Embedded Motion Control 2013 Group 2

Group Members

Name:	Student id:	Email:
Joep Alleleijn	0760626	j.h.h.m.alleleijn@student.tue.nl
E. Romero Sahagun	0827538	e.romero.sahagun@student.tue.nl
L. Galindez Olascoaga	0867854	l.i.galindez.olascoaga@student.tue.nl
Koen Meeusen	0657087	k.a.meeusen@student.tue.nl
Onur Albert Aslan	0865471	o.a.aslan@student.tue.nl

Planning

Week:	Activities:
Sep 2 - Sep 8
	Start ROS & C++ tutorials
	Prepare software (Ubuntu, ROS, Gazebo, etc..)
	Project planning & brainstorming
Sep 9 - Sep 15
	Conclude software troubleshoot.
	Start simulations in Gazebo for sensors and actuators identification.
Sep 16 - Sep 22
	Code implementation for Corridor Competition, tests on simulation.
	First real robot trial (Sep 19, 11.00 - 12:00 hrs)
Sep 23 - Sep 29
	Last minute preparations for Corridor Competition
	Second real robot trial (to schedule..)
	Corridor Competition (Sep 25)
Sep 30 - Oct 6
	...
Oct 7 - Oct 13
	...
Oct 14 - Oct 20
	...
Oct 21 - Oct 27
	Maze Competition (Oct 23)

Current Work

Team Member:	Working on:
Joep Alleleijn	....
E. Romero Sahagun	Movement module/functions (move forward, backward, turn left/right) .........................................
L. Galindez Olascoaga	...
Koen Meeusen	...
Onur Albert Aslan	...

Progress

Week 1: September 2 - September 8

Software installation

The goal of the first week was to install all necessary software. The installation of Ubuntu went well in general. In one case (on the 2013 TU/e laptop) Ubuntu would install correctly (it said) but when Ubuntu was started the desktop screen of Ubuntu was not loaded. Instead a command prompt like screen was displayed and reports where shown that there were missing files. The problem was eventually solved as follows: In case the laptop has been fitted with a small ssd parallel to the main harddisk (like the 2013 TU/e laptop), Ubuntu will not install properly. Because the ssd-drive and the harddisk are placed parallel the laptop will start faster since the ssd provides a fast start-up. When Ubuntu starts it requires files which are not present on the ssd, which causes Ubuntu to fail. The solution is to disable the raid configuration of the laptop. This disables the ssd-drive and its advantages but Ubuntu will start now since all the required files are received from the harddisk. In some cases the Raid is called Intel RST (rapid storage technology). Switching of the raid system in BIOS might result in losing your windows and all your data on the disk. So it is not recommended ( We have never tried it before). Login in windows and open the Intel Rapid Storage Technology program and disable raid support in a less brutal way to avoid such risks. The other required software installed well except Qt. By a few persons Qt did not install. Therefore the choise has been made to use eclipse to type the c++ code. The disadvantage is that in eclipse you will have to rebuild your “cmake” and project files every time you change something in the script. This requires a restart of eclipse. Qt does not have this problem. An advantage of eclipse over Qt is that eclipse can handle vector programming easier then Qt.

Problem investigation

In order to solve the maze problem some important questions had to be answered, namely: - Is the maze unique? (In other words, is there only one solution?) - Are there island in the maze? (walls which are not connected to the outside of the maze) The answered to these questions are yes, the maze is unique and no, there are no island. With these questions answered a simple strategy has been made to solve the maze: If the maze contains islands the solution won’t be totally unique, because there are multiple ways to solve the maze. With islands it is even possible to get stuck in a loop around the island in the maze. With only one path which is correct (a unique solution) and no islands a solution to the maze can be to follow the right hand wall of the robot. In case of the corridor challenge, the solution is not unique, since there are to exits (a correct one and a false one). Although the strategy to follow the right hand wall will in this case give the correct solution. Besides more advances technique to solve a maze, this solution can easily be programed and can be used for testing the simulator. The goal is to have a more advanced maze solving algorithm for the corridor test. However this has to be developed yet.

Week 2: September 9 - September 15

Testing laser data acquisition

Simulated laser data (Laura and Joep)

Structure message from laser: Header header # timestamp in the header is the acquisition time of # the first ray in the scan. # # in frame frame_id, angles are measured around # the positive Z axis (counterclockwise, if Z is up) # with zero angle being forward along the x axis float32 angle_min # start angle of the scan [rad] float32 angle_max # end angle of the scan [rad] float32 angle_increment # angular distance between measurements [rad] float32 time_increment # time between measurements [seconds] - if your scanner # is moving, this will be used in interpolating position # of 3d points float32 scan_time # time between scans [seconds] float32 range_min # minimum range value [m] float32 range_max # maximum range value [m] float32[] ranges # range data [m] (Note: values < range_min or > range_max should be discarded) float32[] intensities # intensity data [device-specific units]. If your # device does not provide intensities, please leave # the array empty. Questions: sample frequency system/laser? orientation coordinate system frequency the robot Week 3: September 16 - September 22 ... Week 4: September 23 - September 29 ... Week 5: September 30 - October 6 ... Week 6: October 7 - October 13 ... FAQ & Doubts