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1. Figure 7 13 Interface Application Running on Ubuntu OS X XP and Vista 85 86 8 Further Developments 8 1 Design Improvements 3 1 1 Hardware When one uses ready made off the shelf hardware there are naturally going to be constraints and restrictions For example one may have no control or influence to the internal components beyond the interface provided by the manufacturer With the iRobot Create this is exactly the case and while the advantages have been enjoyed of the simplicity of the product its lack of depth has caused a significant problem 8 1 1 1 Wheel Encoders One of the major setbacks in the design of the Create hardware is the inability to receive the individual data from the wheel encoders This data is presented to the user in millimeters which would not be so bad but unfortunately it is in a combined format The only data pertaining to the robots movement is a distance value based on the average velocity of the two wheels This is a shame as the raw wheel encoder data would increase the quality of the localization greatly An improvement could be made by completely replacing the underlying hardware which has better support for wheel encoder data An alternative solution would be to break into the Create hardware and manually retrieve the data through some sort of means 8 1 1 2 Laptop Computer The laptops currently mounted on the emss robots are too heavy and too large This has reduced th
2. Default 400 Description The maximum speed possible on the controller in mmps Controller_EmssController_DebugInfoEnabled Default false Type bool Description Specifies whether debugging info such as wheel speeds should be printed to the console or not Controller_EmssController_DebugInfoInterval_ms Default 1000 Type ms Description Specifies the interval at which the controller debug info should be outputted when Controller EmssController DebugInfoEnabled is true 110 Controller_StopRequestInterval Default 50 Type ms Description The interval at which a stop request should be performed on the Controller CoreThread when trying to stop the Controller Controller_Watchdog_Enabled Default false Type bool Description When true adds a ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction for the Controller CoreThread If the Controller CoreThread does not ping the Watchdog at its given interval flexibility the Watchdog will trigger the appropriate alarm or action Controller_Watchdog_Flexibility Default 2 9 Type double Description The flexibility to be used when registering the ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction Table 10 3 Core Configuration Values for Controller 10 3 3 4 Map Map_GridMap_Color Default 150 150 150 Type color Description The color of the GridMap lines Map_GridMap_GridSize_mm Default 1000 Type TM Description The size of the GridMap grid squares in le
3. 3 Exit ka Heb Views Tasks Help viewport p Task Editor e Weight Editor K Remote Interface i Camera Text to Speech Ly Heap Logger Map Objects Docking Station ilh Control Panel Speed Graph 44 PauseTask 8 ScriptedTask About 8 TestMoveTask 3 WallFollowerTask 9 RoamingTask 44 DiscoveryTask 8 DiscoveryTask2 44 NavigationTask 8 SplineNavigationTask 44 FingerprintNavigationTask 3 AccuracyTestTask 44 DockAndChargeTask 9 UndockTask 4 ChangeModeTask Help Documentation Figure 10 5 Various Main Window Menus 134 10 4 2 4 Connection and Control The Connection and Control group offers everything to do with the Core connection settings and control of the robot including a Joystick for the Controller a Task Editor and a Weight Editor for the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module The following describe the different settings available in the Connection tab Controller Specifies which Controller implementation will be used Tracker Specifies which Tracker implementation will be used Navigation Specifies which Navigation implementation will be used Port The serial port which represents the connection to the robot hardware from the laptop must be specified here If the session should be emulated then the checkbox Emulate Hardware Interface must be checked and the port is no longer relevant Speed Modifies the target speed o
4. Default beep wav Type string Description Defines which beep WAV file to use for the BeepWatchdogAction This file must be located in the emss Resources path lt emss gt resources Watchdog_Enabled Default false Type bool Description When true the Watchdog is created and run upon Core connection Watchdog_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description Defines the interval at which the Watchdog s process runs This should be kept low in order to keep the Watchdog responsive to specific requests such as stop Watchdog_NetworkMonitorWatchdogA ction_WANIPs Default 152 96 Type Strtna Liste Description Defines the set of IP addresses separated by a space which are monitored for their presence upon the NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction process If none of the IPs are present on the machine the NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction will trigger Each IP can be specified by a either a full address or a prefix For example both 152 96 100 127 and 152 96 will match the IP 152 96 100 127 127 Watchdog_StopRequestinterval Default 50 Type ms Description The interval at which a stop request should be performed on the Watchdog CoreThread when trying to stop the Watchdog Table 10 12 Core Configuration Values for Watchdog 10 3 3 13 Weight Weight_AccelerationFilter Weight_MaxSpeedChange Default 0 25 Type double Description The maximum amount of speed change allowed in one process b
5. emss interface S emss Viewport o x EZ emss Wkight Editor 0 x File Views Tasks Help a 3 qa Pi m e g aS 2 0 joystickWeight Connection Controller Tasks y lt 1 RemoteContromweight Idle Task JoystickNavigationTask ID 2 Weight CollisionAvoidancew Move Down Move Up e Remove Weight amp Deactivate Weight y Add New Weight 3 Close 5 emss Viewport j ojx 33 Fa O f 3 New Task Close History Control Panel Speed Gri lt gt 11 44 19 565 Core running 9 TaskManager Navigati 817 TaskManager Navigati 185 TaskManager Navigatiag 46 58 914 EmssController emer w C Auto Refresh Secondary Viewport Camera View Figure 10 3 Example Interface Layout 132 The main window offers the functionality to setup a Core session and connect it Connection settings such as which Navigation module Controller module Tracker module serial port et cetera can be easily configured In addition the main window has some built in GUI views docked inside itself as tabs There are two main widget groups in the main window shown in Figure 10 4 Connection and Control and Diagnostics Both groups are divided into different tabs which serve purposes related to the group Most widgets and views are not accessible or enabled when the Core is disconnected Once connected these locked widgets b
6. tempList push_back unknownAreaPoints at position foreach Vector2D pl unknownAreaPoints if distanceBetween tempList last pl distanceBetweenNavPoints bool isNearAnOtherPoint false foreach Vector2D p2 tempList if distanceBetween pl p2 lt distanceBetweenNavPoints isNearAnOtherPoint true if isNearAnOtherPoint false tempList push_back pl Code 6 11 Discover Function of the Discovery2Task In the process method the Maps are evaluated to see how much percent of the room has been covered when the robot reaches its last navigation point If the percentage is at a defined minimum value the Task is finished bool DiscoveryTask2 isExplored if navigationPoints count lt 1 return false int explored 0 foreach Vector2D p navigationPoints if p is OpenArea p is CollisionArea explored double percentage 0 95 if explored navigationPoints count gt percentage return true return false Code 6 12 Discovery2Task Evaluation of Room Coverage Sla Figure 6 29 Discovery2Task after a WallFollowerTask 6 3 7 6 DockAndChargeTask If the robot needs to be docked on the docking station this Task 1s executed It requires the following Weights in the SystemOfWeightsNavigation weight channel gt DockWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt ControllerSpeedWeight gt While most of the work is performed by the DockWeight the DockAn
7. y Remove Weight amp Deactivate Weight es Add New Weight Close O 119 ly 5 emss Viewport l o x ga emss Camera View m Ea 539 17537 0j a 4 New Task Close History Control Panel Speed Gri lt 11 44 19 565 Core running 11 44 39 779 TaskManager Navigati 11 44 39 817 TaskManager Navigati gS a TaskManager Navigati 11 45 43 185 11 46 58 914 EmssController emer dll C Auto Refresh Secondary Viewport Camera View Interface Application with Multiple Viewports and Views Table of Contents l nodo on ceses o l 2 A A 3 221 RN 3 2 2 Dit a a a cae 3 23 Conditions Infrastructure Deadlines und AsSessIMeNt ooocccnnnccnnnnccnoniocononocononocononicononirononeneso 4 37 PUR LAL SIMAO id 5 3 1 ROBOTICS Pida 5 3 2 PREVIOUS DO ao 5 A EVAN ANG aiisoohcnteteicr E T E bead E OR 6 Di OLE ae 6 32 FNESHILS and Proba sd A nen ametaaead 6 A E onde Sissies atc ees I E I E A E A A ott ca cana aa dares cua eats A a areca acess 9 4 1 A O 9 ALLE Concrete GO dl unta a illa 9 E A A O A 9 AES is AA O A A a E 9 4 2 Reguireinme Mms eee 10 Ale MRCGUING MICU arenaria sacse ashi anaes a 10 Bed 2 AP O 11 4 3 FaN 8 0 COL eee em eee PRT ee eRe aE SEEe OREN A aD th een sera 12 A Del Milestone ii ccoa 13 S MIWA erin gadis sag aod lle acai elena ies ded eee as ie Sata sace suits 15 el ER OBO Peale ltd tada 15 5 2 A O O mendes ees 16 5 3 o e E
8. Docking Station Attack Mod ack Mode N 7 N Y s Green to Red m Figure 6 24 Docking Station Schematics The following describes the schematics of the docking station and the strategy in which the robot is docked Force Field Signal that is received when close to the docking station Red Beam Signal that is received typically to the right of the docking station Green Beam Signal that is received typically to the left of the docking station Beacon Area in which both the red and green beam is received Red to Green Passing of the red beam to the green beam Green to Red Passing of the green beam to the red beam Go Zone Boundary of the force field in which the attack mode is executed Attack Mode Last sprint to dock the robot Extra speed is required here A e A a From looking at the schematics it is obvious how the docking strategy works When passing red to green the robot must turn right Similarly when passing green to red the robot must turn left This is repeated until the force field is arrived for which the robot will go straight to attempt docking However this strategy is far more complex when you leave the simulation environment There are many differences in the real world particularly to do with the red and green beams and the resulting beacon These beams tend to move depending on the environment Furthermore as the robot moves it influences the signals by reflecting them m
9. HeatMap A Heat Map is built to visualize the discovered environment of the robot with different colors HeightMap A map which visualizes a terrain IR Range Finder A device used for detecting distant objects using infra red waves Robot Create The iRobot Create is a robust rugged and versatile robot base kit that can be used for various hobby and research robotics applications LIDAR Common range finder which stands for Light Detection and Ranging LocalHeightMap A local height map is a fixed size map with the robot in its center It is used by the height map algorithm Localization The act of determining the local position within a global frame based on external sources Also known as positioning Map A environment visual representation of an MovementTracker Responsible for tracking of the performing the localization movements robot and in turn a Movement from the active Tracker accepts signals Controller and translates them accordingly Navigation The Navigation class holds the information of the navigation points or way points for the robot Other data structures such as splines are also included in this class Open Area No collision is at this point and portrays the robots path through the environment OpenGL Open Graphics Library Specification of a cross platform programming interface for Computer Graphics PauseTask Task which just waits the defined period of time
10. a wall double dw det wall end closestWall wall start closestWall wall start closestWall ct closestWall wall end closestWall x wall start closestWall x y double dc det wall end collision wall start collision wall start colldiston ct collision wall end collision x wall start collision x if dw gt maxLineDeviation dw lt maxLineDeviation dc gt maxLineDeviation da lt maxLineDeviation wall valid false break 5 Finally 1f the wall has been determined to be valid the SelfCorrectingTracker can determine the angle between the two lines and correct the position see Figure 6 9 bottom right Get the current transfomration Trafo2D t selectedMovementTracker gt getTransformation l Get the distance to go back and forwards again double d dist wall end collision trans wall start collision trans Get the angle to correct Vector2D lc wall end collision x wall start collision x wa Ll end collision y wall Stat colliston Js Vector2D l1lw wall end closestWall x wall start closestWall x wall end closestWall y wall start closestWall y double alpha angle l1c lw Perform the correction t t Trafo2D trans 0 d Trafo2D rot alpha Trafo2D trans 0 a selectedMovementTracker gt setTransformation t La position collision closest wall Correlation Triangle
11. L Search e SOT 2008 Ausstebungsplan kr e Port y recertly used 4 Gebatude_i_eGkrnl PENE F a a Gebasude_1_M0 krrl LOA v kidi ie OA Sry A HO _ devjttyUSBO ae Gebaeude_1_0G kml POSO E R E Gebasude_3_EGim LJ Emulate Hardware Interface liado a Gebasude_3_06 imi 0 002 Rw Drive 3 0 08 Media e Gebaeude_4_Aula ord Speed s Gebacude 4 EG krni a Geborude_5_ EG irl a Gebasude_5 MG 50 a Gobasude 5 06 rl a 2 Disconnect e Y Load New Map A Start Fingerprinting Figure 10 19 Loading a New Map epa loses DUDO 01D OS e DIOS OO ECML Alei xe al P Open 2 On Unix systems the correct port can be easily determined with the following command 1s dev ttyUSB This command will list all the USB TTY devices there should typically only be one In most cases the device to the robot hardware is called dev ttyUSBO 2 On some hardware too large image files might not be able to be properly displayed by OpenGL If this occurs try resizing the image to a smaller size or setting the Core Map_Scale configuration value higher 150 6 Next the virtual docking station in the FingerprintCollector application must be placed as exactly as possible This is a sensitive operation as a slight difference in angle might affect the localization or positioning of the robot greatly over time For this task the setting Robot_DockingStation_SnapToWall_Enabled helps by snapping and aligning the robot
12. saved to a log file in lt emss gt logs Viewport_AutoUpdatelnterval Default 900 Type ms Description Defines the interval at which the Viewport automatically redraws itself If the application is run locally on the machine an interval of 100 ms is sufficient for speedy rendering and feedback If the application is run over SSH or a Remote Desktop Client a higher interval lower refresh rate is recommended of 500 to 1000 ms cee Viewport_RenderMode Default native Type String Description Defines the render mode for the Viewport This value must be either native or opengl When in OpenGL mode the Viewport supports zoom functionality Note that to use the OpenGL render mode a hardware accelerated graphics driver must be running with OpenGL support Window_X persistent Default 100 Type int Description Defines the X coordinate of the main window position in pixels Window_Y persistent Default 100 Type int Description Defines the Y coordinate of the main window position in pixels Window_Width persistent Default 350 Description Defines the main window width in pixels Window_Height persistent Default Description Defines the main window height in pixels Table 10 18 Interface Configuration Values 10 5 FingerprintCollector The FingerprintCollector application emssFingerprintCollector 1s the link between the robot and the WPS Software It instantiates an emss C
13. 164 PhysicalMap The Map represents the real world environment in its emss Physical physical state Positioning The act of determining the current position in a given frame Usually positioning is related to a global scope See also localization a cross platform Ot Ot Framework Of is application framework produced by Software formerly Trolltech RawMovementTracker The Raw Movement Tracker tracks the robot s movement by geometrically interpreting the sensor data sent back from the robot RemoteInterface Enables third party software to make use of the emss framework including access to its Maps and Tracker and the ability to start and stop Tasks Task randomly movements RoamingTask which executes Self Sustainable The ability to provide ones own resources and needs without external help SLOC Source Lines of Code Spline Smooth piecewise defined function of polynomials StructureMap Represents the structure of a room as the robot sees it SystemOfWeights navigation system which reacts solely on the state of the environment at that moment of time with the Completely dynamic current perception on the aid of weights TaskManager The Task Manager receives a Task appends it to the Task List and to schedules it for execution TerrainMap Visualizes the exploration map together with a heat map with the aim of calculating a navigational terrain TestMoveTask differen
14. Arguments are specified in Camera CaptureToolCommand Table 10 1 Core Configuration Values for Camera 109 10 3 3 2 COIL COIL_EmulatedCOIL_SpecificMovementTrackerForSensorEmulation Default RawMovement Tracker Type string Description This specifies which MovementTracker should be used for emulating the robot sensors when COIL EmulatedCOIL UseSpecificMovementTrackerForSensorEmulation is true EmulatedCOIL will use this MovementTracker for emulating the various sensors Specifically the set MovementTracker s position is used for determining the local sensor position on the map This can be useful when a localization error is wished to be emulated COIL_EmulatedCOIL_UseSpecificMovementTrackerForSensorEmulation Default false Type bool Description When true enables a specific MovementTracker for emulating sensor data instead of using the Tracker data Table 10 2 Core Configuration Values for COIL 10 3 3 3 Controller Controller_EmssController_EmergencyStopEnabled Default true Type bool Description When enabled the EmssController will perform an emergency stop whenever a unsafe move is detected When an emergency stop is triggererd only backwards movements are allowed Controller EmssController Interval Default 10 Type ms Description The target interval at which the Controller process method is called by the Controller CoreThread Controller_EmssController_Speed
15. Creating source dir Building component Determining binary file Binary file is emssInterface Creating BInary Qifes Changing oath Low or ELEF binary 2 Copying to package Interface Copying contents to structured dirs Copying dependencies to bin Creating source tars Creating binary tars Cleaning up 162 11 Appendix 11 1 Glossary Auxiliary Tower Serves a platform for adding additional sensory equipment and other accessories Bumper A buffer bar to recognize collisions in front of the robot CCW Counter clock wise Cliff Sensors Downward pointing sensors disabling the robot from driving down stairs or other sudden drops COIL Create Open Interface Library This library opens a serial port and directly communicates with the iRobot sort of the Collision Area or Represents any collision obstacle forming environments boundary Controller Sends movement commands to COIL and is also responsible for passing along sensor data to other Core components The Controller is also a base class of fully functional Controllers CoreFactory Serves as the factory for the entire Core Cut Level Is used in the height map to cut the terrain at specific height Cut Level Points Points in the map with the exact height of a cut level Differential Each wheel is controlled independently of the other steering DiscoveryTask A Task with the goal to explore an
16. The buttons on the Weight Editor perform the following actions Icon Label Description Moves the selected Weight down in the list decreasing its priority t Moves the selected Weight up in the list increasing its priority Removes the selected Weight the SystemOfWeightsNavigation Temporarily activates or deactivates the currently selected Weight When a Weight is deactivated it will not serve any function during the process of the SystemOfWeightsNavigation pipeline Opens a dialog displaying a list of available Weights to be added to the SystemOfWeightsNavigation Closes the Weight Editor window or tab Table 10 17 Weight Editor Actions permanently from Remove Weight s Activate Deactivate amp Add New Weight EY Close 10 4 2 9 Remote Interface emss Remote Interface me Fox Server Settings Connection IP 127 0 0 1 Information aoon Messages A From 127 0 0 1 9001 subscribe 4 2 To 127 0 0 1 9001 confirm From 127 0 0 1 9001 subscribe 3 4 To 127 0 0 1 9001 error A From 127 0 0 1 9001 u IA To 127 0 0 1 900 Incoming and Outgoing Messages ES subscribe 91 confirm From 127 0 0 1 9001 subscribe iQ To 127 0 0 1 9001 confirm Message Contents Message Information and Contents Type Source Destination Reply Timestamp error 127 0 0 1 9000 127 0 0 1 9001 127 0 0 1 9000 11 31 53 189 message error error already subs
17. sM detected wall structure A AN automatic corrections Figure 6 9 SelfCorrectingTracker in Action 6 3 4 4 Movement Tracker A MovementTracker is responsible for receiving the Tracker s messages regarding changes in the state of the robot and performing localization based on this information The methods a MovementTracker implementation must implement are registerMovedDistance registerChangedAngle and registerChangedwheelSpeed However not all of these methods must react in some fashion technically and mathematically it is sufficient to react solely to the registerChangedWheelSpeed method 6 3 4 4 1 RawMovemenTracker The RawMovementTracker works with the raw sensor data of the robot This means the Controller controls via COIL the robot and determines the individual wheel speeds With every process of the Controller the sensor data is queried and passed along to the Tracker and eventually the 34 RawMovementTracker Within this sensor data 1s the change in angle and the distance driven which 1s determined by the onboard controller of the robot It is this data which the RawMovementTracker reacts to and performs its localization via the methods registerChangedAngle and registerMovedDistance 6 3 4 4 2 ExpectedMovementTracker The ExpectedMovementTracker is based on our previous work Krusi amp Grob 2008 related to the movement of a differential steering system over time T
18. 167 11 3 List of Tables Tablet UC i Sato Navia lO ci ia 11 Table 4 2 UC Wal bolo ye iii 11 Fable 4 3 UC3 EA o 11 Tabled A UC AA O a lies 12 Table 6 1 Description of Remote Control Commands oooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 51 Table 6 2 Different Test Movements of the TestMoveTaskS ooooooonnnnnnonoooooononnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonononoss 64 Table 7 1 Measured Results of Collision Avoidance ooooooooooooooncnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnss 76 Table 7 2 Measured Results tor Collision Avoidance c35 ca siwcvdevanneecactaakcevedestatacuackdercanncsontaakcerecaeeaes 76 Fable 73 Measured Results for Drop Detechon a gi Table 7 4 Measured Results for RoamingTask ooonnnnnnnonnnooonoooonnnononnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonoos 77 Table 7 5 Measured Results tor Wall Follower mssarirur e E E E 78 Table 7 6 Measured Results for Mapping Floor Plan coccccccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 79 Table 7 7 Measured Deviation from a Straight Line occccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 80 Table T S Results tor Docano Testa 82 Table 7 9 Results tor Docking Undocana Test de 82 able 921 Pro O 91 Table 9 2 Project Members AA 92 Table 9 3 Additional COMMDULOLS iii 92 Table 9 4 Programming LOOMS tiara 93 Table 955 Rask Manap MEM is 93 Table 9 6 Artifact Table Layos 94 Table 10 1 Core Config
19. Assembled Robots Most of the hardware was already designed and assembled in the Semester Project However significant improvements were made to the docking station and an additional emss robot was assembled As described in our previous work the construction of docking station presented problems during repetitive use After several docks the contact points for the computer power lines tended to loosen sharply reducing the contact quality and often breaking the power connection Therefore a new design was proposed and realized The second generation docking station shown in Figure 5 6 uses the same contact pieces as provided for the robot chassis These contacts are angled and rounded just right for a flat piece of metal to glide on top of it The new docking station has small incisions in the casing to allow for these secondary contact pieces to stick out and make contact with the laptop contacts The contact pieces and neatly screwed to the bottom of the casing and soldered to the power lines The final product is very clean and stable with a high quality contact rate and power throughput for both batteries The docking station is used to charge the robot s wheel drive batteries 17 Robot Bottom View Docking Station Top View Cliff Sensor Power Charge Openings Robot Contact Robot Power Input Indicators IR Transmitter Points for Charging Station Computer Contact f j Charge Contact Points for Charging Wheels Paini
20. FrenetD ApproximationMethodRungeKutta t 1000 0 h transformation transformation Trafo2D trans newPosition x0 newPosition y0 We have found that an h value of 100 is best suited for performing accurate approximations e e 6 3444 CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker The CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker extends the FrenetMovemenTracker by inserting predefined error values in all movements This Tracker is used to mimic any error which is prevalent in the hardware For example if the hardware always tends to peer right the CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker can be used to create a Tracker which represents this behavior of the hardware The Callibration TestMoveTask helps in determining the error values needed by the CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker The following values modify the behaviors of the CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker l evi defines how much percent the left wheel velocity deviates for all incoming movements 2 evr defines how much percent the right wheel velocity deviates for all incoming movements 3 dv defines the minimum difference required between the left and right wheel speeds The dv value is used to mimic hardware which cannot differentiate between very subtle movement changes For example if dv is 4 then the wheel speeds v1 150 and vr 152 will be translated as vl 151 and vr 151 average if dv 0 amp amp abs left right lt dv left left tright 2 right left right 2 processMovementByTi
21. Not only were we pushed on an almost daily basis to extend our knowledge to new unfamiliar areas and fields but we were also given the chance to realize different aspects of computer science which we had learnt throughout the course of our studies Working with David Grob Prof Keller and Dr Wirth was very comfortable We all supported each other with the resources and knowledge we had and in total spent countless hours brainstorming problems and solutions As students presenting our own project idea I felt the interest and support from the university for the first time At times the project was frustrating when after so much hard work specific areas would just continuously fail and remain unresolved and constant new unexpected problems would arise But in hindsight this is normal for any hardware related project All the long nights and weekends were definitely worth it Many thanks to all who supported the project I look forward to continue using the emss framework to build mobile two wheeled robots 9 8 2 David Grob Dr Joachim Wirth has unfortunately left the HSR University of Applied Sciences so that he could not advise our Bachelor Thesis Nevertheless we found Prof Stefan Keller which was very interested and motivated to supervise our project Hence we could build upon our Semester Project and achieved exciting new developments as well as improvements of our previous work The entire project was very interesting and versatile Many fi
22. Set Robot Docked Places the robot on top of the docking station in a docked position Move Docking Station Moves the docking station to the clicked point on the map If the setting Robot_DockingStation_SnapToWall_ Enabled 1s enabled true and the docking station is close to a wall it is automatically aligned and snapped to the wall requires map click Rotates or orientates the docking station towards the direction of the clicked point on the map requires map click Mark as Collision Area Marks the clicked point as Collision Area Clicking multiple times will make the Collision Area stronger requires map click Marks the clicked point as Open Area Clicking multiple times will make the Open Area stronger requires map click Raises the TerrainMap at the clicked point on the map Clicking multiple times will raise the terrain more requires map click Mark as Open Area DS xg Raise Terrain Lowers the TerrainMap at the clicked point on the map Clicking multiple times will lower the terrain more requires map click Table 10 15 Viewport Toolbar Icons Lower Terrain Gi 137 Some tools instantly perform an action while others require a click on the map before undertaking an action The tools which require a click are marked with requires map click Such tools may be combined with others at the same time For example one could select both the Focus On Point and Set NavPoint tool which upon clic
23. The most notable reverse engineering is the getAngle method which returns the change of angle since the last query The mathematics for this method is based largely on our previous work Kr si amp Grob 2008 and is similar to the change of angle calculated by the ExpectedMovementTracker in Section 6 3 4 4 2 Gs An additional important role of the Emulatedcort class is not only to emulate the hardware behavior as it is desired but also to emulate the undesired effects and inaccuracy in the hardware This has been implemented by allowing EmulatedCOIL to select a specific additional MovementTracker a specific localization implementation within the Tracker module for determining its sensory information If the selected MovementTracker has an error calculated into it which is supported by MovementTrackers such as the CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker then the returned sensory data will not be accurate in comparison with the Tracker module This technique is best illustrated by Figure 6 6 The diagram shows two MovementTrackers mtgc blue and mtc yellow where mtgc is the MovementTracker used specifically for EmulatedCOIL and mt is the MovementTracker used by the rest of the Core modules The two detected collision areas c and c are a result from the MovementTracker mt detecting the white wall and the arrows indicate the offset for which the detection was actually registered in the HeatMap which stores information about the environment such a
24. as to ensure all the required settings are present but it is however very annoying if there are specific settings for a specific robot This is where a patch file helps it ensures the newest settings but forces a specific set of configurations Usage create_configs sh Shortcut ecc As an example the following config file emssTest config Test_SettingA ValueA Test_SettingB ValueB Test_SettingC ValueC Test_SettingD ValueD patched with this patch file emssTest config patch Test_SettingC MyOwnValueC will produce the following output config file emssTest config Test_SettingA ValueA Test_SettingB ValueB Test_SettingC MyOwnValueC Test_SettingD ValueD 10 6 5 4 Creating and Using Shortcuts The create_shortcuts sh script will create a series of shortcuts to commonly used scripts 0 er gt run sh o ebr gt build_run sh o edr debugrun sh e eubr update_build_run sh 0 ecc gt create_configs sh 159 To create the shortcuts you might be asked for the root password depending on the current platform Usage create_shortcuts sh Once the shortcuts are installed you can quickly run scripts from the console at any folder 10 6 5 5 Creating Resource Files teca eubr Qt resource files for the emss framework such as icons and texts can be automatically be generated using the create_qrcfiles sh script Usage create_gqrcfiles sh create_qrcfiles sh Writing home dankrusi emssframework tr
25. local position y millimeters long local orientation degrees double map description string map file string task starteg e Indicates that the given task has started e Actor server Additional keys needed task status e Example message task started task fingerprintnavigation splinediscovery splinenavigation ener status running Task finisned e Indicates that the given task has completed e Actor server Additional keys needed task status e Example message task finished task fingerprintnavigation splinediscovery splinenavigation aaa status finished interrupted 6 3 8 2 RemotelInterface The RemoteInterface class is responsible for initializing and starting the RemoteInterfaceSender and the RemoteInterfaceListener threads In addition it holds the responsibility for all the data related to the emss Remote Interface The following are the most important data structures l subscribers List of the current subscribers and their information 2 sendQueue Current RemoteInterfaceMessage Objects which are waiting to be sent 3 messages List of sent and received RemoteInterfaceMessage objects Both the listener and sender are not exposed by the RemoteInterface class and kept private so the RemoteInterface Class must be able to delegate incoming messages and outgoing messages This is achieved largely through the following methods broadcastMessage message Broadcasts the given message sendMessage ip port me
26. the SourceForge SVN server svn sourceforge net which is backed up and mirrored by over fifty servers worldwide 9 3 4 Code Comments Comments throughout our code are well maintained Self explanatory methods such as setters and getters were omitted from comments in order to prevent bloated files In the Eclipse IDE we defined three comment tags which are automatically compiled into a visual list during compilation 1 IDEA A possible approach how something could be implemented 2 TODO Things not implemented yet minor corrections to change 3 BUG An unsolved problem bug in the code 9 3 5 Infrastructure The predominant workplace is the Bachelor project room Room 1 258 at the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil Tests of the robot and hardware components were conducted in the hallway between buildings 1 and 6 with the additional possibility of testing in the basement of building 92 9 3 5 1 Programming Tools Software Producer Version Eclipse Apache Software Foundation 3 4 1 Eclipse C C Development Tools Apache Software Foundation 5 0 1 Ot C Eclipse Integration Ot Software Nokia 1 4 3 Ot Framework Ot Software Nokia 4 5 1 GNU G Compiler Free Software Foundation 4 3 2 Table 9 4 Programming Tools 9 4 Risk Management ee 7 z2 T D x gt 38 EE D amp z z eF lt 5 q Risk Effect Precautions R01 Hardware Continuation of Construction of backup 30h 10 3h l Failure pr
27. their website at http doc trolltech com 4 5 signalsandslots html In particular mostly read write locks have been used IIG 6 3 Implementation 6 3 1 Core CoreObject A Y PL CoreThread Figure 6 4 Core Domain Model The software which essentially runs our emss robot is divided into different modules which ultimately make up the emss Core Modules within the Core are built separately into the library emssCore libemssCore a The Core initializes all the required data layer objects binds together all the different Core modules and makes sure everything is cleaned up Any application wishing to make use of the emss framework must instantiate its own Core Communications with different Core modules are then proceeded over this Core object mostly via signals and slots Because the Core holds responsibility for all the modules an interfacing application needs not to worry about cleaning up and managing memory all it must do is disconnect the Core and delete the Core object Up until version 1 0 the modules of the emss Core changed slightly as needs changed for the framework However since version 1 1 the Core modules have remained unchanged as far as design The current modules shown in Figure 6 4 are Watchdog Controller TaskManager Map COIL RemotelInterface Navigation and Tracker These modules all play a significant role in the operation of controlling the robot and quite accurately reflect th
28. 11 56 27 822 TaskManager Scripted 11 56 27 823 TaskManager Navigaticogmgl u gt gt y lt Se e ee eGe GeeGeeSGSGSGeGeGeGeeGeGeeeSGeeeGeGeGeGeeGeGeaeeeoeeoeoeoeaoaeoaensacacnaancanaca oa 4 Lu gt History Viewport Figure 10 13 FingerprintCollector Graphical User Interface 10 5 1 1 Menu The menu shown in Figure 10 14 offers access to additional configuration settings related to the user interface and to the emss Core Some menu items such as Reset are only available when an emss Core has been initialized and are marked with Core required Icon Item Description Reset The current world state is discarded and a new default or saved state is loaded When connected the reset functionality will automatically re connect Core required Save World State The current state of the robot and docking station as well as navigation points are saved to the configuration file This is useful when performing the same task multiple times Core required 7 Core Settings Opens a Settings Editor for the currently loaded Core configuration file The individual settings are described in detail in Section 10 3 3 Core required 7 FingerprintCollector Opens a Settings Editor for the currently loaded Settings FingerprintCollector configuration file The individual settings are described in detail in Section 10 5 3 145 7 Reset File
29. 41 Figure 6 16 HeatMap Displaying Open Area green and Collision Area red occccccnnnnnononnncns 43 Figure 6 17 FadineVollisonMap Tn ACUM A a 44 Figure 6 18 Navigation Using Splines ias 46 Figure 6 19 Creating Wheel Spline Nodes from a Navigation Curve occcccccnnnnnoooononnnonnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnns 47 Figure 6 20 Example System of Weights Chamnel ooononnnnccconocononoccnococononononananonoonnononnnnnnnccncnnnnnnnnnns 49 Figure 6 2 1 Remote Control Button Way OUt ss siii 51 Figure 6 22 Making the Collision Avoidance ASSESSIMO Dt cooooooooocccnnnnncccnnnnnnnnnonanonononnnnnnnnnnnncncnnnanannnnos 52 Figure 6 23 Flow Chart of the WallFollowerWeilghit cccsccccccccccsssssssssccsssceneccccceccaesesessessoseees 53 PFieure 6 24 Docking Station SCHEMAlCS A A A 54 Figure 6 25 Speed Graph with AccelerationFilter and WIthQUt ooccccccccnnnnnonooonononcnonnnnccncnnnnnannnnos 55 Figure 6 26 TaskManager Scheduling Routine cccnnnnnnocooooonoconnnnnnnccnnonnnanananonononnnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnn nono y Piguie o2 Use of W alll ONO Yu E A 58 Figure 6 28 Robot follows navigation points 0oooocccocoooooooooonooooononnnonn nono ono n nono nn nnnnnnn non nono non nono nn n rn nn nnnnnos 59 Figure 6 29 Discovery2Task after a WallFollowerTask cccccccccccccccceessssssseessssnnsceeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeeees 62 Fiare 62307 successtul Docking caca 62 Figure 6 31 Example Communication between Third Party Application
30. Doc Figure 5 2 Robot Infra Red Sensors 5 3 Interface The controlling computer connects to the Robot Create over a serial connection using the Robot Create Open Interface protocol The emss software is responsible for translating all controller data into the appropriate bit level packets for the Open Interface What happens after the Open Interface receives the packet is largely a black box and unknown Optional TCP IP Serial Connection Terminal x86 Laptop iRobot Create Remote Computer Computer Hardware A A OOO User Hardware f emss Hardware Figure 5 3 Controlling of the Robot 16 5 4 Modifications The most important modifications to the Robot Create hardware are the computer contact points for the docking station along with the necessary cabling shown in Figure 5 5 These are used in addition to the built in contact points for charging of the iRobot Create batteries along with the computer batteries Both sets of contact points expose 12V power supply lines which can connect by physical contact to their peers located at the base station also shown in Figure 5 5 This mechanism allows the emss robot to find the docking station using the top mounted infra red receiver described in detail in Section 6 3 6 3 7 and mount itself on top of the charging station creating connections between all sets of contact points and ultimately recharging its batteries 5 5 Improvements Figure 5 4
31. L Cancel J The emss pro files the binary location defined as lt emss gt bin To start an emss application after it has been compiled select to Run and then Run Configurations from the menu Create a new Configuration and set the C C Application value to the compiled binary file from the lt emss gt bin directory AA AS Create manage and nn configurations Hame interface Configuration Breqael interface C Application i Connect Process input opa to lerruna ARETE ren ei Aber matched 2 of 2 errs homey dankrusi amestramewerkAninkjbe emeuent Search Projet O Man gt arguments ME Emaronmien Debugger Ls Source O Common Bromet i nn Pasar Close Figure 11 6 Create Configuration to run the application 172 11 7 List of Videos There are over twenty published videos available of both the emss software and hardware in action These videos are listed here and can be viewed directly at http irobotcreate com Videos 11 7 1 Software i akun 2 a Tube Video 11 1 Roaming around the Hallway Video 11 3 Using Different Maps And via Remote Interface Viewports Video 11 2 Roaming around the Cafeteria Video 11 4 Using And Editing Weights 173 EMS MIE Mori Task Newgate Nav Point Collision Open Area 1 Video 11 5 Navigating By Splines Video 11 6 Driving Around
32. MinimumAttackSpeed 128 Weight_DockWeight_DockIR History Default 200 Type int Description This size of the DockIR history log A too large size might decrease performance while a too small size might not produce good results when making decisions Weight_DockWeight_AttackAdjust_fx Default 1 5 Type double Description The wheel speed adjustment factor when in attack mode 0 0 has no effect 1 0 has stops the wheel gt 1 0 puts the wheel in reverse Weight_DockWeight_HomingA djust_fx Default 1 2 Type double Description The wheel speed adjustment factor when in homing mode 0 0 has no effect 1 0 has stops the wheel gt 1 0 puts the wheel in reverse Weight_DockWeight_SearchAdjust_fx Default 0 9 Type double Description The wheel speed adjustment factor when in search mode 0 0 has no effect 1 0 has stops the wheel gt 1 0 puts the wheel in reverse Weight_DockWeight_ HomingAdjust_Time_ms Default 150 Type ms Description The amount of time spent adjusting the heading with hfx Weight_DockWeight_AttackAdjust_Time_ms Default 80 Type ms Description The amount of time spent adjusting the heading with afx Weight_DockWeight_JitterAmount Default 0 0 Type double Description When using EmulatedCOIL the amount of random jitter for the beams This is useful if you want to emulate the inacuraccy of beams Set to 0 to turn of any jittering Weight_D
33. Paths Enables a user to reset the file paths to the emss resources and logs folders 3 Exit Closes the application after disconnecting if necessary the Core Table 10 19 FingerprintCollector File Menu Entries Reset Save World State a Core Settings 7 FingerprintCollector Settings 7 Reset File Paths a Exit Figure 10 14 FingerprintCollector Menu 10 5 1 2 Control Panel Settings Displays the currently configured Controller Tracker and Navigation module These modules can be swapped out by modifying the Core settings Port The serial port which represents the connection to the robot hardware from the laptop must be specified here If the session should be emulated then the checkbox Emulate Hardware Interface must be checked and the port is no longer relevant Speed Modifies the target speed of the controller and thus typically the average speed of the robot Button Connect Disconnect When pressed the Core is either connected or disconnected depending on which state the Core is in A Core is automatically initialized if needed however when disconnecting the Core is not discarded but kept for the next connection Button Load New Map Opens a file dialog and loads a new PhysicalMap from the specified file on the computer This file may either be an image file jpg png bmp or a KML file km1 It is recommened to load a KML file as these already contain the neces
34. Station Texas A amp M University Logitech 2006 QuickCam Connect Manual Martinez D M Haverinen J amp Roning J 2008 Sensor and Connectivity Board SCB for Mobile Oulu University of Oulu Martinez D M Haverinen J amp Roning J 2008 Sensor and Connectivity Board SCB for Mobile Robots Oulu Mataric M J Koenig N amp Feil Seifer D 2007 Materials for Enabling Hands On Robotics Los Angeles Nathan K 2007 Toward Real time Human Detection and Tracking in Diverse iRobot Corporation Olson L 2008 Cubic Splines Bezier Curves Urbana Champaign University of Illinois Runge C 1901 Uber empirische Funktionen und die Interpolation zwischen quidistanten Ordinaten Zeitschrift fiir Mathematik und Physik Serret J A 1851 Sur quelques formules relatives a la th orie des courbes a double courbure Journal De Math Sharp 2002 Sharp GP2D12 IR Range Finder Sharp Publishing Takacs B amp Hanak D 2008 Home Robots and Ambient Facial Interfaces Budapest Thorpe C Clatz O Duggins D Gowdy J MacLachlan R amp Ryan J 2001 Dependable Perception for Robots Carnegie Mellon University Veblen O 1905 Theory on plane curves in non metrical analysis situs Transactions of the American Mathematical Society 6 Webb B 2001 Can robots make good models of biological behaviour Stirling Cambridge University Press Weisstein E W 1999 Vect
35. The 1 2 release includes the results of Prototype II and is released during Week 9 v1 3 The most current version of emss along with software documentation is included in emss v1 3 which is released during Week 16 Table 9 1 Project Releases 9 3 Project Organization The emss framework and all its releases can be found on SourceForge at http sourceforge net projects emssframework 91 9 3 1 Project Members Name E Mail Role Daniel Kriisi daniel kruesi hsr ch Project leader Development Documentation David Grob david grob hsr ch Development Documentation Prof Stefan Keller sfkeller hsr ch Advisor Examiner Dr Joachim Wirth wirj zhaw ch External Expert Table 9 2 Project Members Name E Mail Role Prof P Sommerlad Sachin Patney peter sommerlad hsr ch Co Examiner spatney hsr ch PointZero WPS Developer Table 9 3 Additional Contributors 9 3 2 Weekly Meetings Weekly meetings were held each Monday with our advisor and expert in which we discussed the work accomplished during the previous week as well as addressed mathematical conceptual and software problems in our project 9 3 3 Code Versioning The code for emss is managed with Tigris Subversion SVN which allows us to view or return to any previously committed version of the code The SVN server svn nerves ch which hosts our documentation is backed up nightly and serves as our backup system The source code is managed by
36. Weight Chamnel oocccccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoss 50 Code 6 9 AccelerationFilterWeight Modification in We1ght Chamnel ococcccccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 55 Code 6 10 Evaluating HeatMap Heat Spots against the StructureMap cccccsssssssesssesseessseeeeens 60 Code 6 11 Discover Function of the Discovery Zak secstvuscieeeeec sees cactioven sents acters 61 Code 6 12 Discovery2Task Evaluation of Room Coverage oooooooooonoonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnns 61 Code 6 13 Example Remote Interface Message ooooooonnoooooooooonononnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnss 65 Code 6 14 Remotelntertace sender unload 68 Code 6 15 ThreadMonitorWatchdog Action POE o 69 Code 6 16 Example Usage of Spline Class Drawing a Curve oooooooooooooonnncnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 70 Code 6 17 Example Extended Macros for the Testing Framewotrk ooooonnnnnnnnnnnooononooooonono cnn nono nononnnos 71 Code 6218 Initialization OL Corel usadas ia cic td 72 Code 6 19 Initialization of a CoreTest with Custom Settings oooooonnnonooonnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononononoss 12 Code 10 1 Example Environment Installation for Ubuntu cccccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonoss 105 Code T02 Example Or Project ple a N een no 107 Code 10 3 Example Application Source Coden seinas E E 108 Code 10 4 Example Application QUINUA a 109 Codo 103 SCMPE A io 157 Cod
37. a known space Both KML files km1 or image files png bmp jpg can be loaded into a PhysicalMap KML files are advantageous as they already contain GPS information for translating the local coordinates to global coordinates If a plain image is loaded the GPS offset Map_PhysicalMap_GPSOffset along with our implementation of the WGS84 system is used for performing the translation More information about KML files can be found in Indoor WPS Aprile amp Denzler 2008 304 Figure 6 13 Example PhysicalMap Representing a Building Structure The constructor of the PhysicalMap will attempt to load the file defined in the Core settings see 10 3 3 4 If the file does not exist no image is loaded and the PhyiscalMap remains empty If the file is detected as a KML file it is parsed by the KMLGroundoverlay class which is a KML parser for Ground Overlay types provided by the Core library In order to be able to flexibly make sense of the contents of the image or KML file some settings must be defined Map_PhysicalMap Color Wall and Map PhysicalMap Color Stairs define which colors correspond to what kind of data on the map When the PhysicalMap is queried for information about a specific point on the map by a module the PhysicalMap will check against these values to return one of the following l PhysicalMapAreaTypeOpen 2 PhysicalMapAreaTypeWall 3 PhysicalMapAreaTypeStairs 6 3 5 2 StructureMap The StructureMap represents
38. aascaeaas ae ee 162 APPENA OPPOOCOCOOAO nee aoe neem ee nee te A A 163 e AOSS a tae en se i ee aR ne a ey ee ee eee ee oe ne ae 163 MR MASE OBE PO UGS xs sectarian Sah ita ta ase ani ch itn ase mat OTOA 166 EA LECO AA E E AS 168 EA EOE OE e E A da ias 169 HUS COOL e ln aad 170 lt Mero ad A S 170 113 Value Type ennn ce eee A ee eee 170 LESS BCO e A detects 170 Me Eclipse Luto 171 LL LISO VICO ie a de dad 173 11 7 1 O RO 11 7 2 fe NEG Lic K S EE A E E A SNA A SA IIS RENCE A O 1 Introduction What happened to the robotic revolution Looking back at old technology and mechanics magazines from the 1950 s one cannot help but muse at the wild expectations people had regarding the future of robots Often portrayed was a bizarre mix of people and machines living together in a society with the robot as man s new best friend Some went to the extent to predict a new race of slaves which would serve mankind by the 1960 s as did the 1957 Mechanix Illustrated article You ll own Slaves by 1965 Binder 1957 The predictions from last century are far from reality Not only has the progression of the robot been much slower than expected traversing a very subtle path but also its role in society has been completely redefined from the original conceptions Instead of serving us breakfast in the morning cleaning our living space during the day and taking our hat and coat from us when we return in the evening as depicted in the 1940 film Lea
39. about the original COIL please visit http code google com p libcreateoi 695 2 version of COIL which compiles on Windows Linux and OS X The Core module COIL represents the Hardware Abstraction Layer or HAL in our software stack and is solely responsible for communicating directly with the hardware COIL opens a serial port and directly communicates with the iRobot Open Interface All the functionality defined by the Open Interface has been implemented as easy to use methods within the COIL class Furthermore the corr class includes over a hundred different type def values which correspond to the different bytes and bits used by the Open Interface The two most important parts of COIL are the sending of wheel drive commands handled by drive driveDistance directDrive and turn and the extraction of sensor information from the stream of data coming from the hardware handled by readRawSensor and extractSensorFromData Ci The following example drives the robot along the path of a square and demonstrates the simplicity which COIL offers when communicating with the hardware for ant a 0 i lt 42 14 4 coil gt driveDistance 150 0 1000 1 Drive 1000 mm straight ahead at 150 mm s cotl gt turn1 150 0 90 7 1 Turn 90 degrees at 150 mm s Code 6 2 Using COIL to Drive along the Path of a Square The above code will translate the COIL commands into a complex series of communications over the serial
40. also have a priority assigned to it l Normal Task is put at the back of the waiting list _ 56 2 Immediate All other Tasks are interrupted and the Task is executed immediately Because a Task may be interrupted at any time and possibly re scheduled at a later time a preProcess and postProcess may optionally be implemented The preProcess method is called just before the Task 1s scheduled for execution and postProcess Just after The TaskManager scheduling routine is described in detail below in Figure 6 26 The most important Tasks are described in Sections 6 3 7 2 through 0 s a Curren Running Task available Is now the Current Task available Get Next Task from Tasklist Idle Task available No Sleep SIA SIA SIA s the Idle Task running Is the Current Task Waiting Is a Interrupt Process No PreProcess requested Current Task IdleTask SIA Set Current Set Idle Task Task to Interrupted Is a Idle Task available to Running AS 2 Process Idle Task S Current Task Finshed or Interrupted PostProcess Idle Task F Set Idle Task No Sleep Postprocess Current Task to Interrupted Set Current Preprocess Task to Current Task Running End Figure 6 26 TaskManager Scheduling Routine e 6 3 7 2 WallFollowerTask The boundary of a room is best found by following its wall if the
41. and right wheel spline nodes to automatically adjust to the current Controller interval If during the navigation from one navigation point to another the robot moves off track from the spline we immediately correct this This is achieved using the following algorithm called magnet tracking Get the transformation matrixes of our we should be on the spline From these we calculate the correction matrix needed to undo the error Based the correction angle we peer CO the ett or 60 the PLONE s Trafo2D wheels internalGetWheelTransformation node t Trafo2D robot core gt tracker gt getTransformation Trafo2D correction wheels robot inv Peer to the left or right based on the correction angle The amount we peer is directly related to the size of the angle if the angles are very different PS OO GING We oe SO we will peer much faster to correct double peerStrength 150 0 double angle Deg correction angle if angle gt 0 dvl peerStrength angle 180 47 real position and the position dvr peerStrength angle 180 else dvl peerStrength angle 180 dvr peerStrength angle 180 The result of these three measures taken proves as a significant enhancement When the robot tries to drift away from the navigational spline due to timing inaccuracies it is automatically put back on track by the magnet tracking mechanism 6 3 6 2 SystemO
42. at http irobotcreate com Downloads l The latest Windows downloads can be found at http irobotcreate com Downloads 17 Cygwin can be obtained from http www cygwin com A standard installation is sufficient to run all the emss scripts 101 10 2 Build Instructions 10 2 1 Prerequisites 10 2 1 1 General A significant effort has been maintained throughout the emss framework in order to keep the libraries and external resources at a minimum The basic requirements for building the framework are the GNU compiler tool chain for C and the Of framework e GNU g version 4 3 or newer e Ot version 4 4 3 or newer 10 2 1 2 OS Specifics 10 2 1 2 1 Linux The following Debian packages are required e subversion o g e libqt4 dev e libasound2 dev These can be obtained through apt get or aptitude as such sudo apt get install subversion sudo apt get install g sudo apt get install libqt4 dev sudo apt get install libasound2 dev Or sudo apt get install subversion g libqt4 dev libasound2 dev 10 2 1 2 2 OSX In order to use the Of framework on OS X the Apple X Code tools are required These can be downloaded directly from apple at developer apple com The Qt framework can be downloaded from Qt Software S Apple developer tools are free of charge for users with a developer account An account can be created at http developer apple com 12 Visit http wwws qtsoftware com downloads selec
43. customized by modifying the settings sh file Settings such as debug release builds target OS platform et cetera can be set The full documentation for these settings can be found in Section 10 6 3 Visit http wwws atsoftware com downloads select the LGPL version and download the Ot SDK for Windows package 103 10 2 3 2 Manual Build 10 2 3 2 1 Calling Make Each emss component has its own Qt project file pro which can be used for generating makefiles This is done by calling the Qt tool qmake After qmaxe is finished calling make 1s sufficient for that component cd lt emss gt Core qmake make cd lt emss gt Interface qmake make It is worthwhile noting that some components might rely on others notably Core libemssCore when linking This is the case for example in the Interface component emssInterface 10 2 4Qutput All components are built to a common bin directory located directly in the emss home directory lt emss gt Debug and release builds are not differentiated 10 2 5Debug Builds In order to make a debug build gmake must generate the appropriate makefiles that link to the debug libraries of Of This can be easily done as demonstrated below cd lt emss gt lt component gt gmake config debug_and_release make lt debug release gt Alternatively the script build sh can be used to make debug builds when the debug setting 1s set The full documentation for this script can b
44. for a set of components use the create_package sh The following packages can be created e Complete contains all components and resources e Core contains only the emss Core e Interface contains only the emss Interface e TestApplications contains all test applications When executed create_package sh will automatically run create_package_component sh For each package created the following files are generated in the lt emss gt Packages folder e emss lt package gt lt version gt source tar gz tar file containing the source o emss lt package gt lt version gt source zip zip file containing the source e emss lt package gt lt version gt lt os gt lt arc gt lt tar gz zip gt tar or zip file containing the binaries and resources When creating packages the following steps are performed automatically 1 Create temporary working directories 2 For each component 1 Source checkout from SVN 2 Build component 3 Patch rpath Linux only Extract dependencies Create source tar and zip files 5 Create binary file SS If additional dependencies are needed for a release they can be automatically added to the bin folder by creating a archive file containing the dependencies for each OS lt emss gt Packages Dependencies lt os gt tar gz Usage create_package sh lt Complete Core Interface TestApplications all gt create_package_component sh Creating package component Interface Grabbing resources from SVN
45. k t x V2 ds K t yy where x and y represent the input vectors for position Xo Yo speed x1 Y1 and acceleration x2 y2 and ds represents the change in distance The differential equation can be solved using common methods such as Euler or Runge Kutta which have both been implemented for this purpose in the Core math library Utilizing our templated FrenetT math class the theory is realized using the steps described below Special care has been taken to automatically determine the best h value when solving the differential equation The following code demonstrates how the FrenetT 1s used 1 First the curvature function is defined double k double t Note that t is not used because of the constant vr and vl return 20 fF de Cats aL CO Sh 2 Then the values are initialized for the calculation Note that the calculations are done on a local scale 1 e starting from point 0 0 and then applied globally double hcount 100 Move to t with h hcount times double h t 1000 0 hcount h value for Runge Kutta double phi Rad 90 straight ahead along the y axis DiffEqVectorD yO DiffEqVector lt double gt 0 0 Cos phi v Sin phi v SPC LOs Onis 3 Finally the Frenetr class is initialized with a pointer to the curvature function and the initialization vector yo which 1s then used to approximate the new position FrenetD frenet k y0 DiffEqVectorD newPosition frenet ApproximateDiffEqVector
46. located in the middle outside of the charger see Chapter Figure 5 5 and the heightened approach velocity needed to dock both the weight of the iRobot hardware and laptop there was very little room for error The smallest 5 8mm offset would fail the successful dock The Additional difficulties arose from the complete lack of any official literature from iRobot as well as from the community However some of its traits were discovered through careful observation of the standard docking maneuver 7 6 2 Self Healing Tracker A first stage implementation of a self healing Tracker was realized by the SelfCorrectingTracker see Section 6 3 4 3 for more details This advanced Tracker is able to make corrections in the localization error when deemed appropriate To do this the Tracker makes use of a pre loaded floor plan in order to make correlations between its perceived virtual world and the physical world In a simulated environment where error 1s artificially injected into the robots localization the SelfCorrectingTracker was able to make minor adjustments improving the localization quality by reducing part of the injected error Over time the error overwhelms the Tracker and corrections made are no longer correct however this could be resolved by making the corrections in movement more carefully Figure 7 11 Self Healing Tracker Slowly Degrading in Quality of Corrections 13 Watch a video of the emss robot docking in action at http irobotc
47. make the robot move in a predictable fashion such as along a curve and then to track 1ts position using the sensory data from the hardware controller This proved to be a problem as the localization over time become very inaccurate due to the vague information the hardware provided 4 Strategy 4 1 Objective 4 1 1 Concrete Goal The concrete goal of the emss project 1s for the robot to perform a simple mapping of the environment and its contained obstacles and floor plan to the most accurate degree possible This must be accomplished with the given hardware and data sources The robot should be able to navigate safely exploring 1ts unknown environment In addition third party applications such as a Wireless Position System must be able to use the localization data for their own purposes To realize such a goal the maneuvering and localization tracking of the robot must be realized in a fashion which suites the needs of both the internal processes of the robot but also those of the external third party applications This means an implementation must consider the effects 1t has on other aspects of the project so that in the end they can all come together to perform the specific task 4 1 2 Pre Requisites In order to reduce the complexity implied by the above stated goal some pre requisites and restrictions have been defined First the physical environment must not contain any dynamic obstacles such as moving people This restri
48. servos emulated movement through space infra red sensor and a pre rendered floor plan of room structures without obstacles hallways rooms doors stairs The following subtasks are defined ee ee Safe navigation within a simple room Basic environment mapping skills Basic localization using different data sources and hardware Protocol for third party application tasks Assembly of additional units Delivery documents 1 Installation Guide if relevant 2 Complete compiler ready source code including program documentation as well as download ready zip file with executable binaries 3 Technical Report and Software Engineering Documentation including High Level Programmer Documentation 4 Additional documents according to requirements of the Department of Computer Science 2 2 Details 1 Pre requisites a The physical environment must contain only static obstacles Moving objects will not be distinguished from still obstacles on the environment map however the robot will attempt to avoid such collisions if possible Obstacles within the physical environment must portray a certain degree of simplicity in structure Complex and intricate structures such as many chair legs cables and wiring et cetera should not be present or blocked off The physical environment must be a closed off region Doors to other areas must be closed The test environment consists of the second floor of building 6 at HSR includ
49. stairs recognize the drop with its downward pointing IR sensors and then stop before falling off the test was considered a success sTo Figure 7 3 Schematic for Drop Detection Number of Tests Success Failure Success Rate 10 10 0 100 Table 7 3 Measured Results for Drop Detection 7 1 1 4 Executing Randomly Assigned Tasks in a Multiple Scenario Space This scenario involves a combination of the before mentioned scenarios The robot is placed within a closed off space that includes obstacles wall corners and drop offs and then assigned a RoamingTask which must be executed for 10 minutes The test is considered a success 1f after 10 minutes the robot has avoided contact with all walls and obstacles and not fallen down the stairs j Start EJ e y o EJ e oo a o Figure 7 4 Schematic of RoamingTask Test Test No No of Wall No of Cardboard Box No Failures to Identify Collisions _ Stairs Falls 2 ooo p ho 3 0 Table 7 4 Measured Results for RoamingTask TTE 7 1 2 Evaluation The robot s capabilities for safe navigation were excellent The only problems arose when an obstacle was located in a blind spot area not covered by sensors and was never identified and collided with The robot always identified and safely stopped before drops 7 2 Basic Environment Mapping Skills The WallFollowerTask in which the robot finds a wall and closely follows 1t was specifically developed for environmen
50. that a MovementTracker was added to the Tracker 14 17 59 126 Tracker added FrenetMovementTracker 14 17 59 126 Tracker added RawMovementTracker 14 17 59 126 Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation loaded indicates which Navigation module was loaded 14 17 59 126 Core connected indicates the Core is connected and ready 14 17 59 126 Controller EmssController started when calling start on the Core all CoreThreads will report that they are now started 14 17 59 139 TaskManager started 14 17 59 142 Remotelnterfacelistener started 14 17 59 143 RemotelnterfaceSender started 14 17 59 143 Remotelnterface started on 127 0 0 1 9000 14 17 59 143 Core running indicates that everything in the Core specifically CoreThreads is running 108 14 17 59 143 TaskManager NavigationTask added indicates that a Task was added but has not necessarily been started 14 17 59 249 TaskManager NavigationTask started shows that a specific Task was started by the TaskManager 14 18 26 146 TaskManager NavigationTask finished indicates the Task has finished 14 18 26 261 TaskManager stopped when calling stop on the Core all Core Threads will report when they have stopped 141187262312 Controller EmssController stopped 14 18 26 413 Remotelnterfacelistener stopped 14 18 26 515 RemotelnterfaceSender stopped 14 18 26 515 I 14 18 26 515 I 14 18 26 515 RemoteInterface stopped Core stoppe
51. the hardware schematics which make up the emss robot A deeper more detailed look at the hardware can be found in our previous writings Krusi amp Grob 2008 5 1 Robot Create Swivel Wheel Computer Power Lines Left Side Payload Support Wheel ate patis Serial Connection IR Reciever Support Columns l Speaker Figure 5 1 Assembled Robot The original decision to use the iRobot Create platform as the basis for our robot was natural Many hobbyists and enthusiasts had already used the Create for various projects Its robust form and easy assembly proves it to be very attractive Furthermore the size and shape of the platform suits our need to mount a computer and other peripheries very well Finally the affordable total cost of ownership of the iRobot Create platform allows us to build a full blown robot with a small budget 15 5 2 Vision In short the emss robot is very blind Because of the limited budget expensive laser range sensors or lidars could not be purchased For navigation the robot uses a single infra red sensor 80cm range which is pointed forwards In some cases such as when the robot is following a wall a short range infra red sensor 10cm can be used which is pointed directly to the right Figure 5 2 illustrates these two sensors The VGA camera which is mounted to the laptop is not used for navigational purposes as it is outside the scope of our project 80cm m
52. the navigational execution This means that the navigational spline might slightly differ over time from the original navigation points but the navigation execution will be much more robust and exact in all Navigation_SplineNavigation_TargetSpeed_mmps Default 100 0 Type ieee Description The target speed when traversing splines Navigation_SplineNavigation_WheelSplineKernel Default SplineKernelWirth Type String Description Specifies which Spline Kernel shall be used when calculating the wheel splines This value must be either SplineKernelBruenner SplineKernelNRNatural SplineKernelStoer Spl ineKernelWirth The recommended kernel is the SplineKernelWirth kernel It is recommended this value always be the same _ as Navigation_SplineNavigation_NavPointsSplineKernel Navigation_SystemOfWeightsNavigation_StopAtLastNavPoint Default false Type bool Description When true the SystemOfWeightsNavigation component will stop the robot upon reaching the last navigation point Table 10 5 Core Configuration Values for Navigation 117 10 3 3 6 Remotelnterface Remotelnterface_Enabled Default true Type bool Description When true the Remotelnterface will be started upon Core connection and will accept subscriptions from remote users as well as send any significant messages Remotelnterface_IP Default dol al Type string Description The IP address for which the RemoteInterface shal
53. the next generation of robots and artificial beings The iRobot Create is a special version of the popular vacuum cleaner robot called Roomba The Create is specifically designed for hobbyists and robot enthusiasts who wish to build on an existing platform instead of starting from scratch Therefore it no longer contains a vacuum cleaner but rather a cargo bay with an interface to the internal hardware A small niche of iRobot Create hobbyists have strapped a full blown laptop computer to the Create Jonathan Jonathan Arvind Omair amp Sukhatme 2008 however not many of these projects have been developed to a mature state Because of the relatively young age of the Create product there is little code available to kick start interested enthusiasts hobbyists or researchers with their project The same applies for design concepts where the literature revolving around iRobot Create projects widely varies in their opinions of design advantages and disadvantages Kostandov et al Robot Gaming and Learning using Augmented Reality 2007 Martinez Haverinen amp Roning 2008 and does not provide clearly extractable strategies 3 2 Previous Development In our former Semester Project a robotics framework was successfully realized Based on the above mentioned ready made platform provided by iRobot the goal of the project was to create a self sustaining robot which manages to navigate and explore its environment by itself without remote inf
54. to any instantiated Core GUI widgets which rely on a Core all implement the slot method registerCore which in turn provides the widget with a means of registering a specific instantiated Core This allows any interface application to only have to connect to this slot and not worry about keeping the widget up to date with a valid Core pointer Some of the more important widgets include Viewport JoystickView RobotControlPanel RobotSpeedGraph TaskEditor and WeightEditor The widgets are described in detail in Chapter 10 4 2 70 Main Window Viewport Toolbar Weight Editor 4 emss Interface pa a emss Viewport Ja e emss Weight Editor nx Biel Views Taaka Help o 2 g q4 Y da as DQ as 0 JoystickWeight 2 amp 1 RemoteControlWeight 2 2 CollisionAvoidanceWeight Connection Controller Tasks Y lt gt 3 Idle Task JoystickNavigationTask e Weight CollisionAvoidanceWeight Move Down Move Up y Remove Weight g Deactivate Weight ep Add New Weight cil Close To gt a emss Viewport ga emss Camera View O x 33 4 O B gt 4 New Task Close History Control Panel Speed Gr gt 11 44 19 565 Core running 11 44 39 779 TaskManager Navigati 11 44 39 817 TaskManager Navigati W 11 45 43 185 14 TaskManager Navigati i Q O x es 7 al y Y a e el 3 30 J E nssContro
55. to support iRobot Create Go Search developers with a comprehensive set of Controllers Tasks Schedulers Movement Trackers et cetera The framework e ib provides not only an interface with the iRobot Create hardware but also a completely emulated interface which mimics the hardware in every sense Along with core components for controlling the robot the framework also features a set of GUI widgets for drawing maps and navigational paths as well as joysticks control panels and more The emss framework compiles on Linux OS X and Windows The emss iRobot Create Framework is a great platform for anyone wishing to program the iRobot Create hardware Written toolbox a What links here a Related changes s Special pages in C and utilizing the Qt framework emss compiles on Linux OS X and Windows It is designed for high power robots which feature some sort of x86 computer as a controller such as a top mounted laptop With almost a year of development Permanent link at the University of Applied Sciences in Rapperswil the framework is now ready to be shared with the community One of the a OO a Printable version E most attractive features of the framework is the complete emulation of the iRobot Create hardware a feature very s valuable when writing and testing different algorithms The framework is split into different modules which allow different 3 implementations to be loaded This design proves to be
56. unknown area Docking Station The station provides the recharging hardware for both the docking robot and laptop battery 163 emss Environment Mapping Self Sustainable Robot A robot which interacts autonomously and explores an unknown area The FingerprintCollector application is the link between the robot and the WPS Software emss Fingerprint Collector EmssController The main Controller of the emss software emss Interface A graphical interface to control the robot and create Tasks EmulatedCOIL Emulates the COIL so that no physical robot is needed for executing tests Environment mapping Building a map representing the environment using sensor data FadingCollisionMap Slowly fades away the detected remembering the local collisions collisions over time only Fingerprint Used in association with WPS which needs reference points of wireless signals fingerprints to determine its position FingerprintNavigationTask Navigates the robot through a room while pausing regularly fixed software to collect data and use the robots at intervals allowing third party current position Framework A framework is an extensible structure for describing a set of concepts methods and technologies FrenetMovementTracker a the Implements mathematically sound tracker for differential steering system of the robot GPS Global Positioning System Satellite based system for positioning
57. what kind of splines to create for the trajectory or how to avoid unexpected obstacles To enable such an environment the following software stack shown in Figure 6 2 has been designed It shows the different layers and how they stack on top of each other to form the overall architecture of the framework The very bottom represents the physical hardware which has proprietary software This is not a part of the emss framework but the framework makes use of this layer Directly on top of the hardware lies the Hardware Abstraction Layer HAL which communicates directly with the hardware s interfaces but exposes a much more simple and unified interface to the layers above This is the first layer in the emss Core the central software of the framework Sending commands to the HAL is the Controller which is responsible for ensuring that the appropriate commands are sent to and from the hardware through the HAL at the right time In the middle lies the Task Manager and its Tasks which execute the different jobs which essentially control the robots actions The top most layer of the Core includes all the modules required for efficiently executing the different jobs or Tasks On top of the Core layers are the Interface layers which enable the user to interact with the framework and present the current state of the different layers Interface GUI Library pros Task Manager pres Watchdog pros Controller Hardware Abstraction Layer Figure
58. 1 5 in the glossary Connection_Controller persistent Default 0 Description Defines the default Controller implementation to be used when the application is started 142 Comnection_ Port persistent Default gt Type int Description Defines the default port which is selected when the application is started Connection_Tracker persistent Default 1 Description Defines the default Tracker implementation to be used when the application is started Connection_EmulateHardware persistent Default true Type bool Description Defines whether or not the Emulate Hardware Interface should be checked when the application is started Connection_Navigation persistent Default 1 Type int Description Defines the default Navigation implementation to be used when the application is started Controller_TargetSpeed persistent Default 150 Type int Description Defines the default Controller target speed which is set when the application is started Connection_SafeMode persistent Default false Type bool Description When true upon connection to the hardware COIL is set to enter Safe Mode instead of Full Mode When in Safe Mode the onboard controller prevents the robot from taking actions which may result in hardware damage Log_LogToFile Default false Type bool Description When true all the messages output to the History panel or console are also
59. 17 Figure 5 5 Blueprint Showing the Charging Modifications ooooooocnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannnnnns 18 Figure 5 6 Second Generation Docking StatlOW cccccnnonooooooooonnnnnnononcnnnonnnanonnn ono nnnnnnnnnnnnnccnnnnnnannnnss 18 Figure 6 1 Fingerprinting Use Case System Sequence DiagraM oocccccccnnnononooonnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnns 19 Powe Layer Mode oia 20 Figure G Basic Lines Of Communicati Omien a a ic 21 Procure 624 Core Domain Model aa 23 FiStire 0 9 E ore Slate DATAN adas 24 Figure 6 6 EmulatedCOIL with Hardware Error Emulation occcccccnnnnnnnononooooonnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnns 21 Figure 6 The EmssController Flow Chart nssssssorirrerniiaegn aaa a a REA N 28 Figure 6 8 Representation of Interaction With Tracker ooonnnnnnnoooooconoccnoccncconononannonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnns 29 Figure 6 9 SeliCorrecting Tracker Aci idas 34 Figure 6210 Robot Viovine CCW On Circles ATEOS ma EE NE EO A 35 Figure 6 11 Illustration of Frenet Unit Vectors for Curve in Ro ooonninicicicinoninonaninanininnn cono nonanacnaninos 36 Figure 6 12 Comparison of FrenetMovementTrackers with Corrected Implementation 38 Figure 6 13 Example PhysicalMap Representing a Building Structure ccccccceseseeeeeseeeeens 40 Figure 6 14 Comparison PhysicalMap to StructureMap oooccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnanannnonononn nono ono nono nono nono nono nnnnnnnos 41 Figure ol Jordan Curve TAS A
60. 3 6 3 1 FullSpeedWeight The FullSpeedWeight defines the starting value for any channel which assumes it should go ahead at full speed All it does is set the left and right wheel speeds to full 1 0 The process method of the FullSpeedWeight is as follows _ 49 virtual void process Vector2D v v Vector2D 1 0 1 0 y 6 3 6 3 2 OrientationWeight The Orientation Weight influences the channel value or left and right wheel speed so that the robot will orientate itself towards the next navigational point To do this the current position of the robot must be determined as well as the position of the destination From this the angle to the destination 1s determined ee padel dest POS dest posy dest pos dest pos Using the angle it is determined how to alter the wheel speeds If the destination is directly behind the robot a 180 the wheel speeds must be changed drasticly however if the destination is directly infront of the robot a 0 the wheel speeds must not be altered at all This is realized by the following code segment Vector2D position core gt tracker gt getTranslation Vector2D destination core gt navigation gt getCurrentDestination double alpha Deg angle position destination core gt tracker gt getRotation It Geli her gt 18040 alpha 5504 0 alpha ne edjohe lt S23 00 lpha 356040 aloha yve vt Vector2D alp
61. 6 2 Layer Model All these modules that make up the different software layers communicate with each other and exchange data to perform a common task The basic lines of communications are illustrated below in sou Figure 6 3 The Controller runs in its own thread and reads the sensory data from the robot over the Hardware Abstraction Layer The data is then processed and forwarded to the Tracker module which in turn performs the necessary localization based on the incoming data From the other side the Task Manager administrates a list of Tasks and sequentially schedules them for execution The Task defines the action it wants to take and asks the Navigation module how it can achieve this 1 e how must I drive to do this The Navigation in turn queries the Tracker for information about its whereabouts in order to determine the best course of action An important factor is the intern changeability of the modules The interface of each module is defined as generically as possible taking into account different scenarios and wishes of different Tasks This allows the module to have several implementations each with a different or extended approach in solving its task TaskManager process Process Get WheelSpeed Navigation Task Return WheelSpeed Request io Return Bi Information pee Send Sensor Data Tracker l Controller Send Actuator Information proes Receive Send Sensor Data Commands Figure 6 3 Basic Lines o
62. And Setting Nav Point 11 7 2 Hardware i Tube Video 11 7 Two Robots Video 11 9 Wall Following Video 11 8 Driving along Navigation Points Video 11 10 Presentation Scenario si vt Tube Video 11 11 Docking Algorithm in Action Video 11 13 Driving around Outside vt Tube Video 11 12 WallFollowerTask followed by Video 11 14 Roaming around Outside Discovery2Task 175 11 8 References Aprile M amp Denzler P 2008 Diplomarbiet Indoor WPS Rapperswil Hochschule f r Technik Bartels R H Beatty J C amp and Barsky B A 1998 An Introduction to Splines for Use in Computer Graphics and Geometric Modelling San Francisco Morgan Kaufmann Binder O O 1957 January You ll own Slaves by 1965 Mechanix Illustrated Boor C d 1978 A Practical Guide to Splines Springer Verlag Capek K 1921 Rossum s Universal Robots Prague Carmo M P 1976 Differential Geometry of Curves and Surfaces Rio de Janeiro Prentice Hall Catmull E a 1974 Computer Aided Geometric Design New York Eds Academic Press Chan C n d Averatec 2100 Series Review Retrieved 2008 from Notebook Review http www notebookreview com default asp newsID 299 Conte S amp deBoor C 1972 Elementary Numerical Analysis New York McGraw Hill Fowler C B 1967 The Museum of Music A History of Mechanical Instruments Music Educators Journal Frenet J F 1847 Sur les cou
63. AvoidanceWeight were configured too strong then the wall was identified as an obstacle and avoided before it could ever be identified as a wall and followed The predominant difficulty of the WallFollowerTask was recognizing when the structure of a room had been completely identified The root of this problem rested in inaccuracies in determining the robots own location making the determination of the geometry of the room very difficult Figure 7 7 Results from Mapping a Rectangular Closed Hallway TO 7 3 Basic Localization using Different Data Sources and Hardware Various tracking methods were probed in order to find the most accurate way of determining the robots own position After much testing the results showed that determining the robots location from the feedback from its servos yielded large inaccuracies that made certain tasks impossible The most accurate method discovered mathematically calculated the robots position from the speed commands sent to each wheel FrenetMovementTracker Even though this calculated position only reflects how the robot should drive and not what it actually did drive tests showed that 1t was much more accurate than using feedback from the robots internal hardware 7 3 1 Measurements 7 3 1 1 Deviation of Commanded versus True Motion This test involves measuring the deviation between movement commands given to the robot compared to the actual path traversed The robot was told to move 15 m in th
64. Corey Coreractory a include Core Navigation Navigation h include Core Task TaskManager h include Core Tracker Tracker h mino lude o f Core Coneroe ler Controller ar int main int argc ch r Fargyvi Init the Ot Application environment OCoreApplication a argc argv this must be called to setup a QEventHandler pipeline Create a emss Core with settings specified in emssCore config Core core new Core without any parameters the Core constructor creates a default user Core jf Connect the Core with Ene Following conf igurat tom ana start Tt Controller EmssController a Tracker SingleTracker Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation raed Serial Port dev TTYUSBO Safe Mode true Emulation true if core gt connect EmssController SingleTracker SystemOfWeightsNavigation dev TTYUSBO true true make sure it connected before continuing core gt start calling the start method will start all the appropriate internal threads Set the Controller target speed core gt controller gt setTargetSpeed 150 millimeters per second Add some navigation points and its corresponding Task 107 core gt tracker gt setPosition 1000 1000 x y coordinates in millimeters core gt navigation gt addNavPoint 2000 1000 core gt navigation gt addNavPoint 2000 2000 core gt navigation gt addNavPotnt 3000 3000 core gt addT
65. EE E EI EA EE A T E A OE E EIA O NA NATA 16 3A MOCOS 17 5 9 IMPONE AE rl ia 17 5 SOM Wa A Ii N 19 6 1 A A a 19 6 2 A O O E O A N 22 6 3 plenen ao ers tr Ee Or Sec 23 CL CO eaa iano saan A E 23 A mmm DD errs ete etre TE T T ee ee ee eer Ree rere 23 E a a Hr Ten MC aT a TORU MCI NT ES NNTP IN 27 ooe I E ea r E E T 29 Oa iia 39 Ooo NaSO e a e rd 45 Do Taca laica aa S6 Oo Remote IMET ii aa 64 E A O O oe en eee 68 SO Tibia ee 69 A E AA A A A AN 70 eco Pa A 8 2 1 A A a een Ce ree Tee PY ee aE een ree Pte One aT oT Te eee 71 RESUMO A A A a is 75 dal Safe Navigation within a Simple ROOM ooooooncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 75 Talik MESES oi 75 TZ ENANA o a oaks 78 T2 Baste Environment Mapping Skills itacavseisci ita eis ATA A AANE i 78 Tak INCAS US mEn S arna AA A E 78 haz TE VAIS OM nsee a a a aE 79 7 3 Basic Localization using Different Data Sources and Hard Ware ococcccccccccccnnnnnnnnnnnnninininess 80 E cesecscss sa esterase ceca essa steeds on cece eee 80 ES AAA E O A EE A A 81 7 4 Protocol tor Third Party Applications A A A a a 81 TO Assembly of Additional US A A ii 81 7 6 Additional and Optional Features a A AET abs 81 LOL Sete Charemo AS a 81 10 2 EMO lada 83 7 6 3 Publishing of the Project to Robotics Community cooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnannonnonon nono non nono nono nnnnn nooo 84 Tl Oualitative AC MEVE MENIS da 85 LL Sotware e 85 Toledo Cross Platiorn SUPPONI anisses saosa
66. Hardware for a second robot was purchased assembled and modified to the same specifications of the first robot The onboard computer was installed with Linux and the emss framework as well as the necessary configuration files Additional docking stations were also ordered and modified so that both the robot and the onboard computer could have their batteries charged while on the docking station Both units are working and healthy and are able to run the emss software 7 6 Additional and Optional Features The fundamental idea of the modular framework allows for endless possibilities to quickly and easily develop more tasks and even solve the same problems from different angles This idea was proven by the implementation of all the optional features which seamlessly integrated with the framework 7 6 1 Self Charging Algorithm The iRobot Create already came furnished with an excellent built in self docking algorithm However once the modifications were made to the iRobot notably mounting an onboard computer on top of it it became too heavy for the built in self docking algorithm to properly dock A docking algorithm that could vary the speeds of the iRobot needed to be developed This proved to be a very difficult task as the docking station remains largely a black box and the precision required for a successful dock and contact with both charging power lines is in the millimeter domain 2 Specifically charge towards the docking station wi
67. KML files 10 Improvements to HeatMap 10 Creation of StructureMap 5 Creation of FadingCollisioMap 10 Controller 20 EmssController improvements 20 Tasks Further developments to TaskManager WallFollowerTask implementation SplineDiscoveryTask implementation RoamingTask implementation TestMoveTask implementation Pause Task implementation UndockTask implementation FingerprintNavigationTask implementation FingerprintDiscovery Task implementation DiscoveryTask implementation aN Sp GM On Qa No N G2 Go Go Go 95 Watchdog Watchdog implementation with actions Tracker SingleTracker AveragedTracker Expected Tracker FrenetTracker RawMovementTracker SelfCorrecting Tracker WPS Implementation of KML file parser and GPS calculations Tests Unit tests System tests Total implementation effort in hours 418 9 5 3 Hardware Purchasing and assembling Purchase of components for the robot chassis sensors et cetera Assembly of robots Modification to docking stations Total hardware effort in hours 35 9 5 4 Project Management Documentation Wiki Documentation Meetings Weekly meetings with advisor and expert Releases Builds Scripts Buffer Time Time from risk management Chapter 9 4 96 20 20 50 20 20 30 40 20 20 35 20 10 110 30 80 60 60 20 10 10 55 Total project management effort in hours 254 It is noteworthy to mention that the do
68. NavigationTask runs Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_PreTasks Default PauseTask UndockTask Type String inst Description Defines the list of Tasks to add and execute before executing the FingerprintNavigationTask Task_JoystickNavigationTask_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the JoystickNavigationTask runs Task_NavigationTask_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the NavigationTask runs Task_NavigationTask_ResetNavPointsWhenDone Default true Type bool Description When true the navigation points will be reset cleared when all navigation points have been reached Task PauseTask Timeout ms Default 10000 Type ms Description The default timeout value when starting a PauseTask When the timeout is reached the PauseTask will automatically finish 123 Task_ScriptedTask_TaskList Default UndockTask WallFollowerTask DockAndChargeTask Type Ser ing St Description Defines the list of Tasks to add when executing the ScriptedTask All the ScriptedTask does is add each listed Task sequentially and finish Task_TestMoveTask_ Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the TestMoveTask runs Task TestMoveTask Circle Radius mm Default 1000 Description The radius of the test circle to be driven Task TestMoveTask TravelDistance_mm Default 1000 Description The standar
69. Platform Support The entire emss framework can be built across the following platforms Linux OS X and Windows We are proud to offer a cross platform robotics framework written in C which not only provides a mature library but also a high quality user interface All the widgets and views are compatible with the above mentioned platforms Ubuntu Apple OS X Windows XP Windows Vista P Eiriki Ind E fore ES Fle Views Tasks Help ANO wemssinerace aaa Eei Mie ree T Pie Vers Tela Help File Views Taks Hep Connection Controller Tasks weights Connection Controller Tasks Weights Connection Controles Tata wegh Conn chon Controles tanks Weights Emascontrollar lEmaContraller i on Z fmestnntrades a Emaar ober Sangle Tracker SingleTracker A a angela i SyatemofWeghtsNavgation SysternOfWeights Navigati n _ _ 0 e a Systemodveghisianigaton jdevatyUSeo x Idev ttyUSB l A Emulate Hardware interface Emulate Hardware Interface Emulate Hardware Interface Gala Moda Safe Late Hode f a 4 Disconnect h AS A Dioec i Al Abart y W Abon 190023803 brii cormectod 190023000 Com connected 1910023500 Contolo EmasContolor starod 1000 239 009 Pornotolrinda coSended slo y 101002350 Roroto nlodace sland on 127 0 0 10A 10 0023 509 Como running
70. R HOCHSCHULE FUR TECHNIK RAPPERSWIL SWITZERLAND UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Environment Mapping Self Sustainable Robot Bachelor Thesis David Grob and Daniel Kr si Advised by Prof Stefan Keller June 2009 4 T E yw Y Y A v i f aS environment mapping self sustainable robot Abstract The aim of the emss project is to tackle the problems of a self sustainable environment mapping robot in a bottom up approach The major challenges imposed by such a mobile robot include the assembly of hardware and more importantly the necessary software algorithms for localization navigation and discovery Using ready made hardware much of the time consuming electrical engineering problems have been avoided allowing a strong focus on software However many hardware modifications have been undertaken to better suit the needs of the project Building upon previous work achieved in our Semester Project where a part of the necessary hardware and software was developed the goal of this Bachelor Thesis is to create a basic environment map of obstacles and floor plan to the most accurate degree possible with the given hardware and data sources all while safely navigating and exploring the area In addition third party applications such as a Wireless Positioning System must be able to connect to the emss framework and make use of the positioning data for their own purposes The emss framework consisting of a set of hot swappable module
71. Tor Robal Station Battery pe Adapter Charge Contact Optional Points for Fourth Wheel Computer Figure 5 5 Blueprint Showing the Charging Modifications Inside Inside Bottom External View Figure 5 6 Second Generation Docking Station 18 6 Software The emss project touches on the subjects of many fields mathematics engineering hardware and finally software However the focus is clear software From a computer science enthusiast s point of view this is where robotics gets interesting The software related problems of the emss framework can be categorized into three domains communicating with hardware solving the problems of the given objectives and presenting the state of the problem and solution to the user Throughout the development of the framework a significant amount of energy was focused on maintaining a highly flexible architecture consisting of a set of modules which interact with each other to achieve a common task Every added module and component has undergone a rigorous thought process to justify its need and make sure it is absolutely necessary 6 1 Analysis amp Design a ie Place oo gt Position Robot and set Path Start fingerprinting subscriber Start task Loop until last navigation point is Interval reached reached Stop Roboi gt Robot S position Collect fingerprint Stop time Y elapsed x Start Robot Task Finished Figure 6 1 Fingerp
72. _SplineNavigation_FixedInterval Default 100 Type ms Description When Navigation_SplineNavigation_DynamicIntervalEnabled iS false this value must match that of the Task interval which is executing the Navigation s getWheel Speed Navigation_SplineNavigation_MagnetTrackingEnabled Default crue Type bool Description When true the Magnet Tracker feature for navigating splines is enabled This allows the robot to peer back on track to the spline when for some reason it has peered off Peering off track can be the result of avoiding collision or because of the non real time nature of the emss Core 116 Navigation_SplineNavigation_NavPointsSplineKernel Default SplineKernelWirth Type string Description Specifies which Spline Kernel shall be used when calculating the navigational splines This value must be either SplineKernelBruenner SplineKernelNRNatural SplineKernelStoer Spl ineKernelWirth The recommended kernel is the SplineKernelWirth kernel Navigation_SplineNavigation_ResetNavPointsWhenDone Default true Type bool Description When true the navigation points will be reset cleared when the navigation spline has been traversed Navigation_SplineNavigation_SplineNodeAdjust Default true Type bool Description When true the spline nodes which correspond to a navigation point will be adjusted when it is reached to better compensate for any error that might have occurred during
73. aking the behavior of the signals confusing to determine In addition interference can occur at any time where signals may temporarily be lost causing a flickering effect All these factors make the docking procedure complicated Similar to the CollisionAvoidanceWeight the DockWeight also has several modes unknown An IR beam has not yet been detected go straight ahead homing A red or green IR beam has been detected follow the beacon attack The force field is detected try to dock the robot search The IR beams have been lost try to search for them again ee a retry Docking was unsuccessful retry the whole scenario The most important mode is the homing mode which is responsible for bringing the robot to the Go Zone To overcome the difficulties described above a data structure as been defined which encapsulates a snapshot of the docking station IR signal Each time the signal changes its state it 18 appended to the irlog a list of all the states The list then can be parsed to determine the latest red to green or green to red state for example which is the key to successfully docking Using the irlog any mode can filter through the list and grab the information it needs while ignoring any other such as a unrecognized signal due to interference 54 6 3 6 3 8 AccelerationFilterWeight The AccelerationFilterWeight regulates the acceleration in the weight channel Upon each process the Weight compares the new inc
74. and emss Core 068 65 Figure 6 32 Composition of Different GUI W 1d GCs ui ii 71 Figure 7 1 Schematic of Collision Avoidance cccccseeessnsnnncceeeeecceeeesesssecssensnseeeeeeeeeeseeesseeessseeees 76 Figure 7 2 Schematic for Collision Avoidance Concrete 00cc0cccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseseseeseeeeeeeeeees 76 Figure 7 5 SCHeMAlC TOF Drop Detecci n iia Ta Fiure 4 Schemanc of Roanino kask Test naaa Td Figure 7 5 Schematic for Wall Follower ccccccnnnnonooononooonnnonononcnnnnnnnnnonn non nnnnnnnnnnnccnnnnnnnannnnnnnns 78 Figure 7 6 Schematic of Mapping Floor Plan seitens a 79 Figure 7 7 Results from Mapping a Rectangular Closed Hallway ccccccnnnnnooooooooncnnnncccnncnnnnnnnnns 79 Figure 7 8 Deviation of Commanded versus True MotlOD oooooocccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonononononnnnnnnnnnnccnnnnnnnnnnnnns 80 Figure 7 9 Schematic for DOC aisla 82 Figure 1510 Schematic Tor WMG OC Kino iia a E 82 Figure 7 11 Self Healing Tracker Slowly Degrading in Quality of Correcti0DS ooooccccccccnnnnnnnnnnss 83 Fiene A2 Stat Rave OL Project W CDSG reines sna esnea nae a R E ENS ia 84 Figure 7 13 Interface Application Running on Ubuntu OS X XP and ViStl oooooooooooccccncncccccnoninnnnns 85 Figure 6 12 Laptop Compared with Robot Bodas id 88 Figure 8 2 Current Range Finders left Compared with Extended Configuration right 88 Figure 9 1 Overview of Projected versus A
75. ased on max of 1 0 Weight_CollisionAvoidanceWeight_AvoidanceFactor Default 1 0 Type double Description The factor for which how quickly the CollisionAvoidance Weight should avoid an obstacle If the value is less than 1 0 the CollisionAvoidance Weight will delay in avoiding the obstacle ahead of it For example with a value of 0 5 the Weight will wait until it is 50 of the maximum sensing distance to the obstacle to avoid the obstacle Weight_CollisionAvoidanceWeight_DecisionBuffer_mm Default 100 Type a Description Defines the distance buffer to wait before making a definite decision on which direction left or right to avoid an obstacle A greater buffer will make the decision more accurate however at the same time a too large buffer will result in a last minute avoidance maneuver Weight_CollisionA voidanceWeight_ReverseDistance_mm Default 200 Type ne Description Defines the distance to be reversed when encountering a collision if an obstacle was not avoided Weight_DockWeight_StartingMode Default unknown Type SCriunG Description Defines the starting mode of the DockWeight This value can be either unknown homing attack search retry turnaround Weight_DockWeight_MinimumAttackSpeed Default 320 Type ee Description Defines the minimum speed required when in attack mode If the current speed is less than this value the speed is adjusted to at least the Weight DockWeight
76. ask CoreFactory createTask core NavigationTask Wait for all Tasks to finish core gt taskManager gt waitForAllTasksToFinish this method will block the current thread until all Tasks are finished Shutdown the Core core gt stop stopping a Core only pauses it calling disconnect actually shuts down any physical connections core gt disconnect Cleanup and finish delete core the Core will clean up after itself all Tasks Messages et cetera created through the CoreFactory will automatically be deleted as long as they were passed to the Core at one point return 0 Code 10 3 Example Application Source Code 10 3 2 3 Application Output When executed the application produces the following output on the console First the Core is initialized and all the modules are loaded After the Core is started a simple NavigationTask is added and started Once the Task is finished the Core is stopped and disconnected Comments have been added with the marker 14 17 59 125 Core initialized indicates that the Core could initialize and allocate all its data 14 17 59 125 14 17 59 125 14 17 59 125 14 17 59 125 Core using EmulatedCOIL indicates which COIL implementation is being used Core started OI Core entered safe mode Tracker SingleTracker loaded shows which Tracker module was loaded 14 17 59 125 Tracker added ExpectedMovementTracker indicates
77. ask l e Subscribes to the servers push stream e Actor client e Returned message error confirm e Example message subscribe e Unsubscribes from the servers push stream e Actor client e Returned message error confirm e Example message unsubscribe e Starts a emss Core Task e Actor client e Additional keys needed task task related keys e Returned message error confirm e Example message start task task fingerprintnavigation splinediscovery splinenavigation leah Ae e Starts a fingerprintnavigation task in the Core e Actor client e Additional keys needed interval wait time e returned message error confirm e Example message start task task fingerprintnavigation interval milliseconds wait time milliseconds e Indicates that fingerprint can be taken for the given wait time e Actor server e Additional keys needed wait time global position latitude global position longitude Loca pos Lt ion x MOC a positi n yp Map descripliony Map Ltile local orientation sbb e Note local orientation is the current rotation in degrees where the y axis north is represented by 0 degrees and y south as 180 180 degrees x axis east as 90 270 degrees and x west as 90 270 degrees e Example message fingerprint wait time milliseconds floor integer global position latitude latitude double global position longitude latitude double local position x millimeters long
78. ation are performed The following Tracker implementations are available in the emss Core SingleTracker AveragedTracker and SelfCorrectingTracker 6 3 4 1 SingleTracker A SingleTracker may contain one or more MovementTrackers but only uses a single MovementTracker for determining the robots position The MovementTracker which is used is specified in the Core configuration file see 0 and can be changed during runtime with the method setSelectedMovemenTracker 6 3 4 2 AveragedTracker Unlike the SingleTracker the AveragedTracker makes use of multiple MovementTrackers at the same time The resulting localization is the mean or average of all the MovementTrackers Additionally each MovementTracker may have an assigned weight which will skew the influence of the MovementTracker on the resulting average The following code segment shows how the calculateTotalAngle method is implemented for the AverageTracker which returns the total change of angle travelled double calculateTotalAngle Find out the total weight A MovementTracker does not necessarily have to have a weight of 1 When the weight is increased the MovementTracker will have a higher influence on the result int totalWeight 0 for int i 0 i lt movementTrackers gt count i totalWeight movementTrackers gt at i gt getWeight Iterate through every MovementTracker and add its value times the weight ff o the total doub
79. ation of weights such as adding removing disabling et cetera The power in this Navigation module lies within the weights Any Task can easily configure the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module to suit it needs as illustrated below for the DockAndChargeTask Obviously the order for which the weights are placed in the channel alter the way the system reacts navigation gt deleteAllWeights navigation gt addWeight new JoystickWeight core navigation gt addWeight new RemoteControlWeight core navigation gt addWeight new DockWeight core navigation gt addWeight new CollisionAvoidanceWeight core CollisionAvoidanceWeight AvoidanceDirectionAuto navigation gt addWeight new AccelerationFilterWeight core navigation gt addWeight new ControllerSpeedWeight core Code 6 6 Example Configuration of SystemOfWeightsNavigation Module 6 3 6 3 Weights Each weight in the SystemOfWeightsNavigation weight channel must inherit from the weight class The only method which needs to be implemented is the process method which is called sequentially for each weight in the channel when determining the output of the channel The SystemOfWeightsNavigation passes its current channel value as a two dimensional vector for the left and right wheel to the process method Each weight can then consequently alter the channel value as it pleases Documented below are the most important Weights in the emss framework 6
80. ation points 6 3 7 4 FingerprintNavigationTask The assignment of the FingerprintNavigationTask is to navigate the robot through a room while pausing regularly at fixed intervals allowing third party software such as a Wireless Positioning System to collect data and use the robots current position This 1s realized by sending a fingerprint message over the Remote Interface see Section 6 3 8 The Task has two different modes discovery and navPoints Both modes require the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module in order to function For the discovery mode the following Weights are added to the weight channel gt FullSpeedWeight gt WallFollowerWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt AccelerationFilterWeight gt ControllerSpeedWeight gt In this mode the environment is completely unknown For this reason first the walls are followed until the room has been closed At this point when the StructureMap is finished a Discovery2Task is scheduled which covers the entire room defined by the StructureMap The Task finishes when a certain percentage of the room has been discovered When in navPoints mode the following Weights are added to the weight channel gt FullSpeedWeight gt OrientationWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt AccelerationFilterWeight ControllerSpeedWeight gt This mode requires a series of navigation points to follow which are placed against a known map of the room In the navPoints mode the Task finis
81. ationTriangle 1s pushed to a log which stores the current robot position the collision position and the closest wall position from the collision location thus a correlation between the position collision and closest wall If the log contains enough correlation triangles all the collision positions and closest wall positions are checked if they represent similarities to a wall If so the SelfCorrectingTracker makes a correction to the MovementTrackers positions Because such an algorithm naturally requires many processing cycles determining closest wall creating line structures et cetera a considerable amount of effort has been made to optimize the SelfCorrectingTracker The simplified algorithm is described in detail below step by step 1 Determine the correlation triangle ct Get current position and corresponding collision point CorrelationTriangle ct CE POSICROR tracker posa con ct collision object detected position Eind closest wall ct closestWall to ct collision jf TDS aus dome by Tepiralirg OUt Trom the center 66 COLITS TON y e double r 0 The current radius double rmax 2000 The maximum spiral radius double a 0 The current angle double amax 360 The maximum spiral angle while r lt rmax a 0 while a lt amax Trafo2D pos ct collision TratozD roca Trafo2D trans 0 r if pos is a wall on PhysicalMap ct closestWall pos 8 The class T
82. corresponding offset curve L and R for each wheel Figure 6 18 The nodes for these curves can be determined by sequentially calculating the first derivative of the navigational curve C 1 e the tangent to the curve and shifting it in the direction of the normal vector at that point on the curve either to the left or right Care needs to be taken to create the wheel splines with a fixed distance between the nodes Failing to do so will cause the yielding speeds from the wheel spline derivative to be disjoint from the navigational path sdo A problem with using splines with a non real time system such as the emss framework is that the small deviations in the interval at which Controller commands are sent result in inaccuracy throughout the navigation In many cases when navigating along a spline the robot will peer slightly off track To n navigation nodes ef a s 0 a a a 0 0 0 e 0 0 0 a of Lora rro nn Figure 6 19 Creating Wheel Spline Nodes from a Navigation Curve correct this we undertake three different means l When a navigation point has been reached the position of the navigation point is corrected to the current position of the robot and the spline is rebuilt This keeps the spline an accurate reflection of how the robot must move If the interval at which the Controller is sent the movement commands varies the spline is automatically rebuilt This allows the defined time interval for the left
83. cribed Subscribers g 127 0 0 1 9001 List of Subscribers Close Figure 10 10 Remote Interface View with Incoming Outgoing Messages and Subscribers The Remotelnterface view chronologically displays all the incoming and outgoing messages In addition a list of subscribers is presented at the bottom of the window Clicking on a specific message will reveal all its standard properties such as Type Source Destination et cetera and also outputs the entire message contents The messages are displayed in different colors for convenient debugging Blue Indicates the message was received incoming Orange Indicates the message was sent outgoing 140 10 4 2 10 Settings Editor com e Camera a Controller Map Ta Lara PL es Managation g gt aa aR PSs mms gpt i Close Figure 10 11 Settings Editor Displayed With Group Tabs The Settings Editor can be found by either clicking File then Interface Settings or File then Core Settings from the main window menu The Settings Editor will load the corresponding configuration file config and display its contents grouped among several tabs Pressing the Save button will write any changes made to disk 10 4 2 11 Camera View The Camera view shown in Figure 10 12 bottom right allows the image of a camera device to be displayed within the emss Interface This is achieved by sequ
84. ction exists because of the additional complexity required to distinguish between static obstacles and dynamic obstacles Thus Moving objects will not be distinguished from static obstacles on the environment map however the robot will attempt to avoid such collisions 1f possible Furthermore Obstacles within the physical environment must portray a certain degree of simplicity in structure Complex and intricate structures such as many chair legs cables and wiring et cetera should not be present or be blocked off Finally the physical environment must be a closed off region Doors to other areas must be closed Environments that feature entrances to further regions are undesirable because they not only significantly increase the complexity of the room structure but also create a tangible risk of trapping the robot in one of these sub rooms 4 1 3 Test Environment The test environment consists of but not exclusively the second floor of building 6 at the University of Applied Sciences Rapperswil This room provides hallways stair drops doorways corners and some large obstacles Another test environment is the use of cardboard boxes to form different simple shaped rooms which have a smaller scale 4 2 Requirements Specification 4 2 1 Requirements The following requirements have been carefully evaluated and chosen to accompany the emss project They are based on previous experience with the hardware and the needs presented by the projec
85. ctual Time ooononnnicuconacicccononinncnnnonananonana a a a a E 97 Figure 9 2 Comparison of Projected versus Required hours for Implementation ccccccccnnnnnnnnnnns 98 Figure 9 3 Source Lines of Code Distribution sseessscccccceeeeceesssesssseeseccensaccacceeeseeeessesseseees 98 Figure 10 1 Test Application Running in the Console cccccccccccccccceeeesseeeeeessssnaeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeseeees 106 Figure 0 27 Resources Path Dialog BOX erarnan eanete atu ia 132 Pioure 10 52 Example taco leales 132 Figure 10 4 The Interface Main Window and its Different States ccccccnnnnnoooooooooocnnnnnnonccnnnannnnns 133 Figure 10 5 Various Main Window Ments A wee E E E SE 134 Figure 10 6 Viewport Displaying Toolbar and Menu ccccccsesesesssssssessssssssesseessseeeeseeseeeeeees 136 Figure 10 7 Multiple Viewports Displaying the Same Environment ccccnnnnnononooononcnonnnnnnccnnnnnnnnnnnns 136 Figure 10 8 Task Editor with New Task DialoS si a 138 Figure 10 9 Weight Editor Displaying Different Weights 0 ccccccsssssssseeeesssessesseeeeeseeeeens 139 Figure 10 10 Remote Interface View with Incoming Outgoing Messages and Subscribers 140 Figure 10 11 Settings Editor Displayed With Group TabS ooonnnnnnnninininnnnnnnnnnnannnnnnnnnanannannnr nooo ono nono 141 Figure 10 12 Various Views Related to the Interface Application cccccccccecssseses
86. cumentation requires the most time 9 6 Comparison of Projected and Actual Time The total projected time needed for completion of this project sums to 783 hours However in reality the time required for the project was underestimated and totaled 1190 hours Closer inspection shows that the deviations in the projected time compared to the actual required time primarily arose in the implementation Although the offending implementation components include nearly all artifacts the worst underestimations include the Tracker and Weights artifacts This has been pin pointed largely to the required fundamental analysis of mathematical methods and procedures which these artifacts required The additional invested hours were fueled by the project member s passion for robotics and determination to accomplish the foreseen goals The diagram shown in Figure 9 1 shows an overview of the projected versus required time for the entire project Figure 9 2 compares the projected to required hours specifically for the Implementation phase Project Overview 1400 1200 AA 1000 800 as Hours 600 AA MMMMIIIIINNA gt A 400 EA _ RN A AS A A A AI Projected 200 2 _ gt RS gt y Actual Figure 9 1 Overview of Projected versus Actual Time 97 Implementation 140 120 100 E 80 lt Hours 60 AIN et Aa OCO Projected Actual 20 _ A a A A Figure 9 2 Comparison of Projected versus Required ho
87. d indicates that the Core is now stopped Core disconnected indicates that the Core is now disconnected and may be deleted Code 10 4 Example Application Output 10 3 3 Configuration The settings below are used by the core application and can be located in the file lt emss gt resources emssInterCore config There are over 150 different configuration values throughout the Core and are split up over 12 sections Each section corresponds to the first word in the configuration name For further details on the different value types and configuration patches please see Section 11 5 in the glossary 10 3 3 1 Camera Camera_AutoRefreshInterval Default 1000 Type 2 Description Specifies the rate at which the camera image should be refreshed in milliseconds Camera_CaptureToolCommand Default v4l2src ffmpegcolorspace pngenc filesink location Camera_CaptureToolOutFile Type str ing Description Specifies the command arguments to be executed for generating a camera snapshot The variable SCamera_CaptureTool0utFile can be used to insert the output path specified in Camera CaptureToolOutFile Camera_CaptureToolOutFile Default camera png Type String Description The output filename or file path used when loading the output file of the capture tool Camera_CaptureToolPath Default camera png Type string Description Specifies the capture tool to be executed when generating a camera snapshot
88. d travel distance for any test movement For example 1f the test move should be a square each side of the square travelled shall be Task TestMoveTask TravelDistance mm Task_TestMoveTask_WaitForEventIntervalDelay Default 10 Type ms Description The interval at which the MoveTask sleeps and waits for a specific event to occur such as driving a given distance Decreasing this value will make translations and rotations more accurate Task UndockTask Distance mm Default 800 Type A Description The distance to backup from the docking station when undocking Task_UndockTask_Speed Default Type int Description The speed at which to backup from the docking station when undocking Task_DockAndChargeTask_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the DockAndChargeTask runs Table 10 8 Core Configuration Values for Task 124 10 3 3 9 TaskManager TaskManager_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the TaskManager process runs This affects the speed at which scheduling task switching is performed and does not affect the speed at which Task process 1s called as this is defined by Task_DefaultInterval or where applicable by Task_XXXXXXXXTask_Interval TaskManager_Watchdog_Enabled Default false Type bool Description When true the TaskManager will automatically register itself with the Watchdog if the Watchdog is e
89. d vp by altering them based on external inputs such as sensors or information from maps On the channels one end raw zero speeds v 0 Vri 0 come in which are then altered by the system of weights and on the other end the final speeds 0 UR come out which in turn are sent to the controller Each weight in the system works independently from others using only the channel inputs or 1ts own inputs Such a channel is demonstrated below in Figure 6 20 where is the angle to next navigation point Scollision 18 the distance to an obstacle ahead in percent relative to the maximum distance possible and e 1s either 0 or 1 indicating if a emergency stop should be undertaken The example shows how a sequence of well placed weights can perform simple navigation 4g QO VL in 0 VL VL 1 VL vz F a 180 1 V gt VE l Z Saison Vrin 0 VR VR 1 vr vr 0a 180 1 VR VR Scollision Assumed Full Navigational Collision Avoidance Speed Orientation Emergency Stop Controller Speed vV v vr l e VE Vi Vras gue VR VR l e VRE VR Vmax VR out Vm ax Figure 6 20 Example System of Weights Channel A more complex system can be created by adding additional inputs to the different weights and of course by adding additional weights which has been realized in the emss framework The SystemOfWeightsNavigation Class is very simple in itself only providing the necessary methods for the administr
90. dChargeTask must perform some additional modifications to the SystemOfWeightsNavigation weight channel during runtime The most significant modification is the deactivation of the CollisionAvoidance Weight during the DockWeight s attack mode This must be done because the CollisionAvoidance Weight would naturally disallow the DockWeight to properly dock as it would consider the docking station as an obstacle and try to avoid it This is realized by connecting to the DockWeight s modeChanged signal When a mode change is signaled the CollisionAvoidance Weight is either activated or deactivated depending on the mode that was changed into Figure 6 30 A Successful Docking e 6 3 7 7 TestMoveTask The TestMoveTask was implemented to serve as testing ground of different functionality within the hardware It is made up of ten different test movements Test Description Square Drives along the path of a square with each side being the distance defined in the Core settings Rotate 90 Rotates 90 degrees counter clockwise and then back again 90 degrees clockwise Rotate 360 Rotates 360 degrees counter clockwise and then back again 360 degrees clockwise Triangle Drives along the path of a triangle with each side being the distance defined in the Core settings Straight Drives straight ahead the distance defined in the Core settings Circle Drives a circle with the defined radius in the Core settings The wheel speeds are calculated
91. dditional signals and slots For an example to see how to setup a custom user interface using the GUI components see the source code for the emss Interface under lt emss gt Interface 10 3 2 1 Project File The project file ExampleApplication pro 1s defined exactly as the instructions provided in Section 10 3 1 with the additional standard keys TEMPLATE TARGET CONFIG and SOURCES TEMPLATE app defines this project to be a Qt Application TARGET emssExampleApplication sets the target name o flag for the executable CONFIG console adds console output capability QT core gui network opengl xml 106 SOURCES main cpp adds our only source file to be included in the compiles input HEADERS FORMS LIBS lemssCore DEST DIR S OLA LIBPATH bin UNT SIMIO Li be la sound win32 RC_FILE DefaultResources Winlcon rc RESOURCES DefaultResources Icons qrc RESOURCES DefaultResources Texts qrc Code 10 2 Example Of Project File 10 3 2 2 Source Code The source file main cpp consists of less than 20 lines of code It 1s written to show how to use the emss Core and may not handle or catch every erroneous situation Additional comments have been added with the marker include lt QCoreApplication gt the Example Application is solely a console application QtCore include Core Core h header files must be included for each Core module used include
92. dingCollisionMap O StructureMap WI ObjectMap Figure 10 15 Viewport Menu Items 148 10 5 2 Fingerprinting Guide In this section a step by step guide is presented on how fingerprints are collected with the help of the FingerprintCollector application WPS PointZero software and robot hardware Pre requisites for this guide are the installation of both the emss FingerprintCollector and WPS PointZero 1 The first step is to position the physical docking station It is best to place the docking station at a location which is easy to spot on the floor plan or map Use visual markers such as pillars or corners to choose a suitable location In addition if the robot is to be kept at home on the docking station it is advantageous to be near a power supply In any case the docking station should be placed solidly and tight against a wall or flat surface with the robot placed exactly on top at the same angle as the docking station Flat surface provides good Corner provides a good reference alignment for docking station point for docking station Figure 10 16 Positioning the Physical Docking Station 2 Turn on the robot and laptop The iRobot power button is located underneath the laptop Figure 10 17 Powering on the iRobot Create 3 Start the FingerprintCollector application lt emss gt bin emssFingerprintCollector 2 Instructions on the installation for the emss FingerprintCollector can be found in Cha
93. e performance of the underlying hardware and in many cases caused troubles during navigation Figure 8 1 shows how the laptops edges are greater than the body of the robot This causes difficulty when navigating close to wall and other objects as the corners from the laptop can hang against the obstacle In addition the extending corners sometimes prevent the bumper from being fully pressed disabling any chance of further detection of an object in the blind spot of the robot This problem can be easily solved by using a smaller laptop model instead For example the popular eee PC 901 from Asus has a very small body measuring only 225 x 175 5 x 22 7mm 87 y F ETTESS environment mapping sell avitlamible rabbal Figure 8 1 Laptop Compared with Robot Body 8 1 1 3 Sensors Although an additional range sensor has already been added it is clear that it is not enough The current hardware of the robot still renders the robot as almost blind The framework can only see in the distance with its two IR sensors one which is pointed forwards and the other which is pointed towards the right It 1s very difficult to assess situations when approaching a collision because of the limited input The reason the emss robot does not feature more range finders is because the Robot Create only supports a single analog input The sensor data of the robot could be greatly improved by adding a controller for which additional range finders c
94. e 10 6 Example Sethi File id 158 169 11 5 Configuration Files All configurations and settings for the emss Core and other emss applications are contained within different config files in the emss resources folder The names for these files adhere by the naming scheme of emss lt component gt config such as emssCore CON Tig 11 5 1 File Format Each configuration file consists of a series of key value pairs Each pair is separated by a new line character n and each key value is separated by an equal character The first line of the file must begin with a General tag commonly found in ini files in order to stay compatible with Windows systems Keys can be grouped and sub grouped by adding a _ character For example if there is a set of configurations for a Camera module one would add configuration keys starting with Camera_ such aS Camera_RefreshRate To include the reseverved equal character in the value one must escape 1t using the following 11 5 2 Value Types The following values types are used in configuration files Data Type Description ms milliseconds given as a positive integer sec seconds given as a positive integer mm millimeters given as a integer or double mmps millimeters per second given as a integer or double string string value given without spaces or special characters string list space separated list of strings given without special characters i
95. e agent that would act as a set of security officer _ 89 90 9 Project Management 9 1 Prototypes The approach together with the resulting milestones described in Chapter 4 3 define the emss prototypes which are more clearly defined in the following sections 9 1 1 Prototype I The first prototype takes advantage of the robot s sensors in order to maneuver around obstacles and safely navigate through an unknown space It must also identify drops such as stairs and maneuver around them The first prototype also implements basic environment mapping skills in which the unknown space is mapped out based on the incoming sensor data 9 1 2 Prototype II The second prototype combines various data sources in order to calculate its position in real time By taking advantage of multiple data sources such as data from onboard sensors or emulated and saved locations a more precise position should be calculated 9 2 Releases Releases are complete software packages which contain all necessary components and are ready for deployment on the hardware Each release should be hosted publicly on SourceForge and contains the complete source code along with executable binaries and default resources Version Description v1 0 The 1 0 release contains the work achieved in our Semester Project v1 1 Released during Week 6 emss v1 1 includes the preliminary work and improvements as well as the results of Prototype I v1 2
96. e and is responsible for scheduling and executing Tasks It inherits from CoreThread so it runs in its own thread The scheduling and execution of Tasks occur within the same run loop Internally the TaskManager maintains a special queue called TaskList This data structure is similar to a queue except it extends features to enable the extraction of specific Tasks such as ready for execution Tasks only When a Task is added to the TaskList and scheduled for execution its process method is called repetively by the TaskManager which in turn performs the execution of the Task Because of this architecture the process method of an individual Task may not block or delay for a long time as the Watchdog will kick in and report the TaskManager as a runaway CoreThread When enabled the TaskManager maintains a special Task called the IdleTask This Task is automatically scheduled for execution when there are no Tasks within the TaskList which are waiting to be executed Commonly the IdleTask is a diagnostic Task such as a JoystickNavigationTask which allows the navigation of the robot by joystick Tasks may have the following statuses Waiting Task is waiting to be scheduled for execution Running Task is currently being executed Finished The Task has finished its execution successfully Interruped The Task has been interrupted by an external module and is no longer being ee eS executed In addition to the status each Task may
97. e contents of the software stack described in Section 6 1 Any module within the emss Core must inherit from either CcoreObject Or CoreThread class which describes the two types of modules found within the Core Furthermore many modules have multiple implementations which solve the same problem but with a different approach The core class itself offers some important functionality the most important being the initialization and connection methods initMapsAndObjects and connect In addition also start and stop methods are provided which help in safely starting and stopping all the different CoreThreads This resolves the Core into the following states as shown in Figure 6 5 Initialized Connected Started Stopped Destroyed Pay ee Disconnected Destroyed Connected Intilized Figure 6 5 Core State Diagram The following code shows how the Core might be initialized connected and started It also demonstrates how to safely shut it down and cleanup For more details see Section 10 3 2 Create a emss Core with settings specified in emssCore config Core core new Core Connect the Core with the following configuration and start it Controller EmssController e Tracker SingleTracker 2 Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation es Serial Port dev TTYUSBO Te Safe Mode true de Emulation true if core gt connect EmssController SingleTracker SystemOfWeightsNavigation de
98. e following command sudo apt get install libasound2 dev The following is required in the Qt Project File to link against these libraries LIBPATH lt emss gt bin LIBS lemssCore unix macx LIBS lasound 10 3 2 Example Application The example application presented here shows how to use the emss Core to perform the simple task of navigating through three navigation points It includes all the code necessary to instantiate and connects the Core fire it up respectively use it and finally clean up The application is made up of two files ExampleApplication pro and main cpp and can be found with any emss distribution as of version 1 3 in the lt emss gt ExampleApplication folder a dankrusi dankrusi desktop emssframework trunk bin iE File Edit View Terminal Tabs Help Core entered safe mode Tracker SingleTracker loaded Tracker added ExpectedMovementTracker Tracker added FrenetMovementTracker Tracker added RawMovementTracker Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation loaded Core connected Controller EmssController started TaskManager started RemoteInterfaceListener started RemoteInterfaceSender started RemoteInterface started on 127 0 0 1 9000 Core running TaskManager NavigationTask added TaskManager NavigationTask started Figure 10 1 Test Application Running in the Console The application does not provide a user interface and runs strictly top down without the use of a
99. e forwards direction Figure 7 8 Deviation of Commanded versus True Motion Test No Deviation from Deviation from Deviation from Angular Y axis mm Y axis percent X axis mm Deviation degrees l 3 18 2 ae 3 3 03 4 291 5 2 93 6 3 21 7 3 23 8 960 4 Be 301 9 3 35 10 1035 6 90 765 3 14 Table 7 7 Measured Deviation from a Straight Line 80 7 3 2 Evaluation Whenever a command was given for the robot to drive straight it drifted slightly either to the right or the left An attempted solution to this problem was made in CorrectedFrenetTracker which removed the deviations in the simulation of the robot However when applied to the hardware the robot could not correct its movements due to its inability to react to the small changes in wheel speeds Only the calculated position with error could be determined which was quite accurate Nonetheless the current localization still remains inaccurate over time especially when complex movements are performed 7 4 Protocol for Third Party Applications The Remote Protocol was developed to access for third party applications to access the core This yielded many benefits such as running tasks on the robot over the network and retrieving current system information The Wireless Positioning System PointZero is already using this feature for collecting fingerprints by actively connecting to the emss framework and exchanging messages 7 5 Assembly of Additional Units
100. e found in Section 10 6 7 10 2 6 Example Script for Fresh Ubuntu Installation The following downloads and installs all needed libraries checks out the emss Framework source code configures the emss Scripts builds the Core and Interface and finally runs the emss Interface Download and install libraries sudo apt get install subversion sudo apt get install gt sudo apt get install libqt4 dev sudo apt get install libasound2 dev Check out source code 104 svn co https emssframework svn sourceforge net svnroot emssframework trunk emssframework Configure scripts cd emssframework Scripts chmod u x sh 2fSetup sh Build and run the default component Interface eb er Code 10 1 Example Environment Installation for Ubuntu 10 3 Core Any application which wishes to make use of the emss framework must link against the emss Core library LibemssCore a and initialize a Core object The Core object is the entry point into the entire emss framework allowing one to connect to hardware and begin controlling a robot Furthermore the CoreFactory 1s also an essential player in quickly creating a user interface for an application using the emss framework In this chapter a detailed set of instructions are described for setting up a Qt 4 5 application which links against the emss Core library Furthermore a simple application is presented as an example how to setup and connect the emss Core In Section 10 3 3 all the con
101. e line height can be determined using the slop m axis intersection b double y2 m p x b IF TE Pd ds smaller than y2 then this line Es Mmtersecteda TE PY lt v2 Gross ings ti ES LE Lae number of lt crossings Ls event the point 16 onside otherwise LA ee OTIS SOS 1f crossings 2 1 return false else return true Code 6 5 Implementation of the Jordan Curve Theorem 4 6 3 5 3 ColorMap The ColorMap incorporates common routines needed by Maps which work in a two point five dimensional 2 5D color space meaning Maps which have a specific color value for every two dimensional coordinate In addition to providing query functions such as getPixelValue x y and getChannelValue the ColorMap class manages the memory for the underlying data 6 3 5 3 1 HeatMap The HeatMap is built to visualize the discovered environment of the robot When the robot moves through its environment the MovementTrackers send signals to the appropriate Maps such as the HeatMap registering various kinds of heat The Heat Map supports two kinds of heat Open Area and Collision Area Open Area 1s displayed as green and portrays the robots path through the environment while Collision Area is displayed as red and represents any sort of collision or obstacle forming the environments boundary The HeatMap can be consulted by different Core modules in order to make decisions such as navigational choices In add
102. e test allows one to define specific wheel speeds via the console The move is then executed either over a given time or distance depending on what was entered in the console Table 6 2 Different Test Movements of the TestMoveTasks 6 3 8 Remote Interface RemotelInterface 1 RemotelInterfaceListener RemotelInterfaceSender RemotelInterfaceMessage In order to enable third party software to be able to make use of the emss framework including access to its Maps and Tracker and the ability to start and stop Tasks the Remote Interface has been realized and implemented When the Remote Interface is enabled the Core will initialize it and start the appropriate listener and sender CoreThread classes The Remote Interface then is ready to send and receive messages which in turn either provide information or cause actions The Remote Interface can be used both for remotely sending and receiving control information with the robot but also for binding third party applications which run locally on the robot hardware with the emss Core Any module which wishes to use the Remote Interface may do so by connecting to its appropriate signals An example application is the communication between the Wireless Positioning Software PointZero and the emss framework required for fingerprinting where the two softwares can easily communicate even though the software environments are very different 6 3 8 1 Protocol The prot
103. e toolbar actions range from finding out information about a point on the map to placing the robot docked on the home station Caption Add Task Description Opens a dialog box in which a Task can be specified to be added for scheduling in the TaskManager Navigate Adds a new NavigationTask for scheduling in the TaskManager Set NavPoint Places a new navigation point at the clicked point on the map requires map Click Reset NavPoints Map Info Removes all navigation points Outputs information about the various maps for a specific point on the map Local Position in Cartesian coordinates millimeters Global Position in GPS coordinates Whether or not the point is recognized as Collision Area Whether or not the point is recognized as Open Area Which color the PhysicalMap returns for the point in RGB values The recognized area type for the point on the PhysicalMap Wall Stairs Open The height of the TerrainMap The signal of the DockingStation if any requires map click Focus on Point Moves the center of focus of the Viewport window on the point clicked requires map click Find Robot Moves the center of focus of the Viewport to the current position of the robot Move Robot Moves the robot to the clicked point on the map requires map click Rotate Robot Rotates or orientates the robot towards the direction of the clicked point on the map requires map click
104. ecome alive shown in Figure 10 4 File Help ES Connecton Contraller Tasks Weights amet interince Ale Views Tasks Help EmssControder pa y _ _ Connection Contralle Weights Sei E Ale Views Tasks Help EmssController ps A Dl Splaehaagatan a Connection Controller Tasks Weights AveragedTracker 2 Core running Connection FEINA Start controlling and Control Sphreto agation l 2 Emulate Hardware interface OOM O Safe Mode Connect the Core TA Emulate Hardware interface Connect Sate Moda A DISCONMect X Alport History Control Panel Speed Graph 2 Diagnostics History Control Panel Speed Graph __ History Control Panel Speed Graph t amp Figure 10 4 The Interface Main Window and its Different States 133 10 4 2 1 File Menu The File menu shown in Figure 10 14 offers access to additional configuration settings related to the user interface and to the emss Core Some menu items such as Reset are only available when a emss Core has been initialized and are marked with Core required Description The current world state is discarded and a new default or saved state is loaded When connected the reset functionality will automatically re connect Core required Icon Item Reset Save World State The current state of the robot and docking station as well as navigation points are saved to the configuration f
105. ection to turn this is in fact the last direction which was used to avoid the last seen obstacle Initially turning before making a proper decision is necessary because no information about the obstacle can be gathered from the IR sensor if the robot drives straight towards it Once the robot has started turning and the Weight has waited a small distance it can assess the _5 situation again to determine if the direction it is turning 1s incorrect or in other words if the obstacle it is trying to avoid is actually getting closer The assessment is accomplished by keeping track for the first original encounter with the object cp as well as the position of the robot at that time tr and the current encounter with the object cp along with the current position of the robot tr as shown in Figure 6 22 Then the angle f between the two vectors tr1cp1 and cp1cp2 is B cos ltricp1 lcp1cp21 If 6 is less than 90 the direction must have been wrong and should be corrected cp A cnc Cp2 gt tr cp robot path hs SL De tr Q Figure 6 22 Making the Collision Avoidance Assessment 6 3 6 3 6 WallFollowerWeight This Weight is used to follow walls The first step is to find the wall Because the robot may not have any idea about the current structure of the room it begins by driving straight ahead until it detects an obstacle At this point if the obstacle was detected using the forward looking IR se
106. efforts on a global scale robots still can just barely walk Webb 2001 The community is still trying to get off 1ts feet to reach the breakthroughs needed to launch the new century as the Century of Robotics The iRobot Create is a special version of the popular vacuum cleaner robot called Roomba The Create is specifically designed for hobbyists and robot enthusiasts who wish to build on an existing platform instead of starting from scratch Therefore it no longer contains a vacuum cleaner but rather a cargo bay with an interface to the internal hardware In our former Semester Project a robotics framework was successfully realized based on the hardware provided by iRobot The goal of the project was to create a self sustaining robot which manages to navigate and explore its environment by itself without remote influence This way it is able to return to a charging station if necessary in order to to keep alive The project focused on the development of software which reads data from the iRobot s built in sensors as well as from additional sensors plans the robot s path based on the sensor data and controls the robot s movement along this path The software foundation required for these tasks was realized along with an in depth look at theoretical solutions for the given problems In addition a large part of the theory was implemented and tested in both a partially simulated environment as well as a physical hardware environment Along wi
107. elds of Computer Science were covered from accessing hardware to network programming to graphical user interfaces Also many theoretical and mathematical works was undertaken as well as reading of relevant papers of the field The project was so interesting that many times we forgot the time and worked too much However that wasn t a problem as we were happy to accomplish the different goals set before us The teamwork with Daniel Kr si was very agreeable and I treasure the cooperativeness of Prof Stefan Keller and Dr Joachim Wirth which were always available for questions I have learned much and I would do the work again Robotics will remain an interest of mine most definitely 9 9 Thanks Special thanks to Prof Stefan Keller and the HSR Institute for Software for their support in the project We also especially thank Dr Joachim Wirth for his continued support throughout the entire emss project _ 99 100 10 Software Documentation 10 1 Installation The entire emss framework restricts itself to a single root folder lt emss gt so it 1s very simple to install Binary releases are built statically and should be able to run on a standard Linux OS X or Windows installation without any additional libraries The only setup required is for the script environment described in detail in Chapter 0 10 1 1 Linux and OS X 1 Download the latest source or binary tar from irobotcreate com such as emssComplete it X lt SOU
108. enetMovementTracker The Tracker module is responsible for providing other modules with information about the localization or positioning data of the robot However this responsibility only goes so far as to delegating the necessary calculations to the internal MovementTrackers which it then uses to compile a single resulting position MovementTrackers are therefore responsible for making calculations based on input from the Tracker on where the robot s position is The Tracker can then use this information from the different MovementTrackers to determine the best suitable position Even if a Tracker chooses to only use a single MovementTracker as its source of information for localization having other MovementTrackers registered proves useful for error comparison et cetera The interaction between an actor such as a Task or any other Core module and the Tracker is demonstrated below in Figure 6 8 Tracker AveragedTracker Where am 1 You are here e e S __ S U ee ee l l Figure 6 8 Representation of Interaction with Tracker A Tracker mostly receives its input information from the Controller via signals These signals include SignalMovedDistance signalChangedAngle signalChangedWheelSpeed and _29 signalObjectDetected As mentioned earlier the Tracker is solely responsible for relaying these signals to its various MovemenTrackers where the real calculations for localiz
109. ented In addition the simulated environment yields an accurate feature complete and flexible workspace for testing the software Safe navigation has been achieved by intelligently avoiding drops obstacles and walls by constantly generating and updating the various supporting data structures Furthermore small areas can be autonomously navigated and mapped using different space filling algorithms and map structures Other routine tasks such as docking the robot on its docking station have been implemented and tested Collaboration with third party software has been realized with the Wireless Positioning System PointZero by automatically collecting the necessary signal reference points called fingerprints Finally a rich graphical user interface is provided by the framework allowing user interaction with all the different modules within This chapter compares and analyzes the initial goals of the project with 1ts end results In addition a self assessment has been undergone which describes the quality of other aspects of the emss project 7 1 Safe Navigation within a Simple Room Safe navigation through a simple room was realized by the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module It contains the CollistonAvoidanceWeight which identifies objects and performs a maneuver around them in order to traverse the room without any collisions Collision free movement was consistently achieved in the test room However when put in new and different environment
110. entially executing a third party application see the Core settings Camera_CaptureToolPath Camera_CaptureToolCommand and Camera_CaptureTool0utFile in Section 10 3 3 which retrieves and saves the camera image When Auto Refresh is checked the image is automatically updated with the interval defined by Camera_AutoRefreshlinterval 10 4 2 12 Control Panel The Control Panel shown in Figure 10 12 and Figure 10 4 displays all the vital hardware information such as battery power current wheel speeds and all the physical sensors 10 4 2 13 Speed Graph The Speed Graph shown in Figure 10 12 bottom left maintains a chronological graph of both wheel speeds This is useful when attempting to visually debug the results of an algorithm of Weight 10 4 2 14 Docking Station The Docking Station view shown in Figure 10 12 top left allows easy manipulation of different signals within the virtual docking station Unchecking Enabled will cause all the signals or beams to turn off Individual signals can be turned on and off by using the Red Beam Green Beam and Force Field checkboxes When checked the Interference checkbox will cause the special undocumented signal 242 to be sent from the docking station overriding all other signals 14 This view 1s essential when testing algorithms related to the Docking Station such as the DockAndChargeTask or DockWeight 10 4 2 15 Map Objects The Map Object
111. ertical Anti Alias Scroller Y Auto Update Y Auto Focus Maps gt Y PhysicalMap Y GridMap TerrainMap V HeatMap vi FadingCollisionMap StructureMap Y ObjectMap 5 Menu Horizontal Scroller Figure 10 6 Viewport Displaying Toolbar and Menu The Viewport displays the various Maps PhysicalMap HeatMap etc loaded in the Core The Maps are described in further detail in Chapter 6 3 5 The main purpose of the Viewport is to represent the internal state of the Core in a visual fashion as well as present an interface for interacting with the different Maps The Viewport can be scrolled horizontally and vertically along its X and Y axis When in OpenGL mode see viewport_RenderMode in Section 10 4 3 the Viewport can also be zoomed in and out using the zoom slider Right clicking the Viewport opens up a menu of different functionality It is worthwhile noting that multiple instances of the Viewport can be shown each displaying its own set of Maps This is useful if it is wished to so show for example the Physical Map and Robot on one Viewport and just the HeatMap and StructureMap on a different Viewport Furthermore Viewports can be distributed onto different monitors or virtual desktops j 729 0 Sa 4 2 35 9 Yoo Figure 10 7 Multiple Viewports Displaying the Same Environment 136 10 4 2 6 1 Viewport Toolbar The toolbar allows quick access to various functionality within the emss Core Th
112. erval 4000 Start Figure 10 23 Starting Assisted Mapping in PointZero 11 Depending on the configuration there will be a short pause defined by Task_PauseTask_Timeout_ms before the robot will undock itself and begin fingerprinting At this time close the laptop screen and stand back clear of the docking station if not connected remotely Pointzero se lp rie Ye can Ems S Hep ES Indoor Positioning System Y Map Viewer Details ye r A NA r EMSS Assisted Mapping Status output LUNTAR TaAtas message task finished status interrupted task JoystickNavigationT ask message task staned istatus running task FingerprintNavigationT ask Location received Fingerprinting IP Address Port y 127 lo Io 1 9000 Z gt Y Wait time 4000 O SMS Interval 4000 Figure 10 24 PointZero Receiving Fingerprint Messages 10 5 3 Configuration The settings below are used by the FingerprintCollector application and can be located in the file lt emss gt resources emssFingerprintCollector config The settings marked with persistent are saved with the current values automatically when the application closes For further details on the different value types and configuration patches please see Section 11 5 in the glossary 154 Connection_Controller persistent Default EmssController Type string Description Defines which Contro
113. eseeeeeeens 142 Figure 10 13 FingerprintCollector Graphical User Interface ooocccccccnnnnnnoonooononcnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnos 145 Figure 10 14 Pin serprintCollector Men A Gecestasieeuseds 146 Figure 10915 Vie w pork Men ENS e a 148 Figure 10 16 Positioning the Physical Docking Station ooooooooooooccccnoncccnnnnnononononononnnnnnnnnnccnnnnnnnnnnnos 149 Figure 10 17 Powering on the 1RODOt Create asuisin a E a 149 Figure 10 18 Selecting the FingerprintCollector Porta aa 150 Fiure 10 19 Loadino a NEw Mati AA e A aa 150 Figure 10 20 Positioning the Virtual Docking Station oooonnnnnnnnininnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnananrnrrrro nono nono non nnnnnn noo 151 Figure 10 21 Placing the Robot on the Docking Station ooooooooooooooonncncncnnonononononoornnnnnnnnononcnnnnnnnnnnnnos 152 Figure 10 22 Setting Navigation Points for Fingerprinting ooooooooocnnnnnnnnnnnnononononononnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnannnnns 153 Figure 10 23 Starting Assisted Mapping in PointZero ooooocncccanaaanaaaananananananananan anno nono nono non rra nana nano 154 Figure 10 24 PointZero Receiving Fingerprint Messages 0000ccccccseesessesseeeseeseseseseeeseeseeeeeens 154 Pare ls A A A S 171 sure Ll 2 mport Meni A A A A een 171 Figure Lier Aiport Ot Projectes 171 Feme IA Add NEw OLVE O er E 172 Fiore k o ports COMP I RE E EE es 172 Figure 11 6 Create Configuration to run the application oooocnnnnnncccanooaoononanonononooroor nooo nono nn nnnnnonnnnnos 172
114. esna a 101 10 2 Build Insur a 102 1 O SS seein E N oid uated anit iat seein ttt nsscaanean 102 10 2 1 1 E PA sarees II II A A E asada 102 10 2 1 2 OS SPee OS ii o dia 102 WWL OS A A oe nee One eee ne ee 102 DADA WY INOW S oie cs he eh ad ssh cea eas asa ee ad sasha eas assed eect cee ees areas 103 1022 Environmental ads 103 E O A se oo eigs stearate bused oo oases AA BE dee 103 10 2 3 2 Manga Bud ee RC eT eC eee ea 104 A A eae ear renee sneer eae ey eee te er ere ee yee ener 104 ID A A 104 10 2 6 Example Script for Fresh Ubuntu Installation ooonnnnnnnccucicunanononanoonononnorrnnronrnoonoononoos 104 DU lo 105 1031 Linkine Againstthe Cord diia 105 O32 o A e o RE idee eee thal aea tele 106 DAS GB dd 109 10A o eA ta seedae cus EEES E R REE EOS 131 Ar A 131 10 2 Graphical User Ier ai E iiaa E A EE AE AA A 132 MAS CONO UG ATION seg asco AN 142 IOS OMe CLOT sacs cased ccs oss Gosche AEE Comtech oes Comet 144 TOS Graphical User terface eroina nana e EE A Sa eea S 144 10352 Fingerprnine Guido a 149 DS COMM CUPRA IN iaa 154 LUG A O A 157 MOT Ima lan Ma oia 157 O SCID PE aretha tietesiatconit annie oarath a ieetentaiaion tod enema tha eeatadaien totes 157 076 3 Senpe Set tratada 157 064 Environmental 158 NOS o AA A E AEE O II A 158 10 6 6 Updatino Component aa 160 1067 Butldins Components csere wee eae 160 10 68 RMN Applica OASIS A a aa 161 10 09 Cleanine APpicCaNONS eenia A nts 161 A A india
115. f Communication sIf a 6 2 Environment Because of the natural progression of software languages and operating systems the choice and understanding of the environment of software has become increasingly important Working with microcontrollers in the field of robotics we chose the programming language of C which is well proven in the industry as a robust middle level language C is both a highly advanced and efficient language and if used correctly results in very stable and robust applications C by itself does not offer any support in creating cross platform graphical user interfaces which is why we use the Of framework from Qt Software formerly Trolltech to assist us We are very proud to be able to offer a software framework in which every component including modules such as serial communications cross compile on Windows Linux and OS X All software components are written in C and are fully compatible with any of the GNU 4 x compilers Additionally we have made use of software libraries The Core modules of the emss software are all packaged into a single library which in turn is linked to by any of the user interfaces The use of Qt Signals and Slots has been used heavily throughout the framework Signals and slots are used for the communication between objects They are similar to callbacks using pointer functions but have the advantage that they are type safe meaning the signature of a signal must match the signatu
116. f the controller and thus typically the average speed of the robot Button Connect Disconnect When pressed the Core is either connected or disconnected depending on which state the Core is in A Core is automatically initialized if needed however when disconnecting the Core is not discarded but kept for the next connection Button Abort When pressed a Core abort operation is performed This attempts to interrupt all tasks and shutdown all CoreThreads 10 4 2 5 Diagnostics The Diagnostics group offers information related to software and hardware diagnostics The most important is the History tab The History is the standard output for all Core modules Important information related to the current state of the different modules are displayed in chronological order Messages are always preceded by a timestamp and the module which created the message in the format of hh mm ss fff Module Messages are split into three categories Information Output in white and display general information regarding connection states Task execution et cetera Warnings Output in yellow and display more information related to improper configurations or minor errors which require the attention of the user Errors Output in red and display information related to serious errors within the Core At this point the Core is considered unstable and should be reconfigured and reset 135 10 4 2 6 Viewport Toolbar emss Viewport V
117. fWeightsNavigation We consider the SplineNavigation module to be a mechanical method for controlling a differential steering system as the entire path for navigation is pre determined and then executed The start and end are given the execution is calculated and then faithfully realized When the state of the environment changes such as an unforeseen obstacle appears the spline must be altered by changing or appending navigation points an undesired effect in the design An alternative to the SplineNavigation approach is the navigation using a system of weights the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module Unlike the spline approach the SystemOfWeightsNavigation 1s completely dynamic and reacts almost solely on the current perception on the state of the environment at that moment of time Thus we call it organic because it constantly adapts to its surrounding environment In a sense it 1s not interested how it will exactly reach its goal but rather how it will at that moment of time in that current state strive towards its goal Essentially the system revolves around two variables the left and right wheel speed v and vp These create a channel or pipeline of weights W v vp in which different weights can be independently attached to defined as v z la As w 5 W 1 0 wiw 1 n Ur where n is the number of weights in the channel and wg are the functions which define the weights Such weights influence the variables v an
118. figuration settings for the emss Core are thoroughly described For more details and documentation on the Core please see Chapter 6 3 1 For details on how to setup a working environment with Eclipse see Section 11 5 3 in the Appendix 10 3 1 Linking Against the Core Library 10 3 1 1 Qt Components The emss framework makes use of and therefore requires the following Qt components QtCore QtGui QtNetwork QtOpengl and QtXml These must be added to the Or Project File pro as such QT core gui network opengl xml 10 3 1 2 Resources and Definitions Some resources are required by the framework such as icons and standard texts and must also be specified in Of Project File RESOURCES lt emss gt DefaultResources Icons qrc RESOURCES lt emss gt DefaultResources Texts qrc win32 RC_FILE lt emss gt DefaultResources Winlcon rc 22 For more information on Qf Project Files please see the official Qt documentation at http doc trolltech com 4 5 qmake project files html 105 If you wish to use the HeapLogger feature for testing purposes you must define the following variable in the Project File DEFINES ENABLE HEAP LOGGING 10 3 1 3 Libraries On Windows and OS X the only required library is the emss Core library However on Linux better sound support is provided by the popular asound library 1ibasound2 This library is available on all Debian distributions and can easily be installed with th
119. flexible for different project needs and remains as a useful source i base 29 ss a a y na ow xee oh Open Source edit The emss project is licensed under GPLv3 8 which in short features the following a the freedom to use the software for any purpose a the freedom to change the software to suit your needs a the freedom to share the software with your friends and neighbors and a the freedom to share the changes you make lv Done y Figure 7 12 Start Page of Project Website Web Addresses Description http irobotcreate com MediaWiki with entire documentation screenshots photos videos and downloads http emssframework sourceforge net Official SourceForge address http sourceforge net projects emssframework SourceForge project page http youtube com group irobotcreate YouTube video group _ 84 7 7 Qualitative Achievements 7 7 1 Software Stability The emss framework version 1 3 is very stable and never crashes Even when the underlying hardware stops responding due to battery failure et cetera the user interface remains responsive and a clean shut down of the software can be performed Care has been taken to avoid null pointer runtime errors and where necessary locks have been implemented for thread safety It is worthwhile to mention that this was achieved without the use of exceptions which were not used for performance reasons due to the underlying x86 architecture used 7 7 2 Cross
120. h only requires a human readable type name and a pointer to its Core in order to be constructed In addition a thread priority may be specified in the constructor When activated HeapLogger routines are called in order to keep track of which coreThreads are on the heap 6 3 1 4 CoreFactory The CoreFactory Class serves as the factory for the entire Core It is responsible for creating the different modules and their various implementations For modules which have multiple implementations a name must be specified which corresponds to the human readable type name given IN CoreObject Or CoreThread All factory methods return pointers to a created object on the heap when successful and NULL otherwise Objects returned by the CoreFactory remain under the responsibility of the callee meaning that they must also be cleaned up by the one who called the factory method However in most cases this responsibility can easily be delegated The following factory methods are available createCOIL createTracker cr ateMovementTracker createNavigation createTaskManager createController createRemoteInterface createWatchdog createGUIView and createTask 6 3 2 COIL EmulatedCOIL The C Open Interface Library or COIL was originally implemented by Jesse DeGuire and Nathan Sprague as a POSIX compliant C wrapper for the Robot Open Interface We have created a C For more information
121. ha le0 0 1 0 alpha 180 0 1 0 Code 6 7 OrientationWeight Modification in Weight Channel 6 3 6 3 3 JoystickWeight The JoystickWeight binds the signals from a Joystick widgets into the channel When the joystick s yokes are idle zero the JoystickWeight will have no influence However when the yokes are active the Weight will alter the wheel speeds to correspond to the movement of the joystick double yokeX core gt Joystick gt getYokexX double yokeY core gt Joystick gt getYokeY double tolerance 0 06 if yokeY 0 amp amp yokeX 0 return else if yokeY lt tolerance amp amp yokeY gt tolerance v Vector2D yokeX yokex else v Vector2D yokeY yokeY yokeX yokeY yokeY yokeX Code 6 8 Joystick Weight Modification in Weight Channel 6 3 6 3 4 RemoteControlWeight So that the robot can also be controlled via a remote control the RemoteControlWeight is provided This weight checks the incoming infra red signals from a remote control and reacts correspondingly _50 Left ForwardLeft Forward Pause Right ForwardRight Disconnect Figure 6 21 Remote Control Button Layout The following functions are implemented Button l Description Left Turns the robot left around its own axis ForwardLeft Moves the robot forwards while peering to the left Forward Moves the robot forwards ForwardRight Moves the robot forwards while peering to the right Right Turns t
122. he aim of the ExpectedMovementTracker is to perform localization based solely on what one would expect the hardware to do that is mathematically While the results are very satisfactory the ExpectedMovementTracker however is not mathematically sound it is only an approximation The tackled problem here is that the emss robot has a differential steering system with independent wheel velocities v and vp provided by the method registerChangedWheelSpeed vl vr Our approach is based on the movement of each wheel as arcs of circles as shown in Figure 6 10 The radius of these circular trajectories is given by the difference of velocities With this approach one immediately assumes v Vp as when v Up the radius R and the emulation for v vp is trivial With this model one can formulate the local change in angle as E where S is the distance travelled by the arbitrarily chosen left wheel arc length of c The radius R 1s defined as R ee VR VL Thus the offset of the robot over time t can trivially be calculated using R d and which is exactly what the ExpectedMovementTracker does Figure 6 10 Robot Moving CCW on Circle Arcs The precision of the ExpectedMovementTracker decreases as t increases because of the way the transformation is applied However as already stated the error remains very low since t is always small in relation to a Po 6 3 44 3 FrenetMovemenTracker Taking the ExpectedMovementTrac
123. he robot right around its own axis Pause Interrupts the currently running Task 1f any Disconnect Core is disconnected Table 6 1 Description of Remote Control Commands 6 3 6 3 5 CollisionAvoidanceWeight This Weight is responsible for avoiding all kinds of collisions It must avoid collisions in the distance via the IR sensor contact collisions via the bumper and drop collisions via cliff sensors In addition to attempting to avoid these collisions it also must be able to resolve a situation if a collision was encountered The CollisionAvoidanceWeight relies heavily on the FadingCollisionMap detailed in Section 6 3 5 4 This Map serves as the underlying data source for preemptively avoiding a collision The Weight has five different modes for handling the various situations l NorMAL No collision or obstacle detected continue ahead 2 OBSTACLE_ENCOUNTER An obstacle has been encountered mark where it is and try to decide which direction to avoid it 3 OBSTACLE_AVOIDANCE We ve made a decision how to avoid the obstacle move away from it DROP_AVOIDANCE A drop has been detected avoid it by reversing a given distance 5 BUMPER_AVOIDANCE The bumper was pressed avoid the obstacle by reversing When in OBSTACLE_ENCOUNTER mode the Weight intelligently avoids an obstacle by turning away from it and if needed by correcting the original direction for which it turned away This is achieved by first arbitrarily choosing any dir
124. hen can a robot take it s prematurely crowned role of being mankind s helper For thousands of years we have tried to understand our perceptions starting with primitive cave drawings and slowly mastering perception with realistic paintings However teaching robots to understand perception has proven very difficult even though a robot can easily imitate its environment through the form of radar sonar lidar or visual images After forty years of dedicated efforts on a global scale robots still have trouble recognizing our face they move carefully through our world with a slow pace and are shy to interact They just barely have learned how to walk Webb 2001 In many ways the robot is still a toddler unable but eager to explore the world However they are growing faster and faster Each year we are introduced to new robots that are superior in perception and mobility Each year new robots join our daily lives in some fashion or another Our question remains when will we be able to christen this century as the Century of Robotics 2 1 Task 2 Project Definition The concrete goal is to create a basic environment map of obstacles and floor plan to the most accurate degree possible with the given hardware and data sources while safely navigating and exploring the area allowing third party applications such as a WPS to use the localization data for their own purposes Data Sources for localization are include feedback from wheel
125. hes when all the navigation points have been reached During the pause for the sending of the fingerprint message 1t 1s desirable for the robot to softly stop and start again This is achieved by temporarily deactivating any Weights which cause the robot to move FullSpeedWeight OrientationWeight and WallFollowerWeight Using this technique allows the robot to come to a soft stop because the AccelerationFilterWeight and ControllerSpeedWeight are still engaged _ 59 6 3 7 5 Discovery2Task This Task can discover an environment by covering the entire area within a room It requires that the StructureMap be finished its polygon closed before starting The Discovery2Task navigates the entire area based on the closed room defined by the StructureMap If the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module is being used the following Weights are setup in the weight channel gt FullSpeedWeight gt OrientationWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt ControllerSpeedWeight gt The first thing the Discover2Task does is to evaluate all the HeatMap heat spots which are inside the StructureMap and added to a list navigationPoints This 1s realized in the preProcess method To optimize this process a grid 1s defined over the surrounding area int gridSize 10 Vector navigationPoints TE SeructureMap i skin rsh a for ink oc 07 oe hearMap gt Wtdtim X oriudsize 4 for int y 0 y lt heatMap gt height yt gridSize if
126. hich upon clicking on the map would both set a new navigation point and focus the window on that point in the map Icon Caption Description Map Info Outputs information about the various maps for a specific point on the map Local Position in Cartesian coordinates millimeters Global Position in GPS coordinates Whether or not the point is recognized as Collision Area Whether or not the point is recognized as Open Area Which color the PhysicalMap returns for the point in RGB values The recognized area type for the point on the PhysicalMap Wall Stairs Open The height of the TerrainMap The signal of the DockingStation if any requires map click Focus On Point Moves the center of focus of the Viewport window on the point clicked requires map click 3 Find Robot Moves the center of focus of the Viewport to the current position of the robot an Move Robot Moves the robot to the clicked point on the map requires map click Rotate Robot Rotates or orientates the robot towards the direction of the clicked point on the map requires map click Move Docking Station Moves the docking station to the clicked point on the map If the setting Robot_DockingStation_SnapToWall_ Enabled 1s enabled true and the docking station is close to a wall it is automatically aligned and snapped to the wall requires map click Rotate Docking Station Rotates or orientates the docking sta
127. ific scripts such as er eubr and ecc prove useful in a daily work environment 10 6 1 Initialization The init sh script is used internally by other scripts to easily initialize all the settings and variables needed In addition it includes all the common functions used across multiple scripts If a splash has not already been shown the script will display a splash screen with some environment information Location home dankrusi emssframework trunk SVN https emssframework svn sourceforge net svnroot emssframework trunk Target release Versions Li OS iu Architecture x86 Verbose true Resources home dankrusi emssframework trunk resources Logs home dankrusi emssframework trunk logs Default Component Interface Code 10 5 Script Splash Screen 10 6 2Setup The setup sh script will setup the emss script environment by automatically creating settings resource and logs folders as well as shortcuts to various scripts It is recommended to run this script when setting up a new emss workspace Usage setup sh 10 6 3Script Settings Each script typically requires at least one or more environment settings These settings are stored in the file sett ings sh which is not provided in any of the emss packages The settings sh script must be created using the create_settings sh Or setup sh Script 3 Some versions of OS X require the GNU Core Utils to be installed as the tools are not implemented correctly by the operating
128. ile This is useful when performing the same task multiple times Core required 7 Core Settings Opens a Settings Editor for the currently loaded Core configuration file The individual settings are described in detail in Section 10 3 3 Core required 7 Interface Settings Opens a Settings Editor for the currently loaded FingerprintCollector configuration file The individual settings are described in detail in Section 10 5 3 7 Reset File Paths Enables a user to reset the file paths to the emss resources and logs folders Exit 10 4 2 2 Views Menu Closes the application after disconnecting 1f necessary the Core Table 10 14 Interface File Menu Entries The Views menu shown in Figure 10 14 allows any GUI view to be created These views will open into a separate window and are automatically connected to the currently loaded Core This menu 1s only available when a emss Core has been initialized and connected 10 4 2 3 Tasks Menu The Tasks menu shown in Figure 10 14 allows any Core Task to be created and scheduled for running This menu is independent of which Core it is linked against and will automatically populate itself with all the available Tasks in the connected Core This menu is only available when a emss Core has been initialized and connected Help Reset E Save World State a Core Settings a Interface Settings 7 Reset File Paths
129. ing hallways stair drops doorways corners and some large obstacles A live demonstration will be given of the robot s functionality in such a test environment 2 Agile development will be practiced and where appropriate with Unit Tests Value is placed on well tested software with easy installation 3 A User Manual is only required in justified cases 4 For a successful project completion 12 ECTS points requiring at least 360 work hours per person will be awarded 2 3 Conditions Infrastructure Deadlines und Assessment 1 Conditions Hardware OS a Robot Create Hardware b x86 Computer c OS Windows Linux 2 Software a GNUC C b 0t4 5 c Eclipse IDE d GNU GDB 3 Deadlines und Assessment According to requirements at www i hsr ch 3 Current Situation 3 1 Robotics Field A household name for several decades now the robot is a well studied creature The field of robotics has been keenly researched and applied in the areas of engineering mathematics and even distant practices such as philosophy Mobile robots those which are movable and disjoint from their environment have been especially studied by both the research community and hobbyists There remain few untouched topics revolving around the problematics of such robots However most of the researched topics related to robotics still remain widely unresolved The community is still trying to get off its feet to reach the breakthroughs needed to launch
130. inux gnu 10 6 5 Creation 10 6 5 1 Creating Settings Running this script will create a default settings sh file and can automatically detect variables such as EMSS SVN and os Before using any scripts either create_settings sh Or setup sh must be run Usage create_settings sh 158 10 6 5 2 Creating Resources and Logs This script creates a resources folder specified by RESOURCES containing the default emss resources lt emss gt DefaultResources as well as a log files folder specified by Locs Usage create_settings sh 10 6 5 3 Creating and Patching Config Files The create_configs sh script will create a set of default configuration files config in the RESOURCES folder The newest version of the configurations is automatically retrieved from the SVN server If specific files already exist then they are overwritten You can specify custom settings and configurations by creating a patch file Patch files must match the name of the configuration file but must include patch at the end For example to patch the emssCore config file one would create a file emssCore config patch next to 1t When create_settings sh is called the new emssCore config is patched with all the settings in emssCore config patch This proves especially useful when working collaboratively during development In this environment there are typically many new Core configurations from different sources merged by SVN Overwriting the config file is necessary
131. ion SystemOfwe Fingerprint Collector co Core connected 302 Controller EmssContro 312 TaskManager started 314 RemotelnterfaceListene 314 RemoteinterfaceSenderim a 314 Remotelntertace starta Core running Figure 10 21 Placing the Robot on the Docking Station 8 Set all the desired navigation points on the map for the area which is to be covered by fingerprinting Note that a navigation point does not define where a fingerprint is taken just where the robot will drive through The robot will decide by itself when it is time to take a fingerprint 27 To avoid problems during navigation make sure the path stays clear from obstacles or sharp corners In general it is best to lay a path with at least 90 cm of space on both sides 152 emss Fingerprint Collector File Help Settings Controller EmssController Tracker SingleTracker Navigation SystemOfweightsNavigation Port dev ttyUSBO v _ Emulate Hardware Interface Speed 50 7 Disconnect Load New Map A Start Fingerprinting 3 23 27 302 Navigation SysternOf WIN Fingerprint Collector co Core connected 302 Controller EmssContro 312 TaskManager started 314 RemotelnterfaceListene 314 RemoteinterfaceSende 3 314 Remotelnterface starte 3 23 27 314 Core running Figure 10 22 Setting Navigation Points for Fingerprinting 9 A this point the menu item Save World State can optiona
132. ion y ymax Lies on the bounds add to candidates candidates append ct Now we have our candidates find the most distant ct points 1 candidates constBegin double maxdist 0 foreach CorrelationTriangle cti in the candiates foreach CorrelationTriangle ctj in the candiates double disti Arst Crisco I sion y 60838001 S N he LE distr gt maxdist y d masxdist Cis ta o wall start cti wall end ct saa 4 Now that the two most distant CorrelationTriangle points have been determined we need to check if all the other correlationTriangle s in the log fall close to the line between the most distance points There are actually two lines The first being 1inewa11 which is the line along the detected closestwa11 points from physical map The second is lineCollision which is the line along the detected collision points from sensor To determine if a point falls on a line with a permitted deviation maxLineDeviation the distance d from a point to lx1 lxo lxo the line can be used Kimberling 1998 d ma rn E where l represents the line and x17 x0 ct the point to sample wall valid true Assume it is a valid wall foreach CorrelationTriangle ct in correlationLog 7 Get the distance of thie Cl point trom the Line Tf the distance is too large then the suspected wall is invalid as the points do not fall on a straight line what we assume to be
133. ipsoid Robot_DockingStation_SnapToWall_Enabled Default Crue Type bool Description When true placing the docking station close to a wall will automatically snap it to the side of the wall This proves very useful when trying to position the docking station accurately 120 Robot_FrontCliffSensorPositionAngle Default 13 Type Description The angle at which the front cliff sensors are offset from the forward center of the chassis Robot_SharpIRSensorCutoffValue Default 800 Type ou Description The cut off value of the Sharp IR sensor mounted in the value This is the cut off value in millimeters compared to a cut off based on the analog signal This cut off value is used to ignore any sensor data that is not considered accurate Typically the sensor will deliver INT MAX when the sensor does not recieve a valid signal thus the cut off value can be used in the fashion if irsensor lt Robot_SharpIRSensorCutoffValue to validate it Robot_SideCliffSensorPositionAngle Default 62 Type ore Description The angle at which the side cliff sensors are offset from the forward center of the chassis Robot_StartingPositionX_mm Default 0 9 Type mm double Description Defines the initial robot starting position x coordinate in millimeters If the value specified is between 0 0 and 1 0 the value represent the percent position on the map Map Width Robot StartingPositionX mm R
134. is actually send commands to the Controller This must be done by a Task which collects the navigational information from the Navigation module and forwards it to the Controller Typically such a task will automatically add new navigational points and make decisions when to abort or finish navigating 6 3 6 1 SplineNavigation The SplineNavigation module is the original navigational implementation in the emss framework and has mostly been replaced by the newer more dynamic SystemOfWeightsNavigation The underlying mechanism used for navigation by the SplineNavigation module are spline curves ee Seen e 2 Figure 6 18 Navigation Using Splines We can use spline curves to directly control the movement of the two wheeled robot by calculating the first derivative of the spline speed In this scenario each wheel must have its own spline curve to drive along based on the given navigation points The navigation points Pp are defined by a finite series of n coordinates which the robot must visit in sequential order Using these points we construct a spline curve C of n nodes which represents the navigational curve in a two dimensional space This curve is the path the center axis of the robot must pass through when traversing the points Po py However we need the curves for both the left and right wheel if we want to directly control the differential steering system To create these curves all we need to do is traverse C and create and a
135. ition other influences such as a user can also color the HeatMap manually for diagnostic reasons such as staking out a territory Figure 6 16 HeatMap Displaying Open Area green and Collision Area red 6 3 5 4 FadingCollisionMap The small error in localization of the robot overtime leads to greater error which in turn can result in phantom objects These phantom objects are the ghosts of previously detected obstacles where the error in localization has shifted the robots position over time misaligning the current position and the data on the HeatMap compared with the real world However where the HeatMap claims to see an object there actually is no object anymore relative to the believed localized position This yields a problem when trying to safely navigate using the HeatMap suddenly the robot will avoid these phantom objects although nothing is in its way Using the current sensors alone is not efficient as a detected drop needs to be remembered in some extent to make sure to avoid it completely some sort of remembering map must be used This is where the FadingCollisonMap comes to use It does exactly what the name implies it slowly fades away the detected collisions over time only remembering the local most recent collisions This has proven to work very well when navigating an unknown environment even when the localization is not stable LAG To register collisions in the Map a new structure 1s defined struc
136. k 5 DockAnaChargelask Wakin Please select a task Vector Circle A E TestMoveTask Options Accuracy Test wallFollowerTask Tracker Calibratio Straight with Weights U 2907 RoamingTask 153279032 UndockTask DiscoveryTask Custom Move Finished DiscoveryTask2 Task Information erval 100 NavigationTask UndockTask SplineNavigationTask stance 500 250 FingerprintNavigationTask AccuracyTestTask New Task DorkandOhsranTsele Dialog 9 New Task o Close Figure 10 8 Task Editor with New Task Dialog The Task Editor displays all the Tasks registered with the Core and their status The top of the window features a chronological list of the Tasks When a Task in the list 1s clicked a more detailed set of information is displayed just below it To make the interface more comfortable Task statuses are assigned a specific color 138 Red Indicates the Task has been indefinitely interrupted by the TaskManager Gray Indicates the Task has finished its execution Blue Indicates that the Task is currently being executed by the TaskManager Black Indicates that the Task is waiting to be scheduled by the TaskManager If an Idle Task is defined in the Core setting TaskManager_IdleTask the TaskManager will automatically instantiate such a Task The Idle Task always stays at the top of the list whether it is running or not Typically the Idle Task has the status Interrupted h
137. ker to the next step the FrenetMovementTracker implements a mathematically sound tracker for the differential steering system of the robot This Tracker uses the theory Jean Fr d ric Frenet Frenet 1847 and Joseph Alfred Serret Serret 1851 formulated in the 19th century regarding kinematic properties of movement along a continuous differentiable curve in three dimensional Euclidean space R The resulting formulas now known as the Frenet Serret formulas specifically describe the derivatives of the tangent t normal n and binormal b unit vectors Figure 6 11 in terms of each other dt _ qs Kn dn _ i a Kt T db _ age d ae l l where z S the derivative with respect to the arclength k is the curvature of the curve and T is the torsion of the curve Carmo 1976 Figure 6 11 Illustration of Frenet Unit Vectors for Curve in R Following do Carmo s literature Carmo 1976 a plane curve in R such as the path for which the robot moves along is simplified because t 0 which results in dt _ g 7 dn ds Since the curvature is directly related to the change in angle the formula from Section 6 3 4 4 2 can be used to define x parametrized for time instead of arclength 36 ae 2 vr vil i d vr vl ds y dx dy The following differential equation must be solved in order to determine the movement through space over time in R Xo x4 Vo y x4 ds k t x gt y ds k t y2 Xo ds
138. king on the map would both set a new navigation point and focus the window on that point in the map 10 4 2 6 2 Viewport Menu When a right click is performed on the Viewport a small menu is shown The following menu items are available for this menu Native Render OpenGL Render Displays whether the Viewport is being rendered natively using software or on the hardware using OpenGL See Viewport_RenderMode in Section 10 5 3 on how to configure the render mode Anti Alias When checked MapObjects and other Map elements will be rendered using anti aliasing When in OpenGL render mode the effect of the Anti Alias option might vary depending on what the hardware supports Auto Update When checked the Viewport will automatically refresh at the interval specified by the configuration setting Viewport_AutoUpdateInterval Auto Focus When checked the Viewport will automatically center its focus on the current position of the robot Maps Individiual Maps can be hidden from being displayed unchecking the Map name under the Maps menu 10 4 2 7 Task Editor ri emss JasK Editor 01PX t Jest Move x Idle Task Idle Task JoystickMavigationTask Inf Task 0 UndockTask Finished __ Please select a specific move Finished Tasks Rotate 360 E Se l Triangle Running Task 4 Task 3 WallFollowerTask Running Now Tack Straight A q I Task 4 RoamingTask Waiting i Waiting Tasks pa lid eee Task Circle we Tas
139. l Preconditions Standard Procedure UC3 Exploration Goal Preconditions Standard Procedure 1 User places robot in an unknown environment 2 User starts robot 1t will drive randomly around 3 Robot avoids collisions and drops 4 Task is finished when user stops it Table 4 1 UCI Safe Navigation Robot searches wall and follows it until it reaches the starting point again UCI Safe Navigation is implemented Room is closed no open doors Room features flat and smooth wall surfaces 1 User places robot in an unknown environment 2 User starts robot with the wall follower command 3 Robot searches for a wall 4 Task is finished when the whole structure of the room is known and the robot reaches its start position Table 4 2 UC2 WallFollower Robot explores an unknown environment fully covering the unexplored surface UCI Safe Navigation is implemented UC2 WallFollower is implemented User places robot in an unknown environment User starts robot Robot maps the structure of the room Robot explores the whole room until each area has been covered 5 Task finishes when the entire environment is known Table 4 3 UC3 Exploration A y ates UC4 Fingerprinting Goal Automatically collect wireless signal fingerprints with current positioning data Preconditions UCI Safe Navigation is implemented UC2 WallFollower is implemented UC3 Exploration is implemented Wireless Positioning Softwa
140. l that it is docked charging 119 Robot_DockingStation_OffsetRotation_deg Default 0 Type Description The docking station offset rotation This is used for placing the docking station underneath the robot or likewise placing the robot on top of the docking station Robot_DockingStation_OffsetX_mm Default 0 Type mm Description The docking station offset position x coordinate This is used for placing the docking station underneath the robot or likewise placing the robot on top of the docking station Robot_DockingStation_OffsetY mm Default 160 Type nO Description The docking station offset position y coordinate This is used for placing the docking station underneath the robot or likewise placing the robot on top of the docking station Robot_DockingStation_RedGreenBeam_Angle Default 4 Type deg Description The angle offset of the red and green beam from the center of the docking station emitter Robot_DockingStation_RedGreenBeam_Length_mm Default 4500 Description The length of the red and green beam ellipsoid from the center of the docking station emitter plus offset Robot_DockingStation_RedGreenBeam_Offset_mm Default 60 Type en Description The y offset of the red and green beam from the center of the docking station emitter Robot_DockingStation_RedGreenBeam_Width_mm Default 900 Type mm Description The width of the red and green beam ell
141. l bind itself to The address must be given in the form of 0 255 0 255 0 255 0 255 Remotelnterface_ListenerInterval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the RemoteInterfaceListener shall sleep wait while there are no incoming messages This is designed to allow a thread switch to easily occur during the RemotelnterfaceListener s process Remotelnterface_ Port Default 9000 Type string Description The IP address for which the RemotelInterface shall bind itself to Remotelnterface_SenderInterval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the RemoteInterfaceSender shall sleep wait while there are no outgoing messages This is designed to allow a thread switch to easily occur during the RemoteInterfaceSender s process Table 10 6 Core Configuration Values for RemoteInterface 10 3 3 7 Robot Robot_BumperCollisionOffset_mm Default Type mm Description The offset of a bumper collision from the center of the robot Robot Diameter mm Default Type mm Description The diameter of the robot s chassis Robot_DockingStation_Enabled Default true Type bool Description Specifies whether the docking station is turned on or not When false all beams will be turned off 118 Robot_DockingStation_StartingPositionX_mm Default 25000 Type mm Description The starting position x coordinate of the docking station in millimeter
142. latedCOIL when in emulation mode to determine when to trigger the cliff sensors This value must be adjusted depending on how the physical map is saved Finding a good value can be done by using the Environment Info tool in the emss Interface when the map is loaded and clicking on the different obstacles represented in the map The color levels of the environment for that point is output to the emss Interface console If needed an alpha value can be added in the format of R G B a such as 255 255 255 127 50 gray Map_PhysicalMap_Color_Tolerance Default 20 Description The level or tolerance used by the PhysicalMap when determining the area type for a specific location together with Map PhysicalMap Color Stairs and Map PhysicalMap Color Wall If a tolerance of 20 is specified then the color 240 240 240 would register for a wall specified as 255 255 255 Map PhysicalMap Color Tolerance is used to allow maps to be aliased around the edges of obstacles walls or stairs drops Map_PhysicalMap_Color_Wall Default 255 255 255 Type color Description The color which represents walls or obstacles in the physical map This is used by EmulatedCOIL when in emulation mode to determine when to trigger the IR sensors or bump sensors This value must be adjusted depending on how the physical map is saved Finding a good value can be done by using the Environment Info tool in the emss Interface when the map is loaded and clicking o
143. le total 0 for int i 0 i lt movementTrackers gt count i total movementTrackers gt at 1 gt getWeight movement Trackers gt at 1 gt getTotalAngle The end result is the skewed average return total totalWeight Code 6 3 Example AveragedTracker Calculation 6 3 4 3 SelfCorrectingTracker The SelfCorrecting Tracker is an advanced Tracker which inherits from SingleTracker This Tracker doesn t change anything the SingleTracker does but extends its functionality to be able to make corrections when deemed applicable To do this the SelfCorrectingTracker makes use of the currently loaded PhysicalMap to map correlations and determine if the overall localization has peered off in 30 error If such an error is determined it is accordingly corrected by adjusting all the MovementTrackers positions This Tracker looks to be promising for future work related to improving the quality or accuracy of the robot localization and is described in larger detail than the other Trackers To realize the SelfCorrectingTracker the data structure CorrelationTriangle see Figure 6 9 top and Suspect edwall has been defined struct CorrelationTriangle Trafoz2D position Trafo2D collision Trafo2D closestWall bi struct SuspectedWall bool valid CorrelationTriangle Start CorrelationTriangle end bi For every signalObjectDetected which the SelfCorrectingTracker receives a Correl
144. lementation only works in the simulated environment but should extend to the physical environment Furthermore the localization of the robot can be improved by a deeper study into the error model of the hardware behavior and the corresponding changes and implementations in the current model In addition external sources could be used to enhance or re align the localization Such sources could include specific marks in the environment which the robot could detect when encountered 3 2 2 Other Enhancements The robot currently has eyes but doesn t know how to use them Computer vision could be added to the framework by making use of the VGA camera which currently is not used by the modules for making decisions We believe if correctly implemented the processing power is available on the current hardware without the need for adding a new processor An interesting further enhancement would be the enabling of communication between two emss robots This way a whole swarm of robots could investigate and explore an area with a combined and central effort For such an application it would be important to first master the tracking and environment mapping features The underlying communications protocol already exists in the Remote Interface A further use of the emss robot could be to monitor a specific area at night This would require a robust localization implementation and the ability to dock and charge when needed but would yield a useful remot
145. list Description List of MovementTrackers which are registered with the Tracker component upon Core connection Each Tracker must be separated by a space It is possible to add multiple Trackers of the same type Tracker_MovementLog MinimumDistance_mm Default 100 Type dd Description The minimum distance required for the Tracker to translate before 1t can add a new position in the movement log This is designed to prevent the movement log from becoming over saturated with redundant data Tracker_SelfCorrectingTracker_CorrelationLog_MinimumDistance_mm Default 50 Type mm Description The minimum distance required between two correlation points in the SelfCorrectingTracker correlation log This is designed to prevent the correlation log from becoming over saturated with redundant data Tracker_SingleTracker_SelectedMovementTracker Default FrenetMovementTracker Type string Description The MovementTracker which is to be selected for retrieving the current transformation when using the SingleTracker component Tracker_CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker_vl Default 0 0 Type double Description The correction value in percent to be applied to any incoming registerChangedWheelSpeed signal left wheel speed in the CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker The value may be positive or negative A positive value will make the MovementTracker peer right while a negative value will make the MovementTracker peer lef
146. ller emer vj O Auto Refresh Secondary Viewport Camera View Figure 6 32 Composition of Different GUI Widgets 6 3 12 Unit Tests All unit tests are built on top of the OTestLib framework which is the official Ot Unit Test framework The header file UnitTestMacros h includes a set of extensions to QTestLib to meet the needs of testing within the emss framework In addition abstract classes such as CoreTest provide additional functionality to making the testing of a hot emss Core easier It is worthwhile to mention that unit testing within the emss framework can prove to be very tedious and sometimes very limited This is due to the nature that much of the code needs to be tested against hardware emulation is in the end still only an abstraction as well as many of the data structures rely on meaningful input data from sensors et cetera to be tested thoroughly However we believe the tests provided with the emss framework are robust and test the most significant elements of the emss Core double actual 0 000000 double expected 0 000001 QCOMPARE2 actual expected Compares actual with expected with a leniency of DOUBLE_PRECISION OCOMPARE3 actual expected 0 5 Compares actual with expected with a leniency of 0 5 expected Code 6 17 Example Extended Macros for the Testing Framework e The individual tests will not be discussed in further detail here however CoreTest and HeapTest worthwhile de
147. ller implementation to use Connection_Port persistent Default gt Type int Description Defines the default port which is selected when the application is started Connection_Tracker persistent Default SingleTracker Type string Description Defines which Tracker implementation to use Connection_Navigation persistent Default SystemOfWeightsNavigation Type SEKIN Description Defines which Navigation implementation to use Controller_TargetSpeed persistent Default 150 Description Defines the default Controller target speed which is set when the application is started Connection_SafeMode persistent Default false Type bool Description When true upon connection to the hardware COIL is set to enter Safe Mode instead of Full Mode When in Safe Mode the onboard controller prevents the robot from taking actions which may result in hardware damage Connection_EmulateHardware persistent Default true Type bool Description Defines whether or not the Emulate Hardware Interface should be checked when the application is started Log_LogToFile Default false Type bool Description When true all the messages output to the History panel or console are also saved to a log file in lt emss gt logs 155 Viewport_AutoUpdatelnterval Default 900 Type ms Description Defines the interval at which the Viewport automatically redraws itself If the a
148. lly be selected from the File menu This will save the current configuration for when the software is restarted 10 When everything is ready and setup the PointZero software can be started using the follwoing command java jar lt pointzero gt PointZeroExtreme jar Once started the software must register itself with the emss Core running inside of the FingerprintCollector application This is done by selecting the menu Emss then Emss Interface The EMSS Assisted Mapping dialog presents additional settings for the FingerprintNavigationTask such as the fingerprint interval and wait time Clicking the Start button will send a message to the emss RemotelInterface to begin fingerprinting 2 As of version 1 2 certain PointZero features are disabled until the login procedure has been performed Edit then Log in 2 Notice that if no navigation points are set the FingerprintNavigationTask will attempt to follow the walls in the room until it has closed the structure of the room If the Core setting Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_PreTasks contains one or more Tasks these are executed first before the fingerprinting is started 153 EMSS Assisted Mapping Status output LL File gt Edit E amp Help EMSS Interface 2 gt Missile Launcher Missile Server Ben Almedina PF Maraisi IP Address Port 127 l0 lo a 9000 Wait time 4000 O SMS Int
149. luence This way it 1s able to return to a charging station if necessary in order to keep alive The project focused on the development of software which reads data from the iRobot s built in sensors as well as from additional sensors plans the robot s path based on the sensor data and controls the robot s movement along this path The software foundation required for these tasks was realized along with an in depth look at theoretical solutions for the given problems In addition a large part of the theory was implemented and tested in both a partially simulated environment as well as a physical hardware environment 3 2 1 Hardware Top View Side View Angled View 1386 Computer Body and Chassis Auxiliary Tower Figure 3 1 Original Design Concept Based on a concept designed with a CAD program the different components necessary were purchased and assembled The final assembly almost realized the original design except for the auxiliary tower which was omitted The mobile hardware of emss robot consisted of the ready made Robot Create platform and a 12 inch 1386 laptop computer The immobile hardware consisted of a modified docking station which allows for the charging of both the wheel drive batteries as well as the laptop batteries 3 2 2 Software The underlying groundwork for the emss framework was implemented This included a multi threaded system in which different modules interacted with each other to perform navigational task
150. me required when developing new algorithms Next the navigation module in the software will be extended to allow an easier environment for which different tasks can be created in the system This new module will be based on previous work of the emss project called System of Weights Kr si amp Grob 2008 where the implementation will follow the described theory To be able to let third party software make use of the emss framework a protocol will be defined and implemented This will be realized either with UDP or TCP technology and will enable messages to be remotely sent to and from the robot as well as locally between the framework and other software In order to safely navigate through a room the implemented System of Weights will be used This system will have the advantage of allowing different weights to be flexibly defined and configured which best suite the task or environment Furthermore the individual weights will be implemented in such a fashion that they are most disjoint from each other providing a flexible system bine An important part of the framework 1s the localization of the robot It will be attempted to implement improved trackers which perform localization based on different input sources Some might even combine the different sources for the best judgment In addition if the information about the environment is available such as the floor plan it will be attempted to implement a tracker that can detect feat
151. me t left left evl right right evr Code 6 4 Modifications to Wheel Speeds by CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker FrenetMovementTracker Corrected FrenetMovementTracker Figure 6 12 Comparison of FrenetMovementTrackers with Corrected Implementation 38 6 3 5 Map Map PhysicalMa ColorMap Grid Map ObjectMap FadingCollisionMap StructureMap y p INR 1 x Map A J N SN NV DockingStationMapObject RobotMapObject MarkerMapObject NavPathMapObject NavigationMapObject TrackerMapObject Maps hold information about the environment In the emss framework there exist several types of Maps each serving a different purpose Any Map must define the abstract class Map however they enjoy a significant amount of freedom The only significant virtual Map method is paint which is used by the Viewports for displaying the map to the user In addition any map must provide a width and a height If a Map does not know its own dimensions 1t can consult the emss Core for the basic world boundaries A certain set of functionality shared by both the Heat Map and Terrain Map have been combined into the ColorMap Self explanatory Maps such as the GridMap and ObjectMap will not be discussed in further detail 6 3 5 1 PhysicalMap The PhysicalMap represents the physical environment surrounding the robot This is used in part for simulating the hardware sensors in an environment but also for specific navigation such as setting navigation points through
152. mm Default Type String LISE Description Specifies the x coordinates in millimeters of the initial navigation points The list must be separated bya Navigation_InitialNavPointsListY_mm Default Type Sering st Description Specifies the y coordinates in millimeters of the initial navigation points The list must be separated bya Navigation_MaxOpenAreaDistanceMaxRange_mm Default 2000 Type dede Description Specifies the maximum distance to check from the center of the robot when calculating the maximum open area available in a certain direction via the function getMaxOpenAreaDistanceFromMap Navigation_SplineNavigation_DynamicIntervalEnabled Default true Type bool Description When true the SplineNavigation component will dynamically adjust itself to the current interval of getWheelSpeed This will ensure that the created splines remain accurate for the current execution environment of the robot When the current interval is greater than the interval for which the spline was created plus Navigation_SplineNavigation_DynamicIntervalFlexibility_ms the spline will be recalculated Navigation_SplineNavigation_DynamicIntervalFlexibility_ms Default 10 Type ms Description When Navigation_SplineNavigation_DynamicIntervalEnabled is true this specifies the flexibility the interval of getWwheelSpeed is allowed before the spline is recalculated with the new interval Navigation
153. n e aE E ENRE NEEE AEREN 85 S Forher Developme nis acn AE A E E A O O E TET 87 8 1 DES A o O aati 87 Ball A osama tances eat nat mema ahaa eene ne a A 87 8 2 Implementation Enhancements iris aver nee ee veer ea eee 89 8 2 1 Improvements to Current Implementations occccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnos 89 Bee inercia S 89 9 OA Monee dtirie te torueialatelieMencicncunie ie lecruialatelie inca dcusbenle bade 91 9 1 Prototypes sos iO a II oidor Rin 91 PEL BIOL Ty DC Lia a ada asia 91 REZ o RO 91 9 2 A ee ea 9 9 3 AA ca a ngs ate cet sa asa seh 9 Dele Project INC 10 DCIS soe nas RA savers osaesn an asia nas Saco saints Aa 92 Tide Week MESNE Salido 92 NIDOS O a aaa 92 D3 E AA O IN EI A A 92 O A E ee 92 9 4 Risk Mana ment ee eee ee eee 93 9 5 Timetable lt x lt capsanssasostectoats ancecesnnasaaaansuaddaa aT 94 Dok eepo eb Mp prey reese PeyT NT Pe aye A eure mt Pe Mayen Pr aye nem SPE ree 94 O52 A see eee 94 O Ward Ware ise cee et ea se 96 9A eal ECN emei Speen rane ere e its 96 9 6 Comparison of Projected and Actual Time siiss csscceesssecsseespaeiner ents eanaiieee sl ees 97 9 7 ME CS esn er A E E E a E a A N 98 9 8 Personal REPO cis 99 FSF AAA O A A A A O 99 LS Dh act G16 9 emery Mean rrere ameey Denner mrerery Stee ermine meet G 99 9 9 Thank 9 OOPRPAPO_ CR NICO Rae A Rae a eaale eae 99 10 SOLWare DOCU Menta Mn A dE E A a Ea cin 101 O a O E T E E E 101 tO A A ee ene 101 LO Wind OWS
154. n the different obstacles represented in the map The color levels of the environment for that point is output to the emss Interface console If needed an alpha value can be added in the format of R G B a such as 255 255 255 127 50 gray 113 Map_PhysicalMap_ Description Default ThisIsAMapDescription Type string Description A custom description for the loaded PhysicalMap This is used by external Tasks such as the FingerprintNavigationTask Note that if a KML file is loaded the Map PhysicalMap Description value is ignored Map_PhysicalMap_Filename Default SResourcesPath PhysicalMap png Type string Description The full path to either an image file jpg png bmp tiff or a KML file km1 which represents the PhysicalMap If a KML file is specified 1t must contain a GroundOverlay node The variable SResourcesPath may be used to specify the current emss Resources Path Map_PhysicalMap_Floor Default Type STELNG Description A custom floor ID for the loaded PhysicalMap This is used by external Tasks such as the FingerprintNavigationTask Note that if a KML file is loaded the Map PhysicalMap Floor value is ignored Map_PhysicalMap_GPSOffset Default 47 223611 15 146667 Type gps Description The GPS offset coordinates used when translating the local map position to a global map position These GPS coordinates must specify the local coordinates of 0 0 0 0 bottom left of the PhysicalMa
155. nabled The ping to the Watchdog is adjusted based on the currently running Task speed If no task is running and there is no idle task the ping is adjusted to the TaskManager s interval TaskManager_Watchdog_Flexibility Default 2 9 Type double Description The flexibility for which the TaskManager must ping the Watchdog TaskManager_IdleTask Default JoystickNavigationTask Type string Description The idle task which is run when no other Task is in the waiting queue This value must specify the exact name of the Task which is to be instantiated via the CoreFactory If the value is blank no idle task will be registered with the TaskManager Table 10 9 Core Configuration Values for TaskManager 10 3 3 10 TextToSpeech TextToSpeech_SpeakToolCommand Default v english_rp a 60 p 50 s 150 SpeechText Type string Description Defines the arguments which will be passed to the Text ToSpeech_SpeakToolPath application for executing the text to speech The variable SpeechText can be used to pass the text to be spoken The defaults are setup for use with the Unix Windows espeak application TextToSpeech_SpeakToolPath Default espeak Type serna Description Defines path to the application which will execute the text to speech Table 10 10 Core Configuration Values for TextToSpeech 125 10 3 3 11 Tracker Tracker DefaultMovementTrackers Default FrenetMovementTracker Type sering
156. nes complex numbers transformation matrixes GPS conversions and differential equations Create two splines one for each dimension and add some nodes SplinelD Sx SplinelD SplineKernelNRNatural SplinelD Sy SplinelD SplineKernelNRNatural Sx addNode 0 0 Sy addNode 0 0 Sx addNode 1 4 Sy addNode 1 1 69 Sx addNode 3 1 Sy addNode 2 0 Sx addNode 6 7 Sy addNode 5 4 Sx addNode 8 0 Sy addNode 1 1 Draw each spline segment with fixed number of dots int DOTS_PER_SEGMENT 20 EO NE Iv Ue lt lt o ger Nodecountai nF MEF 4 for int t 1 t lt DOTS PER SEGMENTO t double px Sx getValue n double t double DOTS_PER_SEGMENT double py Sy getValue n double t 7 double DOTS_PER_SEGMENT graph drawPoint px py Code 6 16 Example Usage of Spline Class Drawing a Curve 6 3 11 GUI In order to reflect the current state of the Core modules different GUI widgets have been created These all inherit from owidget and can be either embedded in an existing layout of displayed in a separate window Over fifteen different widgets have been implemented each with good reason The roles of the widgets vary from displaying all the Maps to outputting sensor data from the robot Thus the Core offers any interface using 1t a wide variety of functionality in the graphical user interface domain The widgets can easily be instantiated using the CoreFactory and can be automatically linked
157. ng ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction component 1 is no longer responding component core gt reset Code 6 15 ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction Process 6 3 9 2 NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction When the robot travels across connectivity borders the remote connection to the robot may be temporarily or permanently lost This might render undesirable results where the robot is freely roaming in an unknown environment without any supervision To hinder this the NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction monitors the robot s connectivity and shuts down the Core when a connection has been lost ultimately stopping the robot This is realized by periodically checking the IP addresses of the machine against a known set of IP addresses If none of the IP s are present on the machine the NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction will trigger Each IP can be specified by a either a full address or a prefix For example both 152 96 100 127 and 152 96 will match the IP 152 96 100 127 6 3 10 Library The Library is not considered a Core module but however is an important part of the emss Core as it provides a substantial amount of functionality It is a collection of classes which are used by many different components such as math structures or debugging routines The Core Library is made up of over 20 classes which serve a distinct purpose throughout the framework Most notable are the operator overloaded math classes Included are template classes which represent vectors spli
158. ngth and height Map_HeatMap_BumperCollisionOpacity Default 0 1 Type double Description The opacity of the heat spot applied on the HeatMap when encountering a bumper collision Must be a value between 0 0 to 1 0 Map_HeatMap_BumperCollisionSize_mm Default 400 Description The size in millimeters of the heat spot diameter when encountering a bumper collision Map_HeatMap_CliffCollisionOpacity Default 0 1 Type double Description The opacity of the heat spot applied on the HeatMap when encountering a cliff collision Must be a value between 0 0 to 1 0 111 Map_HeatMap_CliffCollisionSize_mm Default 400 Type mm Description The size in millimeters of the heat spot diameter when encountering a cliff collision Map_HeatMap_CollisionAreaColor Default red Type string Description The color which represents a collision such as a bumper collision This value must be either red green blue Map_HeatMap_HeatOpacity Default 0 2 Type double Description The opacity of a default heat spot applied on the HeatMap Must be a value between 0 0 to 1 0 Map_HeatMap_HeatSize Default Type mm Description The size in millimeters of a default heat spot diameter Map_HeatMap_IRCollisionOpacity Default 0 1 Type double Description The opacity of the heat spot applied on the HeatMap when encountering a IR collision straight ahead collision Must be a value between 0 0 t
159. nomous controlling and interfacing of the robot All important modules required for the navigation maneuvering and safe controlling of the robot have been implemented In addition the simulated environment yields an accurate feature complete and flexible workspace for testing the software Safe navigation has been achieved by intelligently avoiding drops obstacles and walls by constantly generating and updating the various supporting data structures Furthermore small areas can be autonomously navigated and mapped using different space filling algorithms and map structures Other routine tasks such as docking the robot on its docking station have been implemented and tested Collaboration with third party software has been realized with the Wireless Positioning System PointZero by automatically collecting the necessary signal reference points called fingerprints A rich graphical user interface is provided by the framework allowing user interaction with all the different modules within Main Window Viewport Toolbar Weight Editor o emss Interface emss Viewport o x a emss Weight Editor o x File vi T i e ile Views Tasks Help a 6 4 4 a4 O dh 3 5 0 JoystickWeight Connection Controller Tasks w lt gt a ais RemoteControWeight pe CollisionAvoidanceWeight HH 9 Idle Task JoystickNavigationTask 3 AccelerationFilterweight iv A ars Move Down Move Up
160. nsor the obstacle must be avoided If however the obstacle was detected using the wall sensor this obstacle presumed to be a wall must be followed When such a wall has been found the WallFollowerWeight will continuously go back and forth between seeing and not seeing the wall trying to navigate along the wall at the edge of the wall sensors range If the wall is lost or unseen for a longer period of time the WallFollowerWeight will restart searching for a new wall The exact workings of the WallFollowerWeight are detailed in Figure 6 23 below 5 IR Sensor triggerd Wall Sensor Triggerd Yes Avoid Wall No Wall Timeout Z o Wall Search Timeout No Peer Right Peer Left Reset Sensitity Increase Sensitivity Yes Full Speed E Decrease Figure 6 23 Flow Chart of the WallFollowerWeight 6 3 6 3 7 DockWeight The DockWeight is responsible for docking the robot on the docking station when it is close by Docking the robot requires a complex dance in which the different IR beams are followed and avoided until the robot places all its charging contacts on top of the docking station contacts This procedure is very complex in the real world because of the inaccuracy of the IR beams as well as the precision required to successfully dock To be able to dock the robot the charging station sends out several beams as illustrated in Figure 6 24 Pee Lo N Red to Green 7 Force Field N 4
161. nstalled a debug run can be performed with debugrun sh on any emss component that produces an executable binary The component to be run must be specified in the first argument This script will automatically create a temporary gdb script for the debugger which kick starts the program directly into execution This is especially useful when debugging software errors on the hardware Usage debugrun sh lt component all gt Shortcut edr lt component al1 gt debugrun sh Creating debug script Debug run Interface This GDB was configured as 1486 linux gnu Breakpoint 1 at 0x8058213 Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled New Thread Oxb6al15b50 LWP 21537 Switching to Thread Oxb6al5b50 LWP 21537 0x08058213 in main Current language auto currently asm Program exited normally gdb 10 6 9Cleaning Applications If only the executables are to be cleaned use the clean_applications sh script Cleaning the executables may be desired if for example the Core library has changed Because the library is statically linked to the applications one must re link the applications to the new library something that is not done automatically by make For this reason clean_applications sh is automatically called after building the Core component Usage clean_applications sh 161 10 6 10 Packaging The most powerful emss scripts are the ones related to creating packages from source To create a compiled package
162. nt integer value given as a integer double double value given as a integer or double bool boolean value given as either true or false color RGB value given as a space separated byte triplet such as 255 200 243 GPS GPS coordinates given as a space separated latitude longitude pair such as 43 2234 7 8883 11 5 3 Patch Files Configuration Files can be automatically patched with a patch file See 10 6 5 3 for more information on how to create and apply patch files 170 11 6 Eclipse Tutorial For development of the emss software it can be helpful to use the open source Eclipse CDT with Ot Eclipse Plugin This combination provides a comfortable and well supported programming environment for both C and the Of framework The following steps describe how to import a Of project file into Eclipse when the Qt Eclipse Plugin has been installed 1 After downloading the source code via SVN start Eclipse CDT and choose a workspace 2 Right Click on Project Explorer and choose Import New gt t Export 2 Refresh FS Figure 11 1 Import Menu 3 Then choose Qt Project from the Qt menu Import Figure 11 2 Import Menu 4 Browse the file system for the SVN checkout directory and choose for example lt emss gt Core Core cpp Click Finish to import the project Qt impo Figure 11 3 Import Qt Project File 31 The C C Development Tooling can be found at http
163. nterac ech ile Ment Entes ii da 134 Fable 10 15 Wiewport Loolbar Icons las 137 Table 10 16 Task EdtOrA COS ii acoso 139 Fable 101 E W cient Editor ACOSO EE EEA EA 140 Table 10 18 Interface Contieuration V ales usses oaa heap odes eu oo roles aes 144 Table 10 19 FingerprintCollector File Menu Entries occccccncncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnss 146 Table 10 20 FingerprintCollector Toolbar Icons oocooccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 147 Table 10 21 FingerprintCollector Configuration ValuesS ooooonnnnnnnonooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononononononnnnnnos 156 168 11 4 List of Code Code 6 1 Core Initialization and Connection Example occccccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 24 Code 6 2 Using COIL to Drive along the Path of a Square oooooonoonooooocccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnnonononnnos 26 Code 6 3 Example Ay raged Tracker Calculator 30 Code 6 4 Modifications to Wheel Speeds by CorrectedFrenetMovemenTracker ooooooococomommm 38 Code 6 5 Implementation of the Jordan Curve Theorem ooccccccncncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnos 42 Code 6 6 Example Configuration of SystemOfWeightsNavigation Module cccseesseeeeeeeeeees 49 Code 6 7 OrientationWeight Modification in Weight Channnel oo ooocccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 50 Code 6 8 Joystick Weight Modification in
164. o 1 0 Map_HeatMap_IRCollisionSize_mm Default 200 Type n Description The size in millimeters of the heat spot diameter when encountering a IR sensor straight ahead collision Map_HeatMap_OpenAreaColor Default green Type string Description The color which represents a open area This value must be either red green blue Map_HeatMap_OpenAreaOpacity Default 0 05 Type double Description The opacity of the heat spot applied on the HeatMap when moving through an open area space Must be a value between 0 0 to 1 0 Map_HeatMap_OpenAreaSize_mm Default 400 Type ag Description The size in millimeters of the heat spot diameter when moving through an Open area Space 112 Map_HeatMap_WallCollisionOpacity Default 0 1 Type double Description The opacity of the heat spot applied on the HeatMap when encountering a wall sensor collision to the right Must be a value between 0 0 to 1 0 Map_HeatMap_WallCollisionSize_mm Default 200 Type du Description The size in millimeters of the heat spot diameter when encountering a wall sensor to the right collision Map_Height_mm Default 45000 Type nn Description The initial map height Used by various Maps such as the HeatMap when pre allocating memory Map_PhysicalMap_Color_Stairs Default ae EA A Type color Description The color which represents stairs or drops in the physical map This is used by Emu
165. obot_StartingPositionY_mm Default 0 5 Type mm double Description Defines the initial robot starting position y coordinate in millimeters If the value specified is between 0 0 and 1 0 the value represent the percent position on the map Map Height Robot StartingPositionY mm Robot_StartingRotation_deg Default 0 Type deg Description Defines the initial robot starting rotation Robot_WallSensorRange_mm Default 210 Type mm Description The maximum wall sensor range in millimeters Robot _WheelOffset_mm Default 131 25 Type n Description The offset of the robot wheels from the center of the robot s chassis Table 10 7 Core Configuration Values for Robot 121 10 3 3 8 Task Task DefaultInterval Default 100 Type ms Description Defines the default process interval in milliseconds for any Task which does not define its own process interval Typically this interval should not be smaller than the Controller s interval Task_DiscoveryTask_ExplorationMapGridSize Default 100 Type ay Description Defines the grid size for dividing the map in a few points on the grid The algorithm has much more performance Task_DiscoveryTask_Interval Default 100 Type ms Description The interval at which the DiscoveryTask runs Task_DiscoveryTask_RelativeExplorationHeight_mm Default 4000 Type mm Description Height of the local exploration map Tha
166. ockWeight_SearchTimeout_ms Default 2000 Type ms Description The amount of time before the search mode is abandoned 129 Weight_DockWeight_DockExpectancyFactor Default 1 2 Type double Description The factor multiplied with the radius of the force field when trying to dock in attack mode and determining by when the robot must be docked If the distance travelled since sensing the force field signal is greater than Weight_DockWeight_DockExpectancyFactor radius force field the docking is retried Weight_DockWeight_SearchTurnInterval_ms Default 3000 Type ms Description When in search mode the interval at which a sharp turn should be executed Weight_DockWeight_SearchTurnAngle_deg Default 60 Type deg Description When in search mode the angle to turn when executing a sharp turn Weight_DockWeight_RetryBackupDistance_mm Default 300 Type TM Description When in attack mode the distance to backup after a failed attempt at docking Weight_DockWeight_TurnaroundAngle_deg Default 180 Type Description The angle to turn when turning around during a retry Weight_DockWeight_RetryMoveawayFactor Default 0 6 Type double Description When in retry mode the factor multiplied with the radius of the force field when trying to move away from the docking station Weight_WallFollowerWeight_NoWallTimer_Sec Default gt Type sec Description The timeout value fo
167. ocol or the Remote Interface is connectionless and the medium used is UDP over IP This allows a fast and light weight implementation which can be easily realized by third party software The protocol allows for a subscription based broadcast of internal messages If a third party application would like to receive messages pushed from the server 1t must subscribe to the server using the subscribe message Such an application must send the unsubscribe message in order to unsubscribe Because the Remote Interface is connectionless messages pushed to the server do not require any sort of connection or subscription Messages are sent as a line separated key value collection over UDP The separator defined for a key and value is the character The separator defined for a key value pairs is the n character r n is incorrect The key values should not have a trailing n character at the end of the data however the emss Core will accept this eas message subscribe reply ip 127 0 0 1 reply port 9000 Code 6 13 Example Remote Interface Message WPS emss Core Message confirm subscribe start task Message j task fingerprintnavigation interval 6000 wait time 2000 confirm Message confirm start task task started Message task fingerprintnavigation status running fingerprint Message message fingerprint floor 1 global position latitude 47 22384331 global position longitude 15 1465710 local orientati
168. oject no robot and development of robot emulator in order to reduce time of hardware usage Consultation with Prof 50h Keller and Dr Wirth for mathematical solutions Careful documentation of progress and communication between members so that know how can be transfered 1f needed longer possible R02 Insufficient 40 29h 2 Know How for problem solving Delays for additional research Continuation of 360h 5 18h 3 project by one team member R03 Loss of project member due to health or accident R04 Unobtainable Not all goals Consolidation of goals 2h 50 lh 4 goals met during time constraints R05 WPS Extra time Address early in project 20h 20 4h 5 so that this foundation is realized and tested consumption infringes on other parts of project Total Time Buffer 55h fingerprints become very tedious Table 9 5 Risk Management The extra 55 hours are scheduled in Chapter 1 5 as buffer time 005 9 5 Timetable In order to reach the defined goals 783 work hours were scheduled The following layout is used to describe the different artifacts Artifact Total Effort in Hours Task 1 Effort for Task 1 Task 2 Effort for Task 2 Table 9 6 Artifact Table Layout 9 5 1 Inception Setup Environment 30 Setup of work stations Ubuntu development environment 10 Setup of robot operating systems Ubuntu production environment 5 Website SVN repository SourceF
169. oming value with the last value If the difference 1s greater than the maximum allowed difference the new value is cut short This prevents jumps in velocity from for example 0 stopped to 1 full speed Such jumps are unfriendly for the hardware and are prevented by the AccelerationFilterWeight f Weight_AccelerationFilterWeight_MaxSpeedChange dv v vOla TEL OVA E did lt i dy dvx dv ifi dr f 1i dv y lt f gt ay dr x 0 davay T v vOld dv Code 6 9 AccelerationFilterWeight Modification in Weight Channel Figure 6 25 shows the difference of resulting speeds of similar actions The top is without the acceleration filter and has much harder changes in velocity while the bottom is with the filter and has much smoother changes Figure 6 25 Speed Graph with AccelerationFilter and without 6 3 6 3 9 ControllerSpeedWeight The ControllerSpeedWeight is only needed to move the weight channel from a spectrum of 0 1 to 0 Umax Where Vmax 18 the maximum desired speed or target speed of the robot This greatly simplifies the implementations of other Weights as they need only work with percentages and need not to take into account the target speed of the robot virtual void process Vector2D v v v core gt controller gt targetSpeed rs 55 6 3 7 Task 1 1 TaskList L E E Ee 6 3 7 1 TaskManager The TaskManager is an essential part of the emss Cor
170. on 39 0351 local position x 7265 local position y 25828 map description Gebaeude 1 OG map file Gebaeude_1_0G kml wait time 2000 0 0 0 0 0 8 O 0 0 0 0 0 0 J 0 0 0 0 0 0 gt ya pul o gt e 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 task finished Message task fingerprintnavigation status finished Message confirm unsubscribe Figure 6 31 Example Communication between Third Party Application and emss Core 6 3 8 1 1 General Message Keys l message required defines what type of message it 1s 2 reply ip optional defines a reply IP 1f the incoming request originated from a different IP port than the listen server is 65 3 reply port optional defines a reply port if the incoming request originated from a different IP port than the listen server is 4 timestamp optional the timestamp of the message creation 5 id optional unique identifier 6 3 8 1 2 Defined Messages Message error confirm subscribe unsubscribe start task Fingerprint Navigation Start task fingerprint Description Indicates an error e Actor server Additional keys needed error e Example message error error already subscribed not subscribed unknown task invalid message typel e Confirms a message or action e Actor server e Additional keys needed confirm e Example message confirm confirm f subscribelunsubscribelstart t
171. or MathWorld Wood G 2002 Living Dolls A Magical History Of The Quest For Mechanical Life Yen Chun L Yen Ting C Szu Yin L amp Jen Hua W 2008 Visual Tag based Location Aware System for Household Robots 177
172. orce Project Page 15 Project Plan 10 Concrete organization of project definition of milestones and work sections 10 Requirements 15 Definition of use cases definition of Remote Interface 15 Technology Research 30 Research in the robotics community reading of relevant articles and publications 30 Total inception effort in hours 85 9 5 2 Implementation Core 37 Improvement refactoring of version 1 0 10 Creation of configuration files 10 Logging save debug information in data logs 2 Thread safe programming of all classes 10 Implementation of Core Factory 5 Remote Interface 10 Implement Remote Interface Listener Sender 10 Emulated COIL 20 Full implementation of COIL emulation 10 _94 Splines 15 Realization of magnet tracking 5 Improvements and additions to spline kernels 10 GUI 40 Improvements to emss Interface 10 Implementation of emss FingerprintCollector 10 Creation of RobotControlPanel RobotSpeedGraph MapOverview WeightEditor 10 CameraView TaskEditor RemoteInterfaceView HeapLoggerView DockingStation View Improvements to Viewport and include OpenGL support 10 Navigation 20 Implementation of SystemOfWeightsNavigation 20 Weights 40 Implementation of CollistonAvoidanceWeight 10 Implementation of WallFollowerWeight 10 Implementation of WallFollowerWeight 10 Implementation of supplemental weights such as JoystickWeight RoamingWeight 10 FullSpeedWeight Maps 35 Addition of PhysicalMap support for
173. ore and provides the connection to the robot and the emss framework The FingerprintCollecter is a simplified version of the emss Interface and provides only the functionality and settings for which its purpose serves collecting fingerprints In this Chapter both the graphical user interface and a use case are described In addition the FingerprintCollector configuration settings are documented 10 5 1 Graphical User Interface The user interface is made up of a collection of widgets provided by the emss Core It consists of three important areas Control Panel Viewport and History A typical presentation of the FingerprintCollector is shown below in Figure 10 13 144 Menu Control Panel Toolbar et _ mss Fingerprint Collector RR emer neon rarer eeeaeeeoeea0 e Settings eeeeeeeeeoe ee eeeeceaecdeancad ee ba aah elt ce reat ad att ge i 6 ay 3 fa AR G A nt Ej j L Controller EmssController Tracker SingleTracker Navigation SystemoOfWeightsMNavigation Port jdev ttyUSBo 5 W Emulate Hardware Interface 5peed Lu o Gn a Disconnect Load New Map ol Stop Fingerprinting 11 56 02 732 WallFollowerweight sea ggs 11 56 02 834 WallFollowerweight sea 11 56 02 901 FingerprintCollector Sta 11 56 27 734 TaskManager Scripted 11 56 27 734 FingerprintCollector St 11 56 27 815 TaskManager Navigatio 11 56 27 818 TaskManager Scripted TA
174. other hand point C has only four intersections which is even This holds true with the Jordan Curve Theorem The following code segment shows the algorithm implemented to count the number of intersections and return whether the given point p 1s outside of the StructureMap 10 o oo See the Core setting Map_StructureMap_MinimumDistanceBetweenCollision 4 bool StructureMap isPointOutside Vector2D p if finish return false double x1 x2 double eps 0 0000001 NC Crossings Q for int 1 s OF 1 lt polygon count 24 4 EF Whether the line goes from eight to Left or Left to eight shouldnt make any difference EE dk polygoni ex polygon wat City e pOLyoGOm count Jal xL polyg n aci x4 polygonat irr SS polygon count 45 else xkl polygon at ist polygon count xs xe p lygon ad Check if the line possible could intersect the point Pe px oS Sl Se pe lt k2 00 Ay lt polygon at syn 1 Poy pelyoqoneal rl polbyoon count AA double dx pOlyoor cect Mil polyoonccoount t sxe polygon saw ac ek double dy polyGonwac ALS polygon Count J yO polygonal tisy double m 0 Lines which are perpendicular to the point p dx lt eps not be considered if abs dx lt eps m INT_MAX dy dx else m Calculate line axis intersection double b polygonyat ilay 0 m polygon at i 3x Th
175. ould be connected to and queried The current Navigation module could then be improved by being able to react to a larger surrounding area as the robot s field of view would increase see Figure 8 2 ee AY AY Ae Ly A Ley LA UI 08 Figure 8 2 Current Range Finders left Compared with Extended Configuration right 88 8 2 Implementation Enhancements Because of the modular architecture individual modules can easily be replaced by improved or extended versions or even entirely new ones New Tasks and Weights can be quickly developed to perform a more complete cache of actions suited to a user s preference A larger suit of generic actions and tasks would create a more interesting and attractive robot For example 1t would only take a miniscule effort to create a greeter robot one which greets visitors when it comes across them by piecing together the current Weights and Tasks one just has to do it 8 2 1 Improvements to Current Implementations The docking algorithm implemented by the DockWeight still needs further research changes and testing The complete docking process should be more robust in off situations which occur unexpectedly An important improvement would be to eliminate the robots drift to the right or left by means of software This was already attempted by the CorrectedFrenetTracker implementation which tried to solve the problem at a single point which would affect the entire framework The current imp
176. owever when there are no Tasks waiting for execution the Idle Task kicks in changing its status to Running The buttons on the Task Editor perform the following actions Icon Label Description oa Stops the currently selected Task if it is running This is done by sending the interrupt signal to it A New Task Adds a new Task for scheduling by the TaskManager Clicking the button will open a dialog in which the desired Task can be chosen Some Tasks might require additional options and therefore display a second option dialog as shown in Figure 10 8 E3 Close Closes the Task Editor window or tab Table 10 16 Task Editor Actions 10 4 2 8 Weight Editor Deactivated Weights Weights in System ID 3 4 New Weight x Weight AccelerationFilterweight 4 Please select a weight Weight Information Acceleration Filter Collision Avoidance Full Speed Move Down Move Up Orientation Wall Follower y Remove Weight New Weight Dialog g5 Deactivate Weight e Add New Weight Close A Figure 10 9 Weight Editor Displaying Different Weights The Weight Editor displays all the Weight registered with the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module The top of the window features a list of the Weights ordered by their priority When a Weight in the list is clicked a more detailed set of information is displayed just below it if available 139
177. p The translation is then calculated by the GPS Math Library Class For further details on the calculation please see the documentation for the Core Math classes If a KML file is loaded the Map PhysicalMap GPSOffset value is ignored as the KML describes the bounding GPS box for the map Map_PhysicalMap_Scale Default 1 Type double Description The pixel to mm scale of the PhysicalMap This must be adjusted 1f the loaded map should represent a real world map Note that the Map Scale value must also be calculated into this value If a KML file is loaded the Map PhysicalMap Scale value is automatically calculated as the KML describes the bounding GPS box for the map Map_Scale Default 10 Type int Description The pixel to mm scale of all Maps This value defines the size of one pixel in millimeters If a scale of 10 is defined then a line of 20 mm will be drawn as 2 pixels The same applies for example to any ColorMap where the internal actual size of the map is Map _Width Map Scale 114 Map_StructureMap_AutomaticallyAddStructurePoints_Enabled Default true Type bool Description When true the StructureMap will automatically add points to the structure by reading the incoming sensor data collisions Map_StructureMap_FinishTolerance_mm Default 900 0 Description The maximum distance of the most recent seen collision and the oldest seen collision when closing the StructureMap This value mus
178. port with the Robot hardware These communications include 1 Translation and transmission of controller commands on the bit level 2 Listening and translation of incoming sensory data 3 Timing of incoming and outgoing transmissions 6 3 2 1 EmulatedCOIL The EmulatedCOIL implementation of COIL plays a very important role within the emss framework it enables a completely emulated environment of the iRobot Create hardware This is essential for rapid development and testing as it allows a quick and easy environment for seeing the results of an algorithm or task All the relevant sensory packets received by the hardware have been implemented and are available in the EmulatedcorL class Because of the thin documentation provided by iRobot regarding the Open Interface many of the different sensor packets have been reverse engineered using comparison and trail and error methods Everything from battery levels to infra red signals have been implemented in EmulatedCOIL In order to be able to emulate the environment of the robot the EmulatedcoIL class relies on the Tracker module and the PhysicalMap The Tracker module provides the necessary information for the current position of the robot used when querying the PhysicalMap for the information about the surrounding environment for sensory data In addition timers are used internally for information returned by methods such as getDistance which returns the distance travelled since the last query
179. pplication is run locally on the machine an interval of 100 ms is sufficient for speedy rendering and feedback If the application is run over SSH or a Remote Desktop Client a higher interval lower refresh rate 1s recommended of 500 to 1000 ms Viewport_RenderMode Default native Type string Description Defines the render mode for the Viewport This value must be either native or opengl When in OpenGL mode the Viewport supports zoom functionality Note that to use the OpenGL render mode a hardware accelerated graphics driver must be running with OpenGL support Window_X persistent Default 100 Description Defines the X coordinate of the main window position in pixels Window_Y persistent Default 100 Description Defines the Y coordinate of the main window position in pixels Window_Width persistent Default 890 Type int Description Defines the main window width in pixels Window_Height persistent Default 650 Description Defines the main window height in pixels Table 10 21 FingerprintCollector Configuration Values 156 10 6 Scripts The emss framework comes with a full set of scripts which perform routine but tiring tasks such as dependency builds resource file compilation configuration patching et cetera The scripts are written to run on any POSIX compliant system including Cygwin for Windows and are found in lt emss gt Scripts When setup shortcuts to spec
180. pter 10 1 Instructions on the installation for the WPS PointZero software can be found at http wiki hsr ch StefanKeller wiki cgi PointZero 149 4 Select the correct serial port for communications with the hardware and press the Connect button Make sure the Emulate Hardware Interface checkbox is not checked File Help Controller EmssController File Help Tracker SingleTracker i Setti Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation engs COoM1 Port COM2 devjttyUSBO v SYE COM4 Emulate Hardware Interface Po coms paed devittyUSBO fe AIS i co devittyUSB2 Sp devittyUSB3 devjttyUSB4 7 Disconnect Idev ttyUSBS Y Load New Map A Start Fingerprinting Figure 10 18 Selecting the FingerprintCollector Port If not already present the correct map must be loaded This can be done by pressing the Load New Map button as documented in Section 10 5 1 2 It is recommended to load a KML file km1 as these already contain the necessary GPS information If a plain image was chosen the GPS offset Map_PhysicalMap_GPSOffset must be specified in the Core configuration In addition the appropriate settings such as Map_PhysicalMap_Description and Map_PhysicalMap_Floor should be defined for 3rd Party software File Help Settings Controller EmssController Tracker SingleTracker 7 hems Jat Desktop dist images maps Navigation SystemOfWeightsNavigation Placas Hama w MHod ad
181. r SplineNavigation COM4 true false Tracker DefaultMovementTrackers RawMovementTrackerinTracker SelectedMovement Trackers RawMovementTracker a Code 6 19 Initialization of a CoreTest with Custom Settings 6 3 12 2 HeapTest This test inherits CoreTest and checks whether all coreobject instances are properly deallocated from the heap upon core gt disconnect and delete core This is realized with help of the HeapLogger Which is part of the emss framework Every test within HeapTest consists of the following steps Initialization of Core Core connect Creation of some Tasks Sending of some messages over Remote Interface ane Tek e E STe 5 Core disconnect 6 Deletion of Core 7 Check Heap Logger 1f everything is freed If a test fails the still allocated objects are listed for debugging convenience a ee ALS 7 Results The resulting emss framework made up of a set of interchangeable modules provides an extensible design which allows a wide array of functionality and supports different strategies for the same problem It has been designed with future developments in mind presenting a robust architecture which may be extended for additional functionality The framework features a full blown multi threaded software stack which allows the autonomous controlling and interfacing of the robot All important modules required for the navigation maneuvering and safe controlling of the robot have been implem
182. r resetting the sensitivity value in the WallFollowerWeight Weight_WallFollowerWeight_SearchWallTimer_Sec Default 15 Type Sec Description The timeout value for abandoning the search wall mode After this period of time has passed without finding a wall again the WallFollowerWeight will no longer try to find the wall but will continue straight ahead until reaching a new wall Weight_WallFollowerWeight_Sensitivity Default Type double Description The initial sensitivity value 130 Weight_WallFollowerWeight_Sensitivity_Max Default 0 8 Type double Description The maximum sensitivity value allowed Weight_WallFollowerWeight_Sensitivity_Min Default 0 2 Type ms Description The minimum sensitivity value allowed Weight_WallFollowerWeight_StepSize Default 0 05 Type double Description The step size value used when increasing or decreasing the sensitivity value Table 10 13 Core Configuration Values for Weight 10 4 Interface If the emss Core is the heart and soul of the emss framework then the Interface application emssInterface 1s the body The Interface smoothly integrates all the visual frontends from the GUI library to the Core modules providing a useful user interface to the inner workings of the framework All of the Core s functionality is exposed in the Interface in some manner or another Operations such as setting navigation points starting and stopping Tasks swapping out mod
183. rCe ALAIOR OS X00 gt Lat 2 Extract the tar contents mkdir emss tar C emss xvvf emssComplete 1 x source SlaimuxloOs gt xX80 gt Lat gZ 3 Set execute permissions on all scripts chmod u x emss emss_1 x Scripts sh 4 Run the setup script emss emss_1 x Scripts setup sh 10 1 2 Windows 1 Download the latest source or binary zip from irobotcreate com such as emssComplete L xX lt SsourcelWwin Xx86 gt zZ1p 2 Open the zip file and select Extract all Contents from the Folders Tasks menu Extract the contents to a folder such as C 1emss 3 If you would like to use the emss scripts in Windows a bash shell interpreter must be installed such as Cygwin Once installed the script environment can be setup as follows Set execution permissions on all scripts chmod u x ygdrive c emss emss_ Lo SCriIpEs Sh 4 Run the setup script cygdrive c emss emss_1 x Scripts setup sh The installation will have created default settings and configurations To customize the settings for the script environment modify the file lt emss gt Scripts settings sh Which was automatically created by setup sh To customize any configuration for an emss component modify the lt emss gt resources emss lt component gt config or create a patch file lt emss gt resources emss lt component gt config patch More information on patch files can be found in Section 10 6 5 3 15 The latest Linux and OS X downloads can be found
184. ra o2D is the two dimensional transformation matrix class in the emss Core library ae ee break att Add ct to our log if the closest wall could be determined Determine whether there are two straight lines see Figure 6 9 bottom left in the log made FF BOA the ct to the Log correlationLog append ct up ofn ct collision s and n ct closestWall s which make up a SuspectedWa11 structure wall First we need to detect the most distant two points in ct collision in our log This would be O n but we optimize by first calculating the bounding box then taking the points which are on the bounds and finally finding the most distant of those The best case is O n and the worst case is O n The worst case can only happen if all points are on a straight vertical or horizontal line which in reality will hardly ever if ever be the case Get the bounding box of the ct points foreach CorrelationTriangle ct in the last n in correlationLog if ct collision x gt xmax xmax ct collision x else if ct collision x lt xmin xmin ct collision x if ctecolrlision y ymax ymax ct colrlision y j ersa aT er sCOlieis tors yC lt ymin ymin Ctr COl aS on y i Get all the ct points which ly on the bounds foreach CorrelationTriangle ct in the last n in correlationLog if ct collision x xmin ct collision x xmax Cer ColLLrs pone mia ct collis
185. rbes a double courbure Journal de Math Handy J Director 1940 Leave It To Roll Oh Motion Picture Robot Corporation 2006 iRobot Create Open Interface iRobot Corporation 2006 iRobot Create Owners Manual Jonathan K Jonathan B Arvind P Omair K amp Sukhatme G S 2008 Just Add Wheels Leveraging Commodity Laptop Hardware for Robotics and Al Education Los Angeles University of Southern California Kelly J Binney J Pereira A Khan O amp Sukhatme G S 2008 Just Add Wheels Leveraging Commodity Laptop Hardware for Robotics and Al Education Los Angeles University of Southern California Kimberling C 1998 Triangle Centers and Central Triangles Kostandov M Schwertfeger J amp Jenkins O C Toward Real time Human Detection and Tracking in Diverse Providence Brown University Kostandov M Schwertfeger J Jenkins O C Jianu R Buller M Hartmann D et al 2007 Robot Gaming and Learning using Augmented Reality Brown University Kostandov M Schwertfeger J Jenkins O C Jianu R Buller M Hartmann D et al 2007 Robot Gaming and Learning using Augmented Reality Brown University Kr si D amp Grob D 2008 Environment Mapping Self Sustainable Robot Rapperswil 176 Krusi D amp Grob D 2008 Environment Mapping Self Sustainable Robot Proposal Zurich Krusi S 2008 Modeling Forward Trajectories of a Robot College
186. re PointZero 1s running Standard Procedure Standard procedure if a map of the actual room is available 1 User starts GUI and loads actual Map and positions the robot on the map 2 User sets path navigation points for which the robot must drive 3 Third party software connects to emss and starts the fingerprinting task with the desired settings 4 Robot drives along the navigation points and stops at each defined interval to gather a fingerprint 5 Task is finished when robot reaches the last point on his path Alternate Procedure If no actual map of the current room is available this alternate procedure will be processed 1 User starts GUI manually enters the actual GPS coordinates of the robot 6 Third party software connects to emss and starts the fingerprinting task with the desired settings 2 Robot explores the unknown environment and stops after each defined interval to gather a fingerprint 3 Task is finished when the whole area is explored Table 4 4 UC4 Fingerprinting 4 3 Approach Before attacking the new hurdles presented by the project first the previous work is to be studied and improved where appropriate This includes the refactoring and cleaning up of code in the software In addition modifications to the hardware will be undertaken to make improvements The next most important step is to fully implement a simulated environment for which testing can be done in This will greatly reduce the testing ti
187. re of the receiving slot One might ask how this is possible using C Qf uses a meta object compiler MOC to achieve the signal and slot functionality by creating meta objects for classes The meta object contains the names of all the signal and slot members as well as pointers to these methods The MOC parses the class declaration in a C file and generates C code that initializes the meta object Constants typically have been avoided throughout the implementation for any value that has changed several times Such values are defined in a configuration file which in turn is loaded and cached by the code which needs it This allows a much more flexible system where reconfiguring does not require a tedious recompilation In all there are well over 150 different configuration settings which are documented in detail in Sections 10 3 3 10 4 3 and 10 5 3 The amount of configuration settings portrays the complexity of the software Wherever possible and deemed appropriate C features such as class inheritance operator overloading and templates have been made use of In addition because of the multi threaded nature of the emss framework thread safety precautions have been taken wherever necessary through the use of operating system level locks Middle level languages compromise a combination of high level features and low level advantages If you are unfamiliar with this design concept we recommend Qf s introductory document found on
188. reate com Videos 83 7 6 3 Publishing of the Project to Robotics Community The entire source code and all releases with ready to run binaries were made publicly available under the GPLv3 license The project is now hosted by SourceForge an important open source distributor Anyone can access the code base by checking out the SVN repository on SourceForge In addition a MediaWiki at http irobotcreate com was created to host the entire documentation for the software explanatory videos and photographs and actively updated information relevant to the emss project emss Framework Robot Create C Framework Mozilla Firefox ry ES File Edit View History Bookmarks Tools Help GQ v E e http irobotcreate com Main_Page EN m I G w asdf a 2 152 96 193 107 talkforthisip login create account page discussion edit history 48 9 Main Page o il ga A Summary edit emss is a C framework designed to support Robot Create developers with a comprehensive set of Controllers Tasks Schedulers Movernent Trackers et cetera It allows interfacing with navigation hardware or in an emulated environment and compiles on Linux OS X and Windows a Main Page Source a Downloads Features a Screenshots Videos a Documentation Projects a Recent changes Random page Overview edit search qm 98 2 ento MA 9 oo The emss Robot Create Framework is a collection of interacting modules written in C designed
189. reporting any detected fatal errors such as a deadlock or taking action when certain problematic situations come about Running at a constant interval the Watchdog periodically monitors the Core by processing a given series of actions These actions are defined by the abstract class Wat chdogAction Any action must implement the process method which must first assess the health of the Core component it is monitoring and then react appropriately 68 The following actions are the most important WatchdogAction implementations ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction and NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction They can be activated and disabled along with the Watchdog itself in the Core configuration file 6 3 9 1 ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction The ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction is instantiated when enabled by most of the Core modules which inherit from CoreThread When such an action is created by a Core Thread the thread is responsible for pinging the action at the defined interval by calling its ping method When the ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction 1s processed by the Watchdog the action checks 1f the most recent ping is within the bounds of the defined interval If the ping is not frequent enough the WatchdogAction will trigger and attempt to restart the Core Each ThreadMonitorWatchdogAction may have its own ping interval and flexibility defined if isActive amp amp lastPingFromThread elapsed gt expectedPingInterval flexibility Debug warni
190. rinting Use Case System Sequence Diagram Throughout the analysis of the software the existing emss framework Kr si amp Grob 2008 was examined along with the new use cases Upon examination 1t was clear that the existing Navigation module would have to be redesigned to better suit the needs of the next generation of the framework In addition 1t was also clear that new modules would be added The original framework however was built with this in mind allowing a clear notion on how the new design would fit with the existing 19 Figure 6 1 shows the most interesting use case UC4 Section 4 2 2 as a system sequence diagram It illustrates how the individual players must work together in order to collect fingerprints The use case requires user interaction with both the third party WPS software and emss framework The interaction between WPS and emss is achieved without any further user interaction The emss framework should have the functionality to control the robot track its position and perform localization as well as execute the navigation These modules must remain highly flexible and interchangeable depending on the underlying hardware and the requested use and purpose of that hardware This allows the creation of tasks for a wide variety of topics without necessarily knowing the exact details of the underlying modules used One can set navigation points and make the robot navigate through the resulting path without having to decide
191. room is closed at least To allow the robot to follow walls and investigate the structure of the room the WallFollowerTask has been implemented This Task initializes the SystemOfWeightsNavigation weight channel best suited to follow walls The weight channel is setup as follows gt FullSpeedWeight gt WallFollowerWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt AccelerationFilterWeight gt ControllerSpeedWeight gt The most important Weight is the WallFollowerWeight which is described in detail in Section 6 3 6 3 6 The StructureMap is finished or completed the polygon is closed the WallFollowerWeight finishes Figure 6 27 Use of WallFollower 6 3 7 3 NavigationTask The NavigationTask sequentially navigates through all the navigation points contained within the Navigation module Essentially all the NavigationTask does is query the Navigation module for the wheel speeds which it then forwards to the Controller For the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module the following Weights are added during the Task s preProcess gt FullSpeedWeight gt OrientationWeight gt CollisionAvoidanceWeight gt AccelerationFilterWeight gt ControllerSpeedWeight gt In this case the Orientation Weight see Section 6 3 6 3 2 is the most important Weight as it moves the robot towards the next navigation point When the SplineNavigation is used no further configuration 1s required by the NaviagtionTask aS Figure 6 28 Robot follows navig
192. s Robot_DockingStation_StartingPositionY_mm Default 25000 Description The starting position y coordinate of the docking station in millimeters Robot_DockingStation_StartingRotation_deg Default 0 Type deg Description The starting position rotation of the docking station in degrees Robot_DockingStation_RedBeamEnabled Default true Type bool Description Specifies whether the docking station red beam is on or off Robot_DockingStation_GreenBeamEnabled Default true Type bool Description Specifies whether the docking station green beam is on or off Robot_DockingStation_ForceFieldEnabled Default true Type bool Description Specifies whether the docking station force field beam is on or off Robot_DockingStation_InterferenceEnabled Default false Type bool Description Specifies whether docking station interference is on or off When true all beams will be represented as the undocumented interference signal 242 Robot_DockingStation_Base_Size_mm Default 200 Description The base size of the docking station which represents its length Robot_DockingStation_ForceField_Radius_mm Default 1100 Description The radius of the docking station force field signal from the center of the docking station emitter Robot_DockingStation_MinimumDockingPrecision_mm Default 30 Type mN Description The minimum docking station precision required for EmulatedCOIL to signa
193. s A large effort was put in developing theoretical solutions which could be applied to problems or hurdles within the framework such as navigation by splines A cache of utility classes such as different mathematical structures was implemented into the form of a powerful robotics library This library extended to provide a set of GUI widgets which provided a useful interface to the software 3 2 3 Results and Problems Throughout the project the assembled robot proved robust and very functional Complex movement through space was realized using the onboard controller In addition to the robot itself a charging station was modified to allow the charging of both the drive batteries and the laptop computer However the construction presented some problems The charging station is quite a steep climb to dock which caused trouble for the robot to dock at full payload Additionally the added contact points for the computer power lines were not very sturdy and after several docks they tended to loosen and the contact quality was degraded At that time modules where actually called components About 10 ba The resulting software proved stable and very functional However 1t lacked in functionality and refinement in the following areas navigation tracking simulation and diagnostics The continued most serious hurdle throughout the project was the localization technique This was tackled from a software perspective by first trying to
194. s collision areas and safe areas red green spots As one can quickly see the configuration in Figure 6 6 results in a simulated error related to the EmulatedCOIL s selection of a error injected MovementTracker This is part of the continued effort to provide a robust emulation environment Figure 6 6 EmulatedCOIL with Hardware Error Emulation 6 3 3 Controller The Controller module is responsible for safely controlling and maneuvering the hardware It sends the control commands to COIL which in turn translates and transmits the commands over the serial interface The Controller module is also responsible for receiving sensory data and providing it to other modules within the emss Core such as the Tracker module and various Maps The controller class inherits from CoreThread and runs in its own thread Implementations of the controller class must implement the methods process and setWheelSpeed The method emergencyStop must be implemented to handle an emergency stop in further detail Originally the emss framework contained a series of different Controller implementations however these differences have been refactored to the Tasks which originally required these features and now the Core only contains a single common Controller the EmssController 6 3 3 1 EmssController The role of the EmssController is relatively simple continuously and frequently retrieve sensor data and send movement commands while making sure to operate
195. s some problems arose Among them were the non uniform responses of the infrared sensors to concrete metal plastic or polished walls and obstacles This resulted in inaccurate distance measurements which led to errors in calculated location and less than optimal avoidance maneuvers However the robot never put itself in harms way or underwent a fatal accident The collisions which did occur only included small bumps with static obstacles and sometimes the slipping of wheels from their grip to the floor as the robot pushed against an immoveable object 7 1 1 Measurements 7 1 1 1 Avoiding a Cardboard Box After selecting a start and end navigation point a cardboard box was placed directly between the two points In this scenario the robot must avoid the obstacle in order to reach the determined endpoint es Le o ew Pm mee aa a Cardboard Figure 7 1 Schematic of Collision Avoidance Number of Tests Success Failure Success Rate 10 10 0 100 Table 7 1 Measured Results of Collision Avoidance 7 1 1 2 Avoiding a Concrete Wall During this test the robot was required to maneuver around a concrete wall as shown in Figure 7 2 Figure 7 2 Schematic for Collision Avoidance Concrete Number of Tests Success Failure Success Rate 10 10 0 100 Table 7 2 Measured Results for Collision Avoidance 7 1 1 3 Approaching a Drop Another scenario involved setting the final waypoint on a set of stairs If the robot would approach the
196. s view shown in Figure 10 12 top center allows individual MapObjects to be temporarily hidden This is achieved via the checkbox next to the MapObject identifier name This view 1s especially useful when trying to pin down a specific Tracker 10 4 2 16 Text to Speech The Text to Speech View shown below top right allows a single word or series of words to be output through the robot s speakers This is achieved by executing a third party application see the Core settings TextToSpeech_SpeakToolPath and TextToSpeech_SpeakToolCommand in Section 10 3 3 By emss Map Objects ss ale v Y RobotMapObject O Y NavPathMapObject Y Docking Station Y Enabled Y Y TrackerMapObject RobotMapObject Signals O potMa Y F NavPathMapObject V Red Beam Y Y RobotMapObject O 5 NavPathMapObject J Green Beam Es cai SNN O Y RobotMapobject Y Force Field Y F NavPathMapObject ADA nackinactatianOhiact le C Interference Close Close C Auto Refresh Figure 10 12 Various Views Related to the Interface Application 10 4 3 Configuration The settings below are used by the Interface application and can be located in the file lt emss gt resources emssInterface config The settings marked with persistent are saved with the current values automatically when the application closes For further details on the different value types and configuration patches please see Section 1
197. s written in C provides an extensible design which allows a wide array of functionality and supports different strategies for the same problem The framework features a full blown multi threaded software stack which allows the autonomous controlling and interfacing of the robot The Hardware Abstraction Layer allows for the complete emulation of the underlying hardware achieved largely by reverse engineering the behavior of the proprietary hardware Safe navigation has been achieved by intelligently avoiding drops obstacles and walls Furthermore small areas can be autonomously navigated and mapped using different space filling algorithms and map structures Collaboration with third party software has been realized with the Wireless Positioning System PointZero by automatically collecting necessary signal reference points Other routine tasks such as docking the robot on its docking station have been implemented In this paper we present an accurate description how these tasks have been realized our assessment of the results and insights into future improvements Management Summary Background A household name for several decades now the robot is a well studied creature The field of robotics has been keenly researched and applied in the areas of engineering mathematics and even distant practices such as philosophy However most of the researched topics related to robotics still remain widely unresolved After forty years of dedicated
198. safely at all times The main method for controlling the robot with the EmssController implementation is via the setWheelSpeed method This allows a Core module to set the desired wheel speed which is then transmitted by the controller to the hardware If an unsafe movement is detected such as driving down a drop or against a wall the Controller will ignore any further commands until a reversing command is desired which is deemed safe The EmssController will never take any counter action to an unsafe command it will just ignore the command This delegates the resolving of an unsafe situation to other modules such as the Navigation module The process method of the EmssController is detailed below in Figure 6 7 as a flow chart Drop detected Send ObjectDetected Signal Send MovedDistance and ChangedAngle Signals Bumper press detected IR Object detected Retrieve all Sensor Data Send ObjectDetected Signal Send ObjectDetected Signal Send ObjectDetected Signal Is forwards direction Is forwards direction EmergencyStop triggered Register Register EmergencyStop EmergencyStop Send wheel drive Send halt commands commands Figure 6 7 The EmssController Flow Chart _28 6 3 4 Tracker rte rrementraer TS IN SingleTracker AveragedTracker RawMovementTracker FrenetMovementTracker ExpectedMovementTracker A A SelfCorrectingTracker CorrectedFr
199. sary GPS information If a plain image was chosen the GPS offset Map_PhysicalMap_GPSOffset must be specified in the Core configuration In addition the appropriate settings such as Map_PhysicalMap_Description and Map_PhysicalMap_Floor should be defined for 3rd Party software Button Start Fingerprinting Stop Fingerprinting With this button the FingerprintNavigationTask is started The settings for the fingerprint wait time and interval are taken from the Core configuration file If the FingerprintNavigationTask is already running pushing the button will respectively stop the Task Notice that if no navigation points are set the FingerprintNavigationTask will attempt to follow the walls in the room until it has closed the structure of the room If the Core setting Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_PreTasks contains one or more Tasks these are executed first before the fingerprinting is started 10 5 1 3 Toolbar The toolbar allows quick access to various functionality within the emss Core The toolbar actions range from finding out information about a point on the map to placing the robot docked on the home 146 station Some tools instantly perform an action while others require a click on the map before undertaking an action The tools which require a click are marked with requires map click Such tools may be combined with others at the same time For example one could select both the Focus On Point and Set NavPoint tool w
200. scribing 6 3 12 1 CoreTest If a unit test needs a running emss Core it must inherit from CoreTest The CoreTest creates in the initTestCase method a Core instance and calls connect on it At the end in cleanupTestCase the Core instance will be disconnected and deleted Calling initTestCase will just create a default Core based on the settings in emssCore config In many cases 1t might be necessary to create a Core with specific modules This can be achieved by calling initTestCase controller tracker navigation Furthermore a unit test might require very specific settings which are independent from the Core connection This can be achieved by specifying a customSettings argument This string argument should contain line separated key value pairs just as in a config file The settings specified by customSettings append the emssCore config settings overwriting existing settings where there exists a conflict The exact definition of initTestCase 1s as follows virtual void initTestCasel OString controller EmssController OString tracker SingleTracker QString navigation SplineNavigation OString SerialPort COMA bool emulation true bool safeMode false OString customserttanags Code 6 18 Initialization of a CoreTest For example to create an emss Core with custom settings one can just call the following from within the unit test CoreTest initTestCase EmssCcontrol ter SingleTracke
201. ssage Sends the message to the given address subscribeToServer ip port Subscribes to the server at the given address a ES unsubscribeFromServer ip port Unsubscribes to the server at the given address 6 3 8 3 RemotelnterfaceSender The RemoteInterfaceSender Class inherits from CoreThread and is responsible for working through the sendQueue consequently sending the message It must extract the contents from each 67 RemoteInterfaceMessage contents and pack it up as a UDP packet and send it off The run loop of the RemoteInterfaceSender Class is quite simple 7y Enter processing loop stopRequested false while stopRequested false while server gt isSendQueueEmpty RemoteInterfaceMessage message server gt dequeuesendQueue sendMessage message Sleep wait OThread msleep core gt intSetting RemoteInterface_SendertInterval Code 6 14 RemotelnterfaceSender Run Loop 6 3 8 4 RemotelInterfaceListener The RemoteInterfaceListener Class is also a Core Thread and is responsible for listening to and receiving incoming messages When a UDP packet arrives 1t must be unpacked and parsed into a RemoteInterfaceMessage Object 6 3 9 Watchdog Watchdog WatchdogAction Thread MonitorWatchdogAction NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction Beep WatchdogAction The Watchdog runs in a separate thread and monitors different aspects of the emss Core during its runtime It is responsible for
202. structureMap gt isPointOutside Vector2D x y false navigationPoints push back VectorZD xy 3 Code 6 10 Evaluating HeatMap Heat Spots against the StructureMap Not all points added to the navigationPoints list will be navigated The list is trimmed and optimized to create short and smooth paths through the area to be discovered while ensuring that the entire area is covered To achieve this the discover method is called after evaluating the HeatMap and whenever there are no more navigational points to drive to This method calculates a new path to discover First all the points are searched which have not yet been covered and which are in the vicinity The point which is the closest to the current position is taken and the longest path through all points starting at this point 1s calculated The minimum distance between each point can be defined The following code segment demonstrates the discover method if unknownAreaPoints count gt OQ Ob1st lt Vectorzb gt tempListu int minDistance INT_MAX int position 07 Search point with the shortest distance to robot for int i 0 i lt unknownAreaPoints count 1 int temp distanceBetween unknownAreaPoints at 1 tracker gt getTranslation The Discovery2Task has its name derived from the original DiscoveryTask described in previous work Kr si amp Grob 2008 60 if temp lt minDistance DOSLETON ay minDistance temp
203. system vendor 157 It contains the following variables e mss The full path to the emss root folder lt ems s gt e svn The full SVN path for which the lt emss gt is checked out from e TARGET The current target to build either target or release e VERBOSE When true scripts should output verbose information e VERSION The current emss version number used for creating packages e os The current environment platform used for creating packages The value must be either linux win OT osx e arc The current environment architecture used for creating packages e RESOURCES The resources folder within the lt emss gt folder e rocs The log files folder within the lt emss gt folder e DEFAULT_COMPONENT Defines the default emss component when none is specified A typical settings file might look like EMSS home dankrusi emssframework trunk SVN https emssframework svn sourceforge net svnroot emssframework trunk TARGET release VERBOSE t rue VERSION 1 3 OS inux ARC x86 RESOURCES resources LOGS logs DEFAULT COMPONENT Interface Code 10 6 Example Setting File 10 6 4Environment The script file env sh will output as much environment information as possible In addition to the standard information from the splash screen environment information such as the current Of version 1s shown Usage env sh Using Ob version 44 4 5 LO usr lib Using gTr version 4 322 Architecture 1486 l
204. t Tracker_CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker_vr Default 0 0 Type double Description The correction value in percent to be applied to any incoming registerChangedWheelSpeed signal right wheel speed in the CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker The value may be positive or negative A positive value will make the MovementTracker peer left while a negative value will make the MovementTracker peer right Tracker_CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker_dv Default 0 Type double Description When not 0 defines the minimum delta value between the left wheel speed and right wheel speed abs vl vr in order to apply any correction This is designed to prevent any tracking correction on values which the hardware may not be able to physically reflect 126 Table 10 11 Core Configuration Values for Tracker 10 3 3 12 Watchdog Watchdog_ActionInterval Default 2000 Type ms Description Defines the interval at which actions should be processed For example if this value is 2000 then each registered WatchdogAction will be processed about every two seconds Watchdog_AddDefaultBeepAction Default true Type bool Description When true a default BeepWatchdogAction is added to the Watchdog upon creation Watchdog_AddDefaultNetworkMonitorAction Default false Type bool Description When true a default NetworkMonitorWatchdogAction is added to the Watchdog upon creation Watchdog_BeepWatchdogAction_BeepFile
205. t movements These movements are used for Performs test diagnostic purposes such as calibration accuracy observation and general research Tracker Is responsible for providing other modules information about the localization or positioning data of the robot Transformation matrix A description of the position and alignment of an object UndockTask Releases the robot from the docking station Vector Objects in a vector space Vector space A vector space is a set of objects called vectors that can be scaled and added 165 VGA A resolution of 640x480 Viewport A Viewport has the ability to display any emss Map as well as the Map Objects WallFollowerTask investigates the structure of the room Follows walls and Watchdog Runs in a separate thread and monitors different aspects of the emss Core during its runtime It responsible for reporting any detected fatal errors such as a deadlock or taking action when certain situations come about WPS Wireless Positioning System A system to locate a position based on wireless signals 11 2 List of Figures Figure 1 1 Illustration in You 1l own Slaves by 1965 Mechanix Illustrated 1957 00 00 eee l bisure gt 1 Onornal Desi n CONCEP acris iriri nn aa e A EAEE E E E TE 6 Figure 5217 Asse mDICG RODO losga ana 15 igure 5 2 Robot dit as Red SENSORS ri ia 16 Figure gt Controlling OF tne RODO La diia 16 Pistire 524 7 Assembled ODO A
206. t FadingCollision Vector2D position double radius OTime time Now whenever the FadingCollisionMap is queried by for example the Navigation module first the method fadeOldcollisions is called which in turn fades away any old collisions which are no longer considered relevant The reason the method of using time as a quantifier for deciding which collisions to use and which not works well is because at time t the accuracy of a given collision at time t dt is propertional to dt older collisions have a greater dt value AANSN BARRA Figure 6 17 FadingCollisonMap in Action 44 6 3 6 Navigation A NY SplineNavigation SystemOfWeightNavigation 1 x VI GAA ANANAS RoamingWeight OrientationWeight ControllerSpeedWeight DockWeight CollisionAvoidanceWeight FullSpeedWeight AccelerationFilterWeight WallFollowerWeight RemoteControlWeight JoystickWeight The Navigation module is responsible for accepting navigation points and translating them to commands with which the Controller can use to directly steer the robot through the path of these navigation points Any implementation of the Navigation module must inherit from the Navigation class and implement the method getWheelSpeed Everything related to the management of navigation points is implemented by the Navigation class implementations do not need to toil with this The Navigation module by itself cannot actually navigate the robot that
207. t be less than the Map StructureMap MinimumDistanceBetweenCollision value for the StructureMap to function correctly Map StructureMap FinishTolerance mm allows the StructureMap to close even when the robot has not seen the original collision point Map_StructureMap_MinimumDistanceBetweenCollision Default 1000 0 Type mN Description The minimum distance required from the last StructureMap point before registering a new point This is used to filter the StructureMap to a reduced set of point in real time Map_TerrainMap_RaiseLowerIncrement Default 0 1 Type double Description The default amount to increment or decrement when raising or lowering the terrain level The value must be between 0 0 and 1 0 Map_TerrainMap_RaiseLowerSize_mm Default 400 Type mm Description The default length and width size of the terrain to raise or lower at a given point Map_Width_mm Default 45000 Type m Description The initial map width Used by various Maps such as the HeatMap when pre allocating memory Table 10 4 Core Configuration Values for Map 10 3 3 5 Navigation Navigation_AutomaticallyAddStartingNavPoints Default false Type bool Description When true two navigation points will automatically be added upon starting the navigation These two points are placed directly ahead of the robot and proves useful when navigating structures such as splines 115 Navigation_InitialNavPointsListX_
208. t goal 4 2 1 1 Safe Navigation within a Simple Room First things first 1t is important to consider the robots safety throughout its operation It must be able to navigate in a simple room safely meaning that 1t typically avoids obstacles 1t can see and almost certainly avoids from causing any serious damage such as driving down stairs or a drop When the robot detects such an obstacle it should be able to assess the situation and appropriately react to it 4 2 1 2 Basic Environment Mapping Skills When the robot is placed in an unknown environment it should be able to navigate and build up the basic structure of the room based on the sensory data When the entire structure has been determined the robot should then cover the rest of the unknown room to create a map of the environment and the obstacles contained within 4 2 1 3 Basic Localization using Different Data Sources and Hardware Based on the different data sources feedback from servos infra red sensors and possible the floor plan of the environment the software should be able to determine its current position relative to the starting position at any time 4 2 1 4 Protocol for Third Party Application Tasks Third Party software should be able to utilize the emss framework for it s own purposes For this reason a protocol must be defined for which positioning data can be retrieved remotely 4 2 1 5 Assembly of Additional Units A second generation robot shall be construc
209. t mapping In Discovery2Task the robot added the wall following information to the knowledge of the location of the wall and was able to map the entire layout of the floor plan within a room 7 2 1 Measurements 7 2 1 1 Wall Follower Once the robot was initialized in a room it had to find a wall and begin to follow 1t This test measured if the robot recognized the object as a wall neared the wall with help of the sensors and then was able to follow the wall Figure 7 5 Schematic for Wall Follower No Tests Object Wall Identified Wall Followed at Success Rate Identified least 10m 20 20 18 18 90 Table 7 5 Measured Results for Wall Follower 7 2 1 2 Identifying Basic Structure of a Rectangular Room The robot must identify the basic geometrical structure of a simple rectangular room Once the map is closed the robot should stop and the floor plan is checked _78 9000000 00 00000008 PMO 9 No Start o o o 0 0 o ao c nee o oo eGeeaeeea Figure 7 6 Schematic of Mapping Floor Plan No Tests Wall Identified Geometry of Room Identified Success Rate 10 10 6 60 Table 7 6 Measured Results for Mapping Floor Plan 7 2 2 Evaluation The results showed that once a wall was identified the robot was always able to follow it The primary source of the problems for identifying a wall came from the short sightedness of the wall sensors they only see 10cm ahead If the parameters of the Collision
210. t means the robot is centered and the local map is built around it Task_DiscoveryTask_RelativeExplorationWidth_mm Default 4000 Type m Description Width of the local exploration map That means the robot is centered and the local map is built around it Task_DiscoveryTask_TerrainCutLevel Default Type int Description Defines the height of the terrain cut points Task_DiscoveryTask_TerrainCutPointDistance_mm Default 200 Type ae Description Defines the minimum distance between two terrain cut points Task_DiscoveryTask_TerrainMapMaxHeight Default 100 Description Defines the maximum height of a terrain cut point Task_DiscoveryTask_TerrainMapUnknownHeight Default 101 Type int Description Defines the value of an unknown height 122 Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_Fingerprint_Interval Default 6000 Type ms Description The default interval at which the robot halts and sends a fingerprint message over the Remotelnterface Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_Fingerprint_Waittime Default 2000 Type ms Description The default duration for which the robot halts after sending a fingerprint message over the RemotelInterface Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_GPSPrecision Default 14 Description The depth of precision when representing GPS coordinates Task_FingerprintNavigationTask_Interval Default Type ms Description The interval at which the Fingerprint
211. t the LGPL version and download the Ot SDK for Mac package 102 10 2 1 2 3 Windows The entire framework can be built by just installing the Qt framework which can be downloaded from Qt Software If not already installed Qt will automatically install the MinGW tool chain In order to use the bash shell scripts provided with the emss framework we recommend Cygwin 10 2 2 Environment In order to build the emss framework using the Of tools the Qt bin folder must be in the pats variable Depending on how Of was installed the park variable might need to be updated to include the Of bin folder 10 2 2 1 Unix On most systems one can change the bashrc file by adding the following 10 2 2 2 Windows PATH path to 0t bin PATH export PATH Under System Advanced and then Environment add the path to the Qt bin folder at the end of the partu variable An easy way to check which Of version is being used is to run the following command qmake version 10 2 3 Building 10 2 3 1 Using build sh The easiest way to build any emss component is by using the included script buiid sh To build a component just run build sh followed by the component name such as build sh Interface If you wish to build everything just run build sh all cd lt emss gt Scripts b tla sh Core build sh Interface The full documentation for this script can be found in Section 10 6 7 A build can be
212. ted based on the design of the original hardware This includes the modifications required on both the hardware chassis as well as the docking station along with the mounting of the laptop unit 4 2 1 6 Additional and Optional Features The following requirements are optional and may be implemented 1f feasable Self Charging Algorithm The robot shall be able to detect the docking station and autonomously dock itself on it This must be achieved using the built in infra red signals provided by the docking station Self Healing Tracker Where the localization has become corrupt or inaccurate the self healing tracker shall detect these errors and correct them providing more accurate information about the robots whereabouts 210 Publishing of the Project to the Robotics Community The emss project 1s to be published as an open source project People who wish to use the software make modifications and redistribute 1t must be supported in doing so To enable this the appropriate license must be applied to the source code and made available on the internet 4 2 2 Use Case The following use cases have been defined to accompany the requirements UCI Safe Navigation Goal Robot must safely navigate through an unknown environment without touching the wall or falling down a sudden drop Preconditions Batteries are fully charged Annotation This use case takes effect with all other use cases Standard Procedure UC2 WallFollower Goa
213. th increased speed _8 7 6 1 1 Measurements 7 6 1 1 1 Successful Docking Docking is considered successful once the robot locates and mounts itself on the docking station so that both the iRobot and laptop begin charging This requires all four contact points on the docking station shown in Figure 5 5 to make a solid contact with its partner contact on the mobile hardware Figure 7 9 Schematic for Docking No Tests Docking Docked Docked Only Docked Both Success Rate Station Only robot laptop robot and Both robot Found laptop and laptop docked 30 28 15 0 2 6 666 Table 7 8 Results for Docking Test 7 6 1 1 2 Successful Undocking If the starting waypoint for the robot is in a docked position it must first drive a short distance backwards to release itself before it can begin a new task Figure 7 10 Schematic for Undocking No Tests Successful Undock Arrived at End Success Rate Waypoint 10 10 10 100 Table 7 9 Results for Docking Undocking Test 82 7 6 1 2 Evaluation The test results show that the robot had no problems to release itself from the docking station and continue executing tasks However the docking algorithm was far from stable While the robot found the docking station most of the time even when started from an off angle to the docking station the robot almost always failed to make contact with the charging contact points for the laptop Because these small contact points were
214. th the hardware the resulting software proved stable and very functional However it lacked in functionality and refinement in the following areas navigation tracking simulation and diagnostics The continued most serious hurdle throughout the project was the localization technique This was tackled from a software perspective by first trying to make the robot move in a predictable fashion such as along a curve and then to track its position using the sensory data from the hardware controller This proved to be a problem as the localization over time became very inaccurate Assembled Robots Approach Before attacking the new hurdles presented by the project the previous work was studied assessed and improved where appropriate This included the refactoring and cleaning up of code in the software In addition modifications to the hardware were undertaken to make improvements to the overall design Most notably the original docking station was redesigned The new docking station was fitted with small incisions in the casing to allow for secondary contact pieces to stick out and make contact with both the internal batteries and the onboard computer batteries Next a simulated environment was realized which enables the emulation of the complete hardware This was achieved largely by reverse engineering the behavior of the proprietary hardware This functionality 1s essential for rapid development and testing as 1t allows a quick and easy en
215. the structure of a room as the robot sees it It is built up sequentially over time and requires a certain amount of exploration to be fully generated The corner points of the Map are extracted from the individual collisions the robot detects The StructureMap has a special property isFinished which lets a module know if the Map is complete or not The Map is complete when the last added point is within the defined distance from the starting point See the Core setting Map_StructureMap_FinishTolerance_mm _ 40 Figure 6 14 shows how StructureMap looks like after performing a WallFollowerTask Additionally the density of the corner points is defined by a Core setting In the case of Figure 6 14 this setting was set to 1000mm one grid space Figure 6 14 Comparison PhysicalMap to StructureMap If the StructureMap is finished a module can query the Map to find out whether or not a given point lies inside the closed structure or not For this 1t must be determined 1f the point lies within the polygon which 1s formed by all the corner points in the StructureMap This 1s achieved using the Jordan Curve Theorem Veblen 1905 The theorem states the following a point is within the polygon when the number of intersections from that point from any arbitrary direction is odd as shown in Figure 6 15 Figure 6 15 Jordan Curve Theorem If we look at points A and B we count five intersections with the polygon which is odd On the
216. tion towards the direction of the clicked point on the map requires map click Set Robot Docked Places the robot on top of the docking station in a docked position ES Set NavPoint Places a new navigation point at the clicked point on the map requires map click ZA Reset NavPoints Removes all navigation points Y Set Border Manually marks a border point in the StructureMap requires map click A Reset Border Removes all border points from the StructureMap Table 10 20 FingerprintCollector Toolbar Icons 10 5 1 4 History The History is the standard output for all Core modules Important information related to the current state of the different modules are displayed in chronological order Messages are always preceded by a timestamp and the module which created the message in the format of hh mm ss fff Module Messages are split into three categories 147 Information Output in white and display general information regarding connection states Task execution et cetera Warnings Output in yellow and display more information related to improper configurations or minor errors which require the attention of the user Errors Output in red and display information related to serious errors within the Core At this point the Core is considered unstable and should be reconfigured and reset 10 5 1 5 Viewport The Viewport displays the various Maps PhysicalMap HeatMap etc loaded in the Core The Maps are described in f
217. to the nearest wall This is why it is advantageous to choose a remarkable flat surface such as a wall to place the physical docking station emss FINgerprint Colector File Help Settings T 9 O k a Clos G 2 973l u Controller EmssController Tracker SingleTracker Navigation SystemOfweightsNavigation Port devittyUSBO y Clicking close to a wall C Emulate Hardware Interface will automatically snap the docking station to it Speed SU 7 Disconnect Load New Map Start Fingerprinting Navigation SystemOfwWiiE 302 Fingerprint Collector co Core connected Controller EmssContro TaskManager started RemotelntertaceListene RemotelnterfaceSende Remotelnterface starte I J 30 4 27 312 7 31 y de A 13 23 27 314 te Brac pear gic HU 13 23 27 314 Core running Figure 10 20 Positioning the Virtual Docking Station 7 Using the toolbar action Set Robot Docked place the robot ontop of the docking station in a docked position 151 emss Fingerprint Collector File Help Settings ve Controller EmssController ts Tracker SimgleTracker Set Robot Docked la Navigation SystemOfweightsNavigation Port Idevittyuso x C Emulate Hardware Interface Speed ee SU a Disconnect Load New Map A Start Fingerprinting 12 Navigat
218. ule implementations or moving objects such as the robot or docking station are offered by the Interface The Interface allows a user to instantiate a emss Core and connect to it at ease Common configurations and settings are replaced with drop down menus and check boxes and windows can be freely placed around the desktop Events from the Core are connected to the different GUI elements via slots and signals and in many cases a one to many relationship has been used as to enable features such as multiple viewports Events coming from the GUI thread are translated into the appropriate Tasks for the TaskManager to handle to ensure that the GUI always remains responsive 10 4 1 First Usage The emss Interface can be started by executing lt emss gt bin lt emssInterface emssIintertace appl emssintertace exe gt depending on which platform IS being used If the emss scripts are installed one can run the Interface by just entering the command er or respectively edr for a gdb debugging session For further information on these shortcut commands see Section 10 6 5 4 When the Interface is run for the first time it might ask for the emss resources and logs path These paths must be registered with the operating system for the Core to function properly You can create a resources directory manually by copying the lt emss gt DefaultResources folder or alternatively the resources and logs folders can be automatically created by either the set
219. unk DefaultResources Icons qrc Writing home dankrusi emssframework trunk DefaultResources Texts qrc 10 6 6 Updating Components Any emss component can be updated with the script update sh To specify which component to update provide the component name as the first argument For example to update the emss Core enter the command update sh Core If no argument is passed to the script the default component is updated You can update all the emss components by specifying a11 as the first argument update sh all Usage update sh lt component all gt Shortcut eu lt component al1 gt update sh Updating Core Updating Interface 10 6 7 Building Components An emss component can be built using the build sh script This script automatically generates makefiles from the Qt project files pro and calls make The target is defined by the TARGET setting This script will automatically build any necessary components such as the Core 1f needed Usage build sh lt component al1 gt Shortcut eb lt component al1 gt BULL Sia B riding COS Building Interface 160 10 6 8 Running Applications 10 6 8 1 Normal Run To execute an emss component that produces an executable binary use the run sh script The component to be run must be specified in the first argument Usage run sh lt component all gt Shortcut er lt component all gt Running Interface 10 6 8 2 Debug Run If gdb is i
220. up sh or Depending on which operating system is being used the settings are saved in either the system registry or in the user s home folder config emss 131 create_resources_and_logs sh script The resources path must contain the Core configuration file emssCore config The Core cannot function properly without a valid configuration file Ly emss Resources Path x Please enter the full emss Resources path including the trailing slash On Windows such a path might look like C ernss resources while on Unix such a path will look like opt emss resources home dankrusi emssframework trunk resources Om Figure 10 2 Resources Path Dialog Box 10 4 2 Graphical User Interface Although there are more than ten different views available in the Interface application the most important are the main window titled emss Interface and the Viewport titled emss Viewport Some views such as the Task Editor and Weight Editor are by default docked within the main window These views can be undocked and also opened as separate dialogs All the views can be resized the contents will automatically adjust to fill the space efficiently When the application first starts only the main window is shown Upon connecting the Core a Viewport is automatically displayed next to the main window An example layout of the emss Interface is shown below in Figure 6 32 Main Window Viewport Toolbar Weight Editor
221. uration Values for CaMera ooocccccccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnos 109 Table 102 Core Configuration Values tor COL Sosceddneceacicheiasatedecenatolarasastecesead bannsadenteeanees 110 Table 10 3 Core Configuration Values for Controller ooooococcccncnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonoos 111 Table 10 4 Core Configuration Values for MaP oooooonooonooooooononononononnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnononononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnss 115 Table 10 5 Core Configuration Values for Navigation oooooonnooooonnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoss 117 Table 10 6 Core Configuration Values for Remotelnter ace oooooooonccccnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnoss 118 Table 10 7 Core Configuration Values for RODOL iii 121 Table 10 8 Core Config ration Values tor Task dana 124 Table 10 9 Core Configuration Values for TaskManager ooooononnnnonononnnnnnnnonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnononnnnnnnonononons 123 Table 10 10 Core Configuration Values for TextToSpeech oooooooononooccncnnnncnonononononononnnnnnonnnnnnnnnoos 123 Table 10 11 Core Configuration Values for Tracker oooonnnnnnnnnnnooooooonnnnnnnnnnnonononnnnnnnnnnnnononononononoss 127 Table 10 12 Core Configuration Values for Watchdog ooooocnnnnnnonononananananononononono nono nono nono nono nnnnnnnnos 128 Table 10 13 Core Configuration Values for Weight oooononnnononononnonononnnnnnnononnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnonnnnnoss 131 Table L0 14 I
222. ures it sees with its bare sensors infra red and map them to the features described by the floor plan The difference can then be used to calculate the error and perform better localization 4 3 1 Milestones Our approach has lead us to many different tasks and goals These are defined by the following milestones 4 3 1 1 Milestone 1 Week 3 Preliminary work Implementation of simulated environment Implementation of System of Weights See eae Realization of the Remote Protocol 4 3 1 2 Milestone 2 Week 6 Completion of Prototype I Safe navigation within a closed simple room Implementation of basic environment mapping functions ee a Release of emss framework v1 1 4 3 1 3 Milestone 3 Week 9 1 Completion of Prototype II Realization of localization using different data sources 3 Release of emss framework v1 2 4 3 1 4 Milestone 4 Week 12 1 Successful completion of test scenario 4 3 1 5 Milestone 5 Week 14 1 Code freeze 4 3 1 6 Milestone 6 Week 16 1 Completion of the project and documentation Delivery of all related work writing code and hardware 3 Release of emss framework v1 3 Be ee By es E 5 Hardware The emss hardware is a simple set of ready made components deliberately chosen to avoid many of the tedious electrical engineering problems presented in the field of robotics All the components are plug and play and off the shelf available as consumer electronics This chapter gives a short overview of
223. urs for Implementation 9 7 Metrics To measure the code metrics of the emss project the well known tool SLOCCount by David Wheeler was used The total Source Lines of Code SLOC of all components is 19 971 with the majority belonging to the emss Core which totals 14 348 Compared with the previous work achieved in the Semester Project the total SLOC has grown 96 7 from 10 138 SLOC whereas the Core has grown 118 9 from 6 554 SLOC It is worthwhile to mention that the current code base contains 8 776 comments which is an accurate reflection of our efforts to create thoroughly documented source code FingerprintCollector e Lesta 1 398 2 hs RotationTest 203 1 VectorTest 594 3 ___ z Interface 531 3 Scripts 725 4 SplineTest 728 4 DifferentialSteeringTest 816 4 Core 14348 72 UnitTests 1109 5 Figure 9 3 Source Lines of Code Distribution _ 98 9 8 Personal Report 9 8 1 Daniel Kr si Realizing this project has been a dream of mine for a long time Since childhood I have been interested in robots and since my teenage years I have been building them The mix of theory mathematics programming and tinkering with hardware throughout the project was really fascinating While at many times the wide range of topics we touched was a little overwhelming as was the entire scope of the project I believe the values and lessons I learnt throughout the project are a invaluable experience
224. urther detail in Chapter 6 3 5 The main purpose of the Viewport is to represent the internal state of the Core in a visual fashion as well as present an interface for interacting with the different Maps The Viewport can be scrolled horizontally and vertically along 1ts X and Y axis When in OpenGL mode see Viewport_RenderMode in Section 10 5 3 the Viewport can also be zoomed in and out using the zoom slider Right clicking the Viewport opens up a menu of different functionality The following menu items are available for the Viewport Native Render OpenGL Render Displays whether the Viewport is being rendered natively using software or on the hardware using OpenGL See Viewport_RenderMode in Section 10 5 3 on how to configure the render mode Anti Alias When checked MapObjects and other Map elements will be rendered using anti aliasing When in OpenGL render mode the effect of the Anti Alias option might vary depending on what the hardware supports Auto Update When checked the Viewport will automatically refresh at the interval specified by the configuration setting Viewport_AutoUpdateInterval Auto Focus When checked the Viewport will automatically center 1ts focus on the current position of the robot Maps Individiual Maps can be hidden from being displayed unchecking the Map name under the Maps menu _ Anti Alias Yi Auto Update Wi Auto Focus OS gt A PhysicalMap GridMap 1 TerrainMap Y HeatMap YI Fa
225. using the formula developed in our previous work Krusi amp Grob 2008 Accuracy Test The Accuracy Test test uses navigation points which must be traversed To do this the SystemOfWeightsNavigation module is used The navigation points always remain the same and have been designed to stress different problematic factors in navigation WallFollowerAccuracy This test helps resolve issues related to wall following algorithms It is designed to be executed in a small room When the Task is finished or interrupted the following information is returned 1 Start and end positions 2 Angle difference between the start position and end position 3 Distance between start and end position 4 Distance travelled Tracker Callibration The Tracker Calibration test serves to output calibration data used for setting up a MovementTracker which accepts calibration data such as the CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker It drives the defined distance at a given speed When finished the angle alpha must be entered by physically measuring it and the system performs the necessary calculations for returning calibration data Expected Real Position Position Alpha al Eo e Straight with Weights This test sets a single navigation point straight in front of the robot The test is used to verify the performance of different modules and implementations such as the CorrectedFrenetMovementTracker or the CollisionAvoidanceWeight Custom Move The Custom Mov
226. v TTYUSBO true true COre gt gt start The Core is running and ready now Shutdown the Core core gt stop core gt disconnect Cleanup delete core Code 6 1 Core Initialization and Connection Example 6 3 1 1 Thread Safety Any module within the Core must be thread safe where 1t has exposed methods as there are different interacting threads which run in a connected Core This is achieved by using system level locks mostly read write locks In most cases a module will contain a private read write lock for the data it must guard and perform lock operations around any internal code accessing this data Always when possible a differentiation has been made between code which requires only read access and code which requires write access in order to boost performance DAS 6 3 1 2 CoreObject A module in the Core which either does not require any continuous processing or 1s processed by another module inherits from the Coreobject class The Coreobject is a simple interface which only requires a human readable type name and a pointer to its Core in order to be constructed In addition when activated HeapLogger routines are called in order to keep track of which coreObjects are on the heap 6 3 1 3 CoreThread A module in the Core which requires continuous processing in the fashion of a thread must inherit from the CoreThread class Similar to a CoreObject CoreThread is a simple interface whic
227. ve It To Roll Oh Handy 1940 robots have found their birthplace in the factory There they toil away all day and sometimes night performing mundane routine tasks over and over Looking at such a machine with 1ts precise movements and repetitive activities 1ts hard edges and vacuous appearance 1t has little resemblance of ourselves Is not the robot supposed to be mankind s birth child Robots will dress you comb your hair and serve meals in a jiffy Ga Bee VALET ROBOT i BREAKFAST 0 pe gt DINNER o i U JET CAR a 3 OMMUTER T ELICOPTER o i 62 Mechanix Illustrated Figure 1 1 Illustration in You ll own Slaves by 1965 Mechanix Illustrated 1957 The robotic revolution has not yet undergone in the scale and realm so many thought 1t would What then has kept it Does the robot just need more time to develop and grow or is our concept of the robot fundamentally flawed A long standing problem in the field of robotics is the perception of the environment To us humans this 1s a trivial task We see hear and touch our environment around us combining these senses to form a somewhat indescribable organic perception of the world Thorpe Clatz Duggins Gowdy MacLachlan amp Ryan 2001 It 1s here at one of the most essential parts of our defining quality where the robot has stumbled The ability to perceive the environment and comprehend its implications is the first step in actively being a part of it Only t
228. vironment for seeing the results of an algorithm or task In order to enable third party applications to make use of the emss framework a protocol was defined and implemented This was realized using UDP over IP technology and enabled messages to be remotely sent to and from the framework In addition a new navigation module was implemented to allow an easier environment for which different tasks can be created in the system This new module was based on previous work of the emss project called System of Weights Kr si amp Grob 2008 The new navigation module is completely dynamic and reacts solely on the current perception on the state of the environment at that moment of time Finally an advanced tracker was implemented which is able to make small corrections in the localization error when deemed appropriate To do this the tracker makes use of a pre loaded floor plan in order to make correlations between its perceived virtual world and the physical world position collision J closest wall Correlation Triangle detected wall structure automatic corrections Tracker Performing Automatic Corrections Results The resulting emss framework consisting of a set of hot swappable modules written in C provides an extensible design which allows a wide array of functionality and supports different strategies for the same problem The framework features a full blown multi threaded software stack which allows the auto
229. www eclipse org cdt The Ot Eclipse Integration for C provided by Qt Software can be found at http www qtsoftware com developer eclipse integration 171 5 Ifthe OT Eclipse Plugin is used the first time a warning appears and requests to configure the preferred Qt version and its bin and include path Adad mew Qi version Specity the Name and Din include Pathes of the Of versien Version Narna Qt 4 5 Bin Bath foptigtede 3004 01 gt bin rowna Path containing tools gmake ue rec ete incluida Path jopt qtedi 7004 0 1 qtjinclude Browse i vofa ad Path containing the include pathes QiCore QtGuf etc No defauk Qt version is set Open the Qt page in the preferences dialog and add a Qt version Open preferences Cancel oF Bish Cancel Figure 11 4 Add New Qt Version 6 Now the source code is ready to compile The new project will automatically update the Of project file pro and run gmake when necessary Ble Edt Refactor Navigate Search fun Project Window Help d amp d G 0 8c v Hi amp m Bicet Bfree 2 Dorc O Rcoreh CoreObject h 2 Problem A tasks B Console T Propert CoreThread h 0 errors 2 warnings 0 others O G Descrption Resource Path di Core pro D 4 wamings 2 tems wertable Smart insert eva Figure 11 5 Import is Complete 2 Gt Debug had Make Targets for Cora Lonation Add Budd

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