Raspberry Pi Remote Controlled Rover with Amazon Kinesis

A remote controlled rover with live camera stream using Raspberry Pi + Pi camera module. By using Amazon Kinesis Video Streams C WebRTC SDK, the rover can be viewed and controlled from anywhere with a browser, even from your phone.

Demo

What you need

• Raspberry Pi 4, 2GB is recommended for optimal performance. However you can use a Pi 3 or older, you may see a increase in latency.
• Raspberry Pi 4 Camera Module or Pi HQ Camera Module (Newer version)
• Python 3 recommended.
• RC car kit
• DC motor drivers
• A battery box + 8 AAA batteries (12V)

Library Dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y cmake \
                    libssl-dev \
                    libcurl4-openssl-dev \
                    liblog4cplus-dev \
                    libgstreamer1.0-dev \
                    libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
                    gstreamer1.0-plugins-base-apps \
                    gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
                    gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
                    gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
                    gstreamer1.0-tools

Step 0 - Electronics

This code uses the following Raspberry Pi GPIO pins for the 4 motors + LED. The pin numbers are BCM.

#define EN_A 13
#define EN_B 12
#define IN1 22
#define IN2 27
#define IN3 24
#define IN4 23
#define LED 17

Step 1 - Clone this repo

git clone https://github.com/diceky/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-webrtc-sdk-c.git

(Make sure to use the default dice/dCampRover branch)

Step 2 - Build

cd amazon-kinesis-video-streams-webrtc-sdk-c/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

Step 3 - Install + configure AWS CLI

sudo pip3 install awscli --upgrade
aws configure

AWS Access Key ID: xxxxxxxx
AWS Secret Access Key: xxxxxxx
Default region name: ap-northeast-1
Default output format: json

Step 4 - Set up AWS Policies/Roles/IoT

Follow instructions on Step 5 and Step 6 here.

If you are setting up multiple rovers, you can start from Step 6-3 for the second rover and onwards.

Step 5 - Install AWS Iot Root Certificate

wget https://www.amazontrust.com/repository/AmazonRootCA1.pem -O ~/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-webrtc-sdk-c/build/AmazonRootCA1.pem

Step 6 - Set permanent environment variables for su

Edit /etc/environment and add the following 2 lines then reboot the Pi.

export AWS_IOT_CREDENTIALS_ENDPOINT="endpointAddress from Step 4"
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="ap-northeast-1"

Step 7 - Run video streaming

sudo su -
cd /home/pi/amazon-kinesis-video-streams-webrtc-sdk-c/build
./kvsWebrtcClientMasterGstSample raspi-channel

Step 8 - View streaming + send commands via browser

Make a new User in AWS IAM console, attach AmazonKinesisVideoStreamsFullAccess to it and get the Access key ID and secret key.

Go to client/app.js in this repo and replace the first 3 lines with the credentials you just retreived + channel name.

Then open up client/index.html in your browser and you will be able to view the video stream + send commands to control the rover.