“Little Homie” Presentation Jesse Martin 12/04/02 Intelligent Machine Design Lab

Overview Application Sensors SOFTWARE Pitfalls Conclusion

Application What I said it would do…. Autonomously take pictures of things that is “interesting” Robot will have a rich UI from an onboard Pocket PC Pictures taken will be stored on the pocket PC where they can be viewed, ed, or sent to a PC

Application What Little Homie actually does… Take high resolution images of people (not necessarily interesting people)  Up to 1248 x 960 pixels Images are stored on 32 mb Flash where they can be transferred to a PC via USB Provide the user with a rich UI via Pocket PC On board diagnostics tool

Sensors 2 Sharp GPD212 IR 2 Whisker Bump switches Aiptek Pencam HVW Technologies PIR Sensor

PIR Sensor Advantages Cheap!! Cost only $10.95 Neat Fresnel Lens Only Three Lines Disadvantages Digital If platform moves, you get unreliable readings

CMUcam Originally had plans on using the CMUcam to take pictures but… Takes about 4.8 sec to transmit small image over serial port at 115k baud  My microprocessor doesn’t even support that speed  Therefore, on my uP, it would take about 15 sec Images aren’t buffered!

CMUcam What is this???? Steady 313 x 285

CMUcam Too low quality; unreliable results Solution….. Aiptek Pencam!

Aiptek Pencam 32 mb Flash can store 140 pictures Small Low Power 1248 X 960 resolution Can take video

Interfacing Pencam Just need to connect wires from the Pencam’s buttons to a microprocessor controlled relay

Aiptek Pencam CMUcam

Pocket PC Software Main Menu  Control Panel  Actuation Calibration  Test Camera  Take Pictures  (View Pictures is disabled)

Pocket PC Software Control Panel Allows you…  Test sensors  Test motors  Test Servos  Obstacle Avoid

Pocket PC Software Actuation Calibration  Allows you to change each motor’s values to make the robot go straight or turn in the manor you want it too

Pocket PC Software Test Camera  Allows you to… Turn on Camera Take a Picture Clear Contents on camera

Pocket PC Software Take Pictures  Main Program

Pitfalls Caster Wheel Would always get stuck so platform couldn’t go straight Solution: Replaced it with a stub Interfacing CMUcam Couldn’t get clear images from CMUcam Max baud rate on uP too slow Solution: Replaced CMU cam with Aiptek Pencam

Conclusion Orginal vision for Little Homie was “Pie in the Sky” Total Cost over $ (not including PPC) $73.30 in shipping $ wasted toward CMUcam Burned out many IRs Bought wrong items and vendor wouldn’t take back

Conclusion As of right now, 1,462 lines of code has been written Many more lines are hidden

Conclusion Any Questions???