The ATRVmini autonomous mobile robot project was developing a platform for in lab research and experimentation as well as to conduct autonomous tours of the projects and facilities in the CVIP lab. The project began as a hardware refurbishment of an outdated ATRVmini robot. First a new motherboard, PC power supply, hard drive, USB to serial converters and Wi-Fi adapter were purchased, installed and interfaced to the robot hardware. Then a fresh installation of Linux OS along with the Player/Stage robot server system were installed on the robot’s PC.
Software refurbishment on the ATRVmini robot has involved work in Linux systems, Player/Stage, C++, OpenCV, speech synthesis, etc. The main research involved accessing, controlling and reading the robot’s sensor suite with Player/Stage so the robot could be autonomously controlled with C++ code. When I left the project the robot system had a working SICK Laser Scanner, pan-tilt-zoom camera unit, color video camera and speed/rotation control of the motors and wheels. Control code for blob tracking/following, basic obstacle avoidance, face detection and speech was also demonstrated.
Spicer Robot Boy 