White Box Robotics PC-Bot 914 Quick Start Manual Download Page 1

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Summary of Contents for PC-Bot 914

Page 2: ...hardware so as not to cause short circuits We ask that you make sure you give yourself enough working area and time for installation so as not to damage either the plastics or the electronics Liability In no event will White Box Robotics Inc or Frontline Robotics Inc be liable for any damage including loss of data or profits cost of cover or other incidental consequential or indirect damages arisi...

Page 3: ... Box Robotics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc Unpacking the Robot The following image shows how the PC BOT should have arrived in the shipping box STEP 1 Un packing the robot Remove the peripheral equipment wrapped in bubble wrap ...

Page 5: ...he robot straight up and out of the box WARNING This robot is heavy People with back problems should not attempt to lift this robot Always use proper lifting technique when lifting heavy items Keep you knees bent and your back straight and lift gently The following image shows where the handles are located you ll have to feel for them when the robot is in the box There are two handles front and ba...

Page 6: ...g up the robot STEP 1 Charging the robot batteries Now that the robot is out of the box you should plug the charger in to charge the batteries The charger connector is found behind the left rear vent door on the back of the robot Flip the door open as shown in the above picture ...

Page 7: ...ill then change to ORANGE when it is charging the batteries on the PC BOT It will then switch back to GREEN when the batteries are fully charged it typically takes 2 2 5 hours to charge the batteries from the auto shutoff point Charging and shutdown If the battery level goes below 11 2V the robot will auto shutdown Either while you are running the robot and especially when you are finished with it...

Page 8: ...Removing the head panel The head and front back torso body panels are attached with ball studs and sockets This allows for easy removal of the panels without tools Gently remove the head by grabbing under the separation between the head and torso plastics and pulling straight up ...

Page 9: ...ving the body panels The torso body panels are removed in the same way as shown except pulled backwards or forwards depending on the torso body panel You can use your thumbs to leaver while pulling on the body panels with your finger tips Both body panels are removed in the same way ...

Page 10: ...mouse When viewing the back of the robot you will see the External Power Supply jack power supply not included and Charger jack on the left side and on the right side the back panel of the Mini ITX Plug the monitor keyboard and mouse into the Mini ITX back panel in order to setup your robot like the network etc ...

Page 11: ...he M3 Power switch is used to turn on the M3 Controller If this switch is OFF the M3 will not be able to drive the motors or read the sensors When the battery voltage drops to 11 2V i e when the batteries need recharging the M2 ATX will cycle the power to the PC again to auto shutdown before the power is cut 45 seconds later and the batteries are protected from total discharge This is the same as ...

Page 12: ...tics Inc On the other side of the front of the robot you can still use the PC ON and PC Reset switch just like on a regular computer NOTE If the robot is sitting on a desk it might be advisable to turn the M3 Switch OFF so that the robot cannot drive off the table ...

Page 13: ...EP 6 Connecting Peripheral Devices You should connect the Wireless device to the USB board mounted on the head if this is not already done In this location the head can still be placed back on the robot and not interfere with the Wireless USB Network Adapter or its antennae ...

Page 14: ...art Guides Basic Unit Computer Installation Plastics Assembly etc http www whiteboxrobotics com 2006 PCBOTs support html Technical Specifications Wiring and Power http www whiteboxrobotics com 2006 PCBOTs pdf PC Bot_Tech_Spec WiringPowerv1 1 pdf I O Board Block Diagram http www whiteboxrobotics com 2006 PCBOTs pdf PC Bot_Tech_Spec IOBoardBlockDiagramv1 1 pdf Infra red Sensors http www whiteboxrobo...

Page 15: ...aints of working inside the Linux environment and some knowledge of working with Player Stage and its components Initial Linux Application Configurations and uses Remote Desktop To allow for over the network connections to the desktop of the robot Remote desktop control is provided through x11vnc For detailed information see http www karlrunge com x11vnc x11vnc is run each time Gnome gdm is starte...

Page 16: ...ttp www realvnc com If using Linux Windows is also supported then you can use http www tightvnc com All VNC applications are supported and often a VNC viewer is already installed in your Linux OS Player Server Running in the Background at Start up The Player server is started in the background at startup To accomplish this the following lines were added to etc rc local if x usr local bin player th...

Page 17: ...option 1 execute sudo etc rc local press enter after you see Listening on ports 6665 and player will be running in the background For option 2 open a new terminal window and execute player home wbr wbr914 cfg To close this instance of player press Ctrl C in the terminal window ...

Page 18: ...oneer drivers but simply provides to clients laser and position position is a movable mobile robot base sonar etc interfaces This allows clients to be portable to other robots The readers should note All three programs Player Stage and Gazebo have the same interface so programs used in either of the simulation programs can be used unchanged on the robots They are designed to work together and prov...

Page 19: ...face returns the IR range data aio This interface returns the analog input data from the optional 2nd I O board dio This interface returns the digital input information and allows control of the digital outputs on all installed White Box Robotics I O boards The first I O board supplies 8 digital inputs and outputs and the optional second I O board supplies an additional 8 digital inputs and output...

Page 20: ...ve already been written for the most popular sensors and are included in Player by default Here is a listing of the available drivers http playerstage sourceforge net doc Player 2 0 0 player group__drivers html All related configuration options can be found there To use those devices simply add them to the cfg file to allow the robot to access the sensors Examples Hokuyo URG scanning laser range f...

Page 21: ...rovides laser 0 port dev ttyS0 resolution 100 Angular resolution 1 degree 181 readings 10Hz range_res 10 Range resolution 1 cm maximum range 81 92m Logitech QuickCam Orbit Text to add to your robot cfg file driver name spheredriver provides camera 0 ptz 0 port dev video0 size 320 240 mode RGB24 automatic_wb fl framerate 30 shutter_speed 64000 ...

Page 22: ...rom the above examples adding one of the above sensors to your robot the cfg file would look like the following driver name wbr914 provides position2d 0 ir 0 aio 0 dio 0 port dev ttyUSB0 driver name camerauvc provides camera 0 port dev video0 size 320 240 driver name urglaser provides laser 0 port dev ttyACM0 ...

Page 23: ...tep 2 Open a terminal window Step 3a Player automatically runs upon boot up to allow the user to easily connect This can be seen by typing ps aux grep player Typing this line can stop Player sudo kill 9 pidof player Password is wbr Note Player automatically uses the home wbr wbr914 cfg file If you want to run a different player session for example using the Stage simulation you will need to stop t...

Page 24: ...pen another terminal window and type playerv p 6665 A player client side window opens and initially should display nothing at all This window however will remain open and will pass the results to you from the open and now connected robot Having found the robot a further window opens on the right see above Step 5 Go to the Devices menu and scroll down to position2d 0 and choose Subscribe ...

Page 25: ...g the left mouse button you can click and drag this bullseye to the right to move the robot forward If you drag it to the left the robot will move backwards Similarly dragging it to the right and up will make it turn left and forward and down it will turn to the right Note When you release the mouse button the robot stops and the bulls eye returns to the box Step 8 Position Mode Open the Devices m...

Page 26: ...e the current robot pose and velocity open Devices from the menu and scroll down to Position2d 0 and choose Show values Step 10 To display the robot s sensors again open the Devices menu and scroll down to ir 0 and choose Subscribe Step 11 To zoom in and out in the PlayerViewer windows click and hold the right mouse button and drag towards or away from the circle that appears To move the environme...

Page 28: ...hat has been written and compiled using the standard Player commands The following is a PC BOT IR avoid program wbr_avoid cc that can be used as a basis for your own control programs It is located under this directory player 2 0 3 examples libplayerc The wbr_avoid cc can be edited and re compiled easily by typing the following command g o wbr_avoid pkg config cflags playerc wbr_avoid cc pkg config...

Page 29: ...s libplayerc directory Step 14 Verify that the Player server is still running the wbr914 cfg file If it is not running then initiate it using that file Step 15 On the command line of the terminal window that is in the C examples directory type wbr_avoid and press enter This will initiate the IR avoid program that will cause the robot to drive ...

Page 30: ...n on the 914 PC BOT sonar sensors and laser scanners may be added to the robot Within the libplayerc directory there are also sample laser obstacle avoid and sonar obstacle avoid programs which are run in the same way as the wbr914 IR obstacle avoid program Step 17 To run the control programs from a remote computer the robot must be connected on the same network and the IP address must be known Ty...

Page 31: ...e the Player server is running using the wbr914 cfg file Step 19 On the command line of the terminal program type playercam A video window opens and displays the camera images You can see in the above picture how the playercam command connects to Player You will receive some errors in the playercam call as the blobfinder is not being used ...

Page 32: ...o refers to the world file that will be used for the models and maps world files lists the map that will be used the robot sensor models devices that will be used as well as initial locations of each model inc files Device definitions for the robots sensors maps etc This is where you define how the objects look Examples of these files can be found in this directory stage 2 0 3 worlds A number of s...

Page 33: ...botics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc Begin with the wbr914 inc file This file models the robot and places the sensors on it with the proper ranges and pose The model is based on the following images Coordinates for the model polygons ...

Page 34: ...ount used in this ranger scount 8 define the pose of each sensor transducer xpos ypos heading spose 4 0 03 0 19 90 spose 3 0 19 0 09 25 spose 2 0 21 0 00 0 spose 1 0 19 0 09 25 spose 0 0 03 0 19 90 these 3 transducers are the downward pointing for stairs and drops because they point down they have little effect in the Stage 2D environment spose 7 0 20 0 06 56 spose 6 0 21 0 00 0 spose 5 0 20 0 06 ...

Page 35: ...ter of area origin 0 0 0 0 draw a nose on the robot so we can see which way it points gui_nose 1 estimated mass in KG mass 25 0 this polygon approximates the shape of a PC BOT 914 Use two polygons to draw the robot polygons 2 details of the first polygon polygon index points total number of polygon points polygon 0 points 12 polygon index point index xpos ypos polygon 0 point 0 0 11 0 17 polygon 0...

Page 36: ...polygon 1 point 3 0 18 0 08 differential steering model drive diff laser_return refers to making the robot detectable by laser sensors if the robot s sensor was mounted on the head it would not detect other similar robots because the beam would go over the robot This adds more reality to the simulation and worse detection if you uncomment the line laser_return 0 use the IR array defined above wbr9...

Page 37: ...e s underlying raytrace model in meters resolution 0 02 interval_sim 100 milliseconds per update step interval_real 100 real time milliseconds per update step defines Pioneer like robots include pioneer inc defines PC BOT robot include wbr914 inc defines map object used for floorplans include map inc defines the laser models sick_laser configured like a Sick LMS 200 and defines Hokuyo URG Laser in...

Page 38: ...e 0 03 0 000 0 000 fiducialfinder range_max 8 range_max_id 5 ptz blobfinder channel_count 6 channels red blue green cyan yellow magenta fiducial_return 1 gripper_return 0 localization gps localization_origin 0 0 0 loaded_pioneer name pioneer1 pose 10 071 0 186 722 333 gripper pose 0 200 0 000 0 000 color gray speech loaded_pioneer color red name pioneer2 pose 5 645 3 034 162 098 define loaded_wbr9...

Page 39: ...06 2007 White Box Robotics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc localization_origin 0 0 0 loaded_wbr914 color white name wbr914_1 pose 6 009 2 481 194 220 loaded_wbr914 color yellow name wbr914_2 pose 6 492 2 156 199 781 ...

Page 40: ...file has links to inc files and defines for all the models and maps worldfile wbr914sim world driver name stage provides map 0 model hospital 1st robot driver name stage provides position2d 0 sonar 0 laser 0 ptz 0 blobfinder 0 fiducial 0 gripper 0 graphics2d 0 speech 0 model pioneer1 driver name vfh requires position2d 0 laser 0 provides position2d 1 2nd robot driver name stage provides 6666 posit...

Page 41: ...rld inside the STAGE simulator Step 20 Open a terminal windows and go to the stage 2 0 3 worlds directory Make sure the player server is not currently running by typing the command ps aux grep player The only thing listed is the grep command so player server is NOT running Step 21 Now type the command player wbr914sim cfg ...

Page 42: ...e following Stage window showing the virtual world opens The virtual robots can be moved in this window by left clicking on them and dragging them You can zoom in and out by right clicking on the map and dragging towards or away from the center of the circle that is created ...

Page 43: ...th a gripper ptz blobfinder and Sick Laser 6666 Red Pioneer with a Sick Laser ptz and blobfinder 6667 White 914 PC BOT robot with Hokuyo Laser 6668 Yellow 914 PC BOT robot with Hokuyo Laser You can see this in the player server window Each one of those robots can be individually controlled using any of the client programs playerv playerjoy laserobstacle avoidance etc ...

Page 44: ...dow and go to the player 2 0 3 examples libplayerc Where the example obstacle avoidance programs are Step 23 Type laserobstacleavoid p 6665 this will cause the laser obstacle avoidance program to run on the first pioneer robot The robot begins to move and displays the scan of the SICK Laser scanner ...

Page 45: ...obotics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc Step 24 Open another terminal window and go to the same directory as before Type sonarobstacleavoid p 6666 This will cause the sonar obstacle avoidance program to control the second pioneer robot ...

Page 46: ...rectory as before Type laserobstacleavoid p 6667 This will cause the laser avoidance program to run on the first 914 PC BOT using the Hokuyo Laser instead of the Sick laser Note wbr_avoid program works only on the real robot and not on the Stage simulator This is due to the IR proxy call which is not currently supported in Stage ...

Page 47: ... following command playerjoy localhost 6668 This will insert the use of a joystick control on the robot The controller defaults to using the keyboard to control the robot in the absence of an identified joystick The terminal window outputs the usage keys Close all the client programs and the player server Use CTRL C for the programs ...

Page 48: ...toward those goals Some example files have been created using the 914 PC BOT in Stage which has a laser scanner which is required for navigation and path planning wbr_wavefront cfg code file Desc PC BOT Wavefront Playernav Stage demo using the simple world driver name stage plugin libstageplugin provides 6665 simulation 0 worldfile wbr_simple world driver name stage provides 6665 map 0 model cave ...

Page 49: ...idance and path following capabilities for mobile robots Layered on top of a laser equipped robot vfh works great as a local navigation system AMCL http playerstage sourceforge net doc Player 2 0 0 player group__driver__amcl html The amcl driver implements the Adaptive Monte Carlo Localization algorithm described by Dieter Fox At the conceptual level the amcl driver maintains a probability distrib...

Page 50: ...scanner sensors include laser inc defines map object used for floorplans include map inc size of the world in meters size 16 16 set the resolution of the underlying raytrace model in meters resolution 0 02 update the screen every 10ms we need fast update for the stest demo gui_interval 20 configure the GUI window window size 591 000 638 000 center 0 010 0 040 scale 0 028 load an environment bitmap...

Page 51: ...e stage 2 0 3 worlds directory Again verify that no other player servers are running with the ps aux grep player command Step 28 Type the following command player wbr_wavefront cfg The following window opens up once the player server loads Step 29 Open another terminal window Type the following command in playernav ...

Page 52: ...the Stage window This window should be expanded so that you can drag the scroll bar down to zoom in Put the two windows side by side Step 30 On the playernav windows click with the left mouse button drag and move the robot model identified with the red circle to the same location as shown in the Stage window You need to do this ...

Page 53: ...tics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc or the robot will have to attempt to localize itself by driving and scanning the walls to learn where it is in the world Click with the left mouse button again on top of the robot when the line appears ...

Page 54: ... that appears to some other location in the playernav window When you let go of the right mouse button the triangle will be placed designating a general ultimate location You then need to left click and have the waypoints plotted to show the robot path The robot begins to drive to the end point optimizing the path through sensed objects ...

Page 55: ...Robotics Inc and Frontline Robotics Inc Step 32 As the robot drives the waypoints will disappear Notice also that the robot in the Stage window drives also to the end point Close the playernav utility and player server when finished ...

Page 56: ... is offered in English only Player Stage Gazebo Project Main Webpage http playerstage sourceforge net Player WIKI page http playerstage sourceforge net wiki Main_Page Player Stage Gazebo Documentation http playerstage sourceforge net index php src doc Basic frequently asked questions good place if you have a problem http playerstage sourceforge net wiki Basic_FAQ ...

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