Knowledge is power, the analyses

With our goal in mind, we started analyzing our assignment a second time, and started looking for information we could use. The goal of this phase specific was to form a project vision, and form the so called PvE, or Design Specifications. 
First the link to the full report (in Dutch)

My research was aimed at the sub-questions agreed upon in the plan of approach. To answer these questions research has been done, and conclusions have been made.
The highlights of my research:
To create the idea of a humanoid robot butler, it is important to give the robot human features the user recognizes, for the butler part it is important to again give to robot features the user recognizes from a real life butler. Key features to accomplish this are a head, arms, and a body. To make sure the user sees a robot, and not some mechanical ball of wires and gears, it is important to give the robot iron looking plating. 
When looking at this from a social point of view the robot must be able to comply with established rules of good service. It should be anticipating,  reliable and most of all discrete. To further increase the idea of a social robot, it should be capable to interpret spoken commands, and react to these commands with "spoken" confirmation or a joke. Al tough this isn't part of the official assignment this could greatly improve our robot. 
When designing a social/intelligent mechanical, ethics quickly become a raging discussion. To make sure we don't get caught  up in this we concluded to avoid making decisions that could affect the user in any way.

How many different signals will the processor have to manage?
The output signals will range from 9 to 12 signals, at least 4 for pick & place, at least 2 for movement, if we use kinect add another output signal, and if we want our robot to "speak" another signal for the speaker can be added to the list. 
The input signals will range from 6 to 10 signals, 2 for the line following, 3 or more from pick & place, 1 from kinect if we use it, and 1 from the battery level. 

If we end up using kinect in our robot, the main processor will be taken from a laptop most likely, because the data stream from the 2 camera's kinect uses can get up to 30mb/s. With that comes the fact that the clocking speed of the processor has to be at least 100MHz to properly use the data supplied. If we end up not needing these high specs, an Arduino Uno embedded system will be used, or maybe even 2 arduino's linked together by an L2C bus.

The most used language to code robots is C++, or if a specific piece of hardware/software is used a different code, linux works with UNIX for example. 

With the information i found in this phase I continue to do research into the possibilities of linux based systems, linking different processors together, and in what different ways electronic engineers from over the world build robots.


Until next time folks!

  

A good start, a plan of approach

As with every project, the best start is with a plan of approach. For this project we work in groups of 6 students, each with their distinct task and responsibility.
Because this is a Dutch study, reports  are written in Dutch. I will post the report or link to it, but for the purpose of keeping this blog accessible to all I will try to highlight the important parts in English.

Every Engineer has his or her own method to solve problems, we at the HZ university of applied sciences are taught the Delft Design Method. This method divides the procces in roughly 4 stages, Analyses phase, Idea phase, Concept phase, Materialization. In each phase you start by diverging your research to the most crazy stuff you can come up with. And halfway the phase you start to converge this immense mountain of knowledge and ideas to the core of the project. With this method comes the idea of "The integral Design", to test if a design is integral, this the method comes with the so called sun wheel:

Each quadrant of the sun wheel stands for a distinctive part of the product, and the further you get from the middle, the better that quadrant is designed (they say....)

The quadrants stand for:
Human, the pink part, the interaction between users and your product
Market, the orange part, the interaction between selling and building the product
Ecology, the green part, the effect your product has on its environment
Technics, the blue part, how your product works, and why it works

Now that we have a method to charge into this project, lets go over the plan of approach.

Collaborate Design.

Made available in: Vlissingen, The Netherlands
Date:  01-02-2013 (1st of Feb 2013)

Authors:
Sven Berckmoes -Detection
Koen de Knegt -Logic & MPI
Mike Kooijman - Pick & Place
Joan Maljaars - Energy storage and distribution
Arend de Visser - Project Manager
Justin Wouters - Movement

Counseling teacher: E.W.J Mouw

Assignment:
The team of students has gotten the assignment to compete in the CCM challenge. For this challenge a robot must be build with the following capabilities:
-Follow a white line on the ground.
-When at point A, asses the height of a serving tray and pick up the opened bottle of beer on top of it.
- Continue  following the line to point B.
- Asses the height of the serving tray B, and place the bottle on top of it, without the bottle falling.
-Continue following the line to the finish.

Element descriptions:
Robot
Height: max 2.00 m
Width: max 0.50 m at start and finish
Length: max 0.50 m
Robot needs to be autonomous at the parcours. Interaction with the robot is only allowed when the robot is at the starting point or finish line

Parcours

Line color: White
Background: Dark
Line width: 1-3 cm
Line shape: curved, minimal radius 0.3 m
Length parcours: max 12 m.
Orientation cross line: perpendicular to main line, in line with centre serving tray
Length cross line: >0.3 m at both sides of main line
Shape cross line: straight
Floor: wood board tent floor covered with dark carpet

Serving tray

Bottom diameter: 325 mm
Top diameter: 355 mm
Height: 47 mm
The stand for the serving tray will be within the diameter of the serving tray and the serving tray is not fixed to the stand.

Bottle
Beer bottle 30 cl.

External disturbances
Lights: Illumination of tent and flash lights from cameras,
Rain: the parcours will be inside but can be wet due to weather conditions outside
Public: possibly close to the parcours.

With the assignment clear in our minds, its time to start asking questions:

Main question:
How to design a robot that autonomous can follow the trail on the ground, transport a beer bottle from A to B, and is capable of having interactions with its immediate surroundings?

To find the answer to this question, each sub-system created its own sub-questions. For my sub-system (logic) these are my sub-questions:
Human:
- Which design options strengthen the idea of a robot butler?
- What social aspects are important to create the idea of a robot butler?
- Which input signals could we use to simulate a human impression?
-What is social and cultural aspects need to be justified?

Market:
-What cost should a designer keep in mind when designing the hardware of a robot?

Ecology:
- How much energy will the hardware of the robot use?
- Can hardware integrated in a robot be re-used?

Technic:
-How many different input signals will the processor have to process?
-How many different output signals will the processor have to regulate?
-How can I make sure the internal hardware will be designed EMC?
-How do professionals write the program for an autonomous robot?
-What possibilities are there to link several microprocessors together?
-What possibilities are there to give the robot a "conscious" and "unconscious" program?
a. can a robot "unconsciously" execute the tasks for the competition?
b. can a robot "consciously" react to (the changing of) it's surroundings?


The rest of the plan covers the how, why, and when of this project, if you're interested in specific parts of our plan of approach and not native to the Dutch language, send me a message and I'll try to translate the segment.

If you have questions, remarks or suggestions please let me know, I'm always eager to learn.