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Resources
OpenCV Computer Vision Library Mobility For those of us without an unlimited budget, there are two inexpensive options to consider: Evolution Robotics was recently selling the ER-1 personal robot system. It consisted of a sturdy extruded aluminum x-beam structural frame, wheels differentially driven by two large stepper motors, and a Robot Control Module that would plug into your laptop via USB. It also included a webcam and very simple user interface software for controlling the robot. I suspect that it would have been highly successful if it had been targeted for the university robotics classroom and included a low-level control API for robotics software development. Consequently, several people have taken a closer look at the ER-1 Robot Control Module and have written PC code to directly command the dual internal PMD Pilot MC3410 Stepper Motion Controlers via (USB) serial port. Full details of the MC3410 command protocol are documented on the PMD website. Radio Shack has recently begun selling the VEX Robotics Design System which was developed by Innovation First, Inc. VEX is an erector-style steel construction kit which can be used to bolt together moderately sturdy and versatile structures for robotics, and includes some fairly hefty R/C style gearmotors and servomotors, and a variety of gears and wheels. I have found that a dual-motor VEX mobile robot can easily transport the weight of a laptop computer with torque to spare. Inexpensive options include wheel encoders, ultrasonic rangefinders, and even tank treads. The VEX controller has simple plugin connectors for motors, sensors, and interrupts, and contains two 10 MHz 32Kbyte Microchip PICmicro PIC18F8520 microcontrollers that can be reprogrammed in C to operate entirely autonomously. Most importantly, it includes a serial port which permits it to function as a low-level robotics I/O processor for a laptop computer. A free IDE and Student C compiler for the PIC18F8520 can be downloaded from the Microchip website. The Machine Lab produces a number of small 4+WD chassis that can be controlled via serial line from a computer and should be able to transport a lightweight computer and camera. Acroname produces a number of motor control components and small mobile robots such as the GARCIA and the Palm Pilot Robot Kit Note: The following are some very well designed and constructed robotics platforms. However, due to the very low volume of sales in the mobile robot industry at large, in order for these firms to remain in business, their unit costs are by necessity much greater. MobileRobots Inc (formerly ActivMedia Robotics, LLC) designs and manufactures intelligent mobile robot bases, sensing systems and software. Some of their products include the
K-Team produces a number of smaller high-quality autonomous robots, including the KOALA. iRobot, founded in 1990 by roboticists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has produced hundreds of the innovative PackBot Tactical Mobile Robot and in the past has produced a wide variety of quality mobile robot platforms for the research community. Foster-Miller produces military-grade TALON mobile robots primarily for defense and law-enforcement applications, which, like PackBot, are primarily used via remote control, rather than autonomously. |