resolution and larger file size whereas the lower values specify a lower resolution resulting in a smaller file size You may also choose to accept the default value set by the object recognition camera e Sequence Numbers This area lets you chose whether or not to add a sequence number to each photo and if so what is the next number to use The sequence number is appended to the name of the file before the extension Video Tab This tab is used to configure the video settings The options are e Record video Select this option if you would like to record a video This will produce a avi file The file will be named video avi and be saved into c Program Files ER1 directory by default ER1 User Guide 9 5 E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings E Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load m Video IV Record video Use camera Object Obstacle Specific Logitech QuickCam Express bast sl r Resolution Verdi ald Defaut I Use Object camera setting e f 640 x 480 ie Compression PE Type None zl C 320x240 C 1768144 7 Data rate KBytes second DR 1
11. lt hex number gt Example OK ff Each input port is represented as one bit of the result code where digital input DI 0 is the least significant bit and DI 7 is the most significant bit so indicates that all the inputs are high OK fe would mean that all but input 0 was high Output Digital This command sets the digital outputs DO to the 8 bit value represented by lt hex number gt Note that digital output DO 0 is the least significant bit and DO 7 is the most significant bit Usage output digital lt hex number gt Example output digital 80 This example sets digital output 7 high and all the others low 10 22 ER1 User Guide Digital Input Output Commands Hobby Digital I O Pin 1 VCC 5v Pin 2 DO0 Pin 3 DO 2 Pin 4 DO4 Pin 5 DO6 Pin 6 GND Pin 7 GND Pin 8 VCC 5v Pin 9 DI1 Pin 10 DI 3 Pin 11 DI5 Pin 12 DI7 Pin 13 GND Pin 14 VCC 5v Pin 15 DO 1 Pin 16 DO3 Pin 17 DO5 Pin 18 DO7 Pin 19 GND Pin 20 VCC 5v Pin 21 DIO Pin 22 DI 2 Pin 23 DI 4 Pin 24 DI 6 Pin 25 GND ER1 User Guide E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Input Analog This command displays the current value of one of the 16 analog inputs The 16th input is tied to the battery This uses the 0 5V scale as well but it maps to a 0 15 6V scale on the battery Usage input analog lt input number gt lt input number gt Parameter
12. lt input This specifies the number of the input to query See the Analog Pin Out that follows The number gt input numbers are the pins labelled A lt input number gt on the diagram You will only have access to inputs 0 14 although pin 15 is shown in the output display The resulting output values range from 0 to 65535 where e 0 represents 0 volts e 65535 represents 5 volts If the command is given with no arguments each of the inputs from 0 to 15 is listed in the response For example input analog OK 3328 3328 3328 3392 3328 3328 3328 3264 3328 58432 3328 55040 3328 51648 3328 61568 If the command is issued with arguments the value of each listed input from 0 to 15 is given in the response For example input analog 0 9 OK 3328 58432 The arguments do not have to appear in any particular order and repeated arguments are allowed 10 24 ER1 User Guide Building ER1 Scripts Hobby Analog Input Pinl VCC 5v_ Pin 16 Al Pin2 VCC 5v Pin17 A3 Pin 3 AO Pin 18 A5 Pin 4 A2 Pin 19 A7 Pin 5 A4 Pin 20 A9 Pin6 Ap Pin21 A11 Pin 7 AN Pin 22 A13 Pin 8 A10 Pin 23 GND Pin 9 A12 Pin 24 GND Pin 10 A14 Pin 25 GND Pin 11 GND Pin 12 GND Pin 13 GND Pin 14 VCC 5v Pin 15 VCC 5v Building ER1 Scripts a lt address gt p lt port gt q h ER1 User Guide You can use your favorite programming language to build ER1 scripts
13. set voice set linear velocity set angular velocity set power stopped set power moving set collision detection off set collision detection on set obstacle avoidance off set obstacle avoidance on set confidence threshold set color tolerance set color percentage input digital output digital input analog Clear Command Clear Usage clear The clear command throws away all events which have not yet been sent to the user ER1 Command ER1 The ERT command can load and run a specific behavior Usage erl lt behaviorset_filename gt r lt behavior name number gt q lt behavior name number gt Parameters behaviorset_ Specifies the behavior set file to load Note that filenames with spaces in them must filename appear in double quotes r Runs and triggers the behavior set specified 10 6 ER1 User Guide behavior name number behavior name number Events Command Specifies a behavior number or behavior name within the behavior set If a behavior is specified only this behavior not the entire behavior set will be run Remember this behavior must be triggered in order to run This parameter specifies that after all of the behaviors complete the program exits If a behavior is specified after q the program will exit after that behavior completes This parameter cannot be specified unless r is set Specifies a second behavior within the behavior set This behavior will be run after the previous behavior
14. 10 Set Color Percentage ER1 User Guide Usage set color percentage lt percentage gt E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Sets the color recognizer s screen percentage for a match Example set color percentage 30 Stop Command Stop The stop command stops any robot motion or sounds which are in progress Usage stop 10 20 ER1 User Guide Digital Input Output Commands Digital Input Output Commands These commands allow accessing of the digital input and output ports of the ER1 s Robot Control Module and the analog input ports The pin outs for these ports are in subsequent sections NO a S ee ee E MOTOR 1 e gt 3 VE MOTOR 2 Electrical Characteristics The following summarizes the electrical characteristics of the ports Absolute Maximums e Maximum input voltage on any pin digital or analog 5 3V e Minimum input voltage on any pin digital or analog 0 3V e Maximum total current sourced from VCC outputs 500mA Input Logic Thresholds e For Logic 1 min 2 0V gt max 5 3V e For Logic 0 min 0 3V gt max 0 8V Output Logic Thresholds e For Logic 1 min 2 4V Io 300uA e For Logic 0 max 0 33V Io 2mA e Input Current min 50uA max 50uA Analog Input Source Impedance Analog input source impedance 9kOhms ER1 User Guide E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Input Digital Usage input digital If the robot is properly connected the response is OK
15. 50 c Response OK Sending command events Response OK Sending command events Response OK Sending command events Response OK move done C ER1 gt TestClient java Here is the Test Client java file file TestClient java author www evolution com author Copyright C 2003 Evolution Robotics import java io DataOutputStream import java io BufferedInputStream import java net Socket class TestClient Inc W ddddddddddd dd dd dd TTA TATA TTT ATT TTA TTA ATA TT userProgram TIITLLLTTATTT LTT ATLL TTA TTT TTT ATTA TTT ATT TTA TTT ATT ATT TT brief Users put their own commands here SI public static void userProgram Send the first move command 10 inches forward String recvMsg client sendCommand move 10 i client waitFor move Send the turn command 90 degrees to left recvMsg client sendCommand move 90 d client waitFor move Send the next move command 50 cm forward recvMsg client sendCommand move 50 c client waitFor move ER1 User Guide TestClient java 10 27 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface SIIIN Application Entry Point SIII IIIA brief Program entry point param args Command line arguments static ER1Client client null public static void main String args Create a new client to communicate with ER1 client new ER1Client args Connect
16. Browse Distance from Distance from camera fi Units Feet E camera textbox Speak Object Sound file Browse Phrase to speak textbox Phrase to speak Eight Try it View button Units pulldown menu Ok button Fill in e Name Type Eight e Image File This will automatically change to Eight bmp 2 8 ER1 User Guide Trying Out the Software e View button Click on this button A preview of the image you captured will be shown It should look something like this Distance from Camera Input the distance of the paper from the camera Units pulldown menu Select a unit for the distance from the camera Phrase to Speak Type in the word Eight Click on the Ok button 7 Click on the Move checkbox Move FV Move EZ checkbox 1 em H Stop near Color of Screen 7 Stop on Sensor zl 8 Select the Distance from the pulldown menu In the This Amount textbox type 2 In the Unit pulldown menu select Feet In the This Direction pulldown menu select Forward 7 MV Move l i Distance _ gt J Distance This Amount textbox This Amount 2 Fe lt q Unit pulldown menu This Direction Forward e This Direction pulldown menu TT Stop on Sensor EI 9 Select the Behavior 2 tab at the top of the screen Behavior 1 ER1 User Guide E Chapter 2 Getting Started 10 Click on the Sequence checkbox and select Beh
17. Increase speed by ignoring top and bottom of image I Use only best match IV Display matches Color Recognizer IV Display matches Cancel Help Here are the Image Recognizer options e Increase speed by ignoring top and bottom of image Checking this box reduces the number of pixels required for processing recognition data by chopping off the top and bottom of the image This speeds up the recognition process The trade off is that increased speed recognition only works reliably with objects that are level with the camera It can fail to recognize objects that are a little above or below the camera After you change this value the software must recalibrate the saved images before continuing This may take several minutes e Use only best match This checkbox toggles the recognition capabilities between the best match and normal match object recognition strategies If this option is selected the Recognized Object text box will only list the image with the most matched features If this option is not selected the Object text box will list all possible matches ranking them in descending order from top to bottom according to the confidence measure e Display matches This checkbox if selected specifies the display of a blue rectangle around each recognized object Note that selecting this option will slow the obstacle avoidance feature 8 2 ER1 User Guide Camera Tab There is one Color Recognizer option e Display matches
18. Logic set to OR for Behavior 5 with only one trigger necessary Two of the three necessary triggers occur for Behavior 4 but nothing happens because it is still waiting for the 3rd trigger Before that happens Behavior 5 s trigger condition occurs So Behavior 5 s Then actions run And all of Behavior 4 s triggers are reset to 0 That is they re starting over again from scratch and all three must occur again before Behavior 4 will trigger Note that even if the Logic is set to AND and you choose three objects for Sight to trigger on it only takes recognition of one of the objects to satisfy the Sight trigger condition xi Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load Set IF condition logic OR all checked IF conditions AND all checked IF conditions Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help The log entries will keep track of the multiple trigger conditions for example 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 41 923 Saw object one dollar matching Behavior 1 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 41 933 Behavior 1 1 out of 3 IF conditions have been met 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 49 755 Object entered gripper matching behavior Behavior 1 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 49 765 Behavior 1 2 out of 3 IF conditions have been met 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 54 371 Sound level 7 matches Behavior 1 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 54 371 Behavior 1 3 out of 3 IF conditions hav
19. This option lets you specify whether or not to show red boxes around colors recognized by the robot in its environment To improve recognition speed the robot does not look for behavior trigger colors once the behavior starts only colors needed for the specific behavior that was triggered are recognized Once the behavior is finished the RCC goes back to looking for the trigger colors if any are specified Camera Tab This tab allows you to set the camera parameters for both object recognition and obstacle avoidance ER1 Robot Control Center a x Log l Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance IV Enable camera usage Device r Resolution e Always use first camera found Default T Always use a specific camera choose one C 640x 480 D C 352x288 S 320x240 f C 176x144 S C 160120 C 80x60 S C Enter width amp height z r fp A a m Remote Transmission S Je Transmit this camera s view while under remote control Full resolution I Use JPEG compression 1 2 resolution 1 4 resolution OK Cancel Help The camera shipped with your robot can be used by the robot for both obstacle avoidance and object recognition However the software allows you the option of using a separate camera for each of these functions e The object recognition camera is best mounted at t
20. ax WDM streaming TvTuner kswdmcap ax WDM streaming video capture and ksxbar ax WDM streaming crossbar files with older versions of the same files You should decline to do this and you should keep the newer versions of the files Here s how to install the software on your laptop 1 Close all programs 2 Put the CD in the laptop s drive 3 Ifthe Robot Control Center RCC software installation does not start automatically you can start it from the CD Different Windows platforms let the user do this in different ways Here s how to do it in a Windows 2000 environment e On your Windows desktop click on the Start button e Choose Run e In the pop up window use the Browse button to navigate to the directory for the CD ROM drive e In the top level directory double click on the file setup exe 4 There may be a dialog box telling you to reboot before the installation Click Yes and the installation should automatically continue after the reboot ER1 User Guide A 27 i Appendix A Assembly Instructions 5 The software installation should start automatically if your computer uses Microsoft s autorun feature Click Next to proceed through the installation You may click on the Cancel button at any time to stop the installation 6 The ER1 Robot Control Center licensing agreement will be displayed and you will be prompted to accept reject it Click Next 7 The Release Notes will be displayed Make sure to print the
21. behaviors together A behavior with this condition will be triggered when the specified earlier behavior finishes Behaviors linked together by the sequence condition are called a behavior sequence Once a behavior set has initiated no other non sequence condition anywhere in the 288 behaviors will trigger until the sequence is complete In other words a behavior sequence is not interruptible by any non sequence condition IR Sensor Condition The IR Condition allows you use any or all of the IR sensors to sense an object and to trigger a Then action Gripper Condition The Gripper Condition allows you to trigger an action when an object enters the Gripper or when the Gripper is opened using the Open button on its motor casing Then Actions There are six kinds of actions available to the robot e Move e Play a sound e Run a program e Send an email ER1 User Guide Move Play a Sound Run a Program Message Send Record Gripper ER1 User Guide Then Actions e Record a photo or video e Gripper More than one action can be specified for the behavior and all actions will execute simultaneously once the behavior is triggered However some actions take longer than others so the actions will most likely finish at different times The behavior is not considered completed until all specified actions are completed e Move actions are completed when the robot reach the specified target e The Play Sound action is con
22. behaviors you have created Click on the Run it button As soon as a trigger condition in the If column has been met the behaviors will be executed With this basic strategy you can program your ER1 to do amazing things With accessories such as the Gripper Arm you can have the robot carry things from one place to another With the XBeams Expansion Pack you can change the size and shape of the robot With an extra camera you can both view obstacles on the floor and recognize objects while looking forward We would love to hear what new ideas you come up with for using ERT ER1 s Robot Control Software gives you access to a wide range of robot functionality Here are just a few examples Object Recognition allows you to train your robot to recognize specific objects furniture books vases etc in its environment Later you can train the robot to perform an action based on object identification For example say Television remote when it recognizes your television s remote control Color Detection allows the robot to detect colors you specify For instance you can train the robot to recognize the color of your couch and to move toward it Voice Recognition uses the Microsoft Speech SDK 5 1 voice recognition engine to enable the robot to understand certain spoken commands Note that your robot does not come with a microphone You can use the microphone built into in your laptop or an external one Timer allows the robot to pe
23. bottom of the If column select the Sequence checkbox e In the Run after pulldown menu select Behavior 1 Sequence checkbox gt Sequence Run after Behaviot zl sl qe Run after pulldown menu i 8 Inthe Then column select the Play a Sound checkbox e Type the number 2 in the Phrase to Speak textbox 9 At the top of the screen select the Behavior 3 tab e In the If column of conditions select the Sequence checkbox e In the Run after pulldown menu select Behavior 2 2 6 ER1 User Guide 10 11 Trying Out the Software e In the Then column select the Play a sound checkbox e In the Phrase to Speak textbox type the number 3 Congratulations You have just programmed a behavior that will count to three when it sees a certain color Let s run it Click on the Run it button You notice that all of the behavior options are grayed out These cannot be altered while a behavior is running The behavior will begin as soon as the robot sees the designated color Show the robot the designated color The robot will count to three and then stop If you would like to save this behavior click on the Save button in the upper left corner of the RCC screen A Save dialog box will be displayed Name the behavior and click on the Save button Making the Robot Move The following example will walk you through creating a behavior where the robot will move Make sure that the robot has several feet of clear spac
24. button press This feature is accessed by in the Joystick tab of the Behavior Settings menu This means that the button press itself is the trigger condition causing the immediate triggering of the programmed corresponding actions As differentiated from the Settings menu gt Joystick tab gt Button commands gt Run behaviors choice which simply tells the ER1 to start monitoring for a programmed trigger condition To use this function select the Trigger active behavior on joystick button press checkbox You may select a button to trigger a behavior by using the pulldown menu Or as for the Settings menu you can click in the textbox then press the desired joystick button That button number will be displayed in the pulldown menu E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings x Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick Im Sensors Logic Load I Trigger active behavior on joystick button press Button number X Tip Select the 3 Duttor on Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help Important Note The same joystick button can be used to start behaviors configured in the Joystick tab of the Settings menu and to trigger a behavior configured in the Joystick tab of the Behavior Settings menu If you set it up this way you can for example 1 Open a new behavior set 2 Click the Behavior Settings button to display the Behavior Settings menu then click on the Joystick tab 3 On your
25. camera assembly in your kit A 2 ER1 User Guide Getting to Know the Parts evolution robotics End Cap The end caps are used to cover the ends of the aluminum beams on your ERT These will help protect you from any sharp edges Be very careful attaching them to the aluminum beams You may need a small hammer to get these to seat properly There are four endcaps in your kit Gusset The gussets are used to help support the camera arm Remember to use set screws to tighten the connection Gussets come in halves Press the two pieces together before inserting them into the aluminum beam There are four gusset halves in your kit Hinge This is a fully assembled hinge A locking washer is located between the two halves to prevent unwanted rotation A hinge is used in the camera arm Remember to tighten the connection between these and the XBeam using set screws The hinge halves when paired make a hinge These can also be used separately to attach an XBeam to the robot There are four hinge halves in your kit Locking Washer The locking washer is used to lock joints into a certain position This is particularly desirable in such cases as positioning the camera There is one locking washer in your kit Logo Plate The logo plate goes on the front of your ER1 There is one logo plate in your kit ER1 User Guide E Appendix A Assembly Instructions Mounting Plates Mounting plates come in two varieties foam
26. etc e Allow conflicting higher priorities to terminate this behavior Clicking on this checkbox allows the current behavior to be terminated by a conflicting behavior of a higher priority A conflict occurs when both behaviors use the same functionality for example the robot playing a sound sending an email running a program recording at the same time or both behaviors try to make use of the same camera Note that if they both make use of the same functionality but one has finished say playing a sound and is now just driving the robot then the behaviors will not conflict Allow nonconflicting behaviors to run at the same time as this behavior Selecting this checkbox allows nonconflicting behaviors to run in parallel to this behavior Pause for units after running Use this parameter to specify a time that the robot should pause in between performing this behavior and running the next E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings behavior Enter the number in the textbox and select a unit from the pulldown menu Available units are second s minute s hour s and day s Pauses always occur after all other actions in the behavior have completed including actions which load another behavior file You can use a behavior which pauses but does nothing else to simulate a delay at the beginning of a behavior For example if you want a behavior which performs a task 10 seconds after seeing an object use one behavior which has as its If condit
27. exeduaddvabomnegetaaaaennapons 2 3 Optional Remote Control Zaiten ee 2 4 Optional Te Aa ss sips csiatsaerbs acdc nnsdeete AEN ERE EEE 2 4 Trying Out the EE aariin iddaa dasa ane iaai a hia 2 4 Making the eebe 2 5 Making the Keelt 2 7 Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview Behavior E 3 2 Behavior C nfigurati nS eege EE 3 2 Behavior EE 3 2 ee 3 3 Sight ConditiOf sissa nrar EE 3 3 Sound CONNER mrponi esa ns dcp lend ae este ane eaaa aedede a scat e 3 3 Time Condition EE 3 4 ER1 User Guide Hi Table of Contents Message Receive Condition EEN 3 4 Seguence e A ay eens 3 4 IR Sensor Condition EE 3 4 Gripp r C ORION ieren leede raS 3 4 EE EE 3 4 KEE 3 5 E E 3 5 EE 3 5 IASB 6 EG 3 5 GE 3 5 GTIPPE ennaa orient arent nay ainn a sagen teres 3 5 enee EE 3 6 Running Re 3 6 Behavior ee ege 3 6 Behavior Error and EEN 3 8 Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls Opening the ERI ee EE 4 1 Vid o Displayet E NT ORT eT Ner eee erie ene Te 4 2 eege 4 2 Obstacle Camera optional EE 4 2 DEVIC AUS ernan A EE NEEE EEEE NA 4 3 Resetting the X E EE 4 3 About X Y Coordinates sosaren E A EE 4 3 Remote Operation of the Gripper deeg 4 4 Independent Operation of the Gripper cceeececcecceceeeceeeeeeeceeeeeeeeeeseeseeseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 4 5 Recosnize E 4 5 Eeer 4 5 IS ol KE 4 6 S ios ghee E EE 4 6 Closing A Re 4 6 eet 4 6 Chapter 5 Function Buttons NEE 5 1 Open Eege 5 2 Save ET 5 2 ER1 User Guide
28. in upper left e Screw the thumbnut onto the screw post and tighten A 24 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need e Power cord e 1 USB cable Instructions e Attach the power cord to the slot in the RCM marked power e Attach the USB cord to the slot in the RCM marked USB e Tidy up and tuck away all of your cables Step 29 You need e Power module Instructions e Secure the power module to the robot by pressing down until the the mushroom headed fastner tape on the 1x2 mounting plate and the mushroom headed fastner tape on the bottom of the battery are interlocked ER1 User Guide A 25 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e Power cable Instructions e Plug the RCM into the Power 1 slot on the power module Step 31 You need e 1 Charger Instructions e Plug the power module into the charger as shown if you haven t completely charged your power module already A 26 ER1 User Guide Installing the Software You need e Nothing Instructions e You re done building your robot e The next section will walk you through installing your software Installing the Software Important Note For Microsoft Windows Me users you may be prompted to replace the kstvtuner
29. is C Program Files ER1 Objects In the Distance and Units fields type in the number and select from the pull down menu the correct units inches centimeters etc of the distance between the object and the camera at the time of capture This enables estimation of actual distance when you ask the robot to stop a specified distance from a recognized object If you have a zoom lens on your camera and you change its setting after you ve set an image distance the ability to judge distance correctly will be compromised In the Sound file textbox you can specify a sound file to be played when the object is recognized or you can specify a phrase in the Phrase to speak textbox If you want to ER1 User Guide E Chapter 6 If Conditions specify a sound file remember to specify the path and filename The RCC software accepts wav mp3 and wma sound files If you aren t sure of the file s location use the Browse button to find the appropriate file Note that if you are using a wireless network to control your robot the sound files are located on your robot s laptop 6 Click on the Ok button The RCC software adds the image and associated sounds to its database A pop up window displays Training please wait followed by Saving image file unless you have Disable Object Recognition checked Modify The Modify button lets you change information associated with a stored image Note that this function does NOT let you edi
30. left and mushroom headed fastner tape right Mushroom headed fastner tape is similar to Velcro but is designed for heavy duty industrial uses There are seven mounting plates in your kit Philips Screw The Philips screws are used to connect a variety of components to each other There are three Philips screws in your kit Power Cord The power cord connects the power module to the Robot Control Module There is 1 power cord in your kit Power Module Battery Pack The power module is connected by the power cord to the Robot Control Module RCM It provides power to the robot s wheels and any robot peripherals Note the on off switch on the top This is how you will turn off the ER1 s motors There is one power module in your kit To order an additional power module go to our website at www evolution com This is the back view of the Power Module The cable from the RCM should be plugged into Input 1 Input 2 is for accessories and is not used by the robot at this time Set Screws Set screws should be added to all of the plastic connectors once they are in place If you look carefully all of the connectors have small holes in the sides Once a connector has been placed in the XBeam screw the set screw into the hole until it securely touches the beam The setscrew when installed correctly should be below the surface of the connector not flush with the surface Do not overtighten Until you do this you will notice th
31. on the Disable Remote Control checkbox This makes it such that you cannot control a robot with both remote control and the API at the same time ER1 User Guide Telnet Windows XP Setup Also once the API connection is established and the user has logged in see below a modal dialog box pops up on the robot s system This prevents any GUI interaction with the robot until the API connection is closed or the button in the dialog box which allows the connection to be terminated is pressed There is also a checkbox in the dialog which allows the user to turn off the API interface without having to bring up the Settings menu This prevents a malicious user or a wayward program from continually reconnecting to the robot and locking out the user Telnet Windows XP Setup This interface allows the telnet program to be used to connect to the robot and try out the commands Telnet programs vary but here s a description of how you would connect to the robot using the one which comes with Windows XP 1 Start the ER1 RCC software click on the Settings button select the Remote Control tab and click on the robot s laptop Allow API control in this instance You can use the same port and password which you would normally use for remote control The password can also be empty 2 On the remote client PC click the Start button on the taskbar Click Run and type the following in the Open field telnet lt ip address gt lt port gt
32. s destination 4 Click the Gripper button to release the object Independent Operation of the Gripper The Gripper is designed to operate under software control but can also operate independently of software control For independent operation you do not need to plug the Gripper s USB cable into the laptop Just plug the power cord into the robot s battery When an object breaks the beam between the robot Gripper s IR sensor and receiver the pincers will automatically close It will continue to grip the object until you do one of two things e Pull the object out of the Gripper by grasping the object and pulling straight out e Press the Open button on the back of the Gripper This will cause the Gripper to open so remember to grab the object first so it doesn t fall to the ground Recognize Button This button toggles RCC object recognition Object recognition takes a lot of processing power so turning this feature off will speed up other ERT activities Click on this button to initiate object recognition Note that when the object recognition is disabled capturing objects is still enabled This means that you can capture a number of different objects without having the software stop after each capture to retrain the image library When you re done with capturing images click on the Recognize button again and the software will process all the images at once This is a great time saver Similarly you can also use th
33. section later in this document for instructions on how to do this Until you do this the robot s speech recognition capabilities will be poor 8 For remote operation you need to configure the Remote Control parameters as described in the Settings section and in the Telepresence Over the Internet section You will also need wireless network capabilities 9 When you are done you can close the RCC software by clicking the X in the upper right corner or by holding down the Alt and F4 keys 2 2 ER1 User Guide Robot Specifications Robot Specifications Your robot s specifications are e Size 24 x 16 x 15 H x Wx D e 20 lbs without the laptop Laptop Requirements Important Note The laptop is not included with your purchase Your robot requires a Windows based laptop with e Pentium III class Intel Celeron or AMD processor 500 MHz or faster e 128 MB RAM e 250 MB Hard Disk Space e Two USB ports directly on laptop or via hub One port connects the camera to the laptop the other connects the robot to the laptop Note that you will need three USB ports or a USB hub if you opt to attach a second camera a microphone a Gripper or IR sensors Check our website at www evolution com for suggested USB hub brands and models e Laptop monitor must be able to support a 1024 x 768 screen setting e One of the following installed Windows Operating Systems Microsoft Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows XP or Windows Me Impo
34. specified Remember this behavior must be triggered in order to run After this behavior runs the specified behavior set quits Events Command Events ER1 User Guide Usage events The events command allows the robot to send back information from its sensors if enabled as well as sound and move completion notices The command is acknowledged with an ox message then events are sent as they happen Events are terminated by the receipt of any command even a blank line It is recommended that a blank line be used to terminate the sending of events because otherwise a programmer may confuse an event message for a status return from a command being issued In other words the user should 1 Issue the events command 2 Look for the OK 3 Parse the event messages as they come down 4 Then when ready to act on one of the events send a blank line and wait for the OK from that 5 Event messages will be turned off though they may still accumulate The issuing of new move and play commands clear any pending completion messages from the corresponding command That makes it easy to see that a message is from the most recently issued command Also only the most recent sound level event is kept Here are examples of event messages speech hello sound level 8 sound level 24 object spot new 23 117 16 19 876 Inches move done play done play error Sound file C sound txt not found or don t know how to play it mo
35. take care to ensure that the laptop is unplugged because if the robot fails to detect that the laptop is plugged in it will move in response to your commands until it reaches the limit of the laptop s power cord then will continue to try to move potentially damaging the laptop the laptop s charger the robot and the electrical outlet This could start an electrical fire Resetting the X Y coordinates Press the Reset button next to the coordinate text boxes to re zero the counters About X Y Coordinates This coordinate system with the positive x axis pointing forward and the positive y axis pointed toward the left is the robotics coordinate system we all know and love positive x axis pointed to the right positive y axis pointed forward x y values in the forward right quadrant but rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise The reason for the rotation is that we want the 0 degree mark i e positive x axis to be pointed forward This ER1 User Guide 4 3 WE Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls coordinate system with the x axis pointed forward is the standard in all of robotics The diagram that follows illustrates how the coordinates are mapped Y Axis X Axis X Axis 0 degrees Y Axis X Axis New axes with robot again at 0 0 X Axis and with front of robot pointing along the X axis 1 Robot starting position 0 0 with front of robot pointing along X axis 2 Robot path to new rel
36. that requires them For example a behavior that requires a microphone to record sound will run whether or not a microphone is present In this case the result will be a avi file with no sound and no error message will be displayed e First listed If selected this specifies to use the default audio capture device The default audio capture device will appear first in the pulldown menu to the right of this parameter e Specific Click on this radio button and select a specific audio capture device to be used for recording e Samples per second This parameter specifies the number of times per second that the audio input should be sampled Note that a higher sample rate will ER1 User Guide 9 7 Hi Chapter 9 Behavior Settings produce better sound but it will also produce a bigger file Keep file size in mind when emailing robot videos e Bits per sample This specifies the number of bits to be used per sample Remember that the higher the number of bits the better the sound Also note that a larger number of bits will produce a bigger file and use more disk space e Channels Use these radio buttons to specify the number of channels to use when recording Most PC microphones are mono whereas input from a stereo microphone or a CD would require the stereo setting e Add a sequence number to each video Use this parameter to append a number on the end of a file name before the file type extension This parameter helps to crea
37. the movement buttons on the GUI Remember the joystick commands are passed over remote control so you can drive a robot using a joystick connected to your remote control system without the need for a wireless joystick IR Sensors Tab ER1 User Guide The IR settings on the IR Sensor tab apply only when a behavior is triggered by an IR sensor and when the Move section of the Then column is programmed to cause the robot to stop its programmed movement if an obstacle is detected Use the parameters on the Obstacle Avoidance tab to set values that apply to automatic obstacle avoidance xi Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load Sensor 1 reflection threshold CT 50 Sensor 2 reflection threshold 50 i ZE 2 Sensor 3 reflection threshold STI 50 a Restore Factory Settings Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now Hi Chapter 9 Behavior Settings Logic Tab The Logic tab allows you to AND or OR any triggers you specify in the If column e OR all of checked IF conditions If this option is selected only one of any number of selected trigger conditions must be met This is the default condition e AND all of checked IF conditions If this radio button is selected all of the trigger actions must be met before a behavior will be initiated For example you ve got the Logic set to AND for Behavior 4 with three separate triggers necessary You ve got the
38. the robot forward to moving the robot backward and vice versa for the downward pointing arrow The Restore Factory Settings button resets all motion values back to the original defaults Obstacle Avoidance Tab ER1 s obstacle avoidance feature uses a downward pointing camera to detect obstacles in front of the robot The detection area is a trapezoid in front of the robot whose size and shape depends on the height and angle of the avoidance camera The avoidance algorithm works by detecting the lines between regions with different colors in this trapezoid Thus the avoidance algorithm works best on floors of uniform color without harsh edges so objects on the floor are easy to see 8 12 ER1 User Guide Obstacle Avoidance Tab Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About l Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Click one of the buttons below to adjust the calibration or capture a new calibration image Adjust Calibration Capture New Calibration Image OK Cancel Help Positioning the Obstacle Avoidance Camera The avoidance camera the optional second camera should be positioned at least two feet off the ground The camera should also be centered between the left and right wheels so that it sees the same distance to either side of the robot When using both cameras it is best that both cameras are centered with the avoidance camera placed above the objec
39. to download these messages to your robot to another email address if you so choose e Outgoing Specify the following e Smtp server name This specifies your outgoing mail server You can get this information from your Internet Service Provider e Your name This is the name you want to appear in your emails e From address Specify your email address complete address e Use a Reply To address If this checkbox is selected you can specify a reply to address that varies from the address from which the email was sent e Reply To address If Use a Reply To address is enabled specify the reply to address here complete address This tab is used to configure options related to the robot s motion These options apply to all movement related GUI activities The Rotation Angular Velocity options allow you to specify in degrees second how fast or slow the robot should rotate when performing various modes of action The maximum value is 90 degrees second The minimum value is 5 degrees second e Manual control The maximum speed of rotation when clicking one of the two directional buttons The Motion Linear Velocity area allows you to specify in centimeters second the maximum linear velocity of the robot The maximum value is 50 cm sec because the robot cannot be operated safely above this speed The minimum value is 5 cm second e Manual control The maximum linear velocity when clicking forward and reverse directional butt
40. trying to detect trigger behaviors and or performing any actions You ke may also use the spacebar you keyboard to pause any running behaviors A message reading Suspended By User will appear in the RCC titlebar To reinitiate the behavior set press the space bar again 7 8 ER1 User Guide evolution robotics n E Chapter 8 Settings The Settings menus let you change a wide range of settings that apply to all 288 behaviors If you want to customize settings for a particular behavior or behaviors use the Behavior Settings menu To use the Settings menus click the Settings button A dialog box appears Along the top of the box are a number of tabs Sight Tab Camera Tab Sound Tab Remote Control Tab Email Tab Motion Tab Obstacle Avoidance Tab Log Tab Joystick Tab Gripper Tab IR Sensors Tab Push to Talk Tab Display Tab and Note that if you are controlling your robot by wireless connection the Settings that you will see from the remote computer are those set on the robot s laptop ER1 User Guide 8 1 Hi Chapter 8 Settings Sight Tab This tab is used to fine tune aspects of the software s object recognition capabilities Most users will not need or want to adjust these values Experienced users may want to experiment with them x Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors PushToTak Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance m Image Recognizer T
41. unsure of the path use the Browse button to find the file Note that if you are using a wireless network to control your robot the image files are located on your robot s laptop Once the file has been specified you may view it by clicking on the View button Click on the x in the upper right hand corner to close the image Use the View Features button to see the features that RCC is using to identify an object The features will be outlined in purple circles Note that RCC must have already been trained on the image in order to have identified features Distance from the camera This textbox is used to select the number of units the object is from the camera Be as precise as possible as the robot will use this information to determine its distance from a target ER1 User Guide 6 5 E Chapter 6 If Conditions e Units To specify a unit type use the pulldown menu Choices are Feet Inches Meters and Centimeters e Speak Object This section is used to associate a sound file or a phrase to speak with the image file e Sound File To specify a sound file to be played when the image is recognized type in the path and filename of a sound file You can also use the Browse button to specify the file Note that if you are using a wireless network to control your robot the files shown will be those located on your robot s laptop RCC can use wav txt mp3 and wma file formats e Phrase to Speak To have RCC speak a phrase when t
42. you are logged in and can begin issuing commands to the robot from the remote client 4 Also at this point you will see a dialog box on the robot pop up preventing any interaction with the robot s GUI until the API connection is closed either by you or by telnet 5 Test out your setup by typing the following then pressing ENTER play phrase hello The robot should speak the word hello 6 Ifyou type an incorrect or incomplete command you will be prompted with a list of correct commands For example Error Expected clear events input move output play sense set or stop set Error set Expected voice linear velocity or v angular velocity or w power stopped power moving collision detection obstacle avoidance confidence threshold color tolerance or color percentage move Error move Expected rotate toward drive toward x y or a distance 7 To quit telnet either click on the close button at the top right or XP version press Press ctr1 and then type quit Press Enter 10 4 ER1 User Guide Commands Commands Examples Here s a description of the commands that are currently implemented In general commands and their parameters are not case sensitive though object names are case sensitive Commands to the robot are always of the form lt command gt lt Enter gt Every command is acknowledged w
43. 101 The user will need to specify that port 9000 be forwarded to this IP address in the port forwarding configuration page of the home router Once port forwarding of the teleoperation port is set up you should be able to connect to the robot laptop and remotely operate the robot from work Some home routers block all connections from the Internet by default as a safeguard against hacking This feature will need to be disabled to allow the teleoperation client to connect to the robot You should consult your hardware s documentation to see whether the hardware you are using has this safeguard and if so how to turn it off ER1 User Guide B 3 E Appendix B Telepresence Over the Internet B 4 ER1 User Guide ei evolution wf robotics About tab using 8 27 Adding images 6 5 API accessing 10 2 clear command 10 6 command structure 10 5 digital input output commands 10 21 input analog 10 24 input digital 10 22 output digital 10 22 ERT Command 10 6 events command 10 7 move command 10 13 move distance 10 13 move drive toward color 10 14 move drive toward object 10 14 move rotate toward color 10 14 move rotate toward object 10 13 move X Y distance 10 15 objects command 10 15 play command 10 15 play file 10 15 play phrase 10 16 position command 10 16 sense command 10 16 set command 10 17 set angular velocity 10 18 set collision detection 10 19 set color tolerance 10 20 set confidence threshold 10 19 set linear velocity 10 18
44. 30 ER1 User Guide ei evolution het robotics n DW Appendix B Telepresence Over the Internet Important Note Remember that you must have the ERI RCC software loaded on your robot and on the computer you are using to control the robot remotely See the Installing the Software section for details on installing the software In order for the user to teleoperate a home robot from work the IP address and the port number of the laptop controlling the robot must be known An IP address is a number of the form x x x x where x is between 0 and 255 The port number is an integer between 0 and 65535 The port number of ER1 teleoperation defaults to 9000 but the user can change this in the Remote Control tab of the Settings menu on the robot laptop The IP address of the robot is the IP address assigned to the user s DSL or cable connection by the user s broadband provider Typically a new dynamic IP address is given to the user on each new connection However DSL and cable connections are always on and can persist for days if not weeks so the dynamic IP address is fairly stable over time To figure out what the current assigned IP address is the user can use a tool such as MyWanIP freely downloadable from http www mywanip com The assigned IP address is also available in the control software for the user s home router The documentation for ER1 User Guide B 1 Hi Appendix B Telepresence Over the Internet the various cable
45. 60x120 T Duality 5 of F 7 C 80x60 Suets Ve orul quality ad Enter width amp height I gt Key frame spacing frames p D r Audio IV Record audio Use audio capture device First listed Specific Samples per second 11025 z Bits per sample Ze 9 C 16 Channels 1 Mono C 2 Stereo SoundMAX Digital Audio IV Add a sequence number to each file Next number to use fi Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now e Use camera This specifies the camera that should be used to record the video If you only have one camera that camera will be selected by default If you have two cameras the object recognition camera will be used by default e Object This parameter specifies to use the object recognition camera to record video See the Camera Tab section for information on designating a camera for object recognition This camera is used by default e Obstacle Selecting this radio button specifies to use the obstacle avoidance camera to record video See the Camera Tab section for information on designating a camera for obstacle avoidance e Specific To designate a specific camera to record video select this radio button The pulldown menu will be activated Select the camera from the pulldown menu e Frames per second This pulldown menu is used to specify the frames per second that the robot should use when capturing video The available values are default 1 2 5 10
46. ATT TAT TTT ATTA TTT TT public void parseCommandLine String args Parse command line parameters int paramCount args length for int i 0 i lt paramCount i Check for quiet mode if args i compareTo q 0 quiet mode _verbose false Check for new host address else if args i compareTo a 0 if i gt paramCount 1 System out println ignoring a flag with no address else i _address args i Check for new host address else if args i compareTo p 0 ER1 User Guide 10 31 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface if i gt paramCount 1 System out println ignoring p flag with no port number else i _port Integer valueOf args i intValue Help else if args i compareTo h H H CO usage else usage public void usage System out println usage java TestClient options System out println a lt address gt Specify the address of ER1 RCC Defaults to 12700 DEER System out println p lt port gt The port number of the ER1 RCC Defaults to 9000 System out println q Quiet mode Only errors are printed out System out printlin h This message System exit 0 public void waitFor String command boolean moveDone false Wait until the move command is done by continuously sending events command until move do
47. Deet erleedegt 5 2 Eeer 5 3 Help deg eege 5 4 Remote Control Indicator 0 ccccccccccceeccccesccceecccscecsecseuuccsceucscucesscessuueseesceesecseunees 5 4 Chapter 6 If Conditions GREEN 6 2 Color Selection 1 G6 EN 6 2 Riet EE 6 2 KEEN 6 6 Kee WEE 6 6 Time Condition E 6 7 A Co ple ek 6 7 Segu nce EE ee 6 8 Message Receive COnditiOts EEN 6 8 IR E E 6 10 Gripper EN 6 10 Chapter 7 Then Actions Reset and Try EES 7 1 tee 7 2 lee 7 4 R ma Programi gjss ts tacos eae a ba taeconalenedeyaurena E atl eiueeians 7 5 OS ea SS EE 7 6 TREC O0U E 7 6 HERE gberhete 7 8 R n t E 7 8 Stop EEN 7 8 Chapter 8 Settings Sight Tab aeann E mabe te dadngareainiiaa ade re maaentaaaeha 8 2 C mera E Sareea ene EEN 8 3 IR EE 8 4 EC 8 4 EN Trane GSO arron o a 8 4 eech 8 5 Remote Control E EE 8 6 ER1 User Guide Hi Table of Contents Email A EE 8 9 Motion SEA EE 8 11 Obstacle Avoidance Tab EE 8 12 Positioning the Obstacle Avoidance Camera ccccccesscseeeesseeeceeseeeeecseeeeeeeenaes 8 13 Avoidance Camera e EE 8 14 Avoidance EE 8 14 Obstacle Avoidance At EE 8 14 LOS ble Pere ere rere nen OM Toner er OMe ere nay MEER NOTE EE 8 15 Joys ek EE 8 16 About Joystick Comal EE 8 18 GEST VA eebe regeert telen 8 19 Ie SETS Tab cae nats re eet cha eons dave betes peed sabbath AA 8 20 IR Sensor EE 8 22 Usme Cer 8 23 P shto Talk Tab aaraa cnetse sa saieeeadvnhe ania uaa cena aoa doen dogo 8 24 Display EE 8 26 PUGET
48. ERI User Guide Version 1 20 evolution robotics 130 W Union Street Pasadena CA 91103 Customer Service 626 229 3198 or 866 ROBO4ME toll free customerservice evolution com www evolution com 2003 All Rights Reserved Evolution Robotics Inc Evolution Robotics the Evolution Robotics logo and ER are trademarks of Evolution Robotics Inc All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners 2003 Evolution Robotics Inc All rights reserved Evolution Robotics and the Evolution Robotics logo are trademarks of Evolution Robotics Inc Microsoft DirectX is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Speech SDK 5 1 is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Windows is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation DirectX is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation MyWanIp is a trademark of Tzolkin Corporation XBeam is a trademark of XBeams Inc Other product and brand names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners Part number MC6023 Last revised 4 13 03 IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Before using the robot basic safety precautions should always be followed including the following READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING KEEP AWAY FROM WATER WARNING IMPORTANT SAFEGUARDS e To prevent fire or shock hazard do not expose the robot the Gripper or the IR sensors to rain or moisture e To avoid electrical shock do not oper
49. Guide Hi Table of Contents Move Drive Toward Color ciccssscscsscssvaieisarneeisdincboossiaveousliseeninsmdasiabadpeellunciasid 10 14 Objects Command E 10 15 OBIS CIB eech 10 15 PUSS Cini E sed eaa 10 15 Play EE 10 15 Play TE EE 10 16 Position Command ME 10 16 Position snn E a awatiatoieaea ona nana aRIae Ae naNE Canitaas 10 16 DEE 10 16 EE 10 16 Spe k Command E 10 17 el 10 17 KEE 10 17 Set EE 10 17 EEN 10 18 Set Angular EE 10 18 Set Power EE 10 18 Set Power MOVING serras era rE 10 19 Set Collision EE 10 19 Ser Obsticle EE 10 19 Set Confidence WE E 10 19 Set Color EE 10 20 EE 10 20 Stop Command spueren aaa n AA ai 10 20 StoP eeben TE ta Siaabienensieaoiiess 10 20 Detail EE E 10 21 Electrical Characteristic S E 10 21 It EE 10 22 E erh E TEE 10 22 Date enee 10 24 langer ERI Seripts ei 10 25 Download Jaya EN EE 10 26 Kee ee EE a 10 26 R nnime TGS EE 10 26 TS GIA E 10 27 Java APE EES 10 28 eiert 10 29 ER1 User Guide Chapter 11 Tricks of the Trade Rob t Search erte 11 1 IU feel hits ee 11 2 Wireless Neiwork E 11 2 Frozen ROU Opp aeerieentt eteeetgeeegEeg geed ins mantened 11 2 Camera Shuts Off When Launching RCC Unplugging Power Supp 11 2 RE 11 3 Appendix A Assembly Instructions Cette EEN A 1 Things E EE E A 6 Ch reine the eege EE A 6 Assembling Your Assembled ERT A 7 Assembling Your Unassembled AE A 11 Installing th SoftWare ebe einna a EEN A 27 Connecting the Laptop uieti ieelerterhte
50. If you chose the Default option in the Device box the current resolution will be selected Remote Transmission Another useful feature is a checkbox which lets you individually turn on off each camera s view under remote control The checkbox is labeled Transmit this camera s view under remote control This setting is on the Camera tab rather than the Remote Control tab for several reasons including that it is a per camera setting and that it is mirrored across the network under remote control whereas the Remote Control tab is not e Full resolution This parameter specifies to transmit the camera feed at full resolution Note that even if this value is set the image may still be scaled This occurs because the RCC s display window is a 240 x 180 image If you camera s resolution is higher than this the extra pixels above this value are not used so they are not transmitted Remember the higher the number of pixels the slower the transmission and processing but the higher the quality of the picture e 1 2 resolution This parameter specifies to transmit half of the columns and half of the rows of captured pixels e 1 4 resolution This parameter specifies to transmit a quarter of the columns and a quarter of the rows of the captured pixels e Use JPEG compression This parameter specifies whether to use JPEG compression Compressing the images allows them to be sent more quickly but it has a negative effect on the quality
51. Instructions 90 Connector This connector is used to form the laptop cradle Remember to use set screws to tighten the connection The 90 connectors come as two halves that need to be pressed together to form a whole unit before they are inserted into an aluminum beam There are four 90 connector halves in your kit 135 Connector The 135 connectors are used to attach the top of the robot to the bottom The 135 connectors come as halves You must press the two halves together before using the connector There are four 135 connector halves in your kit Allen Screw The Allen screws are used for attaching the motors and the struts There are two sizes of Allen screws used in the ER1 3 8 and 1 2 Use the two larger Allen wrenches that come with your kit to tighten the Allen screws The Allen screws are already screwed into the T nuts See the T Nuts section for more information All of the Allen screws you will need are attached to the subassemblies so you won t find any of these loose in the box Ca we 2 Camera Assembly The camera assembly is designed to be installed at the topmost part of the robot The robot uses the camera for object recognition and to take pictures and video It provides the video feed for teleoperation and can be used for rudimentary obstacle avoidance For better obstacle avoidance a second camera not included and or IR sensors not included are recommended There is one
52. Later sections will describe this software in detail ERT Robot Control Center Untitled Local Control PREG a EAE Behavior4 Sehavior Behavior Behavior 4 Behavior 5 Behavior Behavior Behavior amp Main Camera if one of these occurs then do all of these aese D This Task FI Siet Color meam T Move z Qun it ls 8 8 Clem qf Stop near Color of Screen cn See So Eee IX ADD I I Stop on Sensor H 4 eu lanu PELETE d Sound File i O emmmer TH sound Ir owe Recognized Object Phrase to Speak T Message e I Message to Receive E Send Camera 2 optional f BRowsE I Time s I Runa f Program I Sequence Run after I Record C Take Photo f Shoot Video E TT Then Name It dzee 7 T Then Email it to E Gripper TI Gripper y Navigate Robot Coordinates eN lt ly O b lt H O 12 03 02 18 19 30 656 Gripper status OK I e Ne L Gripper Recognize Speaker Push to Talk Battery 1 2 ER1 User Guide Possibilities Possibilities To create a new robot task here is the strategy Decide what you want to trigger the task a recognized object or color a sound a certain time email IR sensors or Gripper Break the task into subtasks that the robot can achieve one at a time such as moving speaking sending an email recording video or gripping an object Link the individual tasks one after another in any order you choose Save the sequence of
53. Then move backward 10 feet If the teddy bear is seen the sequence of behaviors 1 3 and 4 will commence Even if the word email is spoken and recognized when one of these behaviors is running it will be ignored and Behavior 2 will not run because the sequence cannot be interrupted The sequence has to begin with Behavior 1 which has a non sequence condition sight If a behavior has both a sequence condition and a non sequence condition then it can be triggered either way For example if Behavior 4 above is rewritten as follows Behavior 4 If after behavior 3 or hear sound level 2 move backward 10 feet Then the robot may move backward 10 feet on a sound or move backward 10 feet as part of the sequence starting with Behavior 1 However it will only do one or the other not both depending on which condition is satisfied first If the robot sees the teddy bear before hearing the sound Behaviors 1 3 and 4 will execute in order Even if the sound was heard during or after this execution it will be ignored If the sound was heard first Behavior 4 will execute Then if the teddy bear was seen Behaviors and 3 will execute but not 4 Assuming you re using the default behavior settings This is because behaviors are set to run only once by default All behaviors default to run once meaning that once the behavior has executed it will not run again until you once again click on the Run it button 3 6 ER1 User Guide The
54. This command opens the Gripper Parameters None Returned Values None Usage gripper status Description This command returns the status of the Gripper Parameters None Returned Values The message returned is in the format OK postion object status auto status ER1 User Guide E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface where position is one of open closed opening closing unknown not fully open or closed and object status is one of empty full unknown IR LED beam is off and auto status is one of auto manual Gripper Stop Usage gripper stop Description This command stops the Gripper from moving It will also take the Gripper out of auto mode See Gripper Auto for details Parameters None Returned Values None Sense Gripper Usage sense gripper Description This command checks to see what the Gripper is doing at that moment Parameters None Returned Values e gripper opened Gripper finished opening e gripper closed Gripper finished closing e gripper filled Object has entered the Gripper e gripper emptied Gripper opened via the Open button on the motor enclosure 10 10 ER1 User Guide IR Commands IR Commands Set IR State all left center right refl distance percentage disable distance and disable percentage ER1 User Guide These commands control the IR sensors Usage set ir obstacle avoidance lt state gt all lt refl gt left
55. Two 10 beams Instructions e Attach the 10 beams to the 8 beams as shown The easiest way to do this is by sliding the 10 beams onto the U clips e The 8 beams should be placed 2 from the ends of the 10 beams You can use the 2 beams to measure this distance e Tighten the set screws as needed Step 3 You need e 4 U clips 8 half U clips e Set screws Instructions e Press the U clip halves together to form 4 U clips e Slide the U clips into the ends of the beams e Screw in the set screws in the positions shown See the arrows A 12 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need e Two 12 beams e Two hinge halves e Set screws Instructions Slide the hinge halves into one end of each beam e Remember to add the set screws to both sides of each of the hinge halves see the arrows Step 5 You need e Two Philips screws with thumbnuts Instructions e Thread the Philips screws up through the bottom into the holes in the hinge halves on the end of each XBeam e Screw the thumbnuts larger end up onto the end of each screw ER1 User Guide A 13 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e The 12 beams from the previous step Instructions e Attach the 12 beams to the 10 beams by sliding them on
56. Use this pulldown menu is used to select A M or P M You must select a value for this field Frequency once daily weekly etc Use this pulldown menu to select the frequency with which the ER1 should perform a given task Remember to set the Let this behavior run more than once parameter in the Behavior Settings menu to On if you want this behavior to run more than once If you do not select a value for this field Once is assumed If you accidentally forget to set a required field when you click the Run it button you will get a log message telling you that there is either no trigger condition or the condition is incomplete You can refer to the log for specific information on what is missing If you specify a repeat interval the behavior will trigger every time the repeat interval is reached after you press the Run it button For example if you leave the upper combo box blank then specify Every 10 minutes in the bottom one the behavior will trigger 10 minutes after you press the Run it button If the time at which you press Run It is already later than the time at which the behavior would run on that day the behavior is scheduled for the next instance of the repeat interval after the missed time If you do not choose a repeat interval or E Chapter 6 If Conditions select Once then the behavior occurs 24 hours after the missed time If the time has not yet occurred that day the behavior is first triggered when the time is reache
57. Windows will be similar 1 Place your laptop in the cradle of the robot 2 Connect the Robot Control Module RCM to the laptop s USB port using the USB cable provided with the robot 3 When you plug the RCM s USB cable into the laptop its Windows should display a prompt for hard drive locations to search for drivers for the new hardware 4 Choose Search for the best driver for your device Select Next Windows 98 users You may be prompted for the Windows 98 CD A 28 ER1 User Guide Testing the Robot 5 Specify the CD ROM drive Windows 98 users You may also need to specify the ER Robot Control Module folder in order to specify the correct driver Select Next gt Next gt Finish 6 After installing the RCM drivers you will notice that Windows will find New Hardware which is the USB Serial Port A Found New Hardware Wizard will pop up 7 Select the default recommended search for drivers 8 Click on Next 9 Click on Continue Anyway in regards to the not passing Windows logo testing Click on Finish Windows 98 users may not see this dialog box 10 Plug the Webcam s USB cable into another port on the laptop 11 Again you will see the New hardware found message this time for the Kritter USB camera A V 12 Select to Search removable media and specify the CD ROM Windows 98 users may have to browse for the specific location of the driver on the CD It is in a folder named Camera 98 on the RCC CD
58. a and the checkbox will automatically be checked To disable a programmed trigger or action you need to click on the checkbox or the checkbox s label For example click on the word Move next to the Move checkbox to enable or disable this action Reset and Try It Buttons The Reset button at the top of the action list blanks all the behavior fields to essentially create a new behavior set Remember there is no Undo button D The Try It button at the top of the action list allows you to immediately try out an action you ve programmed so that you can verify that it works correctly before running the behavior To terminate a behavior that you started using this button use the space bar on your keyboard ER1 User Guide 7 1 E Chapter 7 Then Actions K Move Drive toward color z The Move section is used to specify movement Color B parameters such as direction and target characteristics Stop near Color of Screen D on Semor Pulldown Menu zl The Move area only displays the settings for one type of motion at a time To switch between the motion types use the pulldown menu You can choose among Drive Toward Color F Move omeen When set this parameter tells the robot to drive forward oo m towards the color you specified using the color selection Stop near Color 50 of Screen tool Tell the robot when to stop by specifying percent GE of the screen that should be filled with the specified gt color This ac
59. a given threshold is reached Parameters Means all three sensors Not to be used with sensor lt sensor number gt E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface sensor number Indicates which sensor 1 2 or 3 Not to be used with a11 If threshold is added it must be followed by a lt refl gt value refl This is the level at or above which the IR sensor will flash its LED and fire an event Values range from 1 to 100 with 50 as the default rate The rate is a number from 0 to 16 This is the rate at which the LED will blink when lt refl gt is reached 0 which is the default means that the LED should stay off This parameter can only be set to 0 by using the API The lowest value allowed by the GUI is 1 One is the slowest blink rate and 15 is the fastest Sixteen makes the LED stay on Using 0 and 16 the user can directly control the LED to keep it on or off all the time thresholdand The threshold and flash arguments can appear in any order and combination For flash example ir all flash 5 ir all threshold 90 flash 5 ir sensor 3 flash 10 The word sensor after the command ir is optional If the line ends after lt sensor number gt or a11 the current readings from that sensor or all sensors is returned after the OK The format of the returned values for each sensor is lt current reflection value gt lt threshold gt lt flash rate gt For example ir all OK 68 50 0 77 50 0 75 50 0 ir 1 OK 68 50 0 Importan
60. a trigger condition and as a target for the robot Object The Object pulldown menu allows you to specify visual recognition of any of one or more object s as the trigger condition You can select from the scrollable list of image library thumbnails displayed in the viewer with the filenames under each or you can capture a new image To select an image click on the checkbox next to the image Note that the most recently trained item is at the top of the pulldown menu list When the robot recognizes the specified object the corresponding actions are triggered Important Note If you are using a wireless connection to control your robot the object library shown on your remote computer will be the object library on your robot s laptop To the left of the pulldown menu is a counter to let you know how many images you have selected All of the selected images will act as triggers for the behavior The Clear button deselects all of the images To the right of the object pulldown menu are four buttons Capture Button The Capture button allows you to capture an image from the robot s video feed If you are using a wireless connection to control your robot note that the picture file will be stored on the robot s laptop 6 2 ER1 User Guide Sight Condition gt Capture Object E Name JER1_Manual Image file fobjects ER1_Manual bmp Browse View H Distance from camera fi Units Feet DI Speak Object Sound file so
61. already run and cannot be triggered again ER1 User Guide 3 7 E Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview Behavior Error and Logging The software enables logging of events during behavior execution by default and displays the last few lines of the log at the bottom of the application Logging can be turned on or off by clicking on the Settings button at the top left of the application and then selecting the Log tab The generated log file is named ert Log and resides in the same directory as the ER1 RCC software During the course of executing the task the robot might encounter an error condition that will cause it to abort the current behavior or the entire task Examples of this include encountering obstacles during motion low laptop battery etc If the behavior has to abort due to some error condition it will log the error if the logging option is selected If something unexpected occurs during behavior execution you will see a message in the Log window or you can check the er1 1og file ER1 User Guide robotics n ei evolution d E Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls The left side of the ER1 Robot Control Center RCC software window is used for direct control of the robot and does not require that any If Then conditions be set Opening the ER1 RCC Software To open the software double click on the icon on your Windows desktop This icon is automatically placed on your desktop during installation Always make
62. ance algorithms will be used e Neither No obstacle avoidance is used The IR settings on the Obstacle Avoidance tab apply only when obstacle avoidance is running You can use obstacle avoidance under the following conditions e While movement related behaviors are running e While driving the robot using the RCC navigation panel e While driving the robot using a joystick e While using Command Line APIs ER1 User Guide 9 11 E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings Use the settings on the IR Sensor tab to set values that apply to IR sensor based triggering of behaviors The sensor reflection strength percentage is the level at or above which the robot will initiate avoidance of the obstacle sensed That is a high percentage will allow the robot to come closer to a particular obstacle than a low percentage e Avoid obstacles using IR sensors When this box is checked the robot will use the IR sensors to detect and avoid obstacles in its path If desired camera driven obstacle avoidance can be used in conjunction with IR sensor based avoidance e Left sensor reflection strength When the robot s left IR sensor senses a reflection with a strength at or above this threshold obstacle avoidance behavior will be initiated e Center sensor reflection strength When the robot s center IR sensor senses a reflection with a strength at or above this threshold obstacle avoidance behavior will be initiated e Right sensor refle
63. ancel button The Restore Factory Settings button resets all motion values back to the original defaults Run Tab The Run Tab allows you to specify how many times a behavior should run and or how long it should wait before running once again 9 12 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide Run Tab Behavior Settings x Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run doystick IR Sensors Logic Load I Let behavior run more than once Prevent restarting for seconds 10 Priority higher number indicates higher priority fi I Allow conflicting higher priority behaviors to terminate this behavior P Allow non conflicting behaviors to run at the same time as this behavior I Pause for fi Phourts x after running Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now e Let behavior run more than once Select this checkbox to allow a behavior to run again and again This value is set to off by default e Prevent from restarting for seconds This parameter specifies the time interval in between rerunning the same behavior Remember that the behavior must be triggered by something specified in the If column before it can occur e Priority Use this option to assign a priority to a behavior Use the up and down arrows to change the priority Values between 1 lowest and 288 highest are accepted The default value is the number of the behavior i e Behavior 1 has a priority of 1 Behavior 2 has a priority of 2
64. any error messages it produces Any error messages that do not have an IP address were produced by the local computer To see these messages logging must be enabled in both computers e Clear Log To delete all of the entries in the log file click on this button Hi Chapter 8 Settings xl Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About IV Enable logging IV Show log window on main screen T Log robot motions View Log Clear Log OK Cancel Help Joystick Tab RCC allows joystick control of the robot behaviors and or the Gripper Options are e Enable Joystick Control This checkbox if selected allows you to use a joystick to control your robot including controlling the Gripper open close function Note that when the joystick is enabled or at startup if the current joystick position will result in robot motion the you will be asked if you want to enable joystick control Note also that some joysticks have more than just X Y control For example the Logitech WingMan Cordless Rumblepad joystick has two independent joysticks which control the X Y and R U axes By adjusting the Axis menu settings you can make either the right or left joystick control the robot or split the motion so that for example the left joystick controls turning and the right one controls linear motion Important Note Manual moti
65. at the connection will be very loose The smallest Allen wrench is used to screw in the set screws There are 100 set screws included in your kit This is more than you will need so don t worry about counting them A 4 ER1 User Guide Getting to Know the Parts Struts The Struts are used to attach the laptop cradle to the caster wheel There are two struts in your kit one right and one left T nuts T nuts are used with the Allen screws to secure such things as the struts All the T nuts you will need are already attached to the subassemblies Thumbnuts The Thumbnuts are paired with the Philips screws Together they secure joints in the robot There are three thumbnuts in your kit U clips The U clips are used to connect the beams together Remember to use the sets screws to tighten the connections U clips like the rest of the plastic connectors come as halves Press the halves together to create a whole U clip There are eighteen U clip halves in your kit USB Cord The USB cord connect the Robot Control Module to your laptop There is 1 USB cord in your kit ER1 User Guide A 5 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions Wheel Assembly The Wheel Assembly contains the wheel and a motor to move the robot There are 2 wheel assemblies in your kit XBeams The XBeams are used to create the robot s body You can use a ruler to determine the different sizes of XBeams mentioned in the Assembly Instruc
66. ate in or near water e To avoid breakage or damage to the robot or your laptop computer use caution in operating the robot Do not operate the robot outdoors near stairs or on top of furniture Use the robot on a level surface e To avoid damage to property or injury to persons always operate robot under close supervision THE ROBOT SHOULD NEVER BE LEFT TO OPERATE UNATTENDED OR UNSUPERVISED e To reduce risk of damage to your laptop computer use caution in ensuring that your laptop computer is securely fastened to the robot BY USING THE ROBOT WITH YOUR LAPTOP COMPUTER YOU ARE ASSUMING ALL RISKS FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR LAPTOP COMPUTER e Do not under any circumstances use the robot to move touch or handle dangerous or hazardous materials Doing this could result in injury or death to the user or damage to property e The robot is not a toy and is not recommended for children e Keep hair loose clothing and all body parts away from openings and moving parts e Beware of loose objects that may be caught in the motors or wheels e Use the switch on the back of the robot to turn the robot off when you wish to stop the robot e Do not open any of the electrical components housed in sheet metal units as this might result in fire or shock hazard e Our product parts may contain sharp edges and should be handled with caution to avoid injury e Store packing materials safely out of reach of children to prevent the risk of suffocation fro
67. ative position of x 10 y 20 3 Robot position after first relative move of x 10 y 20 Axes are redrawn so that robot is again at the position 0 0 with the front of the robot pointing along the X axis 4 Robot path to new relative position of x 10 y 30 5 Robot position after relative move of x 10 y 30 Robot is facing in the direction it would have been facing if the robot had traveled in a straight line to its new position Remote Operation of the Gripper The Gripper can be commanded to open and close through the ERT Robot Control Center RCC software The Gripper control is located in the lower left corner of the display near the navigation controls The icon on the Gripper button indicates the state of the Gripper If the icon shows an open Gripper then the Gripper is currently open Clicking on the button will cause the Gripper to close and the icon to change to that of a closed Gripper shown on the left A grayed out icon means that no Gripper was detected 4 4 ER1 User Guide Independent Operation of the Gripper With remote operation using a wireless connection you can 1 Use Teleoperation to drive the robot up to the object to be gripped maneuvering so that the object is within reach of the Gripper 2 Click the Gripper button to cause the Gripper to close or use the Settings menu to set the Gripper to close automatically when the Gripper s IR beam is broken 3 Drive the robot to the object
68. attempt to identify trigger words 9 If trigger words are identified the corresponding action s are performed ER1 User Guide 6 9 E Chapter 6 If Conditions IR Condition The IR condition allows you to trigger a behavior if an object is detected by sensor 1 2 or 3 You may select a single sensor or use the checkboxes to the left of the labels to select multiple sensors M IRSensor MObiect approaches IR sensor 2 X Gripper Condition The Gripper condition has two options e Object enters gripper The behavior will be triggered when an object is detected entering the Gripper Note that this does not close the Gripper it simply triggers the action s specified If you would like the Gripper to close specify this action in the Then column e Gripper is opened using push button The behavior will be triggered when the Open button on the Gripper is pressed E Gripper Object enters gripper D Note that the objects are detected using the Gripper s IR LED 6 10 ER1 User Guide e evolution k robotics DW Chapter 7 Then Actions The following section describes the actions that the robot can perform These actions must be preceded by a trigger event that is either specified in the If column or initiated by a joystick button press Remember you can specify multiple actions to occur as a result of one trigger event To activate these actions just click in any textbox or pulldown menu within the section s are
69. avior from the Run after pulldown menu Sequence gt W Sequence Run after Behaviot zl Run after checkbox pulldown menu 11 Click on the Move checkbox again 12 Select Angle from the pulldown menu In the This Amount textbox type 195 and select Degrees from the Units pulldown menu Select Left from the This direction pulldown menu M Move Angle 5 This Amount 195 Degrees This Direction Left e I Stop on Sensor l E 13 Select the Behavior 3 tab at the top of the screen 14 Select the Sequence checkbox and select Behavior 2 from the pulldown menu 15 Select the Move checkbox 16 Select Distance from the pulldown menu As before type 2 in the checkbox Select Feet from the Units pulldown menu Select Forward from the This Direction pulldown menu 17 Select the Behavior 4 tab 18 Select the Sequence checkbox and select Behavior 3 from the Run after pulldown menu 19 Select the Move checkbox 20 Select Angle from the pulldown menu In the This Amount textbox type 195 Select Degrees from the Units pulldown menu Select Right from the This Direction pulldown menu 21 Select the Behavior 1 tab 22 Select the Sequence checkbox and select Behavior 4 This will create a continuous loop in the behaviors 23 Click on the Behavior Settings button The Behavior Settings dialog will poy be displayed 2 10 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide Trying Out the Software 24 Select the Run tab Selec
70. behavior before continuing 5 Click Cancel to return to what you were doing ER1 User Guide 4 7 WE Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls 4 8 ER1 User Guide ei evolution bt robotics E Chapter 5 Function Buttons The function buttons located at the top left hand side of the Robot Control Center RCC software window allow you to create a new task change overall behavior settings save or retrieve behaviors you ve created and get help OAI AKT NEW OPEN SAVE SETTINGS HELP New Button The New button allows you to load a blank behavior set To use this button click on it If you have unsaved changes to an existing behavior set the software will first ask you if you want to save your changes A dialog box will appear Click on the Yes button the No and Cancel buttons can be used to go back to the main RCC screen A Save As dialog box appears Select a location for your behavior set and type in a name Make sure that the name is unique and descriptive so it is easy to find as you add more behavior sets The file is saved asa rbt file ER1 User Guide 5 1 E Chapter 5 Function Buttons Open Button The Open button allows you to retrieve and load a previously saved rbt file To do so 1 Click on the Open button 2 If you ve made changes since your last rbt save a dialog box will appear asking you if you want to save your current settings before retrieving Select Yes or No If you select Yes a dia
71. bject is in the path of the robot e Weight 0 3 lbs e Powered by your laptop through a USB connection 8 22 ER1 User Guide IR Sensors Tab e Wide elliptical field of view enables detection of object within an area that at its maximum is 30 long and 20 wide Enables just three sensors to provide good coverage of the forward half of the ER1 Special IR pulse technique makes sensor relatively immune to interference from TVs sunlight or other ambient light polluters e Sensors easily snap into your ER1 s XBeam channels with no extra hardware required or screws to tighten e Each sensor has a flexible neck to make positioning simple and precise Attractive blue LED provides visible feedback so you know when the ER1 has detected an object e User adjustable object sensitivity through software Output LED frequency adjustable through software e Can sense larger objects up to 30 away e Objects as small as 2 x 2 can be detected from a distance of 15 Using The IR Sensors ER1 User Guide The IR sensors allow your robot to avoid obstacles There are three sensors that can be used separately or in combination on the robot They are numbered 1 2 and 3 in the RCC GUI The sensors use infrared light which is invisible to the human eye Infrared light is commonly used as a signaling method in remote controls for entertainment equipment such as televisions and VCRs The robot s IR sensors each contain an IR emit
72. carry items heavy enough to cause the ERT Robot to tip over How much weight the ERT Robot can hold depends on the configuration of the robot and where on the robot the Gripper is installed e Use common sense when employing the Gripper It is possible for the Gripper to pull a heavy item such as a bookcase over onto itself potentially damaging or destroying the robot and or surrounding items and injuring humans pets Changes or modifications not expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance could void the user s authority to operate the equipment 47 C F R section 15 21 Important Note This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device pursuant to Part 15 of the FCC Rules These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in a residential installation This equipment generates uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions may cause harmful interference to radio communications However there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures e Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna e Increase the separati
73. ction checkbox determines how tolerant the ERT will be to potential collision situations The higher the sensitivity number the more readily the ER1 will detect collisions Conversely the lower the number the fewer collisions it will detect You may need to tailor the sensitivity value to work best in the environment that the ERT is currently in Keep in mind however that too high a Sensitivity will result in false collisions being detected On the other hand too low a Sensitivity will cause the ER1 not to detect actual collisions The default value is 50 start with this and adjust accordingly for your environment An important collision detection behavior occurs when all that the ER1 can sees is a featureless object such as a blank wall In this case the ERT stops because it is most likely very close to the object and therefore should stop moving towards it This behavior can be incorrectly diagnosed as a problem with the robot s motors but if you reorient the robot so that the camera s view is of a non featureless environment it should continue its movement If the robot still doesn t move temporarily disable collision detection and restart the robot s behavior The robot should move correctly If it does not you should experiment with adjusting the robot s collision detection sensitivity so that it will work correctly in your environment In rare instances of extremely featureless environments collision detection cannot be adjuste
74. ction strength When the robot s right IR sensor senses a reflection with a strength at or above this threshold obstacle avoidance behavior will be initiated e Disable during drive toward object or color This parameter specifies that the robot ignore obstacle avoidance when approaching an object or color using Drive toward object or color In other words setting this parameter turns all obstacle avoidance off By default the robot is disabled within 100 cm of an object for Drive toward object and within 50 of the stop percentage for drive toward color Because the default stop percentage is 50 50 of 50 means when the color is 25 of the screen Why this is useful When the robot is within the disable values of the target obstacle avoidance is disabled to allow the robot to proceed to the target This is useful if the robot is approaching a painting on a wall or target near some obstacle e Within this distance of objects This value specifies the number of centimeters from the target that the robot should stop This value should never be set to less than 4cm as there is a good chance that the robot will collide with the intended target e When color is this fraction of the stop percentage This parameter specifies that the robot should stop when the selected color takes up a certain percentage of the screen When you have finished adjusting the parameters click the Ok button You may cancel at any time by clicking on the C
75. ctions e Screw the thumbnuts onto the screwposts e Make sure that they are firmly secured Step 5 You need e 1 Laptop Instructions e Plug the webcam into one of the USB ports on the back of your laptop different for every laptop e Plug the RCM into the another USB port ER1 User Guide A 9 E Appendix A Assembly Instructions e Nothing e You re done building your robot e Next turn to the Installing the Software section ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER Assembling Your Unassembled ER1 STOP Have you read the Getting to Know the Parts section This section gives you the necessary information on the robot parts Remember to refer to this section if you need further clarification on the assembly instructions Remember to check your parts against the Getting to Know the Parts section to make sure you have received all of the parts you will need to build your ER1 Step 1 You need e Two 8 XBeams e 4U clips 8 half U clips e Set screws Instructions e Snap the U clips halves together e Slide the U clips into both ends of the two beams Make sure that the U clips are oriented in the same plane as shown see black arrows e Screw in the set screws in the positions indicated by the gray arrows ER1 User Guide A 11 E Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e
76. cts plus you can teach ER1 to recognize objects in your home The vision system can also recognize many obstacles and can instruct your robot to move around them The Robot Control Center RCC software allows you to lt j control this vision system as well as all of the other xl Remote Control Indicator RCC now displays remote control status on the right side of the title bar The status messages are e Remotely Controlling Robot The RCC software on this machine is displaying the settings of the remote robot s laptop and can be used to control that laptop e Under Remote Control The RCC software on this machine is displaying the settings of this machine However another instance of ER1 on a remote computer is remotely controlling the robot to which this laptop is attached e Under API control The RCC software on this machine is under API control e Not connected The wireless network between the remote machine and the robot is not connected e Local Control The RCC software on this machine is displaying the settings of this machine 5 4 ER1 User Guide ei evolution d robotics E Chapter 6 H Conditions There are seven If condition buttons dialog boxes each of which corresponds to an independent condition on which to trigger one or more actions The seven conditions are e Sight Condition e Sound Condition e Time Condition e Sequence Condition e Message Receive Condition e IR Condition
77. d Here are some examples which will clarify these rules for you e You schedule a behavior to run at 10 00 A M with a repeat interval of Hourly You press the Run it button at 10 05 A M Since the initial time for the behavior to run has already passed for the day the behavior will next run at 11 00 A M e You schedule a behavior to run at 10 00 A M with a repeat interval of Once You press the Run it button at 10 05 A M Since the initial time for the behavior to run has already passed the behavior will next run at 10 00 A M the following day e You schedule a behavior to run at 10 00 A M with a repeat interval of Hourly You press the Run it button at 7 55 A M Since the initial time for the behavior to run has not passed for the day the behavior will next run at 10 00 A M and then at 11 00 A M 12 00 P M etc When you press the Stop button or the spacebar all scheduled behaviors are abandoned The next time you click on Run it or the spacebar they are rescheduled based on the above rules starting from the time you pressed the Run it button Information about the scheduling of timed behaviors is written to the log file in the ER1 folder of your program files so it is easy to see when your behaviors will run next Also if another behavior is in progress when a time triggered behavior is scheduled to run the time triggered behavior is postponed until after the current behavior and any behaviors sequenced to run after it a
78. d to work properly 9 10 ER1 User Guide Obstacle Avoidance Tab Obstacle Avoidance Tab These parameters are used to activate and adjust the ER1 s obstacle avoidance system x Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load gt Using Camera IV Avoid obstacles using camera Detect Obstacles By Ze Differences in intensity Differences in color Artifact tolerance higher is more tolerant 50 Using IR Sensors IV Avoid obstacles using IR sensors Left sensor reflection threshold St 50 Center sensor reflection threshold Tt 50 Right sensor reflection threshold ST 50 E m Disable During Drive Toward Object or Color Within this distance of Objects centimeters 100 When color is this fraction of the stop percentage CT 50 Restore Factory Settings Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now The obstacle avoidance behavior settings have been designed to allow you to choose the type of obstacle avoidance you want the robot to use e Camera based obstacle avoidance This is the avoidance capability that uses the camera to determine where obstacles are in the robot s path e IR Sensor based obstacle avoidance If you have IR sensors installed on your robot you can choose this option e Both If you have IR sensors installed on your robot you can choose this option Both the camera based and the IR sensor based obstacle avoid
79. e joystick in any direction to cause the robot to move in the corresponding direction Navigate Pointing the joystick at the dot in the middle of the top or bottom triangle moves the robot forward backward e Pointing the joystick at the dot in the middle of the right or left triangle sends the robot into a clockwise or counterclockwise spin e Pointing the joystick at any other area on the Navigation control causes the robot to move on a curved path You can vary the robot s speed at the same time by dragging the joystick to make it longer causing the robot to move faster or shorter causing the robot to move more slowly Note that physical joystick motions will be echoed on the graphical joystick Manual motion using the arrow keys of the robot is allowed while behaviors are running as long a programmed motion is not currently in progress If a programmed motion is presently in progress a message is logged telling the user why his manual motion command is not being executed Assuming that the user is still holding down the arrow key when the robot s movement related behavior finishes the robot will then start moving under the user s manual control and a message will be logged to that effect Important Note UNPLUG THE LAPTOP S CHARGER BEFORE INSTRUCTING THE ROBOT TO MOVE The robot should detect whether or not the laptop is plugged into a wall outlet and should not move until the laptop is unplugged However
80. e Delete button in the Sight condition area to delete many images quickly while the object recognition is disabled Remember to click on the Recognize button again when you want your robot to recognize objects Speaker Button The Speaker button mutes or resets the sound for the robot s laptop ER1 User Guide 4 5 E Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls Push to Talk With the Push to Talk button you can listen to what your robot hears and you can talk remotely through your robot It also lets you speak through your robot using a walkie talkie like button functionality See the Settings section for details on the parameters for this functionality This button is only enabled when the robot has a wireless connection to another computer Push to Talk Battery Icon a The Battery display indicates the level of charge is left in the power module j and when you need to recharge If the power module is fully charged it should last for about 3 hours of driving time This icon will be disabled if the robot is disconnected from the RCC software a BATTERY Note that the robot will be disabled when the battery falls below 10 charge See our website at www evolution com for information about acquiring additional power modules Important Note The rate at which the power module loses its charge is highly dependant on how much driving the robot is doing the weight of the laptop and any accessories and the surface on whic
81. e If the user specifies a grammar file or a string of words the speech recognizer will not even try to recognize any other words e For information on grammar file syntax see http www w3 org TR speech grammar For information on creating grammar files go to http msdn microsoft com and search for the topic creating grammar files Photo Tab This tab is used to set up photo parameters Options are e Format This parameter allows you to choose which format to use when saving a picture from the robot s webcam The default value is jpg Choose one of the following formats e bmp e tif e png jpg e Quality JPEG files use lossy compression meaning that they do not exactly recreate the original image 100 means the least loss best quality and thus the biggest file size 0 means the most loss lowest quality and the smallest file size e Smoothing Compressing an image as a JPEG can cause sharp edges to appear rough or jagged Smoothing lets you specify how much to smooth rough edges 9 4 ER1 User Guide Video Tab created by the compression process 0 means no smoothing 100 means maximum smoothing xi Sight Sound Photo Video Mation Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load m Format r Resolution okie Use Object Recognition Camera Setting 640 x 480 el 352 x 288 png 320 x 240 ES 176 x144 160 x 120 80 x 60 Enter width amp height CJ
82. e all around it before running this behavior l ER1 User Guide Get a piece of paper and a marker Draw a large number 8 on the piece of paper Don t be shy about applying the ink The more clearly the number is drawn the more easily the robot will recognize it Open the RCC software if it isn t open already If you have previously created a behavior click on the New button to save the previous behavior and to start a new one E Chapter 2 Getting Started if one of these occurs then de all of thee GE n T Sight olor mi Listen for Level e sender Subject Body Ja a A a C Take Photo Shoot Video 2 TT Then Name it Coen email 10 H 3 Click on the Sight checkbox Sight checkbox P Sight C Color Ma cartune Capture button MODIFY ADD DELETE Manual C Motion 4 Position the piece of paper in front of the robot s camera Make sure that the paper takes up most of the field of view The paper should be well lit but sunlight or light of that magnitude is not recommended 5 When the paper is properly positioned click on the Capture button The image will be saved 6 The Capture Object dialog box will appear Capture Object Name textbox _ gt Name Eight Image file textbox gt Image file Jobjects Eight bmp
83. e as one of the following values 8 000 11 025 22 050 or 44 100 e Adjust levels local computer Allows you to set the CD Player Microphone and Line In levels and balance Help Options o x CD Player Microphone Line In Balance Balance Balance P Falo Falo F a Volume Volume Volume E dear J Select Je Select I Select Advanced SoundMAX Digital Audio e Adjust levels remote computer Use this button to adjust the levels for Wave SW Synth CD Player Microphone Line In Phone Line and PC Speaker The Talk values are on the left and the Listen values are on the right Remote Listen Lev xl Master Volume wave v T Mute all IT Mute FE Select Crystal WDM Audio For Listen settings are e Use this device Allows you to choose the sound card to be used for talking e Adjust levels local computer Allows you to set the Volume Wave SW synth CD Player microphone and Line In levels and balance ER1 User Guide Hi Chapter 8 Settings E Yolume Control ll Options Help Volume Control Wave SW Synth CD Player Line In Balance Balance Balance Balance Balance Ce ou ae ee ate Volume Volume Volume Volume Volume T Mute all T Mute Mute T Mute T Mute SoundMAX Digital Audio e Adjust Levels remote computer Use this button to adjust the levels of Stereo Mix Mono Mix CD Player
84. e been met 9 18 ER1 User Guide Load Tab Load Tab 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 54 381 Triggering Behavior 1 it will not be allowed to be re triggered 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 54 391 Speaking phrase saw money and gripper was triggered 10 1 3 108 01 10 03 15 42 54 411 Closing gripper Note that the If column heading changes according to the way the Logic tab is set If it is set to AND it looks like this if all of these occur and if the Logic tab is set to OR the column heading looks like this if one of these occurs This tab allows you load another behavior file and trigger behaviors in that file Note that this action is performed after all other actions in a behavior set Note that when you are using a wireless network to control your robot this tab will be disabled as it provides a view of behaviors on the local not the robot s system gt Behavior Settings xi Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load IV Run behaviors contained in another file Behavior file name Browse IV After loading trigger behavior name or number IV Retum after behavior name or number is done Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help e Run behaviors contained in another file Click on this checkbox to allow other behavior set files to be used e Behavior file name Specify the path and filename of the behavior file
85. e g telnet localhost 9000 or telnet 10 0 0 2 9000 substituting the IP address of the system running er1 exe localhost if it is the same machine that you are going to run telnet on and the port number being used in the Remote Control tab 3 Since local echo is off by default you will not be able to see what you type as you type it To correct this type Ctr1l 4 This will take you to command mode for telnet Type set LOCAL ECHO 5 Then hit the enter key twice The first time turns on local echo mode and the second takes you back to your telnet session to the robot blanking the screen Older Windows Telnet Setup For older Windows telnet programs e g Win98 and NT4 1 Follow steps 1 and 2 above ER1 User Guide 10 3 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface 2 To turn on local echo use the Terminal Preferences menu item in telnet click the Local Echo box then click OK Using the Telnet Connection Now you can type commands to the ER1 API and see what you are typing 1 Make sure you are connected by hitting the Enter key once You should see the word OK appear on the next line 2 You can now type just about anything and it will show you a list of valid commands If you have set a password using the Remote Control tab the only valid command initially is login Type login lt password gt where lt password gt is the correct password case sensitive followed by the Enter key 3 Ifyou see ox
86. e into the slot labelled Motor2 e Tighten the screws on either side of each motor cable connector see arrows WARNING If the motor cable connectors should become loose they will cause SEVERE damage to the RCM so double check that the screws are completely secure Step 11 You need es 7 XBeam e Caster wheel with two 3 8 Allen screws and T nuts attached e 1x2 mounting plate with mushroom headed fastner tape Instructions e Slide the 1x2 mounting plate onto the beam e Loosen the T nuts on the caster and slide them into the track on the X beam e Position the caster mount plate 1 2 from the end of the beam as shown Tighten the screws A 16 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need e 2 struts one right one left each with 4 Allen screws 2 one holed and 1 two holed T nuts Instructions e Slide the T nut on the bottom of the strut down the track of the XBeam flush with the end of the beam as shown Note that the struts are mirror images of each other Position them as shown e Tighten the screws e Repeat for the other side making sure to position as shown Step 13 You need e 2 endcaps Instructions e Place endcaps on both ends of the 7 beam You may need to tap these with a small hammer to get them to seat properly ER1 User Guide A 17 Hi Appe
87. eater than or equal to These three checkboxes are followed by a scrollable textbox where lt N gt is 1 2 or 3 If the checkbox is checked the scrollable textbox is enabled When checked the corresponding sensor s LED will flash if its reflection threshold is greater than Hi Chapter 8 Settings or equal to the value set Changes take effect immediately even in remote control mode but if the dialog box in cancelled the old settings are restored This lets the user quickly experiment with different settings and flash rates If a box is not checked the corresponding LED will remain off unless one of the other checkboxes is checked and its setting is active Note that if a Move action that uses the Stop on sensor feature is triggered but the IR sensor threshold has been exceeded the robot will not move e Use IR Sensor obstacle avoidance reflection thresholds when appropriate If this box is checked when a behavior which uses IR Sensor obstacle avoidance is triggered and is moving the robot the reflection strengths are set to the values in the Behaviors Settings menu on the Obstacle Avoidance tab When the robot is done performing that behavior the settings controlled by the first three checkboxes are restored e Use stop reflection threshold when manually moving robot This checkbox is only enabled when the Use the center sensor to stop manually controlled forward motion checkbox above the Flashing LEDs group is checked If i
88. eck the box for Control robot at this IP address Enter the robot s laptop IP address in the space provided 8 8 ER1 User Guide Email Tab Email Tab 12 Leave the default as Port 9000 Options are e e Disable Remote Control If this checkbox is selected remote control of your robot is disallowed Allow remote control of this instance If you want to remotely control your robot click this checkbox on the robot s laptop You will also need to go to the remote computer and click Control robot at this IP address If you close the ERT application then restart it you will have to re select this option Control robot at this IP address If this option is selected the IP address port and password for the robot s laptop must be supplied Allow API Control of this instance If this option is selected the ER1 can be controlled using the API instead of through the RCC interface If this option is selected a port must be specified You may also specify a password if desired See the Application Programmer s Interface section for details Note that if this option is specified you cannot control the robot using the RCC software until you discontinue your API session Safety Remote Control Timeout Use this option to override the safety timeout setting The default value is 1 500 milliseconds 1 5 seconds between the loss of remote connection and the robot stopping Valid values are between 500 milliseconds and 10 000 mi
89. ection strength The closer a sensor comes to an obstacle the higher the reflection strength Threshold values for automatic obstacle avoidance are set in the Obstacle Avoidance tab of the Behavior Settings menu Threshold values for behavior triggering and Stop on Sensor are set in the IR Sensors tab of the Behavior Settings menu 8 20 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide IR Sensors Tab gs xi Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Use the controls below to tell ER1 Robot Control Center which of the IR sensors are mounted on the left center and right sides of your robot The number below each sensor shows its current reflection strength t Robot s Right IR Sensor fi x tr aa 7 3 ei Bobotz Left IR Sensor 27 F A 71 ey Robot s Center IR Sensor 2 5 83 r Stop manual motion unless Ctrl key or a designated joystick button is held down I Use sensor 1 to stop forward or backward motion when reflection reaches 7 50 r gt Mu 2to stop C i i E l pz se sensor 2 to stop Ce forward or C backward motion when reflection reaches 50 Gi T Use sensor 3 to stop E foward or backward motion when reflection reaches g 4 p Flashing LEDs IV Flash sensor 1 when reflection is greater than or equal to 2 50 cl IV Flash sensor 2 when reflection is greater than or equal to E JV Flash
90. ed and are eligible for triggering Each individual behavior is simple but when put together multiple behaviors can perform complex and interesting tasks in response to a variety of conditions Behaviors can be chained together in a sequence so that each behavior triggers the next behavior forming a sequential program of up to 288 behaviors The set of all behaviors and their configuration settings is called a task and the task can be saved to a rbt file for later use Behavior Tabs Each behavior has a tab located at the top of the screen associated with it Clicking on the tab selects the corresponding behavior for editing To use the tabs 1 Click on the left or right arrows at the top right corner of the screen to move to the subsequent or preceding page of eight tabs 2 Double click on a tab to change its name Behavior Configurations Each behavior also has a set of individual configuration settings accessible by clicking on the Behavior Settings button at the top right of the screen See Behavior Settings for a complete description of these settings Behavior Files Behaviors and all their associated configuration settings can be saved to a file with the rbt extension for later retrieval and reuse To save a task to a file 1 Click on the Save button at the top left of the screen A Save File dialog will pop up and a name can be specified for the behavior file The software will automatically add the rbt exte
91. egrates the robot with your home automation system and have it turn on your home theater system and dim the lights when you show it a particular DVD box ER1 User Guide 10 1 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Because the API is written in a language neutral way they can be used by most programming and scripting languages including C C Perl Java Visual Basic etc The API also works equally well when issued from the laptop controlling the robot and from another machine via a wireless network Accessing the API The API is accessed by opening a TCP IP socket to er1 exe and sending text commands along the socket Activating the feature is done via the Remote Control tab of the Settings dialog box There is a new remote control option labeled Allow API control of this instance To activate 1 On the robot s laptop with ER1 running choose the Settings button select the Sight tab and click on the Allow API Control of this instance checkbox Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Disable remote control Allow remote control of this instance Control robot at IP address Te Allow API control of this instance Port 9000 Password a J Reset the network connection now OK Cancel Help 2 On the remote client running ER1 click on the Settings button and then the Remote Control tab and click
92. er downloading and installing the latest Java SDK you can compile the Client script and the Test script by typing the following at the C command line don t forget to take directory paths into account javac ER1Client java javac TestClient java For example Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5 00 2195 C Copyright 1985 2000 Microsoft Corp C gt cd ERI C ER1 gt dir Client 10 07 2002 08 58a 8 115 ER1Client java 10 07 2002 08 58a 1 496 TestClient java C ER1 gt c j2sdk1 4 1 bin javac ER1Client java C ER1 gt c j2sdk1 4 1 bin javac TestClient java C ER1 gt dir Client 10 07 2002 05 04p 4 569 ER1Client class 10 07 2002 08 58a 8 115 ER1Client java 10 07 2002 06 10p 719 TestClient class 10 07 2002 08 58a 1 496 TestClient java Running the Script To run the compiled Testclient Java script 1 Put the robot s laptop into remote API mode as described earlier 2 Type the following at the command line java TestClient a XX X XX XXX where XX X XX XXX is the robot laptop s IP address for example java TestClient a 10 1 3 108 3 You should see C ER1 gt c j2sdk1 4 1 bin java TestClient a 10 1 3 111 Sending command move 10 i Response OK Sending command events Response OK Sending command events Response OK 10 26 ER1 User Guide Sending command events Response move done Sending command move 90 d Response OK Sending command events Response OK move done Sending command move
93. erminated so that the file can be unloaded right away e Note that some behaviors may conflict with each other because they make use of the same camera For example if one behavior shoots a video with the obstacle avoidance camera and the other moves the robot and uses obstacle avoidance that will be considered a conflict and handled according to the rules described previously Examples Conflict Example 1 Behavior 1 Priority 1 is configured to drive the robot 10 feet forward when it sees object A and has the Allow conflicting higher priority box checked 2 Behavior 2 Priority 2 is configured to drive the robot 5 feet backward when it sees object B 3 The user clicks Run to start the behaviors 9 14 ER1 User Guide Joystick Tab 4 The robot sees object A 5 It starts to drive forward 6 Then it sees object B 7 Behavior 2 would then stop Behavior because it is higher priority and conflicts and Behavior 1 had this box checked on its run tab Non Conflict Example 1 Behavior 1 priority 1 is set to drive the robot 10 feet forward when it sees object A and has this box checked 2 Behavior 2 priority 2 is set to say Hello when it sees object B 3 You start behaviors and the robot sees object A 4 It starts to drive forward Then it sees object B and while it continues to move forward it will say Hello Joystick Tab ER1 User Guide You can assign a specific behavior to be triggered by a joystick
94. et when it hears you say Come here robot You can string these condition action behaviors together to perform complex tasks e Standard Menus provide standard Windows features for setting preferences saving and retrieving programs etc New Features ER1 RCC version 1 2 0 has a number of new features These are e Signal Loss Timeout Adjustment This allows the user to specify the amount of time to wait in between losing the wireless signal and stopping the actions of the robot e Parallel Behaviors This feature allows the ERT to run multiple behaviors simultaneously e Exit RCC and Leave Behaviors Running This functionality allows the user to exit RCC but still have any running behaviors complete Priority You can now assign a priority to a behavior e Behavior Tab Sorting Order Tabs can now be sorted numerically alphabetically or by priority e Remote Browse Capability If you are controlling your robot using a wireless network this feature allows you to browse files on your robot s laptop from your desktop computer e Manual Motion While Behaviors Run Manual motion has been enabled while behaviors run e Time Delay Capability This feature allows you to add a time delay between behaviors 1 4 ER1 User Guide Customer Support Customer Support Evolution Robotics Customer support is available by email at customerservice evolution com or by filling out the form at www evolution com support Cu
95. f the Trade The following are some tricks and tips to help you operate your robot Important Note Visit the ERT community for up to the minute tricks and tips from other ERT owners If you have registered go to www evolution com and join your fellow robot enthusiasts in discovering the capabilities of the ER1 Robot Search Pattern This version of the RCC software improves the way the robot searches for an object or color to follow Once you click the Run it button the robot will pause for five seconds while attempting to locate the object or color If it does locate the object or color it will begin the follow behavior If it does not see the object or color after five seconds it will begin a search spin The robot will turn 360 unless it finds the object or color If it does not find the object or color it will stop after turning 360 Also if after seeing the object the robot loses sight of it the robot will stop for one or two seconds to try to reaquire the object before starting a spin search ER1 User Guide 11 1 E Chapter 11 Tricks of the Trade Motor Noise If your robot s motors seem to be trying to move and are creating a disturbing noise check the battery meter in the lower left corner of the RCC screen If the battery is low turn the robot off and charge the battery Wireless Network Disconnect If your wireless link between your robot and your remote computer has disconnected do the following 1 Click o
96. from lowest to highest 4 Priority order highest to lowest Behaviors are displayed in order of their priority starting with the highest priority behavior Any of the behaviors having the same priority are sorted numerically from highest to lowest ER1 User Guide 8 27 Hi Chapter 8 Settings About Tab This tab displays the RCC software s version number date and copyright information 8 28 ER1 User Guide e evolution ad robotics E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings The Behavior Settings button lets you change settings for each specific behavior To set the Behavior Settings for an individual behavior make sure that the behavior for which the settings will apply is the active behavior and then click the Behavior Settings button A dialog box appears Along the top of the box are a number of tabs described in the sections that follow Important Note A good place to get ideas and help in creating behaviors is the ER1 community If you have registered your ERT you can join the ERI community at www evolution com Sight Tab This tab is used to fine tune aspects of the software s object recognition capabilities which is used to recognize objects on which the software has already been trained Image Recognizer This parameter is used to determine the specificity of object recognition ER1 User Guide 9 1 Hi Chapter 9 Behavior Settings e Match confidence threshold Allows you to set a mini
97. gebeten Egbert A 28 Testine the EE A 29 Dette EE A 30 Appendix B Telepresence Over the Internet ER1 User Guide Hi Table of Contents ER1 User Guide Sh evolution E Chapter 1 Introduction Evolution Robotics is proud to introduce you to the ER1 Personal Robot System and pleased to welcome you to our family of owners To give you the full programming and processing power of the personal computer as well as wireless capabilities we designed the ERT around a laptop as its brain Included in the ERT Personal Robot System package is everything you need all the beams connections motion control electronics software camera to get up and running in just a couple of hours Just supply the laptop and you re ready to go The heart of ER1 is a powerful vision algorithm that can recognize hundreds of objects The vision system can also recognize many obstacles allowing your robot to avoid them The Robot Control Center RCC software allows you to control this vision system as well as all of the other RCC functions including recognizing colors sounds words sending and receiving email acting on schedule moving around autonomously or by remote control playing sounds and music or taking pictures and video You can use the RCC software to combine these individual behaviors into any number of complex behaviors ER1 User Guide 1 1 E Chapter 1 Introduction Your first steps are to assemble your robot add y
98. h the object if it is not directly ahead If the object happens to be moving the robot will need to adjust its course to follow it The default value is 20 e Drive Toward Object searching This parameter sets the maximum speed when the robot is searching for an object Note Using a slower speed gives the robot more time to identify the desired color Go to X Y location This parameter sets the maximum speed of rotation when the robot is given a specific X Y location Motion Linear Velocity The Motion Linear Velocity area allows you to specify in centimeters second the maximum linear velocity for the different modes of motion The maximum value of all these settings is 50 cm sec because the robot cannot be operated safely above this speed The minimum value is 5 cm second e Fixed Distance This sets the maximum linear velocity to use when traveling a fixed distance The default value is 20 e Toward Color This parameter specifies the maximum linear velocity to use when traveling towards a color The default value is 20 ER1 User Guide 9 9 Hi Chapter 9 Behavior Settings e Toward Object If set this parameter allows you to set the maximum linear velocity to use when traveling towards an object The default value is 20 Go to X Y location This parameter sets the maximum speed of the robot when the robot is given a specific X Y location Motor Power The Motor Power options let you specify the percentage of ful
99. h the robot is driving Closing the ER1 RCC Software To close the software click on the x in the upper right corner of the screen or type Alt F4 When remotely controlling a robot you can exit ERI RCC on the remote client and leave behaviors running on the robot Example 1 Click the x in the upper right corner of the ERT RCC window on the remote client while behaviors are running You will be asked if you want to leave behaviors running or not e Click Yes to leave them running Important Note If you are using a wireless network to control your robot and you click Yes when you disconnect you should not leave a behavior set running that loads another behavior file The behavior set will fail because the behavior file comes from the now disconnected remote control machine 2 While the laptop computer continues running the ERT application on the remote client will close 3 When you start up your ERI RCC software again on the remote computer and it connects back to the robot if behaviors are still running it will download the current behavior set and go into Run mode automatically 4 6 ER1 User Guide Closing the ER1 RCC Software 4 Click No to stop the behaviors which will cause the behaviors on the robot s laptop to stop running and will also close the ER1 application on the remote client Later when you reopen the ER1 application on the remote computer no behaviors will be loaded You will have to load or create a
100. hat pops up when you click on the eyedropper You can now specify Use same color as Sight or Use same color as Move whichever is appropriate If no color has been specified no button will be displayed Important Note UNPLUG THE LAPTOP S CHARGER BEFORE INSTRUCTING THE ROBOT TO MOVE The robot should detect whether or not the laptop is Use Sight color plugged into a wall outlet and should not move until the laptop is unplugged However take care to ensure that the laptop is unplugged because if the robot fails to detect that the laptop is plugged in it will move in response to your commands until it reaches the limit of the laptop s power cord then will continue to try to move potentially damaging the laptop the laptop s charger the robot and the electrical outlet This could start an electrical fire Play a Sound Bi Playa Somd ge Click on the Play a Sound checkbox to make this Sound ess action active Phrase to Speal l This action uses the software s built in Text to Speech module You can change which voice is used by clicking on the Settings button and selecting a voice type from the Sound tab Options are 7 4 ER1 User Guide Run a Program e Sound File This textbox is used to specify the path and name of a sound file If you are unsure of the path use the Browse button to find your file If you are using a wireless network to control your robot the sound files displayed will be those found on your rob
101. he image is recognized type the desired verbiage in this textbox Delete Allows you to remove an image from ER1 s library of recognized images Before it is deleted you will be asked to confirm that you wish to delete it To delete the image click on the Yes button To cancel the delete function click on the No button Motion This radio button if selected sets the motion detection feature Motion detection can be customized in the Sight Tab of the Behaviors Settings menu Sound Condition Click on the Sound checkbox to make this condition active You will need a microphone not included with your ER1 to use this functionality M Sound Listen for l ted COO CONC The robot can be programmed to react based on one of two sound conditions e Listen for Use this textbox to type the word or phrase that the robot should listen for Important Note In order for speech recognition to work accurately you must take a few minutes to use the Microsoft Windows Control Panel gt Sounds gt Speech Recognition submenu to train the software to recognize your microphone your voice and your speech patterns Until you do this the speech recognition quality will be poor See your Microsoft documentation for instructions on how to do this Speech recognition works without training but improves in accuracy significantly after training on you voice Speech recognition is also considerably enhanced with a noise cancelling headset microphone
102. he resulting robot movement e Button Commands Use these parameters to assign robot actions to the joystick buttons e Button number You can select the joystick button number in the pulldown menu You can also click in the textbox then press the joystick button and the correct button number will be selected automatically See your joystick documentation for information on button number assignments Choices of actions to associate with buttons are e Do nothing No button assignment e Close gripper Closes the Gripper e Open gripper Opens the Gripper e Run behaviors This option is equivalent to clicking the Run it button for the presently loaded behavior sequence If this button on the joystick is pressed the robot will wait for the pre programmed trigger condition for example seeing a specific color It will then will trigger the corresponding actions e Stop behaviors Equivalent to clicking the Stop button for the presently running behavior sequence e Override IR bump sensor By pushing the designated button on the joystick you can override the IR sensors obstacle detection A good example of a use for this would be driving the robot through a pile of balloons Select a button number and click the Override IR bump sensor to program that button to override IR sensor bump detection e All of the above settings are stored on the computer to which the joystick is attached in that computer s er1 ini file About Joy
103. he robot s eye level e The obstacle avoidance camera is best mounted angled toward the floor in front of the robot Contact Evolution Robotics about getting additional hardware to mount your camera ER1 User Guide Hi Chapter 8 Settings Click on one of the two right hand tabs to select a camera functionality Only one camera tab can be active at one time Both camera tabs will be selectable even if the robot only has one camera e Enable camera usage If checked this option specifies to allow use of the camera for video capture applications Motion detection behaviors that refer to a specific camera will continue to function regardless of the setting of this parameter Device This section is used to specify the camera that the robot will be using for object recognition and or obstacle avoidance For each camera parameters are e Always use first camera found If this option is selected the default camera will be used This is the first camera listed e Always use a specific camera This option allows you to specify that a particular model of camera is attached to the robot It displays the device drivers it finds by querying Windows using DirectX 8 1 this is included in the installation The software default is configured for the camera that ships with your robot You should only need to adjust this if you replace the default camera with one of your own Resolution This box allows you to set the resolution of the camera
104. he specified time has elapsed You can specify the minimum run interval in seconds Specifying that behaviors can run more than once also allows you to create looping sequences Again consider the behavior sequence Behavior 1 If see teddy bear or after behavior 4 Then play a sound file teddy wav Behavior 2 If hear the word email Then send an email to user ISP com Behavior 3 If after Behavior 1 Then move forward 10 feet Behavior 4 If after Behavior 3 Then move backward 10 feet All behaviors set to run more than once The only difference between this sequence and the sequence in the first example is that Behavior 1 also has the sequence condition after Behavior 4 This condition causes this sequence to run in a continuous loop even if the teddy bear is only seen once In this example once this sequence gets started Behavior 2 will never be executed because the sequence will run in a continuous loop Note that if multiple behaviors are triggered at the same time by the same condition only the right most behavior in the behavior tab sequence will be triggered For example if behaviors 13 and 17 have a sound level condition set to volume level 1 and 3 respectively and the sound volume 4 is detected satisfying both only behavior 17 the right most behavior will be triggered If behavior 17 is set to run only once then the next time the sound condition is triggered for both behavior 13 will be triggered because behavior 17 has
105. idance camera should show a trapezoid formed from the straight edges or tape lines The edges or tape lines should be such that they extend to or past the top of the avoidance camera video feed as displayed on the RCC Click on Capture New Calibration Image in the Settings gt Obstacle Avoidance tab Note that this must be done on the robot s laptop not a remote computer The obstacle avoidance camera s current video display will be captured and displayed on a submenu with the trapezoidal avoidance area outline overlaid on the image Adjust Obstacle Avoidance Calibration X Click and drag the corner s you would like to adjust to their new positions Restore Factory Settings Cancel Avoidance Camera View The avoidance camera view displays what the avoidance camera sees pointing downward toward the floor along with red marks indicating where obstacles are detected If there s just a straight red line along the top of the image no obstacle is detected When obstacles are seen the red marks move down from the top to indicate where the avoidance algorithm sees the obstacles in the image Obstacle Camera optional Obstacle Avoidance At Work Obstacle avoidance is always used in conjunction with moving toward a target The target is either some distance some object that the robot has been trained to recognize or some color If in the course of going to a target the robot sees an obstacle in the way
106. ied by the user is reached ER1 User Guide e The robot fails to see the color after 30 seconds e Stop on sensor condition is met Rotate toward object Fi Moe This parameter if set tells the robot to rotate until it sees object ma the object you specified using the Object pulldown menu If you are using a wireless network to control your robot the objects listed will be those found on your IV Stop on Sensor robot s laptop This action is considered complete when one of the following three conditions are met The robot rotates and successfully finds the specified object then stops when facing the object The robot completes a 360 rotation and fails to identify the specified object e Stop on sensor condition is met Distance Z Moe fme This parameter is used to specify a distance that the this Amount Z fea TObot should move when the behavior is triggered In the this Direction Foma ei This Amount textboxes you can specify a number and unit for the distance In the This Direction pulldown IV Stop on Sensor 3 menu select a direction This action is considered complete when one of the following conditions are met e The robot moves the distance specified e Stop on sensor condition is met Angle V Moe ange 3 This parameter sets the robot to turn when the behavior is This Amount 50 Degrees triggered In the This Amount textbox specify the this Direction Rig Number of degree
107. il 2 4 8 10 opening an account 6 9 Run a program 3 5 7 5 Run tab using 9 12 S Save button 5 2 Saving files 5 2 Search pattern 11 1 Second camera optional 2 3 Sense gripper 10 10 Sense IR 10 12 Sequence condition 3 4 6 8 Set IR 10 11 Settings about 8 27 camera 8 3 device 8 4 email 8 9 log tab 8 15 motion 8 11 remote control 8 6 sight 8 2 sound 8 5 Settings button 5 3 Sight condition 3 3 6 2 Sight tab using 8 2 9 1 Sound condition 6 6 playing 7 4 tab using 8 5 9 3 Sound condition 3 3 Speak 10 17 Speech recognition 2 2 6 6 Speed linear velocity 9 9 rotation angular velocity 9 8 T Text to Speech 1 3 9 Time condition 3 4 6 Try It button 7 1 Tutorial 2 4 3 T l 6 ER1 User Guide USB joysticks 8 19 Using about tab 8 27 camera tab 8 3 email tab 8 9 motion tab 8 11 9 8 obstacle camera 4 2 photo tab 9 4 remote control tab 8 6 run tab 9 12 sight tab 8 2 9 1 sound tab 8 5 9 3 video 4 2 video tab 9 5 vV Video 1 4 compression 9 6 display 4 2 tab using 9 5 Video Motion priorities 7 7 Voice recognition 1 3 ER1 User Guide l 8 ER1 User Guide
108. ill be saved on the robot s laptop e Then Name It Type in a filename for the recorded photo or video The software will store the file on the hard drive under that name If no directory path is specified the image or video file will be stored in the same directory as the RCC executable WARNING If a behavior is run more than once a video or photo file of the same name will be created multiple times Each time the new file will overwrite the old file This will occur with no warning messages If you wish to save all of the video or photo files created click on the tab for the appropriate behavior then specify a filename in the Then name textbox of the Record section of the Then column Next click on the Behaviors Settings button and select the Video tab Make sure that the Add a sequence number to each video checkbox is selected This will append a number to the filename that you have specified each time the behavior is run creating a unique filename for each new file and preventing them from being overwritten by any subsequent runs of the behavior set For example if you specify the filename family the resulting files will be named family 1 bmp family2 bmp family3 bmp etc You can also specify a starting number for example 50 in which case the resulting files will be named family50 bmp family51 bmp etc e Then Email It To Enter one or multiple email addresses to which the message should be sent Aliases are
109. ing PC depending on interference caused by other signals thick walls etc Optional Email If you plan to program your robot to send and receive email you need the following e Access from your robot laptop to a Internet connection e An incoming Evolution Robotics RobotMail account for your robot We will provide a RobotMail account that will allow you to send your robot email to initiate preprogrammed commands e An outgoing email account for the robot provided by the ISP of your choice e Many Internet providers allow you to set up multiple email accounts Also there are a number of providers of free email accounts Contact your Internet provider and or a free email service for more information on setting up a 2nd email account Important Note The messages transmitted to the robot are not direct instructions but are messages which based on the sender subject and or body will result in activation of a pre programmed task Trying Out the Software Ok now for the fun stuff The following are examples to help you learn to use your robot These examples will walk you step by step through the process of creating a behavior for your robot You can also use these behaviors as a starting point for creating your own behaviors 9 4 ER1 User Guide Trying Out the Software Making the Robot Count The following is an example of a simple exercise to test your robot 1 Start the RCC software on the robot s laptop ERI Robot Contro
110. ion seeing the object and as its only action has a pause set to 10 seconds in the Behavior Settings menu s Run tab Make a second behavior which sequences after the first and performs the task It will be triggered 10 seconds after the first behavior is triggered Helpful Hints e If two behaviors are set to the same priority and they conflict the one with the higher behavior number will be treated as the higher priority behavior e Behaviors are not triggered in parallel For example if the robot s camera views a scene containing two separate objects it recognizes one of which would trigger behavior A and the other of which would trigger behavior B it has to see that scene twice to trigger both behaviors assuming that they were properly set to run in parallel Also when any behavior is triggered it resets the accumulated triggers of every other behavior e Running behaviors from different files at the same time is not supported e If one behavior is set to load another behavior set once that behavior is triggered no more parallel behaviors will be allowed to start until the load of the new file takes place and that occurs after the other aspects of the behavior such as moving the robot have finished Once the new file is loaded parallel behaviors within it can run e Ifa behavior set file is loaded with the option of unloading it after a certain behavior has run any parallel behaviors running when it has completed will be t
111. ires the full 500ma of power there is not enough to keep it functioning 11 2 ER1 User Guide Textbox Input Size Here s what to do Set your computer s power management scheme to Always On as follows 1 Click Start gt Control Panel 2 Double click the Power Options icon 3 On the General tab select Always On on the Power Scheme menu 4 Click Apply and then click Ok The camera now works when the computer is unplugged from AC power However you will notice a reduction in battery life Textbox Input Size Each of the textboxes in RCC have an input limit of 100 000 characters Additional limits may be set by the various functions If you need to input more than 100 000 characters in a textbox breakup the text into pieces and input it into consecutive behaviors ER1 User Guide E Chapter 11 Tricks of the Trade 11 4 ER1 User Guide ei evolution d robotics n DW Appendix A Assembly Instructions Getting to Know the Parts Have you ever asked yourself What is a XBeam Which one is an Allen screw You will if you don t read this section The following explains all of the parts involved in assembling your ER1 You may refer back to this section throughout the assembly process to verify that you are using the right part in the right location Important Note If you are missing any parts contact Customer Support at customerservice evolution com for replacements ER1 User Guide Hi Appendix A Assembly
112. isk version of the file so when the file is loaded it will be the unmodified version which is loaded which might behave differently from the in memory version Apply This Page to All Behaviors Now There is a useful feature in the Behavior Settings the Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now button on the bottom on the Behavior Settings dialog box If you click on the button the current property page s settings are immediately applied to all 288 behaviors Note that clicking the Cancel button does not undo the change 9 20 ER1 User Guide evolution robotics n E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Evolution Robotics ERT Robot Control Center software provides GUI functionality for controlling your robot We also provide the Command Line Interface described in this chapter so that you can control your robot directly instead of using the GUI With this Interface and some programming knowledge you can e Access the digital inputs and outputs and analog inputs of the robot for use with custom sensors or for controlling custom devices This allows you to add your own accessories such as sonar sensors e Generate a sequence of motions algorithmically For example you could program the robot to travel around the perimeter of a circle or to dance without entering each component of the motion as a separate behavior e Use the ERI s vision system to control external devices For example you could write a program which int
113. it came in 1 Click on the ER1 icon to start the application on your laptop 2 Click on the Open button and the Open File dialog should come up showing the contents of the ERT program directory ER1 User Guide A 29 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions 3 Double click on the behaviors subdirectory to open it This will display a list of the rbt files in this directory Select the ER1box rbt file and click on the Open button to load it The ER1box rbt behavior set will load Click on the green Run It button at the top right of the RCC program screen zb Si Mi Z Pick up the box that the robot was packed in and show it to the robot the front side of the box with the multicolored ER1s should be facing the robot s camera 8 The robot should tell you that it sees the box and that it will move towards the box if you move the box farther away from it Try moving the box various distances from the robot 9 When you re done with the robot behavior click Stop Important Note If you didn t get a chance while you were installing the software take a minute to look at the Release Notes in the docs subdirectory of the ERT program directory You will find important information that is not included in this manual Uninstalling If you use the Control Panel s Add Remove Software Programs utility make sure that you also delete the entire installation folder which will contain user data files log files and captured images A
114. it will attempt to go around the obstacle 8 14 ER1 User Guide Log Tab ER1 User Guide Due to the limited field of view from the downward pointing camera the robot can only reliably go around small obstacles like the legs and feet of a standing person Large obstacles may take the robot so far away from its original path that it won t be able to reacquire the target This is particularly true if the target is an object or a color that can only be seen or recognized from certain angles Also complicated or constricted environments may confuse the robot if it sees obstacles everywhere The Log tab is used to adjust the RCC logging function The log file is a good place to look if you have experienced an error or unusual behavior The error messages should point you toward the cause and help you avoid having the same problem in the future The log file is named ert Log and is located in the RCC program directory The following are the options available to alter the way errors are logged and viewed e Enable logging If this checkbox is selected errors will be logged in the log file When logging is enabled every action taken by a running behavior or set of behaviors is noted with a time and date stamp The error messages are designed to describe the problem causing the error This should be the first place that you look when you encounter a problem If you are using a wireless connection the incoming remote connection to the machine con
115. ith either an OK lt Enter gt or if something goes wrong Error lt error message gt lt Enter gt Here are some examples of API commands move 6 i play phrase I am moving 6 inches forward move 20 c play phrase I am moving 20 centimeters backwards move 90 d play phrase I am moving 90 degrees to the left move 180 d play phrase I am moving 180 degrees to the right play phrase I will now detect sound levels sense sound level on events set voice Microsoft Mary play phrase I am Microsoft Mary set voice Microsoft Mike play phrase I am Microsoft Mike set voice Microsoft Sam play phrase I am Microsoft Sam set v 10 move 2 f play phrase I am moving at 10 centimeters per second set v 50 move 3 f play phrase I am moving at 50 centimeters per second set w 10 move 270 d play phrase I am turning at 10 degrees per second set w 50 move 270 d play phrase I am turning at 50 degrees per second Command Quick Reference Here s a list of the erl exit gripper gripper gripper gripper commands See later in the chapter for descriptions examples etc auto close open status ER1 User Guide E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface gripper stop IR move move rotate toward object move rotate toward color move drive toward object move drive toward color play file play phrase stop sense sense gripper clear events sense IR set IR
116. joystick press button 1 This tells the ER 1 to trigger Behavior 1 immediately when button 1 is pressed Remember the behavior still has to be in the Run it state for the trigger to be recognized If you pressed the button at this point nothing would happen because no behavior was waiting for the trigger condition Click Ok 4 Click on the Settings button to display the Settings tab then click on the Joystick tab 5 Click on Enable joystick control The active behavior is the behavior that is presently displayed in the GUI For a new behavior set this is Behavior 1 6 In Behavior 1 go to the Then column Select the Play a Sound checkbox Type in Hello I m the ER1 in the Speak a phrase textbox 7 Use the joystick as usual to command the robot to move 8 When you would like the robot to speak your phrase press Button 1 9 This will trigger the active behavior causing the robot to speak the phrase you typed in 9 16 ER1 User Guide IR Sensors Tab 10 If you ve got your Behavior Settings configured so that the behavior runs only once the behavior will consider itself complete performing the equivalent of clicking the Stop button on the GUI 11 You can continue to use the joystick to drive the robot Just press Button 1 again when you want it to speak the phrase you programmed Important Note While the behavior is running the joystick will not move the robot This behavior is analogous to the arrow keys or
117. l Center Untitled if one of these occurs I Sight T Message Sender Receive I Time C Take Photo C shoot Video fl T Then Name It T Then Email tt to 2 Select the Sight checkbox from the If column Sight checkbox Sight C Color Mea lt Color Pulldown menu CAPTURE C Object vio CLEAR MODIFY ADD DELETE C Motion 3 Click on the color pulldown menu 4 Select the dropper tool in the upper left corner A snapshot of what the robot can presently see is displayed 5 In the snapshot select a color That color will be displayed in the color pulldown menu Note that the Color Selection Palette can also be used to select a color ER1 User Guide 2 5 E Chapter 2 Getting Started Dropper kann Snapshot of what the robot sees SE iil Choose Color EEEE TEE T EEEE EE O BEEBE EE Z BEEES BH E EEEE EE O TER NV ER H WW Galor ESEN 88 Selection OCH Palette EENEN SEE EEEIEE EE TEEN IT 8H UE EH EB EES 1 TE LI ER EECH BEEBE SBE HES EE 2E BEES EH SS EE EE E EE BH E 6 Select the Play a Sound checkbox in the Then column Play a Sound pv Play a Sound File checkbox Sound BROWSE Phrase to Speak fi lt 4 Phrase to Speak textbox e In the Phrase to Speak textbox type the number 1 7 At the top of the screen select the Behavior 2 tab Behavior 1 Behavior 2 e At the
118. l power that the robot should use under the following conditions e Stopped When the robot is not moving there is no reason for the robot s motor to be powered It causes the battery to drain faster and makes noise The default value for this option is 0 However if the robot could stop on a sloped surface then it will need power to stay in place In this case the stop power should be set to greater than zero e Moving The robot does not need 100 power to perform most activities It would only need full power if it had to travel up a steep incline or if the robot is traveling over a high friction surface such as a shag rug Leaving this value at the 60 default should provide adequate power for all other instances Remember the less power you re using the longer the robot s battery charge will last However too little power and the robot will not move reliably Collision Detection The Enable collision detection checkbox lets you toggle collision detection capabilities on and off When collision detection is turned off the ERT will move without checking to see if it has bumped into any objects When collision detection is turned on the ERT will use the camera s video feed to determine if the robot has collided with some object In that case the ER1 responds by stopping and backing up a short distance before continuing on its intended path This option is set to off by default The Sensitivity field below the collision dete
119. lect the desired color in the image using the dropper tool Choose Colors gt Edit Colors on the toolbar menu and click on the Define Custom Colors button The RGB values will be displayed Move Drive Toward Object Format move drive toward object lt objectname gt stop lt distance gt lt units gt Parameters object name Specifies the filename of the object to move toward The curly braces indicate the use of the word stop distance units The stop distance is optional There is a built in default of 2 feet Examples move drive toward object Coke stop 6 in move drive toward object back door Move Drive Toward Color Format move drive toward color lt r gt lt g gt lt b gt stop lt percentage gt This is similar to the rotate toward color command but you can optionally specify a percentage value to make the robot stop when that percentage of the screen is filled by the chosen color Examples move drive toward color 0 255 0 stop 10 move drive toward color 0 255 0 stop 10 10 14 ER1 User Guide Objects Command move drive toward color 128 128 128 Objects Command Objects Format objects It returns the list of object in the library in the following format OK lt object name l gt lt object name 2 gt Se o ee lt object name N gt lt blank line gt Since each object is listed on a separate line no quotes are used around the object name The last object is followed by a blank line
120. lk tab lets you adjust compression and sound levels for transmitting your voice from the remote client to the robot and for receiving ambient sounds from the robot s environment ER1 Robot Control Center Settin E Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Je Enable listening and push to talk m Talk Use this device SoundMAX Digital Audio x IT Use compression Samples per second 8000 SS Adjust levels Jsandwog EX7 m Listen Use this device SoundMAX Digital Audio 7 Adjust levels To use Push to Talk first choose your settings Unless a behavior is running ambient sound from the robot will continue to be transmitted from the robot to your remote client Settings for the local and remote computer can be configured from the local computer To select the local or remote computer click on the desired tab to the right of the parameters Enable listening and push to talk Selecting this option allows you to use the Push to Talk button For Talk the settings are e Use this device Allows you to choose the sound card to be used for talking e Use compression Allows you specify automatic compression checked or lets you set the compression level in samples per second unchecked 8 24 ER1 User Guide Push to Talk Tab e Samples per second Lets you specify the sampling rat
121. lliseconds Keep in mind that this value is the amount of time that the robot will be in unguided motion Increasing this value may cause damage to people pets or property Reset the network connection now If your computer and your robot are using wireless communication the present limitations of the technology mean that connections can occasionally be dropped The reset checkbox can be used to reconnect the base unit to the remote instance assuming of course that a network connection is available This tab is used to set up ERT email parameters for both incoming and outgoing email you must have Internet access on your laptop for this to work If you plan to program your robot to send and receive email you need the following e A POP account for your robot e An email account for the robot ER1 User Guide Hi Chapter 8 Settings e x Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance r Incoming Pop server name Ir Login name fo Password fo Check for mail every B minute s IV Leave messages on server r Outgoing Smtp server name Your name From address I Use a Reply To address Reply To addre l OK Cancel Help Evolution Robotics will provide a RobotMail email account that will allow your robot to receive simple commands You will need to provide a separate e
122. load on your laptop s battery e UNPLUG THE LAPTOP S CHARGER BEFORE INSTRUCTING THE ROBOT TO MOVE The robot should detect whether or not the laptop is plugged into a wall outlet and should not move until the laptop is unplugged However take care to ensure that the laptop is unplugged because if the robot fails to detect that the laptop is plugged in it will move in response to your commands until it reaches the limit of the laptop s power cord then will continue to try to move potentially damaging the laptop the laptop s charger the robot and the electrical outlet This could start an electrical fire 4 Whether you purchased the unassembled or the assembled robot kit turn now to Appendix A Assembly Instructions Follow the robot assembly instructions to build your robot attach your laptop install and test the software Then return here to Step 5 to continue 5 When the software installation is complete double click on your desktop s new RCC icon to start the application See the Installing the Software section of the Assembly Instructions for help if needed 6 If you ll be operating your robot remotely from another computer use the CD to load the ER1 software onto that machine as well This use is permitted by your RCC software license 7 Your robot needs to be trained to recognize your speech patterns and to adjust to your microphone if you plan to use sound related features See the Sound Condition
123. log box will appear asking you to name your file Do so as needed then click Ok A standard Windows like file selection dialog box appears Navigate to the rbt file you would like to use Select the file DON Ze op Click Ok The robot behavior set that you have selected will be displayed on the screen Save Button The Save button saves the current settings to disk using a standard Windows dialog box Click on the Save button and a Save As dialog is displayed Type in a name for your behavior set Make sure that the name is unique and descriptive so that the file will be easy to find as you add more behavior sets Click on the Save Button You may click on the Cancel button at any time to cancel and return to the main RCC screen The default directory is named behaviors and is in the ERT program directory If you have already named your behavior set just type Ctrl s to save your behavior set The behavior set will be saved with no feedback Save Only Active Fields In the Save dialog box there is a checkbox entitled Save only active fields This is disabled by default If you click this checkbox only the active settings will be saved For example if you filled in some Move settings then deselected the Move checkbox then used Saved only active fields your Move settings would not be saved Non saved settings are not recoverable Save in E behavios d ace 2ftsqr rbt 2 see_yellow_count_to_96_once rbt point um
124. lt refl gt center lt refl gt right lt refl gt disable distance lt distance gt disable percentage lt percentage gt Description This command turns obstacle avoidance using the IR sensors on or off and sets the reflection thresholds for the three sensors as well as the disable distance and percentage Parameters On Or off Specifies all three sensors not to be used in combination with left center and right The three locations left center and right can appear in any order and any combination and should not appear if lt state gt is being set to off or if a11 is specified This parameter is the reflection strength from 1 to 100 The value 50 is the default This is the distance in centimeters at which the robot stops from an IR detected object When color is this fraction of the stop percentage motion is stopped when the robot is moving toward a color These values apply to both camera based obstacle avoidance and IR Sensor obstacle avoidance Setting these values for either type of obstacle avoidance sets their value for the other type of obstacle avoidance Important Note The argument obstacle avoidance can be abbreviated to be oa For example set ir oa on all 50 Usage ir all sensor lt sensor number gt threshold lt refl gt flash lt rate gt Description This command lets you read the current values from one or more IR sensors or set the IR sensors to send an event and or flash when
125. m plastic bags e Do not operate the robot near pets e Use only as described in this instruction manual e Only use the charger provided your ERT ER1 User Guide e Do not plug your laptop charger into the power input in the Robot Control Module RCM This will severely damage your RCM and may cause a fire e The ERI IR Sensor Kit and the ERT Gripper Arm are designed for use with the ER1 and should not be used in any manner not expressly approved or recommended by Evolution Robotics e Do not attempt to use the Gripper to grip carry and or release fragile flammable or poisonous items pets children or open containers of hot liquid Extremely fragile items may be dented or damaged if gripped Releasing objects from the Gripper will cause them to fall This is an intentional part of the design but may cause damage or destruction of the object being released and or the area onto which the object falls This includes the laptop mounted on the ER1 Robot especially if the Gripper is installed so that the pincers are directly over the laptop s keyboard BY USING THE ROBOT AND THE GRIPPER ARM WITH YOUR LAPTOP COMPUTER YOU ARE ASSUMING ALL RISKS FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR LAPTOP COMPUTER Similarly do not rely on the Gripper to maintain an indefinite secure grip on an object Although the Gripper is designed for secure transportation of objects there is no guarantee that an object will not slip out of the Gripper e Do not attempt to
126. mail account for sending email from the robot We strongly recommend that you set up a separate email account for your robot This will keep your personal mailbox free of robot command emails and will keep the robot from downloading all your email to look for any that may be intended for the robot See the Message Receive Condition section for information on setting up your RobotMail account Important Note The messages transmitted to the robot are not direct instructions but are messages which based on the sender subject and or body will result in activation of a scripted action These parameters must be correctly set before the If gt Incoming email or the Then gt Send email features will work These parameters do not have default values Options are e Incoming Specify the following Pop server name This is the name of your incoming mail server You will get this information when you sign up for your RobotMail account Login name Specifies the login name you use to access your RobotMail account Password The login password you use to access your RobotMail account ER1 User Guide Motion Tab ER1 User Guide Motion Tab e Check for mail every minutes Specifies how often should the ER1 software should check with the server to see if it has an email Five minutes is the default e Leave messages on server If this checkbox is selected all incoming email messages will be left on the server This will allow you
127. mum image recognition confidence threshold The software assigns a confidence percentage to each object it recognizes which is displayed in the Recognized Objects area The higher the percentage the greater confidence the software has that it has correctly recognized an object Behavior Settings xj Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load Image Recognizer Match confidence threshold St 1 Color Recognizer Tolerance 10 Detect of screen 10 m Motion Detector Tolerance EY Detect of screen 20 Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help Color Recognizer These parameters are used set the sensitivity of ER1 s color recognition feature e Color Tolerance This parameter allows you to specify a minimum color recognition tolerance value The lower the number the greater confidence the software has that it has identified the correct color e Detect of screen Setting this parameter allows you to set the percentage of the camera s video display that must contain the specified color before a trigger condition occurs The higher the percentage the larger the area a color must cover in order to trigger an action Valid values range from 0 100 The default value is 20 Motion Detection The motion detection settings allow you to specify the way that RCC detects motion There are two options e Tolerance The Tole
128. n Actions A behavior can be set to run more than once immediately or at specified intervals in the Run tab of the Behavior Settings menu Click on the Behavior Settings button at the top right of the application When a behavior is set to run more than once it will run whenever its If condition is satisfied If Behaviors 1 3 and 4 in the previous example above are set to run more than once then the sequence will be run whenever the teddy bear is recognized For example in the above example the robot will end up roughly in the same position after each run of the sequence because it just moves forward and back 10 feet If the teddy bear is stationary chances are it will be seen after each run and the sequence will repeat indefinitely Sometimes this kind of repetition in undesirable because some trigger conditions occur more or less continually Other times you may want this kind of a repetition Consider this example Behavior 1 If see teddy bear Then send email to user ISP com If this behavior is allowed to run more than once it will spam user ISP com with several emails per second because it will see the teddy bear roughly at that rate and sending the email takes even less time Teddy s mailbox will fill up with hundreds of emails after just a few minutes This is why in the Run tab of the Behavior Settings menu there is also a Prevent starting for seconds setting Once a behavior has executed it will not run again until t
129. n allows you to specify a program to run l Runa Set et 2 7 Erta seS when the If condition is triggered A couple of hints about using this feature e If you need to specify a path that has spaces in it for example Cc My Documents etc you must put quotes around the full path e Ifa document has a valid file association for example Microsoft Word is used to open doc files you can just specify that file in the textbox The program associated with it will open automatically e Web pages can also be opened without specifying a program For example you could type www evolution com in the textbox Your default internet browser will be used to open the webpage e Ifthe file you wish to open is in the same directory as er1 exe you do not need to specify the path to the file ER1 User Guide 7 5 E Chapter 7 Then Actions Message Send Click on the Message Send checkbox to make this action active I Message To S end Subject Body Use this option to create an email to be sent to one or more specified addresses upon triggering of an If condition The message send action occurs immediately if the If condition is true To use this option your robot s laptop must have access to the Internet You also must have an email account set up with your ISP Evolution Robotics RobotMail will not send outgoing messages The fields are To Enter one or multiple email addresses to which the message should be sent Aliases are n
130. n the Settings button 2 Select the Remote Control tab 3 Either the Allow remote control of this instance or the Control robot at this IP address option must be selected 4 Click on the Reset the network connection now button 5 Click on the Ok button This signals the two computers to reestablish the connection You may have to repeat this process more than once to get a connection This problem is generally an issue with your wireless network not your robot If you continue to have problems contact your wireless card manufacturer to troubleshoot your system Frozen Robot Rarely the ERT module will freeze and you will need to reset the internal memory in the module in order to make the robot move To do this follow these steps 1 Make sure the laptop is on and the software is not running Turn off the ERT Battery Unplug the USB cable from the laptop 2 3 4 Turn on the ERT battery 5 Plug the USB cable back into the laptop 6 The internal memory should now be reset and the robot should function properly Camera Shuts Off When Launching RCC Unplugging Power Supply This issue has been documented on Hewlett Packard laptops This seems to happen due to the HP laptop s handling of power management When you unplug the laptop from the wall outlet and Windows power management scheme is set to Laptop Portable power to the USB bus and all devices on the system gets reduced significantly Since the Kritter Cam requ
131. ndix A Assembly Instructions You need e 4 Allen screws with 2 one holed T nuts already attached to the struts Instructions e Slide the T nuts at the top of the struts down the tracks of the 12 beams on both sides to the end e Tighten the screws see arrows only one side shown Step 15 You need es 1 12 beam Instructions e Attach the 12 beam to the bottom front of the robot by sliding the screw heads in the hinges halves through the XBeams channel e Slide the XBeam on until centered on the robot e Tighten the thumbnuts pliers are helpful here A 18 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need s 3 1x2 mount plates with foam Instructions e Apply the mount plates by sliding them into the beams in the positions shown Step 17 You need e 2 endcaps e Logo plate Instructions e Slide the logo plate onto the middle of the beam e Attach the endcaps to the ends of the 12 beam You may need to tap these with a small hammer to get them to seat properly ER1 User Guide A 19 Hi Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need es 17 beam e 1 U clip 2 U clip halves e Set screws Instructions e Snap the U clip together and slide it into the end of the beam e Add the set screws as shown see arrows
132. ne is include in the response while moveDone try Thread sleep 500 catch Exception ex System out println ex toString String recvMsg sendCommand events Check to see if command done is part of the response String doneString command done moveDone recvMsg indexOf doneString gt 0 if moveDone Check for error String errorString command error int errorIndex recvMsg indexOf errorString moveDone errorIndex gt 0 if moveDone amp amp verbose print error message if in quiet mode If not in quiet mode error message is already printed System out print recvMsg substring errorIndex public String sendCommand String command 10 32 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide if _verbose System out print Sending command command if sendString command return null String recvMsg readString if checkResponse recvMsg command return null else return recvMsg public boolean checkResponse String response String command if response null System out println Error sending command command return false else if _verbose System out print Response response return true ER1Client java 10 33 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface 10 34 ER1 User Guide ei evolution ka robotics n m Chapter 11 Tricks o
133. nnection between the two computers by using ping on either machine To do this e Open an MS DOS window e At the prompt type ping XXX XXX XX X where instead of the x s you should enter the IP address of the OTHER computer Here s an example of a failed ping Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5 00 2195 C Copyright 1985 2000 Microsoft Corp C gt ping 192 168 12 1 Pinging 192 168 12 1 with 32 bytes of data Request timed out Request timed out Request timed out Request timed out Ping statistics for 192 168 12 1 Packets Sent 4 Received 0 Lost 4 100 loss Approximate round trip times in milli seconds Minimum Oms Maximum Oms Average Oms Here s an example of a successful ping C gt ping 10 1 3 57 Pinging 10 1 3 57 with 32 bytes of data Reply from 10 Reply from 10 Reply from 10 Reply from 10 57 bytes 32 time 31lms TTL 64 57 bytes 32 time lt 10ms TTL 64 57 bytes 32 time lt 10ms TTL 64 57 bytes 32 time lt 10ms TTL 64 PRePPR Www w Ping statistics for 10 1 3 57 Packets Sent 4 Received 4 Lost 0 0 loss Approximate round trip times in milli seconds Minimum Oms Maximum 31ms Average 7ms C gt 9 Click on the Settings button and then the Remote Control tab Check the box for Allow Remote Control 10 Install the RCC software on your remote computer and start the application 11 Click on the Settings button again In the Remote Control tab ch
134. not supported a full email address must be provided Note that the software allows recording a video and taking a photo to interact with robot motion Even if a behavior calls for simultaneous robot motion it will also be allowed to take a photo or shoot a video as long as both actions do not require the use of the same camera If there is a camera conflict the motion is given priority and the photo video is taken when the motion ends Remember that motion can use the camera in obvious and non obvious ways Obvious ways are when the robot drives or rotates toward a color or object see the Move section Not so obvious ways include visual bump detection see the Motion Tab section and camera based obstacle avoidance see the Obstacle Avoidance Tab section ER1 User Guide 7 7 E Chapter 7 Then Actions Gripper E Gripper ese H Click on the Gripper checkbox and select from i ege one of two actions e Open gripper Open the Gripper if the trigger condition is met Remember this will cause an object within the Gripper to fall from the Gripper s grasp e Close gripper Close the Gripper if the trigger condition is met Run it Button When you are done selecting triggers actions and parameters click on the Sj Run it button The behavior set is now active As soon as a trigger condition is met a behavior will be executed Stop Button To stop a behavior set from running click on the Stop button The robot will q CH stop
135. nsion Bey The default saved location is C Program Files ER1 behaviors 3 2 ER1 User Guide H Conditions If Conditions One or more conditions can be specified in the If part of a behavior The available conditions are e Sight e Sound e Message receive e Time e Sequence e IR Sensors e Gripper Sight Condition Using the Sight Condition you can program the robot to react to a certain color or object To select an object select it in the pulldown menu To have the behavior trigger on a color 1 Click on the color pulldown menu to select a color 2 The color pulldown menu also has an dropper icon Clicking on this icon lets you select a color from the camera image Important Note Either an object or a color can be selected as the sight condition but not both Sound Condition Using the Sound Condition you can program the robot to react to an ambient volume level or to use speech recognition to respond to a spoken word or phrase The six radio buttons correspond to six discrete volume levels The volume levels increase from left to right but the actual sound level represented by each of the six depends on the microphone volume settings on your robot s laptop You will need to experiment with your laptop s particular hardware settings to determine which level works best as your behavior trigger To have the robot react to a spoken word or phrase type it into the Listen For text box The ER1 RCC softwa
136. obot started and rotation angle Example OK 3 5 4 6 90 1 The first value is the X position in centimeters the second is the Y position in centimeters and the third is the angle in degrees See the About X Y Coordinates section for details Sense Command Sense The sense command lets you turn on and off the robot s sensors The usage of the command is sense lt sensor type gt on sense lt sensortype gt off Parameters lt sensor type gt is one of objects sound level speech When you turn a sensor on that allows messages from that sensor to appear when the events command is issued Note Quotes should not be used around the sensor name since the name is a part of the command not a parameter Examples sense objects sense objects off sense sound level on 10 16 ER1 User Guide Speak Command sense speech off Speak Command Speak Usage speak lt state gt Description This command turns speak object functionality to on or off Parameter state This parameter is either on or off Set Command The set command is used to adjust settings which affect other commands These settings are sticky in that they apply until reset to other values or until the API session ends The limits are generally the same as for the corresponding commands in the GUI Set Voice Usage set voice lt voice name gt This overrides the default voice for all subsequent play phrase and play file commands f
137. obstacle avoidance If you have your sensors set in some other configuration the robot doesn t care where the IR sensors are located However you can still use this menu to monitor the signal strength of the three sensors In that case the labels 1 2 and 3 simply refer to the sensor number not the sensor location e Stop Manual motion unless Ctrl key or a designated joystick button is held down Use these parameters to control robot motion e Use sensor to stop _ forward or _ backward motion when reflection reaches These parameters are used to stop forward or backward motion when a specified reflection strength is reached To set these parameters select the radio button for the desired IR sensor Next select the forward or backward radio button Your selection should depend on whether a given sensor is pointing forward or backward To finish select the desired reflection threshold from the pulldown menu e Flashing LEDs These parameters are used to adjust the reflection thresholds of the various IR sensors Note that each IR sensor can be set to a different value e Reflection Strength The values under each of the sensor number pull down menus report the reflection strength of the IR signal presently being detected by that sensor This provides dynamic real time feedback allowing users to view sensor reflection values of various objects The robot determines whether or not it is approaching an object by monitoring the refl
138. of the camera images Also note that JPEG compression uses more CPU time to compress the images so if you have a fast 8 4 ER1 User Guide Sound Tab connection you may get better frame rates from the robot by not using compression e Quality This parameter allows you to specify the percent of the optimal possible quality at which to save the video file Specifying a higher value will yield higher resolution and selecting a smaller value will yield lower resolution Valid values are 0 100 The default value is 85 e Smoothing One of the side effects of JPEG compression is jagged edges This parameter allows you to correct for that Valid values are 0 to 100 The default is 0 Sound Tab The Sound tab allows you to customize the robot s vocalization and audible output xl Log Joystick l Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance m Speak Object IV Speak best match object name when recognized Sequential frames threshold fi Repeat interval seconds fi 0 IV Must see another object before allowing a repeat IV Interrupt current object s sound to play a new one Text to speech voice fs ystem default x Options are e Sequential frames threshold The minimum number of consecutive video frames in which an object is recognized before triggering the sound playback e Repeat interval This option specifies the n
139. olor happens to be moving the robot will need to adjust its course to follow it The default value is 20 e Drive Toward Color searching This parameter sets the maximum speed when the robot is searching for a color Note Using a slower speed gives the robot more time to identify the desired color The default value is 10 9 8 ER1 User Guide Motion Tab x Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load r Rotation Angular Velocity degrees second Motion Linear Velocity centimeters second Fixed Distance 20 kal Fixed Distance D 4 Rotate Toward Color D ri Toward Color 20 3 Drive Toward Color 20 Toward Object 20 Drive Toward Color searching 10 m Go to X Y Location 20 Di Rotate Toward Object 10 Drive Toward Object 20 Drive Toward Object searching 10 Si Go to X Y Location EI 4 r Collision Detection J Enable collision detection Sensitivity kk Motor Power percentage of full power Stopped D Gi Moving H Restore Factory Settings Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help e Rotate Toward Object This sets the maximum speed of rotation when the robot rotates towards an object The default value is 10 e Drive Toward Object Use this parameter to set the maximum speed of rotation when the robot drives toward an object It will need to turn to line up wit
140. on between the equipment and receiver e Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected Consult the dealer or an experienced radio TV technician for help ER1 User Guide DO NOT OPERATE ROBOT WHILE CONNECTED TO CHARGER A DANGER Rechargeable Battery Pack If the rechargeable battery pack is incorrectly replaced there is a danger of an explosion The battery pack contains a small amount of harmful substances To avoid possible injury e Replace only with a battery of the type recommended by Evolution Robotics e Keep the battery pack away from fire water and rain e Do not attempt to disassemble the battery pack e Ensure that the battery pack is securely fastened to the robot e Do not short circuit the battery pack e Keep the battery pack away from children When disposing of the battery pack comply with local ordinances or regulations Nothing herein shall constitute a warranty expressed or implied including any warranty of merchantability or fitness In no event shall Evolution Robotics be responsible for any special incidental or consequential damages ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide S evolution EZ robotics DW Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Rabor ee 1 2 EE 1 3 TE 1 4 ENEE EE EE 1 5 TRG SEI EE 1 5 ERI Eeer 1 5 Chapter 2 Getting Started ebe 2 3 Laptop Reguiremierits geed satin 2 3 Optional EE walcaaensanddsos sansa
141. on off And set collision detection on sensitivity lt sensitivity percentage gt These turn collision bump detection off or on respectively If turning it on you can optionally specify a sensitivity ER1 User Guide Set Command Examples set collision detection on set collision detection on sensitivity 30 set collision detection off Set Obstacle Avoidance lt method gt lt tolerance gt lt distance gt lt percent gt Usage set obstacle avoidance off And set obstacle avoidance on method lt method gt tolerance lt tolerance gt disable distance lt distance gt disable percentage lt percent gt These control obstacle avoidance and if turning it on adjust the various settings Parameters is either intensity or color is a number from 10 to 80 is the standoff distance at which it is turned off when approaching an object in cm is the fraction of the stop percentage for turning it off when moving toward a color The optional parameters can appear in any order Set Confidence Threshold Usage set confidence threshold lt percentage gt Sets the object recognition feature threshold expressed as a percentage of the number of features which must be identified for the object to be recognized Example set confidence threshold 20 Set Color Tolerance Usage set color tolerance lt tolerance gt Sets the color recognizer s color tolerance Example set color tolerance
142. on using the joystick is allowed while behaviors are running as long a programmed motion is not currently in progress If a programmed motion is presently in progress a message is logged telling the user why his manual motion command is not being executed Assuming that the user is still holding down the joystick when the robot s movement related behavior finishes the robot will then start moving under the user s manual control and a message will be logged to that effect 8 16 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide Joystick Tab xl Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors PushToTak Display About Je Enable joystick control ZC Joystick number fi gt Angular axis k zx I Reverse Left Right Linear axis p gt I Reverse Sensitivity 100 Backward Button Commands Button number fi 7 Ze Do nothing Tip Select the Close gripper button you want to Open gripper change by pressing it on the Run behaviors joystick Stop behaviors Override IR bump sensor Push to talk OK Cancel Help e Joystick number Use this pulldown menu to specify a joystick number The first joystick installed on your PC is considered Joystick 1 and the second is Joystick 2 etc You can only use one joystick at a time with the ERI e Axis These parameters specify the kind of motion to be assigned to the joystick s or the joystick buttons
143. ons The Motor Power options let you specify the percentage of full power that the robot should use under the following conditions e Stopped When the robot is not moving there is no reason for the robot s motor to be powered It causes the battery to drain faster and makes noise The default value for this option is 0 e Moving The robot does not need 100 power to perform most activities It would only need full power if it had to travel up a steep incline or if it were traveling over a high friction surface such as a shag rug Leaving this value at the 60 default value should provide adequate power for all other instances Remember the less power you re using the longer the robot s battery charge will last Hi Chapter 8 Settings xl Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Mation Obstacle Avoidance Rotation Angular Velocity degrees second p Motion Linear Velocity centimeters second gt Manual control 30 Manual control 10 Motor Power percentage of full power Stopped W Moving 60 I Reverse sense of forward and backward arrows when manually moving robot Restore Factory Settings OK Cancel Help The Reverse sense of forward and backward arrows when manually moving the robot checkbox will change the upward pointing arrow under the Obstacle Avoidance camera area on the RCC screen from moving
144. or txt files Example set voice Microsoft Mary Set Linear Velocity Usage set linear velocity lt velocity gt Alternate format set v lt velocity gt This command sets the linear velocity in cm sec for all motion types If a motion doesn t support the velocity it will be minimized or maximized against the limit For example the move drive toward lt object gt command is limited to 30 cm sec but the move 30 inches command allows a maximum velocity of 50 ER1 User Guide 10 17 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface cm sec If the linear velocity is set to 50 cm sec and you issue a move drive toward command the velocity will be limited to 30 cm sec automatically Examples set linear velocity 10 set v 47 Set Angular Velocity Usage set angular velocity lt velocity gt Alternate form set w lt velocity gt The angular rotational velocity is set in degrees sec Otherwise this command is similar to set linear velocity in that it affects all motion types Examples set angular velocity 10 set w 20 Set Power Stopped Usage set power stopped lt power gt Sets the robot s power level when stopped The lt power gt value is the percentage of full power Example set power stopped 20 Set Power Moving Usage set power moving lt power gt Sets the robot s power level when moving Otherwise identical to the above command Set Collision Detection Usage set collision detecti
145. or 15 frames per second e Video Compression These parameters are used to specify the type of compression to use as well as the parameters associated with the compression type selected Be sure to consider your needs and the type of camera you are using when selecting values e Type This pulldown menu is used to select the type of video compression to use The default value is none 9 6 ER1 User Guide Video Tab e Data rate If the compression algorithm that you selected supports this parameter select the checkbox The range of values depends on the compression method chosen the frame rate the quality and the key frame rate Pick a reasonable value to correspond to your other settings should you choose to set this value manually e Quality If the compression algorithm that you selected supports this parameter you can specify the percent of the optimal possible quality at which to save the video file Specifying a higher value will yield higher resolution but also larger file size Selecting a smaller value will yield lower resolution but a smaller file size The file size should be considered when emailing video files The default value is 85 s Key frame spacing To select this parameter select the checkbox and specify a value If you want to be able to scan quickly through your video you will want keyframes which do not depend on previous frames for determining what is in them The first frame is always a key frame
146. ot s laptop Remember that you can create and use your own files to use in a behavior RCC can use wav txt mp3 and wma file formats e Phrase to Speak Type in what you would like the robot to say The system will first check to see if the file name entered exists on the hard drive If so the system plays it If not the phrase is passed onto the Text to Speech module For txt files the ER1 will read aloud the contents of the file Using this feature you can download text versions of books from the Internet and have your ER1 read them to you Remember that RCC textboxes have a 100 000 character limit You can circumvent this limitation by breaking up the text into separate behaviors and then linking the behaviors together Run a Program Click on the Run a Program checkbox to make this action active Use the Browse button to find the executable file exe that you would like to execute If you are using a wireless network to control your robot the program files displayed are those found on your robot s laptop The selected path and file name will be displayed in the textbox Note that you can use this functionality to play any videos that you have recorded with the robot You can also pass parameters to the launched program but the program name or 1nk file name must be surrounded by double quotes for this to work if there are spaces in the name The Browse dialog box takes care of this automatically for you This actio
147. ot Because of the configuration of the robot it must be shipped in several pieces to avoid damage to the components Remember to check your parts against your packing list to make sure you have received all of the parts you will need to build your ERT Note that the list of parts for the assembled robot is slightly different than that of the unassembled robot STOP Have you read the Getting to Know the Parts section This section gives you the necessary information on the robot parts Remember to refer to this section if you need further clarification on the assembly instructions Step 1 You need e All of the robot parts from the box Instructions e You should have everything shown here ER1 User Guide A 7 E Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e 2 locking washers Instructions e Place one locking washer on each of the screw posts Step 3 You need e The top of the robot with the camera head Instructions e Attach the top of the robot to the screwposts with the locking washers as shown You will need to pull the screws back through the holes about 1 2 and then thread them through the hinge halves on the top of the robot e Make sure that the camera is pointing toward the front of the robot A 8 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Assembled ER You need e 2 Thumbnuts Instru
148. ot supported a full email address must be provided Addresses should be separated with semicolons Be careful in specifying behaviors that have the robot send emails It would be easy to accidently send multiple spurious emails if your trigger conditions are met multiple times Click on the Behavior Settings button and then the Run tab to set the way this behavior can be run e Subject Enter the subject of the email message e Body Enter the body of the email message Record Click on the Record checkbox to make this action M Record C Take Photo Shoot Video TE ti active I Then Name It b Then Email tt to Use it to take and save a photo or video upon triggering of the If condition You can then have the photo or video emailed to one or more addresses To use email your robot s laptop must have an Internet connection You also must have set up an email account with your ISP e Take Photo This parameter tells the robot to take a snapshot of the video image once an If condition is satisfied If you are using a wireless network note that this file will be saved on the robot s laptop 7 6 ER1 User Guide Record e Shoot Video Tells the robot to record the video image for a specified amount of time 5 to 60 seconds once the If condition is satisfied While the video is recorded a pop up monitor will appear Use this monitor to see what is recorded in your video If you are using a wireless network note that this file w
149. ot use the Gripper is running This option is selected by default ER1 Robot Control Center settings E x Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About IV Automatically grasp objects when not running behaviors IV Automatically grasp objects when running behavior sets which do not use the gripper Cancel Help ER1 User Guide 8 19 Hi Chapter 8 Settings IR Sensors Tab The IR Sensor Settings allow you to tell the robot where each sensor is located your robot It also allows you to monitor IR reflection strength which indicates when obstacles are in the robot s path and lets you set the flash rate of each sensor If you are using the sensors for automatic obstacle avoidance you must position the sensors in a triangle with sensors and 3 at either side of the robot and sensor 2 in the center of the robot You can also use this menu to determine which sensor is which With the menu displayed point all three sensors up at the ceiling The values should read at or around 0 Then point one of the sensors towards the floor The sensor that changes value is the sensor you moved Do the same to identify the remaining sensors Settings are e Sensor number Use each of the three pull down menus to specify which sensor number is located on the right the left and the middle of the robot This is the configuration for automatic
150. our laptop install the software and start the ER1 RCC software If you purchased the ERT kit the assembly will take about an hour The instructions are in Appendix A Assembly Instructions If you purchased the assembled robot the Assembly Instructions in Appendix A will explain how you connect the camera carrier and mount your laptop on the robot It will take about 5 minutes You will be plugging two items into your laptop both provided One is the camera that will be used for your robot s vision The other is our proprietary Robot Control Module RCM that will coordinate your robot s navigation Both are USB connections to your laptop A separate 12 Volt 50 Watt power module is provided for the RCM Robot Control Center Software The ER1 RCC software is used to control and receive feedback from your robot On the left side of the screen is an area to show you what your robot is seeing a list of any recognized objects any additional video input from an obstacle avoidance camera and robot movement controls The rest of the RCC software consists of a set of If conditions and Then actions that can be used to create a wide variety of robot behaviors or to perform tasks You can have up to 288 behaviors that can run in any sequence you specify or individually You can save what you create and share it with others at our ERT community at www evolution com A quick tutorial for this software is available in the Getting Started section
151. pen a RobotMail account 1 When you opened the robot s box you should have seen a registration card instructing you to go to the www evolution com web site If you have not already done so do it now The first time you log in you will need the default username evolution and the default password ert 2 On the web site you will be directed to the ERT community area 3 You will be prompted to choose a username and password for your evolution com login If the name you specify is not already taken it will be assigned to you 4 On the web page there will be a description of the purpose and limitations of robot mail near or on the sign up page Read it now 5 You will be prompted to select a XXXXX robotmail com account name for your robot This account name must be different than the username password used for the evolution com login You can enter up to a 16 character name If the name is not already taken it will be assigned to you If you purchased more than one robot you will be allowed to choose multiple robot account names one for each robot 6 Once the robot has been configured properly as described in Settings the robot will monitor your RobotMail remotely for email 7 Send the email to your new RobotMail account to trigger an action as described earlier 8 When the robot notices that it has received an email in its RobotMail account it will review the address content and subject of the email in an
152. ponents from the shipping box 3 Whether you bought the assembled robot or the unassembled robot kit the first thing you ll want to do is charge the robot s battery The battery is shipped with a minimal charge and needs a full charge before you start using it You will find the appropriate charger for your country packed with the robot e Plug the robot s battery into the charger supplied with the robot and plug the charger into an electrical outlet Note that the robot may be turned on while it is charging but the robot s motors should not be engaged until the charger is disconnected ER1 User Guide 2 1 Wi Chapter 2 Getting Started e The robot only operates from the battery s power and cannot draw power directly from the wall outlet In the Robot Control Center RCC software Settings menu you can specify how much motor power the robot should use when it is performing normal operations when it is ON but idle etc The robot s battery takes 4 5 hours to charge e A fully charged robot will run for approximately 3 hours driving before needing to be recharged See our website at www evolution com to purchase an extra battery e Remember that your laptop also requires recharging and that you must separately plug the laptop s charger into a wall outlet to charge it We recommend that if you re using the robot to perform stationary actions you leave your laptop plugged in Note that the robot and the camera s will add to the
153. port return true catch Exception ex System out println ex toString throw ex return false public String readString try if _read_stream null System out println Error _read stream is null j return null try int size String msg do size _read_stream available if size 0 byte buffer new byte size _read_stream read buffer 0 size msg new String buffer return msg Thread sleep 50 while size 0 catch Exception ex System out println ex toString return null catch RuntimeException ex System out println ex toString return null Global applet showDebug ex toString return null 10 30 ER1 User Guide ER1Client java public boolean sendString String s return sendBuffer s getBytes s length j boolean sendBuffer byte bytes int size if _write stream null Global applet showDebug No server connection so cannot send message return false try _write_stream write bytes 0 size _write_stream flush catch Exception ex disconnect System out println ex toString return false return true public void disconnect try if _socket null _socket close _socket null _write_stream null catch Exception ex System out println ex toString dd dd dd dd dd Helpers TILTLTLTLATTT LTT ATLL TTT ATT TTT ATLL TTT
154. q Quiet mode Only errors are printed out h This message ER1Client java Here is the ER1Client java file file ER1Client java author www evolution com author Copyright C 2003 Evolution Robotics Inc import java io DataOutputStream import java io BufferedInputStream import java net Socket Generic socket client class that takes a data listener and a protocol handler to process socket data public class ER1Client String _address 9127 50 50 1 int _ port 9000 Socket _ socket boolean _verbose true DataOutputStream _write_stream null BufferedInputStream _read_stream null Thread _connect_wait null boolean _more_data false public ER1Client String args Parse command line parameters parseCommandLine args public Socket getSocket return _socket public boolean connect return _connect _address _port ER1 User Guide 10 29 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface public boolean _connect String address int port if _socket null disconnect address _port 0 try Create a new socket connection _socket new Socket address port try Set the output stream _write_ stream new DataOutputStream _socket getOutputStream _read_stream new BufferedInputStream _socket getInputStream catch Exception ex System out println ex toString _address address _port
155. rance parameter indicates the amount of change there must be between two consecutive images before the motion detection triggers The accepted ER1 User Guide Sound Tab values are from 0 to 256 with a default of 50 The higher the values the more changes must occur before the motion detection can occur e Detect of Screen This parameter adjusts the percentage of pixels on the screen that have to change between two subsequent frames for motion detection to be triggered Sound Tab This tab allows you to set the sound parameters e Text to speech voice Allows you to specify which Microsoft Text to Speech preprogrammed voice the robot should use when speaking to you Use the pulldown menu to select an option Behavior Settings xi Sight Sound Photo Video Motion Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load Text to speech voice fs ystem default D Note the following setting applies to all behaviors in this file not just the current behavior gt Speech Recognition Grammar e None Grammar file C Word phrase list one word or phrase per line use letters spaces and apostrophe only Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help e Speech Recognition Grammar Use these parameters to specify how you would like the robot to recognize speech e None This parameter if set specifies not use a speech recognition grammar file e Grammar file Use this
156. rbt E speed rbt am alarm rbt File name Save Save as type ER1 Robot Control Files rbt DI Cancel IV Save only active fields 4 5 2 ER1 User Guide Settings Button Note that if you use CTRL S to save it will use the Save only active fields value active inactive that was used the last time that behavior was saved The Save only active fields preference is saved as part of the behavior set Settings Button The Settings button allows you to customize default settings for the entire 288 behavior set See the Behavior Settings section for information on how to change the settings for one particular behavior Advanced users may wish to change settings that will improve speed of performance size and resolution of image and interval for repeating the sound file for a given image For most users no adjustment of the Settings is necessary The RCC Settings are described in Settings ret Robot ControlCenter settings Log Joystick Gripper IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Image Recognizer I Increase speed by ignoring top and bottom of image I Use only best match IV Display matches Color Recognizer sl IV Display matches Cancel Help ER1 User Guide 5 3 E Chapter 5 Function Buttons Help Button Click on the Help button to get help on any of the various functions of the RCC soft
157. re done Sequence Condition Click on the Sequence checkbox to make this condition active M Sequence Run after Behavior 1 Di This condition lets you specify one behavior s completion as a trigger for another behavior s execution which allows you to create a sequence of behaviors to achieve a task The Run After menu lists all available behaviors Select a behavior from the pulldown menu For an example of how to link behaviors together to complete a task see the Making the Robot Move section Message Receive Condition Click on the Message Receive checkbox to make this condition active M Message sender Joe Smith Receive p Subject fSolar Eclipse Body Corona 6 8 ER1 User Guide Message Receive Condition If your robot s laptop has a wireless network card and access to a wireless network you can program ERT to act on email based on a determination of whether the sender subject or body contain substrings i e text specified by you to trigger the behavior Fill in one or more the following e Sender One or multiple email addresses from which to expect email Aliases are not supported A full email address must be provided e Subject Exact text to look for in the Subject line of the email e Body Exact text to look for in the body of the email To set how often you d like the robot to check email for example once every minute or once every five minutes click on Settings button and the Email tab To o
158. re uses Microsoft Speech SDK 5 1 to recognize the words typed into this text box Microsoft s speech recognition works better after it has been trained on the user s voice To train the speech recognition software open the Microsoft Speech Applet in the Control Panel and click on the Train button in the Speech Recognition tab The speech software will prompt you from there ER1 User Guide 3 3 E Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview Time Condition The Time Condition allows you to program your robot to perform actions at a certain time or at regular time intervals The time or time interval is specified using three pulldown menus e The first specifies the hour e The second pulldown menu specifies the minute e The third pulldown menu specifies seconds e The fourth specifies A M or P M e The fifth pulldown menu specifies an optional interval If an interval is specified it automatically allows the behavior to run more than once Message Receive Condition The Message Receive Condition allows you to program your robot to react to an email containing expected content The robot looks for text patterns in the sender address subject or body of the email You can specify one or more of these three fields for the robot to examine When your robot receives an email with matching text in all the specified fields it will execute the actions that you have programmed Sequence Condition You can use the Sequence Condition to link
159. rewall Mie Workplace Home Robot Computer Firewall Firewall Laptop B 2 ER1 User Guide In order to control the robot via teleoperation you must be able to connect from the work computer to the robot through the home firewall Most cable or DSL routers have a service called port forwarding This service forwards communication on certain ports to certain specified computers behind the firewall Assuming that you opt to use the default port of 9000 for teleoperation you will need to configure the home router to forward port 9000 to the robot laptop s IP address on the your home network Note that this IP address is not the same as the external IP address assigned to you by the broadband provider It is typically of the form 192 168 x x or 10 x x x and can be obtained by typing in ipconfig in a DOS command window on the robot laptop The command window can be opened by selecting Start gt Run and typing in cmd on Windows XP or 2000 or command on Windows 98 or Me It should look like this INNT System32 cmd exe soft Windows 2606 Version 5 88 2195 lt C gt Copyright 1985 2000 Microsoft Corp C gt ipconf ig Windows 2666 IP Configuration Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection Connectio pecific DNS Suffix charterpipeline net IP Addres gt 192 168 1 161 Subnet Ma 255 255 2558 Default Gateway 192 168 1 1 In the previous case shown the IP address of the robot laptop is 192 168 1
160. rform user specified behaviors at a preprogrammed time Navigation Commands allow you to direct your robot s movements including moving a specified distance at a specified velocity moving towards an object and stopping a predetermined distance from that object rotating towards a color and more Text to Speech uses built in Microsoft Windows text to speech capabilities to allow the robot to speak the words from written text Play a Sound allows you to tell the robot to play a specific sound in response to a spoken command or visual cue or at a specified time ER1 User Guide E Chapter 1 Introduction e Runa Program allows you to launch and execute any Windows program directly from the Robot Control Center software window e Send and Receive Email allows your robot to perform pre programmed actions upon receipt of an expected email Your robot can also send email alerting you that a preprogrammed condition has occurred e Take Photo Video allows the robot to take a picture or record video e Remote Control allows you to use a customer supplied wireless network to teleoperate the robot from your PC e Obstacle Avoidance provides the robot with a rudimentary visual obstacle avoidance capability through a second camera second camera not included in base package e Behavior Based Programming allows you to specify certain events as triggers for one or more robot actions For example you can tell the robot to move forward 5 fe
161. rtant Note The ER1 Robot Control Center software is a 1024 by 768 application and will run on all displays with 1024 by 768 or higher resolution Because the application has a large number of fixed fields it will not scale resize so on screens larger than 1024 by 768 the RCC will have a border around it but will continue to work perfectly The RCC will not run on 800 by 600 or 640 by 480 displays unless you have scrolling software that allows you to view a larger window on your monitor Optional Second Camera The camera shipped with your robot can be used by the robot for object recognition and obstacle avoidance However the software allows you the option of using an additional separate camera e The camera for obstacle avoidance is best mounted pointing toward the floor e Requirements for the second camera are e USB camera mountable on the robot not too big or heavy e USB cable to connect the second camera to the robot e A third USB port on the laptop usually this requires a hub ER1 User Guide 2 3 E Chapter 2 Getting Started Optional Remote Control If you are planning to teleoperate your robot you need the following e A separate PC that meets or exceeds the laptop requirements listed previously e A wireless network card for your laptop e A wireless network card for your PC Important Note This remote control configuration should operate within a distance of approximately 30 to 60 feet between the robot and the controll
162. rying Out Actions There is a Try It button right on the right side of the screen Clicking on this button will execute whichever action or actions are specified in the current behavior Use this button to try out actions to make sure they work as intended before running the actions in a program Running and Stopping Behaviors The This Task section of the RCC software window contains the Run it Button and the Stop Button used to execute and halt the behaviors you created in the If Then sections Click on the Run it button to begin running the behavior or behavior sequence you created The Stop button stops any behaviors that are being executed This button only becomes active while a behavior is being run You may also use the spacebar on your keyboard to pause any behavior that is running A message reading Suspended By User will appear in the RCC titlebar To resume the behavior press the spacebar again Behavior Execution All sequences begin with a behavior that has a non sequence condition sight sound time gripper message receive and or IR sensors conditions or a joystick button press In other words a sequence has to begin by some external trigger condition Consider the following example e Behavior 1 If see teddy bear Then play a sound file teddy wav e Behavior 2 If hear the word email Then send an email to user ISP com e Behavior 3 If after Behavior 1 Then move forward 10 feet e Behavior 4 If after Behavior 3
163. s To specify a unit type use the pulldown menu Choices are Feet Inches Meters and Centimeters 6 4 ER1 User Guide Sight Condition e Speak Object This section is used to associate a sound file or a phrase to speak with the image file e Sound File To specify a sound file to be played when the image is recognized type in the path and filename of a sound file You can also use the Browse button to specify the file RCC can use wav txt mp3 and wma file formats Note that if you are using a wireless network to control your robot the sound files are located on your robot s laptop e Phrase to Speak To have RCC speak a phrase when the image is recognized type the desired verbiage in this textbox When all of your adjustments have been made click the Ok button The changes you have selected will be implemented You may cancel your changes by clicking on the Cancel button Add The Add button option allows you to add an existing image to ER ls library of recognized objects Click on the Add button and the Add Object dialog box will appear xi Name Poo Image file Po Browse View Distance from camera ooo Units Feet zl r Speak Object Sound file Browse Phrase to speak OK Cancel It has the following parameters e Name This will be the RCC not the Windows filename for the object e Image file This is the Windows path and filename for the image to be added If you are
164. s that you would like the robot to turn In the this direction pulldown menu select right or left W Stop on Sensor zl This action is considered complete when one of the following conditions are met e The robot turns the specified number of degrees e Stop on sensor condition is met Relative position Move femenin This feature allows you to program the robot to perform E IR tee 4 measured movement along both the x and y axes forward backward and left right IV Stop on Sensor Object enters gripper e ER1 User Guide E Chapter 7 Then Actions This action is considered complete when the following condition is met e The robot moves the specified distance e The Stop on Sensor condition is met Stop on Sensor For all of the Move types you can specify that the robot motion should stop if a sensor detects something e Object approaches IR sensor 1 When the robot s IR sensor 1 senses a reflection robot movement will stop Object approaches IR sensor 2 When the robot s IR sensor 2 senses a reflection robot movement will stop Object approaches IR sensor 3 When the robot s IR sensor 3 senses a reflection robot movement will stop e Object enters gripper If this is checked then the robot s motion will terminate as soon as an object entering the Gripper claw triggers the IR sensor to begin closing the claw Choose Color The Sight and Move color bars both have an addition to the submenu t
165. se out and read them They contain information that cannot be found in the ER User Guide Click Next 8 You will be prompted to accept reject the usual setup options for destination folder Click Next 9 Typical custom install You will also be prompted to choose a type of installation Usually you should select typical Click Next 10 A message is displayed Ready to Install Click Next Wait while the system copies files for installation 11 The software will confirm that your computer has the latest version of DirectX installed The ER1 software requires version 8 1 or newer 12 You will then be prompted to install DirectX 8 1 Click Yes 13 You will then be shown the Microsoft license agreement for DirectX and you will be prompted to accept reject it Click Yes 14 A popup dialog may be displayed asking you to reboot your computer If so select Ok to reboot and then click Finish 15 Reboot your computer 16 After the installation is complete a shortcut icon for the ERT Robot Control Center software will appear on your desktop Double click on it to start the ERT application Important Note You should always start the software from the RCC icon or from the installed destination directory Otherwise the software may not be able to find all the associated files it needs to operate correctly Connecting the Laptop The following is an example of how to connect your laptop if you have Windows 2000 Other versions of
166. sensor 3 when reflection is greater than or equal to Dt 50 IV Use IR Sensor obstacle avoidance reflection thresholds when appropriate IV Use stop reflection threshold s when manually moving robot Gi Sensor 3 fi D 4 Restore Factory Settings Sensor 10 Sensor 2 10 Flash rate e Use Center Sensor to stop manually controlled forward motion unless CTRL key or a designated joystick button is held down This allows the center IR sensor to be used for bump detection when moving the robot manually See Stop Reflection Threshold below e Stop Reflection Threshold If Use Center Sensor is enabled and the center sensor s reflection is greater than or equal to the percentage value set in Stop Reflection Threshold the forward component of any motion initiated with the arrow keys joystick or virtual joystick is stopped in order to avoid a collision This can be overridden by holding down the Ctrl key on the keyboard or by pressing and holding a designated button on the joystick see the Joystick tab in the Settings menu Important Note When overriding the IR bump detection the virtual joystick on the screen changes color to red as a warning When the robot enters exits the bump detection range and forward motion is prevented a log message appears e Flashing LEDs This section is used to adjust the flash rate and the flash thresholds of the ER1 IR sensors e Flash sensor lt N gt when reflection is gr
167. set obstacle avoidance 10 19 ER1 User Guide l 1 set power moving 10 19 set power stopped 10 18 set voice 10 17 stop command 10 20 API control 8 9 API operation auto status 10 8 gripper auto 10 8 gripper close 10 9 gripper open 10 9 gripper status 10 9 gripper stop 10 10 sense gripper 10 10 Audio bits per sample 9 8 capture device 9 7 channels 9 8 recording 9 7 samples per second 9 7 Auto status 10 8 B Battery 4 6 Behaviors execution 3 6 files 3 2 running 3 6 7 8 stopping 3 6 7 8 tabs 3 2 Best match 4 2 8 2 Cc Camera tab using 8 3 Capture button using 6 2 Capturing images how to 6 3 Collision detection 9 10 Color detection 1 3 Color recognition 8 3 9 2 Color selection tool using 6 2 Commands move 7 2 navigate 4 3 l 2 ER1 User Guide Conditions message receive 6 8 message send 7 6 sequence 6 8 sight 6 2 sound 6 6 time 6 7 Customer support 1 5 D Deleting images 6 6 Device 8 4 Dropper tool 6 2 E Email 1 4 optional 2 4 Email tab using 8 9 ERT community 1 5 Example application 2 4 Examples 10 5 Exit 10 8 F Files saving 5 2 G Gripper 8 19 10 8 Gripper auto 10 8 Gripper close 10 9 Gripper condition 6 10 Gripper open 10 9 Gripper settings 8 19 Gripper status 10 9 Gripper stop 10 10 H Help button 5 4 ER1 User Guide l 3 Images adding 6 5 deleting 6 6 how to capture 6 3 modifying files 6 4 Independent operation 4 5 IR 10 11 IR Condition 6 10 IR LEDs flash ra
168. sidered completed when the sound file is finished playing e The Run Program action is considered completed when the program starts to run e The Send Message action is considered completed when the email is queued for sending e The Record action is considered completed when the photo is taken or the video recording is completed e The Gripper action is completed when the Gripper has opened or closed The Move action moves the robot toward a color target or an object target You can also specify a fixed distance angle for the robot to travel or rotate or X Y coordinates as a destination The Play a Sound action plays a sound file or speaks a phrase using the Text to Speech capability The Browse button can be used to open a dialog box where you can select a sound file Alternatively you can type a phrase to be spoken You can also choose from among the prerecorded sound files that ship with the RCC The Run a Program action prompts the robot to open a Windows application such as Excel The Browse button opens a dialog box allowing you to specify the executable you want to run The Message Send action allows the robot to send an email message to one or more recipients Fill in the sender subject and body fields as needed The Record action allows the robot to shoot a still photo or record video The Gripper action allows you to open or close the Gripper when a behavior is triggered E Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview T
169. since it can not depend on any other frames If you had no other key frames and you wanted to start watching the video from the middle the system would have to decompress all the intermediate frames to determine what was in the middle frame If you have keyframes say every 10 frames it would have to decode at most 10 frames to determine what was in that section of video e Audio Use these parameters to specify the audio settings to be used in conjunction with video recording See the Push to Talk Tab section for details on setting the volume on a remote machine Remember to set your sound card parameters to optimize recording quality The default is to record sound using a 11 025 sampling rate 8 bits per sample and channels set to mono e Record audio If selected this specifies to record audio whenever the robot records video If this parameter is selected and the Record video option is not selected a wav file will be produced If Record video and Record audio are both selected a avi file will be produced The file will be named audio wav and be saved into C Program Files ER1 directory by default To change the name of the file use the Then name it option in the Record section of the Then column e Use audio capture device This specifies the audio capture device to use for example SoundMax Digital Audio Note that the RCC does not verify that necessary recording devices are present and or operational before running a behavior
170. steet 8 28 Chapter 9 Behavior Settings KREE 9 1 teen 9 1 Color E 9 2 Motion tege EE 9 2 Sound NEE 9 3 Helpful Hints about Canet eege 9 4 Photo EE 9 4 Video Labruna ane en tenn ce nee a nTne Fert earn veeNe Meer ne TE Orne emir nn Smt meer 9 5 Moton AD E 9 8 E EE 9 8 Motion Linear Velocity EE 9 9 Motor geet 9 10 Collision ett Nissens eAEEeeeE 9 10 Obstacle Avoidanc Tab EE 9 11 Run Tabea T ee enone antares 9 12 Helpful Hiis sessen enka a a 9 14 TEE 9 14 Joystick tee ere irers enema ten Pemitrnet Ge sect inner retina te init ene rT nrmenn eer 9 15 ER1 User Guide RRE 9 17 ee eege 9 18 Eoad AD ssc hi ecole Ee 9 19 Apply This Page to All Behaviors Now 9 20 Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Accessing the API osasia nren rE 10 2 T ln t Windows EE 10 3 Older Windows Feet eege 10 3 Using the E e 10 4 neie 10 5 eege EEN 10 5 Command Quick Reference c0sccossssssonsonsceessossseansncsesnsoncaseonsancesssonsnsenneasecetaes 10 5 IEN 10 6 E EEN 10 6 EE 10 6 Eege 10 6 Events e EE 10 7 Eege 10 7 PT eA E 10 8 e E 10 8 Gripper Commins ageet Eegeregie 10 8 Gripper Autoen N teg 10 8 Gripper Clase sssini o E 10 9 REES 10 9 EIERE 10 9 EE taadan ra abort uaniieene alee eanaan S 10 10 EE 10 10 IR Commands E 10 11 Set IR EE 10 11 eege 10 11 SE 10 12 Move Commands E 10 13 Move Distant E 10 13 Move Rotate her 10 13 Move Rotate Toward leguerten Seitert Seege B inert 10 14 Move Eeer EE 10 14 ER1 User
171. stick Control The ERI RCC software allows you to control your robot and your Gripper by using a USB compatible joystick ERT supports the following joystick operating configurations e Wireless remote joystick communicating directly with the robot s laptop e Standard cable joystick plugged directly into the robot s laptop e Wireless remote joystick communicating directly with the remote client which is in turn remotely controlling the robot s laptop e Standard cable joystick plugged directly into the remote client which is in turn remotely controlling the robot s laptop 8 18 ER1 User Guide Gripper Tab Almost all USB joysticks are supported by the ERT software including e Logitech WingMan Cordless Rumblepad e Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick e Belkin Nostromo N40 Gamepad e Ken Eliminator Gamepad Pro e Microsoft Sidewinder Game Pad PNP Gripper Tab The Gripper tab can be used to control the way the Gripper works while behaviors are running and when they are not running e Automatically grasp objects when not running behaviors This checkbox if selected specifies that the Gripper when a behavior is not running should close when the IR beam is broken This option is selected by default e Automatically grasp object when running behavior sets which do not use the gripper This checkbox if selected specifies that the Gripper should grasp any objects that trigger the IR sensor when a behavior that does n
172. stomer Service representatives are available by calling toll free at 866 ROBO4ME or for international customers 626 229 3198 Monday though Friday 9 A M to 5 P M Pacific Time Registration Remember to register your robot online at www evolution com By registering you get the following benefits e World class customer support e RobotMail email account e Join the ERT development community e Software updates and bug fixes e Information on new accessories and software The serial number sticker for your robot is on the corrugated box Make sure to put your serial number sticker someplace safe e g the inside cover of your manual If you lose this sticker you can also find the robot serial number on the Robot Control Module ER1 Community The ERT community is a place to share development ideas lessons learned shortcuts and applications After you have completed registration visit the ERT community at www evolution com ER1 User Guide 1 5 E Chapter 1 Introduction 1 6 ER1 User Guide ei evolution bat robotics E Chapter 2 Getting Started Note The assembly instructions are in the Assembly Instructions Appendix Before turning to them please read the following instructions For both the assembled and unassembled robot here is an overview of the steps you need to follow to get up and running 1 Make sure that your laptop is fully charged 2 Remove the robot or the unassembled robot s com
173. subtasks that the robot can achieve one at a time such as moving speaking sending an email or recording video e Link the individual tasks one after another in any order you choose e Save the sequence of behaviors you have created e Click on the Run it button As soon as the trigger condition in the If column has been met the behaviors will be executed With that in mind let s explore robot behaviors in more detail ER1 User Guide 3 1 E Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview An ERT behavior is a rule that describes what the robot should do when a certain condition is met For the developers among you in programming terms an if then statement is used to encode the condition action rule of a behavior An example of a behavior is the following condition action pair If hear a sound Then shoot video and email it to the specified address One or more conditions can be specified in the If column and one or more actions can be specified for the Then column Whenever any one of the If conditions is satisfied the behavior is said to be triggered and all its actions specified in the Then column are executed After you click Run all of the If conditions of all of the behaviors 1 288 you programmed are continually monitored by the software until one of the conditions is met This triggers the Then portion of that behavior and executes all the actions Once a behavior is done executing then all behaviors are once again monitor
174. sure to initiate the program from this icon or from the Windows Start gt Programs menu This helps the program find all of its required files during start up ER1 User Guide 4 1 E Chapter 4 Audio Video and Navigation Controls Video Display The Video window displays the live feed from the robot s camera Main Camiera This video feed changes as the robot moves The video input is only operational when a behavior is not running unless the behavior is using the video You can use one camera for both object recognition and obstacle avoidance or you can use a separate camera for each The Camera tab in the Settings menu lets you change the settings for the cameras and video display Recognized Objects When the software recognizes an object it will speak the object s name or a user specified phrase and display the name and other information in the object area See the Sight Tab section for details on Object Recognition ee Click on the Settings button and then the Sight tab to Recognized Objects loft SC lated P Manual 42 151 27 165 78 1 1 Feet EE Depending on your Sight settings the object window will display only the best match or a list of all possible matches The object area is only active when none of your behaviors are running The values displayed in the object window refer to the following Manual is the name of the object that was recognized e 42 is the number of features matched between the current
175. sword r Safety WARNING The factory settings are designed to safely stop the robot within 1 5 seconds after the loss of remote control signals Increasing the timeout value increases the likelihood that a loss of remote control signals during robot motion will result in damage to the robot or your property IT Check this box only if you are SURE you want to change the setting Remote control timeout milliseconds isco I Reset the network connection now Dr Cancel Help Here s how 1 Install a wireless network card in your remote computer according to the manufacturer s directions Do the same for your robot s laptop computer 2 Install PCMCIA drivers on your remote computer according to the manufacturer s directions Do the same for your robot s laptop computer 8 6 ER1 User Guide ER1 User Guide Remote Control Tab Install the drivers that came with your wireless card on your remote computer according to the manufacturer s directions Do the same for your robot s laptop computer Write down the laptop s name and wireless IP address Configure the remote computer s Windows operating system to connect directly to the robot s laptop computer using a wireless connection How you do this depends on what version of the Windows operating system your computer is running For example for Windows XP e Double click on the wireless icon in the system tray bottom right of your Windows screen e In
176. t recognition camera such that the latter does not obscure the former To properly angle the avoidance camera tilt it downward so that the bottom front edge of the robot is visible then tilt slightly up so that the bottom front edge is no longer in the camera s view This brings the detection area as close as possible to the robot so that the camera can detect obstacles right in front of the robot The size of the detection area will depend on how high the camera is and its angle The higher the camera the larger the detection area and the sooner the robot will see obstacles A larger detection area is better for general navigation but it might also interfere when approaching a target For example the robot is approaching a painting on a wall If it sees too far ahead it might see the base of the wall too soon and turn away before it gets close enough to the painting Therefore the ideal height of the camera is dictated by the particular environment that the robot operates in and the goals it has to accomplish You should experiment with different camera heights to see which would work best in your particular environment ER1 User Guide 8 13 E Chapter 8 Settings Once the camera is placed on the robot it needs to be calibrated for best effect To calibrate the camera place two long straight edges or put two parallel lines of tape on the ground alongside the robot These edges or tape lines should be right outside of the two wheels The avo
177. t Note The IR obstacle avoidance values manual motion stop values and Settings menu IR Sensors values for LED flash rates are ignored while under API control Sense IR Usage sense ir Description This command allows events in which the IR reflection has reached the threshold to be seen by the events command Parameters None Returned Values The format of IR sensor events is ir lt sensor number gt lt reflection reading gt where lt sensor number gt indicates which sensor 1 2 or 3 and reflection reading is the reflection strength read from that IR Sensor 10 12 ER1 User Guide Move Commands The events do not accumulate only the most recent reading is sent That means if between the time you issue the sense ir and events commands is long you will not see many IR events just the last one which reached the threshold Move Commands The move command makes the robot move The API responds to the command after it has been verified but before the robot has completed the motion If another move command is issued before the robot completes the previous one the prior move command is interrupted See the events command for how to determine when the move command is complete Move Distance Format move lt distance gt lt units gt Parameters lt distance gt This is a positive or negative floating point number lt units gt This parameter is inches centimeters meters feet or degrees Since the first let
178. t is enabled and checked when the user is manually driving the robot forward the center sensor s blink threshold is adjusted to the value set in Stop reflection threshold and the other sensor s LEDs will be turned off As soon as forward motion is no longer called for the blink thresholds and settings will return to being controlled by the first three checkboxes e Flash Rate There is a scrollable textbox for each of the three sensors These control the rate at which the sensor will blink when the thresholds described above are exceeded Note that the normal state of an LED is On So when the IR reading is below the threshold the LED will be on steadily and when it is at or above the threshold it will start to flash at the given rate The rates go from 1 to 16 with 1 being the slowest and 16 keeping the LED on continuously The rate of 16 causes the LED to stay on but dim slightly when the threshold is exceeded This does not indicate any software or hardware malfunction but is intended behavior The default rate is 10 Important Note If the sensors are unplugged and plugged back in the flash rates and thresholds specified in the Settings menu are properly restored IR Sensor Kit Specifications The following are the specifications for the ER1 IR Sensor Kit e The IR sensor kit comes with 3 long range sensors capable of informing your robot of obstacles e Each IR sensor employs an infrared IR LED and receiver to detect when an o
179. t the Let behavior run more than once checkbox Click on the Apply This Page to All Behaviors Now button Click on the Ok button xl Sight Sound Photo Video Mation Obstacle Avoidance Run Joystick IR Sensors Logic Load Let behavior run more than once Prevent restarting for seconds 0 Priority higher number indicates higher priority 1 4 IT Allow conflicting higher priority behaviors to terminate this behavior IT Allow non conflicting behaviors to run at the same time as this behavior Pause for 1 hour s el after running Apply This Page To All Behaviors Now OK Cancel Help 25 Ok let s try it Click on the Run it button and show the robot the paper with the number 8 on it The robot will say eight and will do a figure 8 26 To stop the robot click on the Stop button E Chapter 2 Getting Started 2 12 ER1 User Guide ei evolution ba robotics n E Chapter 3 Behavior Programming Overview Now that you ve built your robot your laptop is installed your battery is charged and you ve moved your robot around a little bit it s time to learn how to build behaviors that can do more sophisticated things As we mentioned in the Introduction there is a basic strategy to creating a behavior e Decide what you want to trigger the task a recognized object or color a sound a certain time email a joystick button and or Gripper or IR sensors e Break the task into
180. t the image itself To change information for a specific graphic display that image in the Viewer by scrolling through the graphics files using the scrollbar to the right of the display Click on the image to select it Click on the Modify button to display the Modify dialog box for that image Note that if you are using a wireless network to control your robot the images you see are located on your robot s laptop This dialog box allows you to change select e Name The ERI image name which is NOT the Microsoft Windows filename e Image This textbox specifies the Windows filename To find a filename on your system use the Browse button You can then replace an existing named image with your new image Note that you cannot change the name of a Windows filename in this manner e View button Click this to see an enlarged version of the image you selected Click on the x in the upper right corner to close this window View features The View features button allows you to see the features that RCC uses to recognize an object All of the features are surrounded by purple circles When you are done viewing the image s features click the x in the upper right corner to close the viewing window e Distance This textbox is used to specify the distance between the object and the camera at the time of image capture This distance is later used when you program the robot to move to the object and stop a specified distance away e Unit
181. te 8 22 10 12 turning off 8 22 turning on 8 21 IR Sensors Tab 8 20 J Joystick control 8 16 8 18 L Laptop requirements 2 3 Log tab using 8 15 Logging 3 8 M Message receive condition 3 4 6 8 Message send 3 5 Message send condition 7 6 Modify image file information 6 4 Motion Video priorities 7 7 Motion tab using 8 11 9 8 Motor power 8 11 9 10 Move 3 5 Move command 7 2 Movement behaviors 7 2 manual control 4 3 rotate toward color 7 2 rotate toward object 7 3 specifying a distance 7 3 specifying an angle 7 3 to a relative position 7 3 toward a color 7 2 toward an object 7 2 using IR sensors to stop 7 4 1 4 ER1 User Guide Navigate command 4 3 New button 5 1 New files opening 5 1 O Object recognition 1 3 2 3 4 2 6 2 6 4 8 2 8 3 9 1 stopping 4 5 Obstacle avoidance 1 4 2 3 4 2 8 3 8 12 camera 8 13 calibration 8 14 view 8 14 turning off 9 12 Obstacle camera 4 2 Open 5 2 Opening new files 5 1 Optional email 2 4 remote control 2 4 second camera 2 3 P Photo 1 4 Photo file formats 9 4 Photo tab using 9 4 Play a sound 3 5 7 4 Programs running 7 5 Push to talk tab 8 24 Recognized objects 4 2 Record 3 5 Recording 7 6 Registration 1 5 Remote control 1 4 optional 2 4 Remote control indicator 5 4 Remote control tab using 8 6 Remote operation 4 6 Reset button 7 1 Resolution 8 4 RGB values determining 10 14 ER1 User Guide Robot specifications 2 3 RobotMa
182. te unique filenames thus reducing the probability of overwriting files by accident You may specify a number to start the sequence in the textbox below this parameter The default is 1 Note that this option is only applied when a filename is specified in the Record section of the Then column If a filename is not selected old files will be overwritten by new ones as they are created e Resolution Use this parameter to select a resolution or create a new one Be sure that you specify a resolution that is produced by your camera Motion Tab This tab is used to configure options related to the robot s motion Parameters can be set for a specific behavior otherwise the default values will be used Rotation Angular Velocity The Rotation Angular Velocity options allow you to specify in degrees second how fast or slow the robot should rotate when performing various modes of action The maximum value is 90 degrees second The minimum value is 5 degrees second e Fixed Distance This parameter specifies the maximum speed of rotation when the robot rotates an angular distance specified in degrees The default value is 20 e Rotate Toward Color This sets the maximum speed of rotation when the robot rotates towards a color The default value is 10 e Drive Toward Color Use this parameter to set the maximum speed when the robot drives toward a color It will need to turn to line up with the color if it is not directly ahead If the c
183. ter an IR detector and a blue LED Each of the robot s IR sensors emit a pulse of infrared light This light travels out along the field of view and either hits an object or keeps on going The blue LED blinks to indicate obstacle detection If the light doesn t hit an object that light is never reflected and therefore the robot assumes that there is not an obstacle in front of the sensor If the light reflects off an object some of the light returns to the detector The blue LED then flashes to indicate to the user that an object has been sensed The robot determines how close an object is by measuring the strength of the reflection The stronger the reflection the closer the object However larger or lighter colored objects provide stronger reflections than smaller or darker colored objects at the same distance The ER1 software allows you to set threshold values for each IR sensor above which obstacle avoidance behavior will be triggered By experimenting with these threshold values while watching for the blinking of the blue LEDs that indicate obstacle detection users should get an intuitive feel for the Hi Chapter 8 Settings best threshold settings for a particular environment If the threshold is set to a high number a user would need to bring his hand very close before the sensor begins to blink If the threshold is set very low the sensor will begin to blink even at a distance Push to Talk Tab The Push to Ta
184. ter of each of these units is unique anything which begins with that first letter is assumed to be the correct word This allows abbreviations such as in move 30 5 i move 2 ft Examples move 90 degrees move 50 feet move 5 3 cm Move Rotate Toward Object Format move rotate toward object lt object name gt Parameter lt object name gt This is the name of an object in the library It is case sensitive If it contains spaces it must be surrounded by single or double quotes Example move rotate toward Spot Page 1 Move Rotate Toward Color Format move rotate toward color lt r gt lt g gt lt b gt ER1 User Guide 10 13 E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Parameters lt r gt This parameter is the red color value 0 to 255 lt g gt This is the green color value 0 to 255 lt b gt This sets the blue color value 0 to 255 Example move rotate toward color 255 0 0 which rotates the robot towards the color red Important Note Are you not sure how to determine the RGB values of an object Try downloading and installing GIMP Gnu Image Manipulation Program from www gimp org It is a free program Using the ERT camera take a snapshot of the object in question Open the file in GIMP Use the dropper tool to select the color you want to analyze The RGB values will be displayed You can also use Microsoft Paint to analyze the colors Again capture the image using the ER1 Open the file in Paint Se
185. textbox to specify the path and filename of the speech grammar file that you would like to use You may also type in a list of words that the robot will use as a grammar file If you are using a wireless network note that the files displayed will be those saved on the robot s laptop ER1 User Guide 9 3 Hi Chapter 9 Behavior Settings e Word Phrase list Use this textbox to specify the words and phrases that you would like the robot to recognize Keep in mind that the robot will only recognize the words that you have selected Any words that do not match the list will be ignored Each word or phrase should appear on its own line These lines must be less than or equal to 1 023 characters Only alphanumeric characters spaces and apostrophes are allowed You can create the list inside this textbox or by cutting and pasting the text out of a plain text format document Remember that this grammar file will be used by all of the behaviors in the behavior set Helpful Hints about Grammar Files Here are some things to keep in mind if you decide to use or create a grammar file e The c Program Files ER1 sounds is the default directory where grammar files are stored e When specifying a grammar file the user can specify either the xm1 file or the cfg file the cfg file is the compiled version of the xm1 file The only difference is that the compiled version will run faster but for most grammar files the difference will be trivial
186. the Properties menu select Wireless Net Tap e Add a new network e The SSID name for the new network should be ADHOC e Go to Advanced Settings e Select Computer to Computer e Go to TCP IP settings e Call up the TCP IP Properties Menu and enter the following information e IP address of the robot s laptop enter a value e Subnet Mask 255 255 255 0 e Save the new network settings If you are unsure how to set up a wireless network on your version of Windows check the Windows Help files If you are still having trouble contact Evolution Robotics Customer Support Next configure the robot laptop s Windows operating system to connect directly to the remote computer using a wireless connection How you do this depends on what version of the Windows operating system your laptop is running For example for Windows 2000 e Double click on the wireless icon in the system tray e Select 802 11 Ad Hoc network e Enter the same SSID name you entered on the remote computer In the above example this is ADHOC e Disable encryption e Open the Control Panel and select Network and Wireless Connections then Wireless Net Tap Hi Chapter 8 Settings e Call up the TCP IP Properties Menu and enter the following information e IP address of the robot s laptop Enter a value This must be different than the IP address of the remote computer e Subnet Mask 255 255 255 0 7 Save the new network settings 8 Test the wireless co
187. tion is considered complete when one of the following three conditions are met e The robot drives toward the specified color or object and successfully stops when the percent of the screen specified by the user is reached The robot fails to see the color after 30 seconds e Stop on sensor condition is met Drive Toward Object Mee B sse CR When set tells the robot to drive forward towards the object mma Object specified in the text pull down menu If you are Stop near Object 2 Feet using a wireless network to control your robot the object listed will be those found on your robot s laptop Tell the robot when to stop by specifying a distance and units Note that the robot will not move until a value greater than 5cm or 2 is specified This action is considered complete when one of the following three conditions are met e The robot drives toward the specified object and successfully stops at the distance specified by the user e The robot fails to see and drive toward the specified object after 30 seconds e Stop on sensor condition is met Rotate toward color Z Move Ragetwadcae When set tells the robot to rotate towards the color you on ne specified using the color selection tool This action is considered complete when one of the following three conditions are met JV Stop on Sensor The robot rotates toward the specified color and successfully stops when the percent of the screen specif
188. tions Make sure that you measure the XBeams before adding them to the ER1 s structure There are three 12 three 10 two 8 two 7 and two 2 XBeams included in your kit We recommend that you line them up from biggest to smallest to lessen the chances of using the wrong beam Things You Need e A ruler or tape measure e A rubber mallet or a small hammer Charging the ER1 Charging your power module will take 4 5 hours so start charging the power module as soon as possible You don t have to wait until the power module is attached to the robot 1 Plug in your charger to a wall socket 2 Connect the other end of the charger to the power module in the input labelled Charger 3 You will know when your power module is completely charged when the light on the charger is green A complete charge will allow the robot to run for about 3 hours driving Never fully drain the charge from your power module as this will significantly reduce the life of your power module To check the level of charge in your robot check the battery meter in the lower right of the Robot Control Center RCC software screen You will install this software in a subsequent step If you would like to purchase an additional power module contact Evolution Robotics at www evolution com A 6 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Assembled ER Assembling Your Assembled ER1 This section describes the procedure to assemble your pre assembled rob
189. to be used This sort of behavior file reference can be nested up to 10 files deep Each file may ER1 User Guide 9 19 E Chapter 9 Behavior Settings use its own speech recognition grammar Remember that if you are controlling the robot remotely the behavior file must be located on the remote machine e After loading trigger behavior name or number Use this option to specify the behavior name or number to be run If this option is not set the behavior file is loaded and RCC waits for one of its trigger conditions to be met e Return after behavior name or number is done This option specifies when RCC should return to the original behavior set This also unloads the specified behavior set If this option is not specified then the loaded behavior file will not be unloaded until all of its behaviors complete or the Stop button is pressed Important Note When a file is loaded on top of another any timed behaviors in the previous file are skipped and rescheduled if appropriate until the previous file becomes the currently active behavior set Also note that if the loaded behavior set uses the Record action and writes out a file with a sequence number the modified behavior file is not written back out to the disk when it is unloaded Another thing to keep in mind is recursively calling the same behavior file which you are modifying either directly or indirectly through an intermediate behavior file Loading will always use the on d
190. to the U clips on the ends of the 10 beams e Make sure there is 1 clearance on the ends of the 12 beams e Make sure the thumbnuts are facing up as shown Step 7 You need es 2 Wheel assemblies with 4 Allen screws with 2 one holed T nuts attached Instructions e Loosen the T nuts on the screws e Slide the T nuts down the track of the 12 XBeam to the bottom making sure that the motors are oriented as shown e Be sure to slide the wheel assembly all the way down to the hinge and tighten the screws Make sure that the motor mounting plate is flush with the beams e Repeat for opposite side A 14 ER1 User Guide Assembling Your Unassembled ER You need e 3 1x2 mounting plates with mushroom headed fastner tape Instructions Attach the mounting plates as shown Step 9 You need 1 Robot Control Module RCM Instructions Use the mounting plates on the assembly and the mushroom headed fastner to attach the RCM The top of the RCM should be level with the tops of the motors Make sure the RCM is secure by pushing down firmly ER1 User Guide E Appendix A Assembly Instructions You need e The parts in front of you Instructions e Plug the right as seen here motor cable into the slot labelled Motor 1 Plug the left as seen here motor cabl
191. to the ER1 RCC if client connect Run the user program userProgram Java API Example Programs To change what commands you send 1 Edit the Testclient java file make changes to this section brief Users put their own commands here public static void userProgram Send the first move command 10 inches forward String recvMsg client sendCommand move 10 i n client waitFor move Send the turn command 90 degrees to left recvMsg client sendCommand move 90 d n client waitFor move Send the next move command 50 cm forward recvMsg client sendCommand move 50 c n client waitFor move 2 Just add your API command in quotes to recvMsg line 3 Change the client Wait for the line to reflect what is output at the end of your action in the events command 4 For example to have the robot speak the sentence This is a test you would add this to the bottom recvMsg client sendCommand play phrase This is a test n client waitFor play 10 28 ER1 User Guide ER1Client java Then you must recompile everything javac ER1test java javac TestClient java java TestClient a lt robot IP address gt Here are the command line flags gt java TestClient h Usage java TestClient options a lt address gt Specify the address of ERI RCC Defaults to 127 0 0 1 p lt port gt The port number of the ERI RCC Defaults to 9000
192. trolling the robot is monitored as well This includes logging of listening for connections connection attempts with the incoming IP address password and protocol matches and mismatches logouts and lost connections Please note that these will not be mirrored on the remote controlling system since some of them occur outside the scope of the connection and some would be redundant because the remote system displays the information in various dialog boxes during the connection process e Show log window on main screen If this checkbox is selected the log messages will be shown at the bottom of the main screen 01 13 03 15 44 41 906 Matched Behavior 1 s color a 01 13 03 15 44 41 921 Triggering Behavior 1 it will not be allowed to be re triggered 01 13 03 15 44 41 921 Recording audio 01 13 03 15 44 41 921 Saving recording as C Program Files ER 1 audio way x Important Note Note that only the last 100 messages will be shown in this window To view the entire contents of the log file click on the View Log button e View Log To view the log file directly click on this button The log file will be opened in Microsoft Notepad If you have a wireless connection to your robot this file contains log messages from your robot s laptop remote and from the computer that you are using to control the robot local These can be easily differentiated In the log file the IP address of the remote computer in parenthesis will precede
193. umber of seconds in between the robot s sequential acknowledgements of a recognized object The default value is 10 seconds ER1 User Guide 8 5 Hi Chapter 8 Settings e Must see another object before allowing a repeat If this checkbox is selected the robot will not vocally identify an object more than once per encounter This option is set to off by default e Interrupt current sound to play a new one This option allows the robot to interrupt its audio output to play a new sound For example say your robot is playing a CD and it sees the dog It can stop to say Dog and then continue playing the CD If this box is not checked sounds are played sequentially This checkbox is selected by default e Text to speech voice This pull down menu is used to select the voice that the robot will use to read text The system default voice is default voice Remote Control Tab This tab is used to enable disable and customize your remote control parameters Before setting these options you will need to configure your remote computer and your robot s laptop computer so that they can communicate with each other x Log Joystick Gripper l IR Sensors Push To Talk Display About Sight Camera Sound Remote Control Email Motion Obstacle Avoidance Disable remote control Allow remote control of this instance Control robot at IP address 10 1 3 108 Allow API control of this instance Port s000 Pas
194. unds ER1_Manual wav Browse Phrase to speak JER1_Manual Try It OK Cancel How to Capture an Image l Place an object in front of the robot s camera This will become one of the robot s learned objects Watch the RCC s video display while adjusting the object so that the image fills most of the display e To maximize the robot s recognition of a learned object the object should be placed on a neutral not patterned background with good lighting and no other objects in view e For even more foolproof recognition you can save multiple images of the same object from slightly different perspectives and variable lighting conditions When the video displays the image the way you want it use the mouse to click the Capture button A dialog box appears e Click on View if you want to see a thumbnail of your captured image e In the Name field type in your name for the object image This is the name the RCC software uses to refer to this object image It is NOT the Windows filename for the image e In the Image file text field a default name is automatically filled in This image filename is the official Windows filename for the bmp file containing the image You can leave the name as is or edit the filename If you want to edit the filename you must do so at this time After you quit the RCC software application the Image filename can no longer be edited All files are saved into RCC s directory The default
195. using our APIs The following is an example of how to use Java to create API programs We ve included a few files with the ER 1 release to help you get started They are s ER1Client java which handles the interface between your client PC and the robot TestClient java which is a sample user program that presently issues a few simple move commands You can run it as is add your own commands to it or use it as a template to create your own scripts The TestClient java script also has some built in command line help which is displayed by typing h java TestClient h usage java TestClient options Options Specify the address of ER RCC Defaults to 127 0 0 1 The port number of the ERT RCC Defaults to 9000 Quiet mode Only errors are printed out This message E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Download Java SDK To compile the Client java script and the Test script as well as any scripts you write yourself you need the latest Java SDK Here is the URL where you can download what you need to run your java scripts in Windows http java sun com downloads index html This provides a Java compiler for java text program files TestClient java and ER1Client java The compiler takes the text program files as input and creates class files You can then use the Java runtime environment to execute the files Each time you edit your java file you must use the compiler to recompile it Compiling Aft
196. ve error Cannot connect to the robot hardware E Chapter 10 ER1 Command Line Interface Here is what happens when the robot recognizes an object object lt name gt lt features matched gt lt total features gt lt x gt lt y gt lt distance in cm gt The object name is always surrounded by double quotes The distance is always in centimeters and has one decimal place Exit Command Exit Usage exit Description This command causes er1 exe to exit This will typically be confirmed with an ox but this is not guaranteed The socket over which the connection to the API is made will be closed when ERT exits Gripper Commands The Gripper can be commanded to open and close and report status through the supplied Command Line API command gripper lt action gt Where lt action gt is one of auto close open status stop The API also allows you to read the state of the Gripper using the sense gripper command All of these commands are described in detail in the sections that follow Gripper Auto Usage gripper auto Description This command sets the Gripper so that it will close when the IR beam from the IR LED is broken Parameters None 10 8 ER1 User Guide Gripper Commands Gripper Close Gripper Open Gripper Status Returned Values None Usage gripper close Description This command closes the Gripper Parameters None Returned Values None Usage gripper open Description
197. video feed and the trained object 151 is the total number of features that were identified in the current video feed e 27 is the total percentage of features that were recognized e 165 is the horizontal position of the center of the object in pixels measured from the top of the image e 78 is the vertical position of the center of the object in pixels measured from the top of the image 1 1 is the number of feet between the robot and the object recognized in the video feed based on the distance specified when the object was captured Obstacle Camera optional The optional second camera is used by the software for camera obstacle avoidance You can also use the optional IR sensors for obstacle avoidance This window will only be active if you have a second camera installed on your ERT In order to use your second camera for obstacle avoidance you must calibrate it Otherwise you will find that your obstacle avoidance simply is not avoiding obstacles To calibrate your obstacle avoidance 4 2 ER1 User Guide Navigate camera whether it is the original ERT camera or an optional second camera follow the procedure described in the Obstacle Avoidance Tab section of the Settings menu Navigate The navigation controls on the bottom left side of the RCC software are a joystick like directional selector To navigate the robot click the mouse button on the big center circle and hold the button down while dragging th
198. ware The Help screen can also be accessed by using the F1 button on your key board The Help topics are organized in the same manner as this Guide You can find help topics by clicking on a section using the index typing in a search topics or going to your list of favorites BP ERI_RCC 111 _ O Zl amp Hide Back Print Options Contents Index Search Favorites Introduction E Introduction CH Getting Started E Ki Behavior Programming Overview E Ki Audio Video and Navigation Controls E Function Buttons Evolution Robotics is proud to introduce you to the ER1 Personal m E If Conditions Robot System and pleased to welcome you to our family of owners SS EN Then Action The ER1 is the first genuinely useful and affordable personal robot Se S thatis also extendable and programmable by you To give you the full Ke Settings i programming and processing power of the personal computer as E Behavior Settings well as wireless capabilities we designed the ER1 around a laptop E ER Command Line Interface as its brain Included in this package is everything you need all the E Tricks of the Trade beams connections motion control electronics software camera 2 Telepresence Over the Internet to get up and running in just a couple of hours Just supply the laptop E e 50 Ways to Love Your Robot and you re ready to go The heart of ER1 is a powerful vision algorithm that can recognize thousands of obje

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