background image

Activ

Media Robotics 

Similarly, this Linux 

xterm

 command uploads a fresh copy of AROS to your robot’s H8S-

based  microcontroller and then exits, much like the simple 

dl_AROS1_0

 program: 

% ./AROScf –d AROS1_0.hex –n -b 

Table 14.  AROScf startup options 

KEY

 

ARGUMENT

 

DESCRIPTION

 

-b command 

arguments 

Batch mode executes list of AROScf 

Interactive mode commands with arguments 

-d  hexfile 

Automatically upload AROS hex image file 

after connecting with the microcontroller 

-h  none 

Print help message and exit 

-l  paramsfile 

Load the disk-stored parameter file instead 

of the robot’s copy 

-n  none 

Don’t automatically connect with 

microcontroller 

-p serial-

device 

Uses specified serial port for connection 

-s paramsfile 

On exit from AROScf, automatically save the 

current parameter values to the named 

paramsfile 

C

ONFIGURING 

AROS O

PERATING 

P

ARAMETERS

 

Your 

Activ

Media robot has several parameters stored in FLASH that AROS uses to 

configure its servers and auxiliary attachments and to uniquely identify your robot.  For 
instance, the default maximum translational velocity is stored in the 

TransVelMax

 

parameter.  Its value takes effect when starting your robot or after resetting the 
microcontroller, and may be changed temporarily by a client command.  Use AROScf’s 

Interactive Mode to modify these operating parameters, and hence your robot’s default 

operating characteristics. 

Start up AROScf as described in the previous  section.    As  discussed  earlier,  AROScf 

normally downloads the set of operating parameters from your  robot’s FLASH for your 

review and modification.  Or you may load a disk-stored version of those parameters.  
Some of the parameters, "Constants", are not to be changed.   The others, "Variables", 

are the identifying and operating parameters that you may edit. 

Interactive Commands 

To operate AROScf in interactive mode, simply type a keyword at the command line.  

Some keywords affect the operation of AROScf, the status of the parameters file as a 
whole, or the connection between AROScf and your robot’s microcontroller.  For 

instance, to review the list of current AROS constants or variables, type 

'

c

'

 or 

'

v

'

respectively, followed by a return (

Enter

).  Similarly, type '

?

' or 

'help'

  to  see  a  list  of 

AROScf interactive commands. 

Changing Parameters 

Other keywords refer to the operating parameters themselves.  Alone, a parameter’s 

keyword simply asks AROScf to display the parameter’s value.  Provide an argument with 

the parameter keyword separated by a space to change its value.  That value may be a 
string (no quotes or spaces) or a decimal or hexadecimal ("

0xN

") number.  For example, 

to change the 

watchdog

 timeout to four seconds, type: 

> watchdog 4000     

or 

 

53

Summary of Contents for PeopleBot

Page 1: ...Performance PeopleBot Operations Manual with NEW Hitachi H8S based Controller NEW Plus Motor Power Board ActivMedia Robotics Operating System Software Software...

Page 2: ...LLC Developers and users are authorized by revocable license to develop and operate custom software for personal research and educational use only Duplication distribution reverse engineering or comme...

Page 3: ...ith charger attached or batteries inserted Inappropriate Operation Inappropriate operation voids your warranty Inappropriate operation includes but is not limited to Dropping the robot running it off...

Page 4: ...ormance PeopleBot Plus 9 MODES OF OPERATION 10 Server Mode 10 Maintenance and Standalone Modes 10 Joydrive and Self Test Modes 11 CHAPTER 3 SPECIFICATIONS CONTROLS 12 MAIN COMPONENTS 12 STRUTS AND DEC...

Page 5: ...he Beat PULSE 38 Closing the Connection CLOSE 38 MOTION COMMANDS 39 ActivMedia Robots in Motion 39 PID Controls 40 Position Integration 41 SONAR 41 STALLS AND EMERGENCIES 42 ACCESSORY COMMANDS AND PAC...

Page 6: ...NDIX A 61 H8S PORTS CONNECTIONS 61 H8S MICROCONTROLLER 61 Power Connector 61 Serial Ports 62 User I O Gripper Port 62 The Expansion I O Bus 63 Bumper Ports 63 Motors Encoders and IR Sensors 64 Board v...

Page 7: ...put your mobile robot and accessories through a burn in period and carefully tested them before shipping the products to you In addition to the companion resources listed above we warranty your ActivM...

Page 8: ...p server To pioneer users requests activmedia com From your return e mail address goes here Subject choose one command help returns instructions lists returns list of newsgroups subscribe unsubscribe...

Page 9: ...our message goes directly to the ActivMedia Robotics technical support team There a staff member will help you or point you to a place where you can find help Tell us your robot s SERIAL NUMBER Becaus...

Page 10: ...ng voice synthesis and recognition for human robot interaction research and applications Every ActivMedia robot comes complete with a sturdy aluminum body balanced drive system two wheel differential...

Page 11: ...d systems power Although differing in some interfacing features processing power support for various sensors and I O all ActivMedia Robotics server operating system software PSOS P2OS and now AROS are...

Page 12: ...robots require a client connection software running on a computer connected with the robot s microcontroller via the HOST serial link and which provides the high level intelligent robot controls inclu...

Page 13: ...y distribute WorldPass to anyone you want to use your robot but it will not appear on your own menu since it copies functionalities of Navigator which you may not distribute MAPPER provides the tools...

Page 14: ...ce PeopleBot s vision system and interfaces with your robot control client software Please consult the ACTS Manual for operation and programming details Laser Navigation and Localization A separate La...

Page 15: ...o support the many accessories available for your ActivMedia robot as well as your own custom attachments Sporting a more holonomic body larger wheels and stronger motors for better indoor performance...

Page 16: ...controller comes with fully programmable 128K FLASH and 32K dynamic RAM included in its Hitachi 18 MHz H8S 2357 microprocessor An additional 512K of dynamic RAM or FLASH ROM is available as optional e...

Page 17: ...That s where we notify our customers of the upgrades as well as where we provide access to ActivMedia robot users worldwide Joydrive and Self Test Modes Finally we provide onboard software and microc...

Page 18: ...sensitive bumpers protect the robot and the people and things around it Figure 6 Performance PeopleBot features and accessories In addition a Gripper accessory let s you manipulate table height object...

Page 19: ...panels and to the upper deck of the robot The right strut hosts the Gripper accessory On the left strut too are the Emergency STOP button and the Computer A V and User Control Panel The top deck carri...

Page 20: ...uration of accessories and motor activity Your Performance PeopleBot runs continuously for four hours or more with onboard computer When hot swapping remove and replace one at a time IMPORTANT Batteri...

Page 21: ...ort up to four sonar arrays each with eight transducers that provide object detection and ranging information for collision avoidance features recognition localization and navigation Your Performance...

Page 22: ...xcept glass or other mirrored surfaces and can detect objects as thin as a human finger They are oriented to trigger when an object is 28 cm 11 5 inches or nearer to the front of the robot and 3 75 cm...

Page 23: ...engaged and it flashes moderately fast when in maintenance mode The BATTERY LED s apparent color depends on your robot s battery voltage green when fully charged 12 5 volts through orange and finally...

Page 24: ...as IDE hard disk drives For additional functionality the onboard PC supports PC104 and PC104 plus PCI expansion cards on a card stack Your Performance PeopleBot comes with a full complement of three c...

Page 25: ...on and configuration we install our robotics and accessory software typically in usr local on Linux systems or in C Program Files ActivMedia Robotics under Windows Of course we install the appropriate...

Page 26: ...etwork settings Please consult with your network systems administrator for networking details Briefly with Windows go to the Control Panel s Network and Dialup Connections wizard and choose the networ...

Page 27: ...30 degrees to view people s faces and other room features The swivel base progressively rotates the camera head 100 degrees The camera power is switched by Main Power the handheld controller and throu...

Page 28: ...ophones and input volumes come tuned for speech recognition through the Festival software as integrated with ARIA The A V system comes with a receiver which you attach to a monitor for offboard video...

Page 29: ...ntains a stall monitor If the drive exerts a PWM control signal that equals or exceeds a configurable level and the wheels fail to turn stallval motor power is cut off for a configurable amount of tim...

Page 30: ...into the bin subdirectory For convenience you may access all these from the Start Menu s Programs option The demonstration program s source code and MSVC project and workspace files are in the example...

Page 31: ...analog to digital I O ports position p Displays the coordinates of the robot s position relative to its starting location bumps b Displays the status of the robot s bumpers sonar s Displays the robot...

Page 32: ...rive toward an obstacle your robot will not crash because the ARIA demo includes obstacle avoidance behaviors which enable it to detect and actively avoid collisions The ARIA demo displays a menu of o...

Page 33: ...imally connecting pins 2 3 and 5 of your PC s serial port If you access the wrong serial port the ARIA demonstration program will display an error message If the robot server isn t listening or if the...

Page 34: ...tion program console should print that the robot is Listening to your voice If the robot recognizes what you have said it will tell you what it heard and corresponding text will appear in the speechSi...

Page 35: ...s microphone If the ARIA speech demonstration program does not indicate that the robot is Listening when you speak try increasing the microphone volume using your onboard PC s sound controls Control P...

Page 36: ...s The first time you press and release the joystick fire button after AROS receives the command you engage self calibration mode see below Have your client send the AROS joydrive command number 47 wit...

Page 37: ...step back and remove any obstacles from within a diameter of four to five feet around before engaging the self test The motor s self test begins by engaging the left drive wheel first forward then in...

Page 38: ...upported in the various client programming environments that accompany your robot or are available for separate license Experienced ActivMedia robot users can be assured that AROS is upwardly compatib...

Page 39: ...ta integers that is b0 is the high byte and b1 is the low byte Packet Errors AROS ignores a client command packet whose byte count exceeds 252 total packet size of 255 bytes or has an erroneous checks...

Page 40: ...to 1 if stalled Bits 1 7 correspond to the front bumper I O digital input states accessory dependent Bit 8 is the right wheel stall and bits 9 15 correspond the rear bumper I O states also accessory...

Page 41: ...onnection Send in sequence AROS echoes 1 0 1 0 3 x SYNC1 1 none synchronization commands back to client and SYNC2 2 none robot specific autosynchronization after SYNC2 After Established Connection PUL...

Page 42: ...manual for details 1 0 1 E IOREQUEST 40 none Request one 1 a continuous stream 1 or stop 0 IO SIPs 1 0 1 E PTUPOS 41 2 bytes Msbyte is port number 1 4 lsbyte is pulse width in 100 sec units PSOS or 1...

Page 43: ...mands to and receives operating information from the server When first started or reset AROS is in a special wait state listening for communication packets to establish a client server connection 17 T...

Page 44: ...ULSE command 0 no argument 0xFA 0xFB 0x03 0x00 0x00 0x00 just after opening the AROS servers And if your client application will be otherwise distracted for some time periodically issue the PULSE comm...

Page 45: ...al TR motion control mode recommended your robot s servers work to maintain both platform speed and heading Table 5 AROS motion commands Rotation HEAD 12 Turn to absolute heading at SETRV max velocity...

Page 46: ...kes to zero translation and rotation velocities with very high deceleration and remains stopped until it receives a subsequent translation or rotation velocity command from the client or until the Eme...

Page 47: ...ad reckoning from wheel motion derived from encoder readings The robot maintains its internal coordinate position in platform dependent units as reported in the standard SIP Xpos Ypos and Thpos Be awa...

Page 48: ...number two or more times in a sequence If a sonar number does not appear in an otherwise altered sequence the disc will not fire Note that for compatibility with earlier ActivMedia robot operating sy...

Page 49: ...ta packets in the allotted cycle time or some packets may never get sent Packet Processing Identical with the standard SIP all AROS server information packets get encapsulated with a header 0xFA 0xFB...

Page 50: ...onal acceleration deg sec2 ROTDECEL int Current rotational deceleration deg sec2 ROTKP int Current Proportional PID for rotation ROTKV int Current Derivative PID for rotation ROTKI int Current Integra...

Page 51: ...sound name followed by two long integers which specify the sound data position and length in the playlist Upon receipt of the PLAYLIST command 91 with any or no argument AROS responds with a PLAYLIST...

Page 52: ...otification by the controller Use regedit and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE SYSTEM ControlSet001 Services UPS Config Change the ShutdownOnBatteryWait dword value to 1 from 2 Use the AROS client maint...

Page 53: ...ts See Appendix A for connector details Ten of the inputs are used for front and rear bumper inputs of the Performance PeopleBot Similarly the Performance PeopleBot s Motor Power H8S Interface board c...

Page 54: ...IPPER The Performance PeopleBot s Gripper is connected to the User I O port from which your client may directly control the various Gripper functions and read its sensors using the native AROS command...

Page 55: ...ssure is roughly 0 5kgs per 200 milliseconds to a maximum grasping pressure of around 2kg grasp_time of 2 seconds Table 11 AROS Gripper server commands AROS COMMAND ARGUMENT LABEL ACTION 1 GRIPopen Op...

Page 56: ...int Exactly 0xFA 0xFB BYTE COUNT byte Number of data bytes 2 checksum TYPE byte Packet type 0xE0 HASGRIPPER byte Gripper type 0 none 1 User 2 PeopleBot GRIP_STATE byte See nearby Table GRASP_TIME byt...

Page 57: ...m the onboard PC the computer to HOST connection already is made If you have an onboard PC but prefer to use an external computer for maintenance simply power down the onboard computer If you use radi...

Page 58: ...the AROS directory and invoke the program cd usr local AROS AROScf options With Windows PCs you may double click the AROScf icon to automatically open a console window and start the program without an...

Page 59: ...by a client command Use AROScf s Interactive Mode to modify these operating parameters and hence your robot s default operating characteristics Start up AROScf as described in the previous section As...

Page 60: ...m your robot s microcontroller or help Displays these commands and descriptions SAVE YOUR WORK While changing parameter values in AROScf Interactive Mode you are editing a temporary copy your changes...

Page 61: ...ence for array 3 See sonar1 above SONAR4 str 0 Ping sequence for array 4 See sonar1 above LOWBATTERY int 110 In 1 10 volts microcontroller alarm activated when battery charge falls below this value WA...

Page 62: ...evcount parameters to convert your platform independent speed and rotation commands typically expressed in millimeters or degrees per second respectively into platform dependent units The ticksmm valu...

Page 63: ...abled robots have different numbers of bumper segments front and rear Accordingly the new AROS v1 6 implements three new FLASH parameters that specify states invert or not and numbers of front and rea...

Page 64: ...acid batteries like those in your Performance PeopleBot last longest when kept fully charged In fact severe discharge is harmful to the battery so be careful not to operate the robot if the battery vo...

Page 65: ...gative to negative from charger to robot An alternative AC to DC converter battery charger should sustain at least 0 75A at 13 75 to 14 VDC per battery and not more than 2 2 5 amperes per battery The...

Page 66: ...screws to remove the lower deck of Performance PeopleBot FACTORY REPAIRS If after reading this manual you re having hardware problems with your ActivMedia robot and you re satisfied that it needs repa...

Page 67: ...ctors are numbered differently depending on the socket type IDC ones are odd and even layers mini and micro fit connectors use successive position numbering See the Figures nearby for examples H8S MIC...

Page 68: ...d and on User Control DSUB 9 socket PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1 nc 2 TXD output 3 RCV Input 4 DTR Input detects attached device and switches TxD and RxD into the uC 5 GND Common 6...

Page 69: ...0 pos high density IDC PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1 AD0 Address bit 0 2 D7 Data bit 7 3 AD1 Address bit 1 4 D6 Data bit 6 5 AD2 Address bit 2 6 D5 Data bit 5 7 AD3 Address bit 3 8 D...

Page 70: ...dio power enable 10 REB Right encoder channel B 11 APWR Aux power enable 12 LEB Left encoder channel B 13 CHRG Charge port detect 14 IR6 IR input bit 6 15 IR7 IR input bit 7 16 IR4 IR input bit 4 17 I...

Page 71: ...tion to an analog joystick Indicated lines are shared on other connectors Table 26 Joystick connector 8 pos microfit PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1 Vcc 5 VDC 2 FB0 Fire button 0 3 AN4...

Page 72: ...eatures of the two board legacy system with lots more Figure 22 New Plus Motor Power Board Configuration for Current and Temperature Sensing The motor drivers are configured to limit 10A per motor The...

Page 73: ...wer connector 5 pos microfit PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1 Vbat Battery power 2 Gnd Power common 3 Vcc 5 VDC for sonar 4 Vcc 5 VDC for sonar 5 nc No connection Radio Auxiliary and User Power Connectors Var...

Page 74: ...ectors 3 pos microfits PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1 Vpp Battery 12 VDC 2 IRn Switching signal 3 Gnd Power signal ground Table 33 Additional IR connector 8 pos latchlock 0 1 header PIN SIGNAL DESCRIPTION 1...

Page 75: ...ty Wheels 2 pneumatic 2 pneumatic 4 pneumatic 2 pneumatic 2 solid rubber 2 solid rubber diam mm 191 191 220 191 165 165 width mm 50 50 75 50 37 37 Caster mm 75 75 na 75 75 75 Steering Differential Dif...

Page 76: ...00 22 500 33 500 39 000 18 400 Breakbeam IR just forward each strut from top to bottom decks na na na na na Fixed length IR each side na na na na na Controls and Ports Main Power Charge Port Joydrive...

Page 77: ...botics products shall bear no liabilities for operation and use of the robot or any accompanying software except that covered by the warranty and period The developers marketers or manufacturers shall...

Page 78: ...72 44 Concord Street Peterborough NH 03458 603 924 9100 603 924 2184 fax http www activrobots com...

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