Specifications and Controls
may need to change to view the correct transmission channel. The two RCA
receptacles on the Video Control panel simply deliver live video from the PTZ camera for
direct viewing and maintenance.
Also on the Video Control panel is a power switch and associated
Video
LED which lights
when the
ON/OFF
switch enables power to the onboard A/V transmitter.
S
OUND
S
YSTEM
In the original Performance PeopleBots, a PC104 sound card provided audio input and
output. Current Performance PeopleBot Plus robot use the embedded PC’s integrated
sound system with accessory amplifiers for voice synthesis and recognition systems,
among other effects. The card provided a minimum five watts, whereas the new system
provides greater than 15 watts in two channels (stereo) output to the speakers that are
integrated at the top of the struts.
Control input and output volumes on a Windows-based PC through the
Sounds and
Multimedia
control panel or the sound tool (speaker icon) on the
Quick Launch
bar at
the bottom of the desktop. Use
aumix
or similar tool with Linux. The line output channel
of the sound card also is connected to the audio portion of the A/V transmitter, but just a
single channel (monaural).
Sound input is through a pair of high-performance microphones mounted at the back of
the top deck. With the original Performance PeopleBots, only monaural input through
the microphones was available. Current systems support stereo microphone input (by
request only) as attached to the line inputs of the system. Use the same OS tools to
adjust input volumes as you do for output sound. The microphones 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
and sound surveillance, or to a framegrabber and a sound card on on offboard PC for
digital capture and analysis. The receiver has common NTSC and audio connectors and
cables. You may have to push the Channel Select button to tune the unit to the one of
four channels that receive images and sound from your robot’s transmitter. Otherwise,
there is no other special set up required.
G
RIPPER
The Performance PeopleBot’s integrated Gripper is a two degree-of-freedom (2-DOF)
device with gripping paddles to grasp and a lift mechanism to raise and lower objects.
In its fully open state, the two 3cm tall by 9.5cm deep paddles, each with 2mm soft-foam
pads on the inside, are 21.5cm apart. The paddles close together horizontally until they
grasp an object or close on themselves. The grasping pressure is under AROS server
control and varies between 200g and 2kg.
Under independent control and drive, the Gripper lift operates at around common table
heights up and down near the center and inside the right strut of the robot. The
Gripper’s lift range is from just below a fully extended PTZ camera 72cm above the floor,
down to either atop the laser range finder accessory or to the lower deck, 43 or 24cm,
respectively, from the floor.
The Gripper contains digital limit switches that indicate lift and paddle travel extremes,
including a hinged switch in the paddle to detect a table top.
breakbeam IRs within the paddles detect objects inside and control grasping pressure.
The Gripper can grasp and raise objects weighing up to 2kg (5 lbs).
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Hinged switch state same as lift limit switch state.
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