With the electronics overhaul and chassis modifications complete, we are making quick progress towards qualification requirements. Our current objective with TechBot is to qualify on our course using SICK and vision data using simple, efficient software using Python. We have also moved towards a Linux environment, leaving Windows behind. More details will be given at the Monday meeting.
Author Archive for jwlangston21
08
Feb
Status update!
28
Dec
Winter Break
If you are wanting something to do this winter break, come on over to our lab and we’ll put you to work. This is the best time to get on-board as you can quickly get up to speed on our platforms, and you will be a part of our robots coming together. A nearly complete electronics overhaul is finished. This allows the high-level navigation to be put to the test for TechBot. There are several small projects that can be picked up that need to be done as well. Hope to see you there!
Lecture location this week: Clement Hall 313-B
This week’s lecture will be a little different. Dr. Canfield will be covering robot kinematics and control. In short, kinematics is characterizing how the robot moves. Each robotic platform has differing movement patterns (e.g. traditional car steering versus skid-steering). During this lecture, we will be in the computer lab CH313B. Dr. Canfield will be walking us through how to simulate the kinematics and some control.
Lecture notes: mobile-robot-kinematics
Marbin will present on power distribution next in the lecture series. He will cover the basics of power distribution, why we need it, what problems can arise, and how to fix those problems. The current power layout for the TechBot will also be discussed.
Low-level control essentially takes the directions and speeds from the high-level control (navigation) and converts it to voltages to power the drive motors. We will cover open/closed loop methods, error correction algorithms, and discuss our approach for TechBot as well as some information on the MiniAndros.
Dr. Canfield is going to present some more in-depth topics concerning robotics. He has been doing robotic projects for quite some time and has a lot of great insight. Hope to see you there.
Our next lecture is tentatively scheduled to be over low-level control, but may be pushed back for other lecture needs. Low-level control essentially takes the directions and speeds from the high-level control (navigation) and converts it to voltages to power the drive motors. We will cover open/closed loop methods, error correction algorithms, and discuss our approach for TechBot.
We’ve decided to change the presentation order to something a bit more timelier. This coming monday Ben Eckarkt will teach us how to program robots using Python. For those that don’t know Python, don’t be discouraged. It is one of the easiest languages to pick up and the presentation is given so that anyone can start coding for our platforms.
Our next lecture will be given by Jimmy to cover the different sensors we use, and how they are used. These cover namely vision and LADAR.
This monday will be the first in our new lecture series. Given by Dr. Canfield, it will cover many different aspects of robotics. Dr. Canfield has been in mechatronics for some time and is the advisor for TTU ARC. Again, even if you aren’t in the robotics club, you are welcome to attend our lectures. See you there!
03
Sep
Meeting Times
There are two meetings during the week that we have to cover information/discussion and to collectively work on the robot. If you want to learn more about robotics, but don’t have time to make the work days, that’s ok. You will still get a lot of good information from our lecture topics. The work days are where we put the information to work and get to see the outcome.
Mondays at 5pm-6pm : brief overview of last week’s progress followed by that week’s lecture/discussion
Saturdays at 10am-6pm : Robot Saturday, work directly with the robot