“Little Homie” Presentation

Jesse Martin

12/04/02

Intelligent Machine Design Lab

Overview

Application Sensors SOFTWARE Pitfalls Conclusion

Application

What I said it would do…. Autonomously take pictures of things that is

“interesting” Robot will have a rich UI from an onboard Pocket

PC Pictures taken will be stored on the pocket PC

where they can be viewed, emailed, or sent to a PC

Application

What Little Homie actually does… Take high resolution images of people (not

necessarily interesting people) Up to 1248 x 960 pixels

Images are stored on 32 mb Flash where they can be transferred to a PC via USB

Provide the user with a rich UI via Pocket PC On board diagnostics tool

Sensors

2 Sharp GPD212 IR 2 Whisker Bump

switches Aiptek Pencam HVW Technologies

PIR Sensor

PIR Sensor

Advantages Cheap!! Cost only

$10.95 Neat Fresnel Lens Only Three Lines

Disadvantages Digital If platform moves, you

get unreliable readings

CMUcam

Originally had plans on using the CMUcam to take pictures but…

Takes about 4.8 sec to transmit small image over serial port at 115k baud

My microprocessor doesn’t even support that speed Therefore, on my uP, it would take about 15 sec

Images aren’t buffered!

CMUcam

What is this????

Steady Picture @ 313 x 285

CMUcam

Too low quality; unreliable results Solution…..

Aiptek Pencam!

Aiptek Pencam

32 mb Flash can store 140 pictures Small Low Power 1248 X 960 resolution Can take video

Interfacing Pencam

Just need to connect wires from the Pencam’s buttons to a microprocessor controlled relay

Aiptek Pencam

CMUcam

Pocket PC Software

Main Menu Control Panel Actuation Calibration Test Camera Take Pictures (View Pictures is

disabled)

Pocket PC Software

Control Panel Allows you… Test sensors Test motors Test Servos Obstacle Avoid

Pocket PC Software

Actuation Calibration Allows you to change

each motor’s values to make the robot go straight or turn in the manor you want it too

Pocket PC Software

Test Camera Allows you to…

Turn on Camera Take a Picture Clear Contents on

camera

Pocket PC Software

Take Pictures Main Program

Pitfalls

Caster Wheel Would always get stuck so platform couldn’t go

straight Solution: Replaced it with a stub

Interfacing CMUcam Couldn’t get clear images from CMUcam Max baud rate on uP too slow Solution: Replaced CMU cam with Aiptek Pencam

Conclusion

Orginal vision for Little Homie was “Pie in the Sky”

Total Cost over $694.63 (not including PPC)

$73.30 in shipping $109.00 wasted toward CMUcam Burned out many IRs Bought wrong items and vendor wouldn’t take back

Conclusion

As of right now, 1,462 lines of code has been written

Many more lines are hidden

Conclusion

Any Questions???