Hi just few days ago I really got to know about robotlab and so i have downloaded to actually implement it on my personal robot.
I would like to do obstacle avoidance using myrobotlab software. Since i am new to this platform so need some guidance. I would like my robot to navigate in a home environment and at the same time avoid and do not collide with any obstacle ahead. Could anyone please help me with this as how to start and etc. I am using arduino mega as the main controller, Logitech HDC270 webcam, robot power motor controllers and DC motors for driving the wheels.
Your guidance and assitance will be highly appreciated.
Any form of tutorial will also be great and how can i communicate with arduino mega.
Thanks
Rajeev
Hello and Welcome Rajeev
MyRobotLab is designed to run on anything which can run Java. It can communicate to micro-controllers, although most micro-controller can not run Java (yet). With that said, I did not see a computer mentioned in your hardware list.
My first question for you is what is the Logitech HDC270 webcam plugged into ? Because you can not plug it into the arduino mega, as far as I know.
I currently am working on a Roomba + Computer + Kinect system - http://myrobotlab.org/node/119 .
This will be an "all on board" system, however, there are different configurations which are more distributed - like this http://myrobotlab.org/communication or even like this, where the camera is not mounted on the robot, but still position information is communicated wirelessly.
To assist you better I would need more details on your setup or what you intend to do.
GroG
Obstacle avoidance
Sorry to mention but I am using Acer Aspire One laptop to which the webcam and the Arduino microcontroller will be connected. The mobile platform is a differential drive system and the wheels are controlled by DC motors. Microcontroller will be communicating with the robotpower Simple H to control the respective motors. Also the laptop will be placed on top of the platform to make it totally autonomous. The main objective will be that the mobile robot should be able to navigate any environment avoiding obstacles. For test purposes it will be an indoor environment.
Looks Great !
I would suggest to begin with using some control services of MRL (MyRobotLab). To better assist you I would like to know the following :
1. Will there be any other sensors besides the webcam? IR or Ping? MRL can potentially support all of these, and typically augmenting sensor information makes for a more robust system.
2. What OS will be running on the laptop? MRL supports Windows, Linux & Mac OSX, however there are details regarding OpenCV which would need to be addressed. One of the largest is the correct native libraries - is it 32 or 64 bit operating system?
3. How comfortable are you in software development? MRL can be programmed in a rudementary way graphically. It has an embedded Python IDE with complete interoperability via scripts. It is written in Java and can be further developed in Java too.
4. I understand it will be autonomous but I suspect you will want to have the option of tele-operation it via wifi. MRL has a RemoteAdapter service which allows it to be distributed over over more than one computer.
You can start by downloading 14.1 - http://code.google.com/p/myrobotlab/downloads/detail?name=myrobotlab-0014.1.zip&can=2&q=
If your running windows you should be able to double click the jython.bat or you can double click the myrobotlab.bat, tab to the service tabs and start a Jython service IDE. For speech recogition you'll need to download the thridParty.zip jar libraries into myrobotlab-0014/libraries/jar. For the opencv you'll need to give me operating system information.
Right now we are working on a repo and a dynamic download/update system - so the thirdParty.zip will become obsolete, and installation will become much more simple.
Futher Information
I hope i have answered your questions. Also i have never worked with OpenCV and this would be my first time.
I look forward for your guidance and if you do require any further clarification, i would be happy to provide you with that.
Rajeev
Download...
MRL is a Java application framework - so you need to have Java..
I didn't know any Python until a few weeks ago. It is more similar to Java than C++. The designers were very interested in the minimal amount of syntax, which is a nice feature. Another very nice thing is all of MRL is accessable through this Jython interface.
But we want to start with little steps. So hit exec and we will see if we took our first "little" step. What should happen is there should be a long pause. Initially this needs to run with a connection to the internet. What is happening is :
Let me know how it goes.
MRL
I was able to smoothly execute the software. No problems so far. So whats next for me???
Excellent...
Next I would suggest Motor Control?
MRL has an Arduino service, but to get full use out of it you will need to load the arduinoSerial.pde - it is located here.
http://myrobotlab.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/src/resource/arduinoSerial.pde
This allows MRL running on the computer to talk to the micro-controller.
The next steps would be:
Here is a Jython script which "should" do the following. You can change the code values for the Arduino & Motors depending on your hardware setup. A tabbed panel for each Service should appear.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GUI after script runs (give it a little time)
Nothing happening
Hi Grog
When I tried to execute the jython codes , i waited for about 15mins but nothing happened. Then i tried to create the servises using myrobotlab.bat file but i was not getting the any com port for arduino. Even when i tried to select it from the drop down menu, but it was just blank. To check i opened arduino sketch and i was able to see the com port there but still nothing in the GUI.
Is it designed to automatically pick up the com port or only it will detect through jython codes?
M stuck now. What to do? Will Linux OS will be better to work with myrobotlab?
Log.txt
There should be a Log.txt created - please send it to me
Your out of synch....
Which is the common problem with (B)leading edge software and one of the things I'm trying to solve with release 15. At your current transitory version (0014.1) Service.setLogLevel is not supported.
Fortunately, I have been busy with release 15 and we can use some tricks to get you up to speed.
I posted a mrl.zip. Unzip its contents into your myrobotlab-0014.1 directory.
The update includes an "update" mechanism.
go to your myrobotlab-0014.1 directory in a cmd shell and copy/paste the following command :
java -cp "libraries/jar/*" org.myrobotlab.service.ServiceFactory -update
This command will start Ivy and query the repository I'm building. Make sure you have an internet connection when you run it. It will build a local cache of all necessary dependencies (jars, native files, etc).
I've tested this on XP and it works - opencv works too. I'm a little concerned with windows 7 but let me know.
(P.S. MRL will attempt to check & resolve dependencies when it starts - if yor not connected to the internet or notice delays when starting, just rename the ivysettings.xml. If this xml file does not exist with the appropriate name, MRL will not attempt to check the repository for updates. If you run update in the future, make sure the file is in the correct location with the correct name)
Good Luck....
This is what the output of the update command does. It should show itself getting in sync with the repository. If you have any experience with Linux's yum or apt-get you'll be familiar with this concept.
Hi this is what i am
Hi this is what i am getting
I think it is not updating although i am connected to the internet.
It looks like it's correctly
It looks like it's correctly starting Ivy ... are you connected through a Proxy server?
Updates through Proxy
Updates through Proxy Services are not yet supported :P (add to my list of things to do :P )
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