7/28/2013
1
2013 RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR TEACHERS - ROBOTICS
E L I Z A B E T H F R E E M A N J E S S E B E L L
RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) Site on Sensor Networks, Electrical Engineering Department, and Institute of Applied Sciences, UNT, Denton, Texas. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. 1132585 and the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Outreach Fund. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF or the IEEE.
BACKGROUND
Can be deployed in hazardous areas
Solar Explorations
Contamination cleanup
Assist the elderly
Assisting soldiers
Autonomous spacecraft
Search and rescue
Unmanned vehicles
Asteroid research
7/28/2013
2
GOAL OF PROJECT
Our goal is to get multiple robots communicating with one another via Bluetooth connectivity.
Set up a Lead-Follow relationship between two NXT Lego robots using Mindstorms
programming
CURRENT RESEARCH
• Monitoring elevation changes in glacial regions using vision based odometry
• Passenger carrying robots
• Assistive Robotics
• Natural Disasters
• Search and Rescue
7/28/2013
3
MONITORING ELEVATION CHANGES
Large crevasse Irregular surface and melt pools
ASSISTIVE ROBOTS
7/28/2013
4
SEARCH AND RESCUE
LEGO MINDSTORMS
Easy to useEasy to programFun!Multiple sensorsBluetooth capable
7/28/2013
5
Using a light sensor, the robot is able
to distinguish between dark/light
areas and follow this black line.
STEP 1:FOLLOW THE BLACK LINE
PROGRAMMING
Math Block
Switch Block
Light Sensor
Bluetooth Module
Tabs Defined by Switch Variables
Motor Block
Ultrasonic Sensor
PROGRAM II:1: Hard left2: Easy left3: Go straight4: Easy right5: Hard right
Light Sensor
Motor Blocks
Bluetooth Modules
Switch Block
Ultrasonic Sensor
PROGRAM I:Light: Turn leftDark: Turn right
7/28/2013
6
LINE FOLLOW TROUBLESHOOTING
Sensor reads <50%
Sensor reads >50%
LINE FOLLOW TROUBLESHOOTING
Sensor reads <50%
Sensor reads >50%
7/28/2013
7
CHALLENGES
Now that the lead robot can successfully follow a black line our next challenge is finding the most efficient method of getting the other robot to follow.What do humans do?Use sensors?Communicate actions?
Programming Bluetooth on each robot:Need a program for lead robot to send a messageNeed a program for follow robot to receive a message
PROGRAMMING
Math Block
Switch Block
Light Sensor
Bluetooth Module
Tabs Defined by Switch Variables
Motor Block
Ultrasonic Sensor
PROGRAM II:1: Hard left2: Easy left send3: Go straight 1 54: Easy right5: Hard right
Light Sensor
Motor Blocks
Bluetooth Modules
Switch Block
Ultrasonic Sensor
PROGRAM I:Light: Turn left…. send 2Dark: Turn right…send 5
7/28/2013
9
BLUETOOTH AND NXT-G
Ability to access and adjust Bluetooth settings is limited.
NXT-G allows for approximately 13 messages per second with delays between messages at about 100 msec.
Continuous synchronization between sent and received Bluetooth messages prevented reliable communication.
ALGEBRA LESSON PLAN
Students will use direct variation as an introduction Linear Functions andthe concept of rate of change and slope. The Mindstorm NXT Robot will be used in the activity.
7/28/2013
10
PHYSICS LESSON PLAN
Balloon Drop Activity:
Students will use knowledge of kinematics equations and the movement of falling objects to coordinate the timing required to drop a water balloon on a robot moving at a constant velocity.
REFERENCES
“Building and Programming”, Tufts University, http://legoengineering.com.
“Projects for NXT 2.0”, Lego Mindstorms, http://nxtprograms.com.
A. H. Ismail, et al, "Investigation of homogeneous multi robots communication via Bluetooth," Computer Applications and Industrial Electronics (ISCAIE), 2012 IEEE Symposium on , vol., no., pp.124,129, 3-4 Dec. 2012, doi: 10.1109/ISCAIE.2012.6482082
A. Koller, G.Kruijff, “Talking robots with lego Mindstorms,” in Proceedings of the 20th Coling, Geneva, 2004.
A. Pasztor, T. Kovacs, Z. Istenes, “Compass and Odometry Based Navigation of a Mobile Robot Swarm Equipped by Bluetooth Communication”, Computational Cybernetics and Tech. Informatics, pp. 565-570, May 2010. DOI: 10.1109/ICCCYB.2010.5491208
D. H. Barnhard, et al, “Using Bluetooth Communication for Coordinated Robot Research.”, Artificial Intelligence Center, University of Georgia, 2001.
D. Zermas, “Control of a Leader-Follower Mobile Robotic Swarm Based on the NXT Educational LEGO Platform.”, IEEE Conf. Pub, pp. 1381-1386, 2011, DOI: 10.1109/ISIE.2011.5984361.
E. J. Chung, et al, “Development of a Multiple Mobile Robotic System for Team Work”, Int. Joint Conf.SICE-ICASE, 2006, pp. 4291 - 4296 DOI: 10.1109/SICE.2006.314877.
J. Steshenko, E. Kagan, I. Ben-Gal, “A simple protocol for a society of NXT robots communicating via Bluetooth.”, IEEE Conf. Pub., pp. 381-384, 2011.
M. Rooker, A. Birk, ”Multi-robot exploration under the constraints of wireless networking.”, Science Direct, Control Engineering Practice,vol. 15, pp. 435-445, Nov. 2006.
O. Wongwirat, T. Hanidthikul, N. Vuthikulvanich, “A formal approach in robot development process using a UML model.”, 10th Intl Conf. on Control, Automoation, Robotics, and Vision, pp. 1888-1893, Dec. 2008.
R. Shephard, S. Mansoor, ”Bluetooth Based Proximity Sensing for Reactive Mobile Robots”, IEEE TENCON 2005, pp. 1-6, DOI: 10.1109/TENCON.2005.301049 .