Talk:Cheesoid

Interaction Goals

Cheesoid is intended to be a fully autonomous robot that interacts with people and objects in its environment. Human-Robot interaction is a massive subject but I intend to get some rudimentary (and comedic) speech and general input features in place as soon as possible. The environment interactions will develop as I learn more about sensing and mapping. Since the robot will live at Hackspace I have two basic goals for comedy value: -

• interact with the fridge for cheese status
• interact with the petrol pump for petrol status

So...

• it needs to know where they are to go and talk to them
• the status needs to be stored and needs to be set - Xino at each? Via IRC bot? Some web interface?
• it need to be able to read the status from the fridge and the petrol pump - what sort of interface? IR remote control?

Petrol status

• just a number!

Cheese status

• many cheese types - each with use by date
• Primula status is "in tube"

Human - Robot Interactions: speech

With the eeePC I have a very capable processor on board and I'm taking full advantage of that: -

• using espeak for text to speech
• using sphinx for speech recognition

speech recognition with sphinx

http://cmusphinx.sourceforge.net/wiki/tutorialconcepts

The sphinx packages

p    --\ sphinx2-bin                                                                                                                    <none>     0.6-2.1
  Description: speech recognition utilities
    Sphinx 2 is a real-time, speaker-independent speech recognition system.

    This package contains examples and utilities that use Sphinx. It also includes a sample language model that is capable of recognizing simple commands
    like "go forward ten meters" and other commands one might use to tell a robot where to move.
  Priority: optional
  Section: universe/sound
  Maintainer: Ubuntu MOTU Developers <ubuntu-motu@lists.ubuntu.com>
  Compressed size: 129k
  Uncompressed size: 500k
  Source Package: sphinx2
  --\ Depends (3)
    --- libc6 (>= 2.4)
    --- libsphinx2g0 (>= 0.6) (UNSATISFIED)
    --- sphinx2-hmm-6k (UNSATISFIED)
  --\ Packages which depend on sphinx2-bin (0)
  --\ Versions of sphinx2-bin (1)
p    0.6-2.1

Good examples of the use of sphinx: -

• http://perlbox.sourceforge.net/

Mobility

• motors
• wheels
• chassis
• motor power
• motor control circuitry
• big battery

Drive motors: I now have my 12V 150RPM gearmotors from China

• simple test circuits with 12V battery and driver ICs
  • Texas Instruments L293NE or Texas Instruments SN754410 (almost equivalent)
  • useful searches L293NE or SN754410 PWM arduino
  • http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl
  • http://www.ti.com/product/sn754410
  • datasheet: http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/IC/SN754410.pdf
  • PWM for speed control - a two motor library perhaps with feedback loop via rotary encoder?
    • using PWM on 2 motors http://letsmakerobots.com/node/2074
  • Adafruit motor shield is a good example:
    • http://www.adafruit.com/products/81
    • http://www.ladyada.net/images/mshield/mshieldv1-schem.png
    • My own custom motor shield for 2 DC motors

OK, motors tested with a two motor circuit...

Motor Test sketch (non-PWM)

  1 int motor_left[] = {
  2   2, 3};
  3 int motor_right[] = {
  4   7, 8};
  5 const int ledPin = 13;      // LED 
  6 const int switchPin = 10;    // switch input
  7 const int enablePin = 9;    // H-bridge enable pin
  8 
  9 
 10 // ————————————————————————— Setup
 11 void setup() {
 12   Serial.begin(9600);
 13   pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);
 14   pinMode(switchPin, INPUT); 
 15   pinMode(enablePin, OUTPUT);
 16 
 17 
 18   // Setup motors
 19   int i;
 20   for(i = 0; i < 2; i++){
 21     pinMode(motor_left[i], OUTPUT);
 22     pinMode(motor_right[i], OUTPUT);
 23   }
 24   check_enable();
 25   // blink the LED 3 times. This should happen only once.
 26   // if you see the LED blink three times, it means that the module
 27   // reset itself,. probably because the motor caused a brownout
 28   // or a short.
 29   blink(ledPin, 3, 100);
 30 
 31 }
 32 
 33 
 34 void check_enable(){
 35   digitalWrite(enablePin, digitalRead(switchPin));
 36 }
 37 // ————————————————————————— Loop
 38 void loop() {
 39 
 40   drive_forward();
 41   delay(1000);
 42   motor_stop();
 43   Serial.println("1");
 44 
 45   drive_backward();
 46   delay(1000);
 47   motor_stop();
 48   Serial.println("2");
 49 
 50   turn_left();
 51   delay(1000);
 52   motor_stop();
 53   Serial.println("3");
 54 
 55   turn_right();
 56   delay(1000);
 57   motor_stop();
 58   Serial.println("4");
 59 
 60   motor_stop();
 61   delay(1000);
 62   motor_stop();
 63   Serial.println("5");
 64 }
 65 
 66 // ————————————————————————— Drive
 67 
 68 void motor_stop(){
 69   check_enable();
 70   digitalWrite(motor_left[0], LOW);
 71   digitalWrite(motor_left[1], LOW);
 72 
 73   digitalWrite(motor_right[0], LOW);
 74   digitalWrite(motor_right[1], LOW);
 75   delay(25);
 76 }
 77 
 78 void drive_forward(){
 79   check_enable();
 80   digitalWrite(motor_left[0], HIGH);
 81   digitalWrite(motor_left[1], LOW);
 82 
 83   digitalWrite(motor_right[0], HIGH);
 84   digitalWrite(motor_right[1], LOW);
 85 }
 86 
 87 void drive_backward(){
 88   check_enable();
 89   digitalWrite(motor_left[0], LOW);
 90   digitalWrite(motor_left[1], HIGH);
 91 
 92   digitalWrite(motor_right[0], LOW);
 93   digitalWrite(motor_right[1], HIGH);
 94 }
 95 
 96 void turn_left(){
 97   check_enable();
 98   digitalWrite(motor_left[0], LOW);
 99   digitalWrite(motor_left[1], HIGH);
100 
101   digitalWrite(motor_right[0], HIGH);
102   digitalWrite(motor_right[1], LOW);
103 }
104 
105 void turn_right(){
106   check_enable();
107   digitalWrite(motor_left[0], HIGH);
108   digitalWrite(motor_left[1], LOW);
109 
110   digitalWrite(motor_right[0], LOW);
111   digitalWrite(motor_right[1], HIGH);
112 }
113 
114 /*
115     blinks an LED
116  */
117 void blink(int whatPin, int howManyTimes, int milliSecs) {
118   int i = 0;
119   for ( i = 0; i < howManyTimes; i++) {
120     digitalWrite(whatPin, HIGH);
121     delay(milliSecs/2);
122     digitalWrite(whatPin, LOW);
123     delay(milliSecs/2);
124   }
125 }

This sketch is a munge of http://letsmakerobots.com/node/2074 and http://itp.nyu.edu/physcomp/Labs/DCMotorControl

Bodywork

• building the plastic chassis
  • what's that display board plastic material called?
  • is it http://www.foamcore.com/ultra-board.html
  • milling the plastic - is nicely cut with a fine jigsaw blade - try router table!
  • can it be laser cut? may contain chlorine or other nasties: see http://www.nycresistor.com/2008/08/28/how-to-identify-polymers-with-burnination/

• battery regulation: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/3880
• battery mounting - where?
  • chassis strong enough to carry those batteries? !!!!
  • aluminium cross bracing?
  • perhaps move to 2x 6V - keep it flexible

• cylinder case mods
  • speakers in mouth plate/grill
  • side mount for MCU1 and support boards (temporary?)
  • top for beacon - keep on side for now
  • mounting of cylinder on chassis

• motor mountings
  • simple aluminium angle mountings - might make some more of these with greater accuracy!
• motor to axle couplings
  • http://uk.rs-online.com/web/c/mechanical-components/power-transmission-components/oldham-style-couplings-accessories/
  • simple, cheap
• building the wheels/axles/bearing hubs: nearly done - some tweaking and securing to do

Motor shaft couplings being the most annoying thing right now

• I really need some well made couplings like these

Small hose clips may be the thing.

MCU1 and MCU2

Xino devices

• power screw terminal blocks: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/4258720/
• smt caps for smt regulators!

PIN usage on MCU1

MCU1 PIN usage summary table on Google Docs

• PWM capable pins on the 328/Xino: 3,5,6,9,10,11
• Dig out x2 for eyes
• Dig in for mode switch
• dig out for beacon (preferably on pin 13)
• motor enable dig out
• PWM x4 for motor logic control - can it be reduced?
• bumper and cliff inputs - use serial mux?
• others!

MCU1 software

• TODO motor drive code and motor drive commands from PC

eeePC mods

Hardware and system mods to support "isolated usage".

• soldered in an external power button cable
  • PWR button sub-assembly with safety keyswitch - mount on side panel
  • TODO LED in "Micro" and other nice illuminated buttons
  • Monostable/bistable startup flasher circuit for "Micro" switch?
• "pizza box" container
  • power port extension
  • USB extension - USB hub - still powering MCU1 from USB - much drain?

• • Lid switch: do not suspend when lid closed - instead just switch to external monitor output
    • http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=20450#p20450
    • sudo nano /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh

#!/bin/sh
LID_STATE=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk '{print $2 }'`

if [ $LID_STATE = "closed" ] ; then
#    /etc/acpi/suspend2ram.sh
        /bin/su user -c "/usr/bin/xrandr --output VGA --mode 800x600 --output LVDS --off"
fi
if [ $LID_STATE = "open" ] ; then
        /bin/su user -c "/usr/bin/xrandr --output LVDS --preferred --output VGA --off"
fi
exit 0

This is not enough: the eeePC will not power on with the lid closed so I had to disable the lid closed sensor by removing the magnet from screen section of the case

• • clean up and test external monitor output - not fully working with some of my external monitors
  • removed EasyMode which "mostly" fixes the "are you sure" dialog for shutdown via power switch
  • http://wiki.eeeuser.com/howto:useicewm#configuration_of_icewm

# minimal brightness
echo 0 > /sys/devices/platform/eeepc/backlight/eeepc/brightness"
# screen off after 2 minutes
xset dpms 0 0 120

eeePC problems

• unionfs inode depletion causing "No space left on device" but df shows plenty of space!
  • http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=537876#p537876
  • mount /dev/sda2 elsewhere and remove the '.wh*' files
• running out of space due to other errors ~/.Xsession-errors
• firefox won't start - oh well!

eeePC Software

• console read and process
• speech module
  • speech commands from stdin
  • speech thread - busy flag and job queue management
• motor module
  • motor control input from STDIN
• sensor module
  • camera module - look at Java interaction with V4L or whatever is in use
  • mic input - and speech recognition
  • GUI interface port and GUI app

Additional

Range Sensors

• SRF05 by Devantech Ltd
  • http://robot-electronics.co.uk/acatalog/Ultrasonic_Rangers.html
  • http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/htm/srf05tech.htm

Rotary Encoders for wheels

• an easily available "obsolete" ball type PS/2 mouse
• Microsoft "Mouse Port Compatible Mouse 2.0A"
• using the serial output from the mouse circuitry
• encoder usage in daylight
• mounting encoder wheel to axle