DEVELOPMENT OF A ROBOTIC TANK, BASED ON A SMART CAMERA

SUBMITTED BY: DANIEL ALON AND AVIAD DAHAN

SUPERVISED BY: OREN ROSEN

CRML 2012

TABLE OF CONTENTS

•Background

•Stages of the Project

- Training & Preparations

- Design & Architecture

- Generating PWM Signal

- Implementation of a Close-loop movement

- Video Display & Processing

- Semi-Autonomous movement & tracking

•Future Development

•Summary

•Live Demonstration

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BACKGROUND - OUR INSPIRATION

The Mars Rover:

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BACKGROUND - OUR GOAL

Developing a Robotic Tank based on National Instruments Hardware and Software with Semi-Autonomous abilities.

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BACKGROUND – THE INNOVATION

• Image Processing – utilizing a NI smart camera

• Control – first smartphone controlled project in the EE faculty

• State of the art technology

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STAGES OF THE PROJECT

Training & Preparations

Design & Architecture

Generating PWM Signal

Implementation of a closed-loop movement

Video display & processing

Semi Autonomous Movement & Tracking

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TRAINING & PREPARATIONS

• Thoroughly investigating LabVIEW, which is the Project’s development environment.

• Learning the FPGA, Real Time, and Robotics Modules of LabVIEW.

• Studying the image processing module of National Instruments – NI Vision assistant.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE ROBOTIC TANK

Traxter II by Robotics Connection:

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURETRAXTER II

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Advantages Disadvantages

• Motors have 1:52 gear ratio – very swift and can carry large weight.

• A tank-like robot - Tracks instead of wheels, better traction.

• Very small compartment cabin – no place for a large power supply .

• Tracks are made out of plastic – not intended for all terrain.

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE-THE CONTROLLER

National Instruments SB-RIO 9631:

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE CONTROLLER

Controller Attributes:

• 266 MHz processor, 128 MB nonvolatile storage, 64 MB DRAM for deterministic control and analysis.

• Integrated 1M gate reconfigurable I/O (RIO) FPGA for custom timing, inline processing, and control.

• 110 3.3 V (TTL/5 V tolerant) DIO lines, 32 16-bit analog inputs, four 16-bit analog outputs.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE CONTROLLER

Controller Attributes:

• 10/100BASE-T Ethernet port and RS232 serial port, 19 to 30 VDC supply input.

• Easily embedded in high-volume applications that require flexibility, reliability, and high performance.

• Ideal for low- to medium-volume applications and rapid prototyping.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE CAMERA

NI 1742 Smart-Camera:

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE CAMERA

Camera Attributes:

• Monochrome 640 x 480 SONY CCD image sensor.

• 533 MHz PowerPC processor.

• Video capturing at up to 60 frames per second.

• Quadrature encoder support, optoisolated digital I/O, and dual Gigabit Ethernet.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -THE CAMERA

Camera Attributes:

• Program with LabVIEW Real-Time Module or configure with Vision Assistant.

• Highly compatible with Vision Assistant

• Easy to use stand-alone, real time programming environment for vision applications.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE - COMMUNICATION

• Done By a Wireless router.

• Each component has a static IP.

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DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE -POWER SUPPLIES

Three 11.1 Volt Li-Po Batteries which located in the compartment cabin underneath the robot.

Power requirements :

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Current requirement

Voltage requirement

Device

1 A 7-12 V Motors

1 A 12 V Router

1 A 19-30 V Controller

3 A 24 V Camera

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

Final Block Diagram of the Solution:

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driver

controller

driver

Motor LMotor R

EncodersEncoders router

camera

Ethernet

Ethernet

consoleWi-Fi

Smartphone

Wi-FiPWM

DESIGN & ARCHITECTURE

The Result:

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GENERATING PWM SIGNAL

In order to control the motors, a PWM signal is being generated.

PWM is described as followed:

• A square wave with a fixed cycle time and amplitude is being set.

• The duty cycle of the wave is proportional to the power that we want to deliver to the motors.

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GENERATING PWM SIGNAL

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IMPLEMENTATION OF A CLOSED-LOOP MOVEMENT

• Android based Smartphone sends gyrometer and accelerometers signals to the SB-RIO controller, via Wi-Fi.

• The messaging protocol between the smartphone and the SB-RIO controller is OSC.

• The data from the smartphone is being processed in the controller and being translated into a PWM signal.

• The motors are responding according to the PWM signal.

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THE USER INTERFACE

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VIDEO DISPLAY & PROCESSING

• Our target is a black circle. based on the robot’s pose, the circle may be interpreted as an ellipse.

• Using the NI Vision Assistant, a Real Time ellipse detection algorithm was written.

• The image processing algorithm is implemented on the camera.

• The output is shown on the console’s monitor via LabVIEW VI.

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VIDEO DISPLAY & PROCESSING

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SEMI AUTONOMOUS MOVEMENT & TRACKINGThe algorithm:

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Scan

Lock

Act

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS & POSSIBLE USES• Sequel project in CRML – An autonomous, smartphone

controlled robot for indoor mapping.

• Power consumption

• All-Terrain mobilty

• Military uses.

• Research uses.

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SUMMARY

• Multidisciplinary

• First smartphone & hardware project in EE faculty

• Ease of implementation

• State of the art technology

• Wrapping up

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APPRECIATIONS & THANKS

Oren Rosen – Supervisor.

Kobi Kohai – CRML Lab Engineer.

Orly Wigderson - CRML Lab Practical Engineer.

Eran Castiel - National Instruments Israel.

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ANY QUESTIONS?

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THANK YOU!

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LIVE DEMONSTRATION

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