One of my hopes is that the main occupants of the room, our two
Pioneer robots, can become (literally) vehicles for graduate research.
One issue is that at present much of the work on the robot uses
Microsoft software. How problematic this is I do not know now.
As usual, the mobile robot project is, 96% of the time, in between
integrations of various software components such as NLU, navigation,
vision, and so forth.
However, basic robot control software has come a long way since the
"Tinman" interactive C environment we had for the wheelchair robots.
The robot researchers have been avid, relentless, and ruthless in their search
for and comparison of environments. They have settled on Aria, which
is provided by ActivMedia, the makers of Pioneer. To other systems,
viz. Ayllu and Saphira, were thoroughly investigated.
Aria provides hardware and software demos in a package that can be
downloaded and run. This is thus (it says here) a maintained,
commercial,
free-standing, turn-key set of routines to show off very basic
platform capabilities.
These demos have, I imagine, little to do with the actual
sophistication of the extra sensors bolted onto Mabel (IR, video,
acoustic) and the intricacies of hooking them up and using them are
definitely beyond my comprehension at this writing. However, they
provide a painless initial hands-on experience for anyone wanting to
get his feet wet in the robot lab.
Make sure the black slide main power switch on the side of the robot
is OFF. Then the wheels can roll. Move it where you want it. Leave
the switch OFF for now.
The Mobile Robot Lab has no laptop at present. We stole Sameer's
(thanks!) for this demo. Notice the WiFi card! As soon as we are in
the lab it's on the network inside the firewall and ready to do
business, both to receive code from outside and to control the Pioneer
through the serial port. Whether this all works with Macs I don't
know but I suspect not.
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You should get a folder full of stuff on your desktop, including a
bin directory full of .exe files (Microsoftese for
English-speakers call .o files).
Now Aria needs to be installed on your computer. There should be an
obvious install script with a related GUI. Install for "everyone"
where you have the choice. You get to pick a destination and answer
"yes" to the "Restart?" question.
Find a serial cable and attach to the PC port.
The other end goes to the serial port inside the flap on the top of
the robot base.
You may have to restart computer after connecting cable, I'm not sure.
Only enable robot's "attack" mode if at least five (5) of your body
parts have been registered as deadly weapons.
Last update: 03/03/03.
Getting Started in the Robot Lab
The
Mobile Robot Lab
is currently the "Piano Room." This is the room with no number
on the 6th floor to the right of 602 and across from 601. Access is
by key card. There is lots of equipment, more or less "detailed"
(well, outlined) at the above link.
Get a Robot
Get a Laptop
Get Aria
Go to
http://robots.activmedia.com/aria to download Aria.
Follow some simple directions and you need a password. This one works,
and it's case sensitive.
Get Hooked Up
Get Busy and Run Demos
Turn the main power supply black slide switch on the side of robot
body to ON.
Remember not to try to roll robot with switch ON.
(There may be a button to disable motors in a side flap
somewhere but for now I'm ignoring that.)
Run Demos: the name of the program to execute should be obvious.
You are presented with several "modes" of robot behavior and control
that you can choose by typing single
letter codes, such as "w" for wander. There is a "t" teleoperation
mode that lets you go forward, left, right, backward using the
keyboard arrow keys. Space bar stops robot. Enjoy.
Caution!