robot2
After two years of nothing, I've decided to continue my work with elementary robotics. This time I utilize a vastly different, decoupled architecture that relies on ZeroMQ for messaging a central robot control daemon. This will make for a much more robust robot platform that can benefit from quick prototyping.
The central control daemon (written in C++) listens on port TBD for
instructions and relays them to the robot.
Robot Hardware Support
Currently I am working with the Robotics Connection Serializer, but I plan to do work with Arduino in the near future. In the end I aim to support both platforms.
Components Included
Hardware Control
- daemon/ -- Contains the main driver daemon; written in C++. There remains much work to be done to make the drive control more sophisticated, but it can handle basic movement and control timeouts.
Basic Clients
- keycontrol.py -- Control the robot with the keyboard; written in Python/PyGame.
- joycontrol.py -- Control the robot with a joypad; written in Python/PyGame.
Advanced Clients
I will be writing some basic AI to control the robot through sensor perception and simple heuristics. These will likely be contained in different repositories, but I will make note of them here.
API Documentation
TODO. Considering JSON protocol. This will follow when a more robust mechanism for controlling the robot speed differentials is implemented. It will probably also allow specification of timeouts in the event commands are being relayed over the network.
Gamepad Support in Unix
PS3 controller
For PS3 Sixaxis controller support, compile the QtSixA library. From there, Sixaxis controllers work out of the box over bluetooth.
sixadstarts the serviceqtsixacan configure individual device profiles, functions, features, etc.
Note: Remove xorg joystick input packages to prevent it from aliasing the mouse.
Xbox 360 controller
TODO
Wiimote
TODO
License
Copyright (c) 2008-2010, 2012 Brandon Thomas
This code is available under the MIT and GPL 2 licenses.