Institute for Personal Robots in Education

Kickoff Meeting, September 15, 2006

Hardware

Professor Tucker Balch

Keith O’Hara
Dan Walker
Ben Axelrod
Hai Dai
Can Envarli

Georgia Institute of Technology

 Off-the-shelf Candidates

• Lego Mindstorm NXT ($300)

• Parallax Scribbler ($80)
• Parallax Boebot ($150)
• Parallax Crawlers ($400-600)
• Palm Pilot Robot Kit ($300)
• Lego Mindstorm ($200)
• Handyboard ($300-400)
• Handyboard Cricket ($59-$100)
• iRobot Roomba ($200-350)
• Khepera ($2000)
• TERK
• Humanoids
• AIBO

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 Some Details

• Lego Mindstorms NXT ($300)

– 32-bit ARM7; 64Kb RAM; bluetooth; USB
– 3 servos (built in rotation sensors)
– Ultrasonic, Sound, light and touch sensors
(digital wire interface)
– Microsoft robotics studio
• Palm Pilot Robot Kit (Acroname $300)
– (IR rangers, omni-directional wheels)
• Body-less Handyboard Cricket ($59)
– Two sensors, Two Motors, IR communication
– Programmed in Logo (4k external memory)
– Expansion ports for mores sensors and
motors

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iRobot Roomba

• Roomba ($150-250)
– 2 bump sensors
– Odometery
– IR wall sensor on right side
– Cliff/pickup sensors
– Virtual wall infrared sensor
– Remote control infrared sensor
– Vacuum and motor control
– Serial interface
• Roombadevtools Bluetooth
Interface ($100)

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Scribbler

• Scribbler ($80)
– Sensors
• IR “ranger”; 2 receivers and emitter
• Stall sensor
• 3 light
• 2 “line” (IR pairs)
– 2 DC motors
– Programmed in PBasic
– Serial communication (up to 38400 baud)
– SD202 Bluetooth adapter ($100)
• Serial emulation
• Class 1

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Brain-less Bluetooth Robots?

• 2 Windows XP SP2 dell laptops

• 2 Cellink Bluetooth 2.0 USB Dongles
• Measure latency of varying size
forward packets and 1 byte reply
• 3 different conditions
– 5 ft. separation
– 30 ft. separation
– Background 802.11b flood ping
• 10,000 samples
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Bluetooth Latency

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Bluetooth Throughput

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 Scribbler Results

• Latency histogram
– (1 byte roundtrip)
• Limited by serial
baud-rate and basic
stamp not bluetooth
• Interference and
retransmissions could
have effect

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Locomotion

 Holonomic design
 Arbitrary robot
translation / rotation
 No caster needed
 Three wheel drive is
complex
 Wheels are difficult to
make
 Differential drive
 Point turn

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Processor Options

 Philips 32bit ARM $7.58

 60MHz 46 GPIO
 16 kB RAM, 256 kB program memory (32x GNAT)
 Philips 32bit ARM $10.09
 60MHz 81 GPIO
 64 kB RAM, 1000 kB program memory (128x GNAT)
 BGA package complicates routing
 Philips 32bit ARM $15.18
 60MHz
 512 kB RAM, 8000 kB program memory (1000x GNAT)
 External memory (program flash, RAM)
 Sharp 32bit ARM $26.49
 77MHz
 8000 kB RAM, 8000 kB program memory (1000x GNAT)
 External memory (program flash + SDRAM)
 Includes Memory Management Unit (Fully linux capable)

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Wireless Options

 Custom protocol 400MHz 64 kbps $5.04

 Zigbee 900MHz 250 kbps $7.14
 Bluetooth module 2.4GHz 3Mbps $23.00
 Bluetooth chip 2.4GHz 3Mbps $5.52

Custom Zigbee Bluetooth Mod. Bluetooth Chip

Frequency +1 0 -1 -1

Datarate -1 0 +1 +1
Cost 0 0 -1 0

Widespread -1 0 +1 +1

Difficulty -1 0 +1 -1

Total -2 0 1 0

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Bluetooth Options

 Serial Port Module

 Expensive
 Chip
 Cheaper
 More flexible
 Not limited to serial port style
 Use “headset” audio features
 CSR
 External flash memory allows custom programming
 Onboard micro can run upper Bluetooth stack or our own
applications
 Reduced datarate and total connections
 GaTech (Thad) already has purchased development kit
 Interface: serial port profile (high level), RFCOMM, L2CAP (low
level)

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First Tier Sensors

 Lidar laser range finder / bar code reader

 One spinning mirror, laser and detector for both
technologies
 640x480 color CMOS camera with lense (OV7649)
 Coprocessor for color segmentation, background
subtraction
 $18
 Dual axis magnetometer (HMC1052)
 Non-line-of-sight bearing to magnetic beacon,
compass
 $5.50
 Microphones for sound localization
 Are dual microphones worth cost & processing?
 Dual piezoelectric vibration detector
 $0.49
 Temperature

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Second Tier Sensors

 Photoresistor, solar cell, phototransistor ambient light detector

 Hall-effect magnetic sensor
 IR line detector, obstacle detector, Sharp rangers
 IR reflective grid for localization
 Bump switches
 Accelerometer for motion detection, bump sense ($5.51)
 Ultrasonic
 Capacitive electric field sensing (touch, proximity)
 Passive IR motion detector (burglar alarm)
 Optical computer mouse sensor for odometry
 Metal detector
 Thermopile non-contact temperature sensing

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Lidar Circuit
 -126 dB laser power return over 10m w/ 1” receiver lense
 1mW laser -> 0.3 nA photocurrent

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Lidar Spice Simulation

 Phase detector compares received signal with reference signal

 Robust to the presence of noise
 Output is DC signal - sensor bandwidth determined by output filter
 Output is logarithmically amplified to increase dynamic range

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Motor Options – DC Gearhead
 DC Gearhead Pros
 Widely available
 Simple driver electronics
 Medium efficiency
 Brushes automatically adjust
speed and current draw to
match requested torque
 Current draw is a good
indicator of requested torque –
“stall sensor”
 DC Gearhead Cons
 The gears are more
expensive than the motor
 Poor reliability in our price
range – plastic parts,
brushes, bad bearings, etc
 No encoder and expensive
to add encoder
 Brushes cause high
electromagnetic noise levels
which interfere with other
electronics, especially
sensors
 Acoustically noisy
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Motor Options – Stepper Motor
 Stepper Motor Pros
 Naturally low speed, high
torque – no gears necessary
 Controllable in precise
rotational increments – no
encoder necessary
 High reliability – metal
construction, ball bearings, no
brushes to wear out
 Motor bearing can be wheel
bearing
 No brushes means low
electromagnetic noise
 Higher power (RPM or torque)
than DC gearhead
 Stepper Motor Cons
 Low efficiency
 Heavy
 More complex electronics
 Electrically commutated –
software must do the job of
brushes in the DC gearhead
 Motor cannot deliver high
torque at high RPM so
software must slow motor
if high torque is required
 Hard to predict torque
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Power Options – Alkaline, Tether

 Alkaline Pros  Alkaline Cons

 Medium power density  Not rechargable
 Medium energy density  ~ 10K batteries landfilled
per year
 Student purchasable
 Only available in common
 Not including rechargable
form factors (AA, AAA, etc)
batteries reduces price of robot
for us

 Tethered Pros  Tethered Cons

 Medium power density  Tether interferes with robot
 Infinite energy density operation
 Cheapest solution  Tether annoyance increases
with number of robots
 Most reliable communications
deployed

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Power Options – NiMH, NiCd, Lithium

 NiMH, NiCd Pros  NiMH, NiCd Cons

 Cheapest rechargeable option  Low power density
 Low energy density

 Lithium Pros  Lithium Cons

 High energy density  Expensive
 Least weight  Low power density
 Complicated charging

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Battery Options – Lead Acid
 Lead Acid Pros
 Highest power density
 Low internal resistance means
less motor generated
electromagnetic interference
 High energy density
 Lead Acid Cons
 Heavy
 Must not be allowed to
completely discharge or
battery capacity will suffer
 Will retain charge for 2
years
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Example Budget

• Processing: $15.18
• Wireless: $13.30
• 3 Motors & motor drivers: $33.35
• Lidar: $20.68
• Camera: $9.43
• Additional sensors: $8.94
• Battery: $14.01
• Manufacturing: $20.00

• Total: $134.89

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