|
| [+QUICK
INFO+] |
 |
| TEAM
MEMBERS : |
|
Kenny
Teng
Sabine Shauer |
| ASSIGNMENT
: |
|
Program
a pair of AIBO's to simultaneously navigate through
two identical mazes while communicating and avoiding
obstacles along the way. The goal is for both
of them to reach a ball pit and then collectively
empty it. |
| SPECIFICATIONS
: |
|
The
robots are programmed using the CMRoboBits source
code where everything is implemented in c++. |
| RESULT: |
|
Got
an A in the class |
| |
|
|
| [+OVERVIEW+] |
| The
Sony AIBO® are remarkable pieces of hardware.
They are considered as 'complete' robots that
have everything incorporated into it. Below
is a general idea of how complete these robots
are. |
 |
Perception
- The ability to sense and model the world in
which they evolve.
Cognition
- Behaviors, action selection, planning, learning.
- Multi-robot coordination, teamwork.
- Response to opponent, multi-agent learning.
Action
- Motion, navigation, obstacle avoidance |
| However,
one of the most important feature of the AIBO®
that is going to be used for this project is the
Vision system. The robot is equipped
with a mini camera at low resolution and is placed
in the nose part of the robot, thus offering the
3 degrees of freedom of the head to move the camera
around. Below is an example of what the robots
can actually see. |
Raw image in YUV colorspace |
Segmented image input |
| From
the input image, similar colors are grouped together
to create segments in the original image.
This segmentation technique allows quick grouping
and identification of the different regions being
perceived by the robots. Color matching could
be used as a recognition basis for objects in
the field of vision. |
| [+THE
PROJECT+] |
 |
The
Design
Above is a picture of the obstacle ground that
the robots will have to go through. The walls
are made up of identical 2" x 4" wooden
planks and creates a bunch of different possible
ways for the robots to navigate. From the above
picture, we can detect T-junctions, straight lines,
L-junctions and dead-ends. The Aibo® has been
programmed to be able to detect those regions
and make appropriate changes in its FSM to match
the appropriate behaviors.
The Obstacles
There are 2 distinct obstacles in this maze. One
where the robot has to climb over, and one where
it has to crawl under. For both obstacles, specific
motion behaviors have been designed and programmed
into the dogs. Those motion behaviors are mere
prorgams that are executed when the obstacles
are detected and appropriate changes have been
made in the states of the FSM. |
The
Landmarks
|
 |
| Signs
are positioned at specific places in an order
such that none of the dogs will be able to
reach the ball pit if no communication occurs
between the pair of robots. For the purpose
of communication wireless will be used as primary
means of communication over UDP connections.
UDP connections are quickly set between the
two dogs whenever required, and a message is
sent from one dog to the other. By this transfer
of message, it automatically sets one dog to
be the master and the other one to be a slave.
By alternating between master and slave, this
allows synchronized navigation of the two dogs
to the ball pit. |
The
Ball Pit
At the end of the course, both
dogs are going to reach a ball pit each with colored
balls. For this part they will have to empty the
pit collectively, with the constraint that only
the same color of balls can be removed at the
same time. Therefore, to avoid confusion, as soon
as they get into the ball pit, one of the dogs
is directly set to be the master by default and
the other one goes to slave mode. In this way,
one will look for the closest color and inform
the other robot which will look for the same colored
ball to empty.
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