AS Bionics Project work spring 2008

Project work 2008 Implement a ’Blind guide robot’ Analyze data from whisker sensors attached to the J2B2 robot and control robot so that it follows a marked Try to follow a path on the floor as accurately and quickly as possible Get to know how to combine different tools for robot control (Simulink -> C) A final competition for different groups

Whisker sensors Whisker sensors are build by attaching a ’whisker’ on a capacitive microphone This way whisker movement is sensed as change in voltage Whisker oscillation and movement can then be analyzed in time or frequency domain Due to non-industrial ’production’ of whiskers, they are not exactly similar

Data translation system The voltage from microphone is amplified and low- pass filtered using a analog filter-amplifier board Amplified signal is A/D converted using a DSP prosessor board. The DSP does further low-pass filtering and sends the results trough RS-232 port as data packages at 250Hz frequency DSP analog voltage amplified analog voltage RS-232

Data translation system One data package contains a starting byte (0x44), 8 data bytes and a end byte, which is contains package index (0-255) Each data byte corresponds to voltage output from 0 to 255, nominal (no movement) is 127 The whiskers used for project are 1, 2, 3 and 5. 0x448 data bytesindex byte

Controlling the robot The robot is controlled using an interface made in C++ Project work however is done in matlab / simulink and the code is compiled to C-code using real-time workshop c-compiler Simulink C-code Executable C-compiler compile with robot interface

Simulink Data is read to matlab and analyzed Then a simulink model is used to develop a control for the robot For testing: Test_Environment, for controlling Driving_environment

Compiling Compilation to c-code is compiled easily with simulink, be sure to follow project work instructions carefully! Compiling with interface is done with Devcpp-programming environment, you don’t have to make many changes, compilation should be easy

Connecting to robot When running the code, the laptop must be connected to robot with ethernet cable with following connection settings: – IP: , Gateway: If you want to use internet change the settings to: – IP: , Gateway:

Testing with robot There is a simple ready-made user interface for robot control: – Drive robot with ’a,w,s and d’ – Terminate control thread for whiskers ’t’ – Exit application ESC Read the code in main.cpp for more accurate instructions

General stuff ALWAYS leave the robot power chord on when not working (and maybe also when working) Read instructions for robot use from: ProjectWork/Important ProjectWork/Important Reserve the robot beforehand using reservation book at robot room (2551)

Outline of project work Analyze data from whiskers using matlab Create a control to follow, using whiskers and robot bumpers and test it Write a report of the data-analysis and algorithm implementation A final competition between groups