Comments

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  Jimmie D. Ivy August 25, 2012 at 8:36am

  @ KM6VV - It was a typo Alan Was supposed to be Stream Bank. My list was directed toward Rich. My tracked rover was designed for purposes other than RoboMagellan. It was a designed as a rescue vehicle to operate in hostile environments.
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  KM6VV August 24, 2012 at 10:59pm

  I don't know about all of the items on your list, but a 6WD with independent suspension on each wheel can accommodate most of the items on your list. 

  Steam Bank?   I'll keep out of water.  Cliff? I'll stay away from the cliffs.  We'll see.  That's what RoboMagellan is about! 

  Alan
• Rich Maynard August 24, 2012 at 8:58pm

  @Jimmie D,

  "A list of what if's to think about:

  What if your rover encounters a?:

  Cliff, tree, curb, picnic table, steep grade, animal, another rover, heavy grass, steam bank, water, etc."

  Yep, got most of that covered. The GPS and the mag compass are what I'm retaining from the Ardupilot design. I'm also modding the code to deal with two sonar sensors and some LED distance sensors.

  The environment that robot will operate in is relatively well defined and constrained. Basically it going to patrol the garden.

  I've also added a hardware PPM mux. The PPM encoder the Ardupilots use are overkill for my application.

  I'll probably start a blog to show it off in a few weeks.

  Rich
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  Adam Scriven August 24, 2012 at 8:50pm

  Has anyone thought of a "neighbourhood watch"-type rover?

  I was thinking they could be given a route, and have a/some camera(s) running with a public URL for citizens to watch.
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  Bot Thoughts August 24, 2012 at 5:56pm

  @KM6VV: If not mentioned yet, the Blackfin Camera is a robotics camera system (similar to CMUcam or AVRcam). The full name is Surveyor SRV-1 Blackfin Camera
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  Jimmie D. Ivy August 24, 2012 at 5:46pm

  @ Randy

  Sonic, IR, Accelerometer, Compass, and Tactile. Had encoders installed but never activated them. Quit working with my rover in September 2006, after being diagnosed with Lymphoma. All clear now and back to playing with my toys.

  Jim (KD0SWA)
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  KM6VV August 24, 2012 at 12:34pm

  I didn't see any mention of a JPEG output. 

  Look at something like the BlackFin Camera, that's what you're describing.  It can use a WiFI link, or serial.

  Alan  KM6VV
• Randy Brazeau August 24, 2012 at 11:44am

  FYI

  Have a look at this camera which may be a good fit for our rovers.

  https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11418

  HD on the card but composite video on the output.

  Is it possible to stream that video to my laptop and use RoboRealm to send back commands on where to go? WiFi or Xbee?

  @Jimme

  What other sensors do you have. Sonic, IR?

  I have three sonic sensors with the center one on a pan/tilt

  Randy
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  Jimmie D. Ivy August 24, 2012 at 5:04am

  @ Rich - "I'm making a shield for a Arduino Mega with just interfaces for the GPS and the mag compass. I figure that's all I need for ground operation."

  A list of what if's to think about:

  What if your rover encounters a?:

  Cliff, tree, curb, picnic table, steep grade, animal, another rover, heavy grass, steam bank, water, etc.

  How do you avoid these?

  Think about that for awhile and post some of your thought and we will explore the solutions.

  Jim (KD0SWA)
• Tom Gibson August 23, 2012 at 9:35pm

  @Jim - Well I can hardly call myself a "youngster" but I am new to this game.;)

  @ All - I have APM installed and pretty much ready for autonomy tests - just waiting for a UBEC I ordered to clear up a GPS interference issue, and new Tx.  Wondering... do the mode switch on Tx and mode select in MP work together, that is, "override" each other so to speak? I started out with the 2 channel Tx that came with the boat so I have not played with a mode select switch yet.  I just set all modes to Manual in configuration to avoid any surprises.  Also, I set Max Throttle very low for tests but when I select Auto from MP it seems to go to full throttle.  Is this something that will clear up when I get my 4 channel Tx?

  Tom