Dubois

Dubois (pronounced "doob" + "WAA") is a DIY robot. It is designed to be fully customizable and modular, making it easy to upgrade (or downgrade) if you need to. Dubois allows you to build a robot from scratch without having to follow strict guidelines or using specific parts. It grants the creator full control of the building process. These principles can be applied to tiny cheap affordable robots and bigger more sophisticated ones.

Features

Current

• Full motion control through the web client
• Headlight control
• Buzzer control
• Indicator control
• Extensive oscillator library for various flash and beep patterns

Future

• Speed control through PWM
• More oscillators!
• Recording, taking snapshots and streaming video through Raspberry Pi camera
• Motion detection
• Sensor support through connected ADC
• Battery life meter
• Voice-activated AI

Getting started

Setup Wi-Fi and SSH.

• Download the latest Raspberry Pi OS Lite image.
• Burn the image to a microSD card of your choice (at least 2GB in size).
• Mount the microSD card. Navigate to /boot.
• Configure the Wi-Fi settings on the Pi. Create a file called wpa_supplicant.conf with the following details:

country=US
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
    ssid="MyWifiNetwork"
    psk="WifiPassword"
    key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

• Enable SSH. Create a file called ssh in the same directory.

Set up environment.

• SSH into the Pi. The default password is raspberry.

$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

• Download and install dependencies.

$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install python3-pip
$ sudo apt install python3-picamera
$ sudo apt install rpi.gpio
$ sudo apt install git

# Python dependencies
$ sudo pip3 install flask
$ sudo pip3 install websockets

Set up Pi camera and SPI.

SPI is needed to receive input. NOTE: The Pi camera feature is yet to be added.

• Open raspi-config.

$ sudo raspi-config

• Select Interfacing Options > Pi Camera
• Enable camera.
• Select Interfacing Options > SPI.
• Enable SPI.

Finally, set up Dubois.

First, retrieve your device's IP address. This is required to connect to the device through a browser later.

$ hostname -I

Now clone the repository, run install_service.sh and reboot the Pi.

$ git clone https://www.github.com/obeezzy/dubois.git
$ cd dubois
$ sudo ./install_service.sh
$ sudo reboot

If you complete these steps without error, then congratulations, you have successfully set up Dubois! To control Dubois, you need to:

• Connect your computer/phone to the same Wi-Fi used by Dubois.
• Connect to the web client by typing the following in the address bar of the browser of your choice on your computer/phone:

<pi-address>:4200

where should be replaced by the IP address of the Raspberry Pi.

Set up Bluetooth (optional).

A Bluetooth speaker can be connect to Dubois as well. This later would be used for providing AI services.

• Install BlueAlsa.

$ sudo apt-get install bluealsa

• Start an instance of the BlueZ shell: sudo bluetoothctl.
• Turn off your Bluetooth speaker. This makes it easier to detect later on.
• While still in bluetoothctl, scan for devices: scan on.
• After about 3 seconds, turn on Bluetooth speaker. The speaker's device name should pop up within a few seconds.
• Pair with device using its MAC address: pair XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, where XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX represents your Bluetooth speaker's MAC address.
• Trust the speaker (if you do): trust XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX.
• Connect to the speaker using connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX. If this attempt fails, run sudo reboot and try again.
• Copy config/example_asoundrc from the dubois folder to ~/.asoundrc.
• Modify ~/.asoundrc using your favorite editor. Replace all MAC address occurrences with your speaker's MAC address.
• Download a test wav file: wget -O /tmp/test.wav https://www2.cs.uic.edu/~i101/SoundFiles/BabyElephantWalk60.wav
• Test Bluetooth speaker output: aplay -D speaker /tmp/test.wav.
• Test Bluetooth microphone input: arecord -D mic -d 5 -f cd test.wav -c 1.
• Test playback after recording: aplay -D speaker test.wav.

Software Architecture

Dubois comprises of 3 parts:

The service

Server running in the background awaiting commands from a user. Written in Python.

The shell

Command-line interface used for directly interacting with the service and scripting. Written in Python.

The web client

Web appliction used as a remote control. Written in HTML5, CSS3 and vanilla JavaScript (ES7).

Hardware Architecture

Circuit Diagram

Parts List

You will need the Actobotics Peewee Runt Rover Kit or its equivalent. It's basically any kit that can stand on two wheels and has two motors. The components associated with diagram are listed below.

Component	Value
R1-4	330R (x4)
LED1-2	Bright white LEDs (x2)
LED3	Tricolor LED (x1)
B1	Small cylindrical 5V power bank battery (x1)
B2	6V AA battery pack (x1)
CMR1	Raspberry Pi Camera Module V2 (x1)
IC1	Raspberry Pi Zero W (x1) (All pin numbers shown are BCM)
IC2	L293D Quadruple Half H-Bridge Driver (x1)
M1-2	Rover motors (x2)

Todo

• Add documentation describing full workings of the system.
• Simplify setup process.
• Add pictures.

License

MIT