Mobile Robotics Equipment

What pieces of the hardware do we have?

For each major piece of the hardware, what is the piece's manufacturer, model name, serial# and UofR Property code#?

What are important urls, addresses, phones and emails?

For the robot platforms, http://robots.activmedia.com is the place to go.

Images

Mabel the Mobile Table on P2DX base

Pioneer 2 AT base

Battery Charger

LinkSys Wifi Bits

More LinkSys Wifi Bits

Sony Pan Tilt Zoom Camera, as in Vision Lab.

Stepper and control card, perhaps destined to be part of a cable reel control system.

Your classic Tektronix oscilloscope.

Joystick for real-time robot remote teleoperation.

COTS digital cam-corder for gathering video sequences for vision algorithms and for documentation. (Why we don't have any Mabel videos I'll never understand.)

Where do the pieces live at URCS?

The Mobile Robot lab is currently the "piano room" (Right of CSB602, across from 601). Key card access.

Documentation

What documentation already exists for each piece and where is it located (urls, location of hardcopy manuals, etc.,)?

Situation kind of scary.

Mobile Robot Platform Info at http://robots.activmedia.com.

There are some hardcopy manuals on bookshelf, also receipts, packing slips.

Needed Hardware

What related pieces of hardware do we not have (e.g., special options, related models that offer more advanced features)? Collect important urls, addresses, phones and emails.

We think we need a reel mechanism to manage an umbilical. This calls for mechanical and controller design we think. We're looking for info but so far not much found.

What bits of related software (libs and apps) do we have at URCS?

Commercial:

HomeGrown (left over from 2002 compettion:

Where are are the bits of software (sources/binaries) installed?

A CVS server, should be available to all.

Software Documentation

What documentation already exists for each bit of software and where is it located (urls, location of hardcopy manuals, etc.,)?

On server, doxygen-generated documentation for Mabel, more to follow for new modules as written, otherwise I guess it's the various websites. e.g.

http://robots.activmedia.com/aria , and also http://sphinx.cmu.edu .

Software Licenses

Aria has a password and Account sort of arrangement, so you have to know a password (available on the descriptive sheets for the P2AT and PTDX, on the bookshelf). The Demo Tutorial mentions one password that will work.

Finereader actually has a pretty complex license to us as OEM developers. for Viavoice we're not using the bit you have to pay for.

Software Costs

Viavoice we bought but aren't using that bit. Finereader $1280 (includes big academic discount) for this single year, probably not renewable.

Software Upgrades

Aria has new releases at website. We have maintenance and upgrades for FineReader.

Missing Software

We are working at acquiring Prolog.

Missing Software Acquisition Plan

JiProlog is available for $50 from http://ugosweb.com/jiprolog and we are in negotiations to get this guy paid off.

What problem does the hardware address?

Hardware does not address problems. Hardware creates problems. Mobile Robots do robot hosting, vision, communication, control.

How well does it solve the problem? Pros? Cons?

We'll see, I guess...

What other solutions to the problem exist elsewhere?

Lots of idiosyncratic solutions, research projects around world.

Ancillary Equipment

What other self-contained equipment is used in with the hardware? In the department? Elsewhere?

See above list.

Interface Standards

What interface standards does the hardware conform to? Which connections are proprietary/nonstandard and which are open/standard?

Lab has own Wi Fi net.

Internally, everything communicates with tcp ad-hoc messaging, sometimes datagrams, and occasional fileio. We thought about firewire camera connections but have pretty much abandoned them as too esoteric. Otherwise I guess the hardware is fairly PC-oriented connectorwise. Generally this is all COTS stuff and conforms to standard interface specs, with the proviso that everything seems to change about every three months...

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This page is maintained by CB.

Last update: 03.03.03.