2009 Bearcat Micro IGVC Procedures Manual

Transcription

1 2009 Bearcat Micro IGVC Procedures Manual 1 powering up the robot The robot is composed of multiple independent devices which are integrated to perform complex functions, and is therefore not trivial to turn on. Each device has a power source and many of them have individual power switches. Much of the motivation for this section comes from an incident during the 2008 IGVC when the team attempted to run the navigation challenge, with the GPS unit turned off. The competition is hectic, but this is unacceptable. Following the instructions in this document will prevent any such mistakes without requiring unnecessary time and effort. When not in operation, the robot should be connected to a battery charger through the charging connector labeled in the picture. To operate the robot, it is necessary to disconnect this. Often it is desirable to operate the robot off of AC power directly when it is not necessary for it to be mobile. When this occurs, the right power strip will be plugged into an extension cord. To run the robot independently, plug the right power strip into the inverter. Notice that the cable length and location of the inverter leads to the potential problem of the cable being caught on something or rubbing the back wheels. Looping the cable over the plug as shown limits the slack in the cable. Make sure the inverter is turned on (red switch). After plugging in the right power strip and turning on the inverter, each camera will make a startup tone. If this does not occur, check to make sure the cameras are turned on, and the right power strip is turned on. The right power strip should never be turned off under any circumstances: the only things plugged into it are the laptop and camera recharging cables, the Garmin GPS, and the other power strips. These devices should always have power to ensure that their batteries are kept topped off (note: in case that was too subtle, that means you are never to turn the right power strip off).

2 The left power strip, on the other hand, powers the amplifiers, motion control, laser and digital compass. These devices should not be left powered on when the robot is not in operation, and therefore this power strip will probably be off. Turn it on now. You will hear the motor and bearing of the laser when it starts up. If you also hear the high pitched whine of the amplifiers, it means the motion control is also on. Otherwise, turn it on by pulling out the red E-stop button, and holding down the E-stop reset. The E-stop reset has a spring in it, and requires considerable force. It will click when engaged, and the amber light below it will turn off. After a few seconds, you should hear the amplifiers engage. Finally, if the Garmin GPS is to be used, it must be independently turned on using the red button on the display unit, and must have a fix on at least 3 sattelites. If the Novatel GPS is to be used, flip the direct-to-battery switch on the top right of the back of the robot. If the Bumblebee Stereovision system is needed, turn on the third power strip on the shelf above the batteries. 2 Starting the Program and Checking Hardware Run the IGVC2009.exe shortcut from the desktop. Press a button on the joystick to ensure that it is on, and then click OK on the warning message. When the dialog box comes up, check the sensor indicators: The GPS Latitude, Longitude, and Heading indicators should each display two similar numbers: the value in degrees coming from the sensor, and the value in degrees of the Kalman Filter estimate of the parameters. The heading is 0 when the compass is pointed north, 90 when east, -90 when west, and when south. Make sure these values are about right. At UC, appropriate latitudes and longitudes are around to and to At the competition, and are appropriate. The distance value for the laser is the average of the measurements for the middle 5 distance measurements. This value should be around 8130 when nothing is in front of the robot, and an appropriate number in mm otherwise. If the laser has a green status light, and the number is Ready to go:

3 non-zero, the laser is OK. Finally, turn Sensors not running up the velocity slider to and slowly move the left stick (on the joystick) forward to ensure that the robot moves Autonomous status box forward as expected. You can then turn up the slider to an appropriate value and drive the robot to where it needs to be. When maneuvering in a closed space or through a doorway, is appropriate, is okay in hallways if you are comfortable driving the robot, and higher values (50-60) are okay outside on level ground away from people. Do not turn the slider above 15 if you have never driven it before, and move the slider up slowly as you gain experience. More detailed instructions for driving the robot are available in the program (see figure). 3 starting autonomous modes For safety during testing, the autonomous modes are originally controlled as dead-man switches. This means you must hold down a button as long as you wish the robot to operate autonomously. Pressing the upper right trigger on the joystick once will change the operation of the buttons from dead man switches to simple toggle switches, i.e. press the button once to turn a function on and once to turn it off. The first number in the autonomous status box will be 0 for dead-man and 1 for toggle mode. The next three numbers indicate whether the robot is lines following, doing GPS navigation and avoiding obstacles, respectively. Button 3 engages obstacle avoidance only: the robot will move forward unless something blocks its path, which will change its direction. Button 2 will engage GPS navigation and obstacle avoidance. First check the GPS box: it will state x/y, where x is the current waypoint number, and y is the number of waypoints loaded. Next, it states the latitude and longitude of the current waypoint. Make sure these numbers are non-zero and appropriate. The range (m) and track (deg from N) to that waypoint displayed as the next 2 values in that box. Button 1 will engage line following and obstacle avoidance. Vision processing is performed in

4 MATLAB, so headings in this mode will be taken over a network connection from MATLAB. After starting IGVC2009, MATLAB must be opened, and the script mjavision.m must be started. After starting this script, switch back to IGVC2009 and use button 1 to follow lines. 4 Qualification Procedures Before going to the qualification judge, turn on the robot as described in section 1, then copy the file waypoint qual.ini to waypoint.ini, and start IGVC2009.exe as described in section 2. Any time the robot is E-stopped, exit the program, reset the E-stop and restart the program after the amplifiers start. When the judge asks you to navigate to a test waypoint, set the slider to 20%, make sure the toggle mode is set (the display value is 1) and press button 2. When the judge asks you to follow a line, make sure MATLAB is started, run mjavision.m, then bring IGVC2009.exe back to the front, set the slider to 20%, make sure toggle mode is active and press button 1. After the robot is E-stopped, bring MATLAB to the front, and ctrl C to stop mjavision.m as well as restarting IGVC2009.exe. If the judge is being efficient he will have you avoid an obstacle at the same time, otherwise, just point the robot at the obstacle and use button 3 with the toggle mode active. To do the speed test, after starting IGVC2009 and moving the robot to the desired starting place and direction, press the lower right trigger once (the control mode should display 2 ), and turn the slider to 100%. When the judge is ready, hold the left stick to its maximum extent forward. If the judge has an issue with this, point out the line in the rules that says For the max speed run the vehicle may be in autonomous mode or joystick/remote controlled. 5 Competition Procedures Autonomous Challenge: Make sure MATLAB is started, run mjavision.m, then bring IGVC2009.exe back to the front, set the slider to the value you have been told to use (this will probably start at 20% and then be increased for better times, or decreased for better distances as determined by previous outcomes), make sure toggle mode is active and press button 1. After the robot is E-stopped, bring MATLAB to the front, and ctrl C to stop mjavision.m as well as restarting IGVC2009.exe. Navigation Challenge: Copy the file waypoint comp.ini to waypoint.ini, and start IGVC2009.exe as described in section 2. Make sure MATLAB is started, run mjasound.m, then bring IGVC2009.exe back to the front, set the slider to the value you have been told to use, make sure toggle mode is active and press button 2. After the robot is E-stopped, bring MATLAB to the front, and ctrl C to stop mjasound.m as well as restarting IGVC2009.exe. 6 powering down the robot It is not normally necessary to E-stop the robot. A well designed program will not depend on the E-stop, and should not do anything that a user feels is unsafe. Therefore under 90% of conditions, it will not be used. During the competition, however, the judges use the wireless E- stop as a standard procedure when a robot has completed whatever event it is performing. Therefore, to make it more consistent and faster and easier for the next person to start the robot, pull out the E-stop button if it has been pressed, and hold down the E-stop reset. Then turn off the left power strip. Connect the battery charging connector to a battery charger. Then turn off the inverter and plug the right power strip into an AC power source to allow the laptop and camera batteries to charge.

5 7 Advanced: debugging or rebuilding part 1: power If a device is not behaving as expected, first ensure that it is receiving power. The Galil and amps have power lights that may or may not be visible in their current placement, so the sound of the amplifiers is the most reliable indicator that everything is okay power-wise. For problems see part 6. The laser will also be audible when rotating, but should also have a solid green light when operating correctly. When powered on, it shows a red and an orange solid light for about twenty seconds, during which it can't be used. If there is a flashing red light, restart the laser by unplugging it and plugging it back in. If this does not fix the problem, switch to the backup laser. The Garmin should be turned on (red button) and must have a fix on at least 3 satellites to produce a signal. The Novatel has a red power light that can be seen from the front of the robot. If it is not on, recall that it is plugged into the third, normally unused power strip. Also ensure that its crappy cigarette lighter plug has not slipped out of the receptacle (chances are that if we are using it, it will be duct taped in place because I wouldn't trust it to not come loose otherwise). The cameras can be checked by making sure their power switches are on the camera position. Next open the displays to make sure they are really on. If a camera is turning itself off after 30 seconds, remove it from the robot, take the tape out of it, and yell at whoever left a tape in it. The bumblebee requires a powered firewire hub when connected to a laptop (connected to the third power strip). It has a red LED to indicate that it is powered on. The wireless joystick requires 2 AA batteries. These should have been replaced prior to the competition, and spares should be readily available. part 2: data cables The Galil, laser, GPS, and digital compass should all be plugged into the serial hub, which is then plugged into the laptop via the USB hub. Note: the Novatel GPS does not use a serial cable; it uses a special cable that appears identical to a serial cable. Therefore, if anyone moves this cable away from the Novatel and puts it away in a drawer or something, that person should be hanged at dawn (this is not a threat, it is a management recommendation). The joystick receiver should also be plugged into the USB hub. The cameras should be plugged directly into the laptop on separate USB controllers, because of their high data rates. The firewire hub is plugged into the laptop firewire port if the Bumblebee is being used. part 3: software The sensors can be read from hyperterminal or simple programs as demonstrated in lessons 4 and 8. The Galil can be tested using the DMC terminal program, DMCTerm. When starting the program, select the first profile, and the program should connect automatically, indicated

6 by the split window on the left side of the window. The top is the command window, and the bottom is the output window. Type the following commands: JG -1000, 1000 [enter], ST [enter], and when you are ready BG [enter], [up arrow], [enter]. Typing the ST first will save time in stopping the robot, which is desirable when it is not on jack stands. If you are uncomfortable with moving the robot on the ground using text commands in the terminal, which you should be, hold onto the physical E-stop while doing this. The Bumblebee can be checked using the program in PointGrey->Digiclops->DemoIII. The cameras can be checked using the MATLAB script imgsaver.m, which opens two preview windows and saves images as they are captured. If the device being debugged works here, go to part 4, otherwise go to part 5. Part 4: IGVC2009 hardware configuration When IGVC2009.exe starts, it reads a file called hardware.ini which contains information on the robot configuration. The values read in on the first line are: the magnetic declination in degrees, the number of encoder steps per radian on the wheels, the wheel radius in meters, the distance between wheels in meters, and the maximum speed for either wheel. Next is a number for the motion controller: negative numbers refer to Galil profiles. Typically -1 is used, referring to the default Galil configuration. Positive numbers refer to com port numbers to be used with a MotionMind controller. The next number is the number of GPS devices to be used, followed by the com port # of each. 256 is added to the com port number if the GPS is a Novatel. Then the com port # of the digital compass, and laser are included. The next value is 1 if a Bumblebee Stereovision system is present, and 0 otherwise. Next is the number of cameras, followed by the x,y and z offset and the yaw, pitch and roll of each. The final value read is 1 to produce a log and 0 otherwise. The bumblebee and camera values are not used for anything as of the time this manual was written. magnetic_decl=4 jogsperjad=16000 r=.238m R=.52m SpeedLim=2.2352m/s motioncom=-1 numgps=1 gpscom1=7 hmrcom=6 lmscom=8 bumblebee=0 numcams=2 x y z yaw pitch roll log=true First, make sure hardware.ini exists and contains the correct com port numbers. Next, when the program is run, the Hardware Settings indicator displays: the wheel radius, the distance bt\ wheels, the max speed, the motion control parameter, the number of GPS units, followed by a colon and the first two com#s separated by a comma, then the compass, and laser com#s and the bumblebee parameter and the number of cameras with no spaces between them. If these values are not what was entered in hardware.ini, that hardware.ini file was not in the correct place. When running the executable directly, hardware.ini should be in the same directory, probably debug. Follow the shortcut to this folder. If the program is run inside Visual Studio, the file will be read from the IGVC2009 project directory. If this has confused you, blame Microsoft. part 5: waypoint.ini Waypoints are loaded from the file waypoint.ini when the program starts. The structure of this file is very straightforward: the first line is an estimate of the latitude, longitude and heading where the robot will be when the program is started, which is used for dead reckoning if

7 sensor data is unavailable. Each successive line starts with a single character, either a 'w' for waypoint, a 'c' for checkpoint or a 'g' for gate, and then the latitude and longitude in degrees. Waypoints are competition waypoints which must be hit for points, while checkpoints are additional points added to get around a known obstacle or line up with a gate. Gates are approximate locations of openings in a fence, which may or may not be open, and do not need to be hit for points, only passed through. part 6: Windows sucks If the device is on, but doesn't run in hyper-terminal or its demo program, right click on My Computer, select manage, and click on the device manager. On the serial hub,,the first port is com3, the second com4, and so on. I don't know what the last port is because the bluetooth com ports screwed up the numbering. It might be com11 or com15. If there is a problem using one of these devices, put it on the laptop directly (com1) and try the simple program again. If it is still not working, you have reached the end of this document's usefulness and may need to replace the device. Otherwise, open Ports and make sure the com number you think the device was on exists and isn't a bluetooth port. It may be necessary to try different com port and port number combinations to figure out what is mapped where if the numbering gets screwed up again. If a camera is on, but not connecting to the computer, swap in a spare USB cable and try again. Also try opening the device manager (see above) and make sure that both cameras have entries under imaging devices. Once both cameras are listed, you must restart MATLAB, because it only checks for devices when it starts up. Part 7: Galil connections The motion controller is connected to a serial port to get inputs, and sends outputs through a 90-something pin cable to the breakout board. Each amplifier is connected to a power cord and to the motor. The amplifier u,v,and w connections go to the motor w, u, and v connections. The breakout board has a cable that goes to each motor encoder and a cable that goes to each amplifier. Make sure that you know which pairs of cables go together. Then make sure that one pair of cables goes to the left motor and one to the right. It does not really matter which set goes to which, however, if this is switched, it will switch which motor is connected to the Galil x channel and y channel, so the program will have to switch the left and right wheel commands. Part 8: Log files hardware_log.txt: records hardware.ini info, com port opening and closing, data received. sensor_log.txt: records gps information whenever it is read for easier plotting. Each line contains a time, and latitude and longitude in deg. laser_log.txt: records laser information as it is read for easy plotting. First line is angle from right (0-180), following is distance in mm at each angle. vis_log.txt: similar format as laser log, but lines begin with commanded heading, and estimated commanded heading. Obstacle data comes from MATLAB vision processing. obs_log.txt: similar format to laser log; nearest of laser and visual obstacle data followed by other obstacle avoidance information. command_log.txt: contains time and left and right wheel speed in rad/s. kalman_log.txt: contains propagated Kalman position estimate after each movement. map.txt: contains laser data transformed by kalman position and heading estimate. MATLAB script plot_logs.m demonstrates how to read and plot many of these files.