Player Stage installation

Hi everyone!

I have reinstalled Ubuntu 9.04 and then followed the instructions posted (which are the steps Arturo took to successfully install player and stage). When trying to run the simple.cfg file I get no errors nor warnings, however, the world isn't displayed. I am going to try with other cfg files but if anyone had this problem previously please let me know how did you solve it.

Greetings!

Player 2.1.2 Stage 2.1.1 installation guide

We installed Player/Stage today.

The version of Ubuntu in which we did this is 9.04. Following are the steps we took
for the installation:

1. Check for all of the available updates and install them.

2. Install all the packages included in this wiki:
http://www.control.aau.dk/~tb/wiki/index.php/Installing_Player_and_Stage_in_Ubuntu

3. With the installation cd inside go to the synaptic package manager and then to settings/repositories. Activate the option that says “Cdrom with Ubuntu 9.04”. Then go to the Third Party Software tab and activate all of the options available.
Finally, go to the Updates tab and activate the “Proposed updates” option. Reload the synaptic.

4. Download from http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/ the 2.1.2 version of Player and the 2.1.1 version of Stage.

5. Unpack Player-2.1.2.tar.gz
$ tar xzvf player-2.1.2.tar.gz

6. When configuring player including all of the default drivers, we got several errors related to the vec2map driver. That is why we disabled it as follows. Inside the directory in which you unpacked this file type:

$ ./configure –disable-vec2map

7. After this type

$ make
$ sudo make install

At this point Player should have successfully been installed. The following step is to install Stage.

8. Unpack Stage-2.1.1-tar.gz

$ tar xzvf stage-2.1.1-tar.gz

9. Then type:

$ ./configure
$ make
$ sudo make install

10. The rgb.txt file was omitted in this version of Ubuntu. Therefore, you must create this file in the corresponding directory. Go to the following directory:

$ cd usr/X11R6

And then create a new directory as follows:

$ sudo mkdir lib/X11

Inside this directory create a file named rgb.txt with the content included in this link

http://osdir.com/ml/science.robotics.playerstage.cvs/2008-01/msg00023.html

11. After completing this step you must make a dynamic link in order for the libraries to be loaded successfully. You can do this also by modifying the .bashrc file. We however found this option a lot easier and faster.

$ sudo ldconfig

12. Finally test the correct installation of both player and stage:

$ player usr/local/share/stage/worlds/simple.cfg

Have a nice day!

Junta 25 de Noviembre de 2009

Vimos la instalación del Stage en la máquina de Arturo, quedó funcionando.

Se generaron nuevos tickets y se borraron algunos.

Se quedó que el trabajo empezará nuevamente la semana del 7 de Diciembre (antes si ya terminan sus exámenes).

La semana del 7 de Dic. nos reuniremos el jueves o viernes.

RGB.txt

http://www.iam.uni-bonn.de/~alt/latex/rgb.txt

http://osdir.com/ml/science.robotics.playerstage.cvs/2008-01/msg00023.html

Junta 25 de Noviembre de 2009

Renato confirma junta para mañana 25 de Nov a las 10.00 am. Nos vemos en mi oficina.

Junta 18 de Noviembre 2009

Junta con Renato.

Básicamente nos informa que se va del DFKI-Bremen y ahora trabajara en Surrey Space Centre en Inglaterra (Guildford).

Platicamos sobre las posibilidades de ir a Alemania o esperar a que él esté bien establecido en Surrey para ver si se puede ir con él.

Renato vio con cada uno sus intereses: Carlos señales biomedicas, Oscar robótica espacial, Arturo vision.

Se asignarán tickets que nos ayuden en la investigación y que a cada uno ayude a tener experiencia en su área de interes.

Nos volvemos a reunir el miércoles 25 a las 10.00 am.

Junta 18 de Noviembre 2009

Hola a todos:

Les pido que por favor nos veamos este miércoles a las 9.00 am en mi oficina para una junta con Renato. Hay cosas importantes que discutir.

Los esperamos.

Problem with Stagte installation

Hello everyone

After an apparent successful installation of Player I had a compilation problem that made Stage's installation impossible. When trying to generate the makefiles with cmake I get the following error:

* WebSim not detected.

CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-2.6/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:350
(message):
None of the required 'cppunit' found
Call Stack (most recent call first):hat
libstageplugin/test/CMakeLists.txt:3 (pkg_search_module)

I searched several forums and they said that this problem has to do with the libtool package missing but I verified it and it is already installed.

Hope any of you can help me with this problem.

Greetings!

Player/Stage reinstallation process

Hi everyone:

Today I downloaded the .tar.gz of the latest versions of player and stage. I installed them according to the instructions included on the INSTALL.txt files. I had no trouble installing player, however, once again I had some problems while exporting the paths of the libraries that Stage requires.

The first problem I had after installing Stage and running the simple.cfg file was the following one:
layer: error while loading shared libraries: libplayerdrivers.so.3.0:
cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

This problem I solved by making a symbolic link (with ldconfig).

After doing this, the drivers library was no longer a problem, However, the following errors were then displayed:


error : Failed to load plugin stageplugin.
error : libtool reports error: file not found
error : plugin search path: /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/home/laura/playerstage/bin:/home/laura/playerstage/share/stage/worlds:/home/laura/Documents/Stage-3.2.0-Source/worlds:.:/usr/local/lib/
error : failed to load plugin: stageplugin
error : failed to parse config file simple.cfg driver blocks

The path being searched to find the plugin was quite disturbing... I remembered that I had already exported this paths during my first installation process some months ago.

I then eliminated some lines from the .bashrc files and made other exports with the help of Arturo and ended up with the following errors:

error : Failed to load plugin stageplugin.
error : libtool reports error: file not found
error : plugin search path: /home/laura/Documents/Stage-3.2.0-Source/worlds:.:/usr/local/lib/
error : failed to load plugin: stageplugin
error : failed to parse config file simple.cfg driver blocks

The path being searched now is only doubled, however we weren't able to find where was the first path located in order to get rid of it.

I also want to tell you that the newest versions of player stage have quite clear instructions in comparison with the previous ones. The indications of path exports are included and examples are relatively clear. This is why, if I don't find the solution to the path dilemma, I will start the installation all over again publishing every step I make in order for you to make some comments on the curious facts that you notice.

Regards!

Laura

Junta 14 de Octubre de 2009

Discutimos principalmente el mensaje de Renato referente a la instalación utilizando Synaptic.

Interpretando el mensaje de Renato, llegamos a la conclusión de que se desea el aprendizaje de herramientas de programación en Unix como Make, aprender a debugear, aprender a compilar etc. Esto con el objetivo de poder aplicar dichos conocimientos al hacer programas propios.

Acciones:

1. Verificar con Renato la versión que el está usando de Ubuntu para estar bien seguros de que es la misma.
2. Instalar Ubuntu y Player/Stage en la máquina de Laura primero y después en la de Oscar para verificar.
3. A la vez, seguir desarrollando el programa de navegación que sugirió Renato.

Sample navigation program and playernav codes

Hello everyone

Today I uploaded on Assembla the scripts related to the playernav util because the installation of player/stage with the synaptic package manager contains all of this programs already compiled. I got this codes from a backup I made of the files downloaded for my first attempt of installation (when I compiled everything). I started to take a look at this codes with Arturo and Carlos and I think it would be convenient for all of us to comment them in order to share our understanding.

I also downloaded the instructions for creating the sample navigation program, a pdf file located in the task with the same name (which was formerly assigned to Carlos L. and Luis). I think we have already understood how to create a player service (a cfg file). In fact, we have already done this with nero, adding the necessary drivers to achieve communication.

We have several player/stage documentation to read in order to understand the correct usage of the drivers and the libraries. However I think we will be able to make a significant advance throughout the next weeks.

Greetings!

Laura

Junta 25 de Septiembre de 2009

Junta entre Renato y Jorge.

Se platico sobre el avance del convenio: lento.

Se platico sobre el avance del proyecto: parece detenido.

Se decidió tener una junta con todos via Skype o GTalk para este miércoles 30 de Septiembre a las 9.30 am. Es importante que los alumnos tengan una cámara y Jorge otra.

Por favor avisen a Jorge quien de los alumnos traerá la cámara.

Junta Renato y Jorge

Todo va lento, muy lento.

Seguir presionando para que le convenio quede listo a la brevedad.

Analizar la posibilidad de hacer todo simulado, por lo tanto, la programación es cada vez más apremiante.

MSN

Hola.

Solo quería comentarle a Renato que hace ya un tiempo lo agregué al msn pero no lo he visto conectado, no se si no se conecta casi o no me ha aceptado la solicitud. Mas que nada para comentar dudas que surgen con el. Pongo mi correo por si sirve para la comunicación vía msn.

oscar_panczenko@hotmail.com

Saludos cordiales.

Junta 19 de Agosto de 2009

Asistentes: Carlos, Arturo, Oscar. (Laura en clase por cambio de horario de la junta).

1. La lista de distribución se actualizará el viernes. Aquellos que no se hayan registrado en la liga que les envié (http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=cE9GNjFnSzlfT1gycGkwMWhmVnFpT2c6MA..) serán dados de baja asumiendo que ya no tienen interes en el proyecto.
2. Carlos y Arturo van terminando la parte de funciones de C++. Oscar esta empezando a ver el tema de Polimorfismo.

La proxima junta será en el horario habitual de 9.30 a 10.30 am el miércoles.

Hello All.

Some days ago I talked about our problem with the bluetooth comunication with a friend of mine (Victor Hugo). He has a lot of experience with wireless communications, specially with microcontrollers (Using robots). He said to me that the most probable error is that we need to configure the microcontroller to use the AirCable Bluetooth adapter as we made it in our own computers for Ubuntu (If the robot had it's computer it would been the same process). This is because the communication is not clear as the usb-serial cable, the only way to make the communication clear is to put a microcontroller to make the communication viable. The problem is that the program to make this possible is very complex and I still don't know how to do it. Victor Hugo can sell us some microcontrollers programed to work with a nRF2401A Tranceiver (1), and the communication between the PC and the robot would be clear, BUT the problem then would be the costs of getting the tranceivers and the microcontrolers.

I hope this info can help :).

Regards.

(1) nRF2401A Data Sheet.
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/RF/uMiRF-v1.pdfProductoID=532&CategoriaID=38&SubCategoriaID=85

Nero in video!!!

Hi everyone!

Here's a video of Nero's behavior which is wrong, somehow the commands that it's receiving are switched. Perhaps someone can give us a clue on what's going on with it.

Regards!

C++ Tutorial

Hi Renato,

again as promised here's the website for the tutorial we're doing: http://pragsoft.com/ When you get there you have to hit the Download link at the left of the site and then go at the end so you can find the Online Books and the C++ Essentials in PDF is the Tutorial.

Regards!

Pioneers in Pictures

Hey everyone!

As promised here are some pictures taken from both Pio and Nero which I'll explain:

1. Here's Nero in a lateral view and in a perspective view, we can see that it's fully operational and assembled (videos in further posts).


2. Here's Pio and it might look a bit disassembled but it's just because as the on board computer has the extra serial ports to use the laser we had to use an auxiliary port that receives the serial commands, though we haven't been able to get the connector we need and we have to make, we hope in the next few days we can get our hands in it and make it fully operational as well.


3. Here are some pictures of the Bluetooth bundle we wanted to use.


Perhaps these images can give a better idea to what we were attempting to do.

Regards to all!

Junta del 12 de Agosto de 2009

Asistentes: Renato, Arturo, Laura, Carlos, Jorge.

1. Renato y yo vimos el avance del convenio entre las universidades. Tenemos que contactar a la gente en nuestra universidad para ver cómo van. En este momento todo está en la burocracia de nuestras universidades.
2. Discutimos el avance en los tickets de Assembla.
3. Se extraño la presencia de Oscar; Renato lo quería conocer.
4. Se abrió la posibilidad de programar el control del robot desde una Palm, iPod, etc. una vez que C++ ya nos sea una cuestión.
5. Nos enteramos que Renato envió a gente en Berlin los comentarios que se hicieron en este Blog mientras se aprendia Player/Stage y están siendo muy útiles.
   

Acuerdos:

1. Seguir estudiando C++. Subir al Blog la liga del tutorial que están usando.
2. Tomar fotos y videos de los robots y subirlos al Blog. Carlos dijo que el traía la cámara.
3. Renato y Jorge ver cómo va avanzando el convenio.
4. Recordamos a los que no pudieron asistir que la junta es a las 9.30 am en el lab. En caso de que nos enlacemos con Renato, sería en mi oficina.
   

Junta del 7 de Agosto de 2009

Asistentes: Carlos G., Arturo, Laura, Oscar, Jorge.

1. Platicamos sobre necesidad de aprender C++ lo antes posible. Van a sacar libros introductorios.
2. La comunicación con los robots será por el momento por cable serial o con una computadora en el robot que se comunica con otro computadora para dar mayor autonomía.
3. Empezamos con las juntas el miércoles 12 de Agosto a las 9.30 am en el laboratorio.
   

Update

Hey great news!!!

I have computer again and I already instaled ubuntu and player/stage. Playernav, Playerjoy and stage work perfectly and tomorrow I'll be in the lab in order to test conectivity with Pio and Nero in order to leave those 2 working correctly.

Hi everyoNe, this week its been impossible for me to go to the lab but I'm still workiNg on the reasearch of Jade and how to iNtegrate it with the robots aNd player/stage.

Good Luck

Luis

Hola.

Les escribo brevemente este post para avisarles que la semana que entra me encontraré en Puebla, espero llegar a finales de la semana entrante, cualquier cambio les avisaré.

Saludos.

Bluetooth configuration for Nero

Hello everyone!

After leaving the lab my brother told me he had a similar bluetooth issue once so he wrote this quick tutorial. I am sharing this information and will attach it in assembla as well. I hope this instructions solve our problems with Nero's bluetooth communication.


1. Instalar lo necesario:
sudo apt-get install bluez-pin
sudo apt-get install bluez-utils

2. Editar configuración del Bluetooth:
sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf

3. Remplazar el contenido actuar del archivo por:
#
# HCI daemon configuration file.
#

# HCId options
options {
# Automatically initialize new devices
autoinit yes;

# Security Manager mode
# none - Security manager disabled
# auto - Use local PIN for incoming connections
# user - Always ask user for a PIN
#
security user;

# Pairing mode
# none - Pairing disabled
# multi - Allow pairing with already paired devices
# once - Pair once and deny successive attempts
pairing multi;

# PIN helper
pin_helper /usr/bin/bluepin;

# D-Bus PIN helper
#dbus_pin_helper;
}

# Default settings for HCI devices
device {
# Local device name
# %d - device id
# %h - host name
name "Nino's Laptop";

# Local device class
class 0x3e0100;

# Default packet type
#pkt_type DH1,DM1,HV1;

# Inquiry and Page scan
iscan enable; pscan enable;

# Default link mode
# none - no specific policy
# accept - always accept incoming connections
# master - become master on incoming connections,
# deny role switch on outgoing connections
lm accept;

# Default link policy
# none - no specific policy
# rswitch - allow role switch
# hold - allow hold mode
# sniff - allow sniff mode
# park - allow park mode
lp rswitch,hold,sniff,park;

# Authentication and Encryption (Security Mode 3)
#auth enable;
#encrypt enable;
}

4. Reiniciar los servicios de Bluetooth:
sudo /etc/init.d/bluez-utils restart

5. Para checar que todo esté bien hasta el momento
hcitool scan

Debe de devolver alguna lista de dispositivos cercanos…

6. Para obtener el canal donde se encuentra el puerto serial:
sdptool browse XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
donde XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX es la dirección MAC del dispositivo Bluetooth

Debe de regresar algo parecido a:
Browsing XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX ...
Service Name: Bluetooth Serial Port
Service RecHandle: 0x10007
Service Class ID List:
"Serial Port" (0x1101)
Protocol Descriptor List:
"L2CAP" (0x0100)
"RFCOMM" (0x0003)
Channel: 1
Language Base Attr List:
code_ISO639: 0x656e
encoding: 0x6a
base_offset: 0x100
Profile Descriptor List:
"Serial Port" (0x1101)
Version: 0x0100
Por lo que en ese caso sería el canal 1…

7. Editar el rfcomm.conf:
sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

De la siguiente forma:
rfcomm4 {
bind yes;
device XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX;
channel X;
comment "Serial Port";
}

8. Para terminar…
sudo rfcomm release 4
rfcomm connect 4

Si todo está bien, debe de aparecer algo parecido a:
$ rfcomm connect 4
Connected /dev/rfcomm4 to XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX on channel X
Press CTRL-C for hangup

No opriman en ningún momento CTRL-C hasta que sepan que todo está detenido y no hay peligro de que el robot pueda seguir caminando por su cuenta…


SU PUERTO SERIAL (PARA EL .CFG) SERÍA EL /dev/rfcomm4


Regards!

Bluetooth Connectivity

We haven't accomplished yet connectivity between Player and Nero but we already accomplished connectivity using the Terminal so I will explain what is to be done in order to achieve it.

1. $cd /etc/bluetooth
2. $ls
3. Make sure you have the rfcomm.conf file and then $sudo gedit rfcomm.conf
4. In the file paste:
rfcomm0{
bind yes;
device 00:0A:3A:2D:7C:64;
channel 1;
comment "Serial Bluetooth";
}
5. The interface should then be created, to check it type $ls /dev/rfcomm0 and it should appear. That is the new interface to be used.
6. To connect to the AirCable use $rfcomm connect 0
7. A connection message should appear and the blue led in the AirCable should be turned on.

We now need to know if we can execute a script of something to connect Player and Nero but we are making progress.

Cheers!

NERO Running!!

Hello.

Las thursday Arturo, Laura, Carlos, Luis, Dr. Uresti and I could see how NERO moved for the first time, the problem was that depending on the motor configuration it moved slow or very fast, and if it was connected with Laura's pc it only moved one wheel, Instead with my lap it moved both. I hope we can solve this little mistery next monday.

It was very encouraging and we are going forward to connect a BlueTooth device to the serial port of NERO to control it remotely from the pc. We hope that it will work without big problems and with a good communication range. Then we expect to have PIO ready too.

Regards.

Junta del 16 de Julio de 2009

Los robots van muy bien. Ya funciona Nero con cable serial y estan a punto de probarlo por Bluetooth. Se quedaron viendo la polaridad de los motores de Nero.

Jade ya está un poco más dominado y Luis va a ver que tan facil es comunicarlo con Player. El hecho de que ahora se puedan controlar los robots desde las computadoras, nos abre mayores posibilidades para que funcione bien la plataforma de Jade.

Finalmente, yo (Jorge) voy a estar fuera del CEM por dos semanas. Me reincorporo el 3 de Agosto.

Controlling Nero with Playerjoy

Great news comrades!

We could control Nero with the playerjoy util using the usb-serial cable. What we did was simply creating a nero.cfg file using the "p2os" driver for Activmedia robots. This is the code:

driver
(
name "p2os"
provides ["position2d:0" "power:0" "sonar:0"]
port "/dev/ttyUSB0"
safe 1
)

We then just executed playerjoy succesfully. Tomorrow we are going use Nero's serial port to control Nero with a bluetooth device and see him roaming in the lab's floor for the first time :).

See you!

Aria Demo using the Pioneers

Since the beginning of the week we've been trying to change the way we will use both Pio and Nero in order to finally start to work on them physically. As teacher Alejandro Pineda suggested, we should get rid of the on board computer the robots have and just focus on managing the data they get and receive via serial port.

To achieve that we've been making tests on the printed circuits and we now found out the way to make them work without the computer and just by serial port which will be more convenient because we can get a Bluetooth adapter to get wireless communication between our computers and the robots.

First we had to install the USB-Serial cable and we found a website which explains how to do it in a quick way: http://blog.mypapit.net/2008/05/how-to-use-usb-serial-port-converter-in-ubuntu.html

Using the Synaptic Package Manager one can install the Aria libraries and then use the example programs to test connectivity, the directory is /usr/local/Aria and there is a directory with examples called 'examples'. We used the demo provided and the syntax after the cable has been installed is: $ ./demo -robotPort /dev/ttyUSB0

We executed this demo program and it worked fine, the sonars seems to be working properly but there are several tests to make. For the time being Nero is now operational. We will continue doing a couple of tests and then use playerjoy to teleoperate Nero. After that we will procede with Pio in order to get him fully operational too and make the proper tests.

Re making some programs

Hi everyone! Lately I was working on making some little programs in player/stage, but as I use Windows too, it suddenly broke up, so when I was in the process of reinstalling it in its partition, (I don't know how, but always happen weird things to me) it had a problem, and also affected my linux partition, so after I started to install everything again. Now I'm writing from my OpenSuse partition, it took me a while to put everything as it was like video and wireless drivers, but now I'm in the process of player/stage, I'll have to remake everything I had done, but now I know how. I hope it takes 1 or 2 days.

Regards,
Luis

Player Stag reinstallation and Ubuntu upgrade

It took me some extra time to close the Playernav task because I completely reinstalled Player/Stage. I did this because I had been having several problems with the way in which I first installed Player/Stage in Ubuntu 8.04 (I did this compiling it and went through several issues to do so). I first upgraded my version of Ubuntu to 9.04, the newest one, and then installed Player/Stage entirely through the Synaptic Package Manager (like Carlos G. taught me to, just searching for every package that is related to robots and sensors and selecting the useful ones). This was very convenient because with my previous installation process I had been having several unpredictable problems like the fact that my screen suddenly turned black inexplicably or that I had to reconfigure and compile some utils like playernav.

The only trouble you have to go through after installing PS in this fashion is placing the missing rgb.txt file in the corresponding directory (I think Arturo already posted some links that indicate how to do so).

With this post I want to make a suggestion to the ones that plan to install PS in the future. You should really install it entirely through synaptic in order to avoid compilation issues.

See you soon!

Junta del 10 de Julio de 2009

Asistentes: Laura, Oscar, Arturo y Carlos.

Se decidió que los Pioneer van a dejar de usar su computadora y se va a hacer un circuito que permita manejarlos por serial usando Bluetooth.

La proxima junta es el jueves 16 de Julio a las 14.00 en mi oficina.

Introducing to Playernav

Hello.

Last week I could find the problems with my program, I wasn't writing well the command to open it and I forgot to compile the last version I made. After that I made many changes to my program and saw how the robot behaved. Then I started to learned how to use the playernav application. Now i'm reading some manuals to understand how to write a complete .cfg program for playernav.

Regards.

Hi everyone

Hi everyone, I know that I've been out for a while now but I'm still in. I'm not detailing the why of my absence only that I had some internal problems. Sorry for not posting in all this time, but now I'm up to date.

I know that Carlos G., Laura, Arturo... are trying to install player on Pio, but as the hardware isn't that good enough it must have installed an old OS so it can run it without problems. But you had problems installing player in that older version of Ubuntu... so maybe I could help to make it run in the current version.

Luis

Junta del 3 de Julio de 2009

La próxima junta es el viernes 10 a las 2pm en el laboratorio.

Están bajando la versión de Ubuntu a una que tenga soporte. De ahí, esperan poder instalar el player.

El robot que controlan por inalambrica es el del simulador en otra computadora.

Necesitamos saber cómo es que Renato controla sus robots solo por el puerto serial sin que los robots tengan computadora abordo.

Phone meeting between DFKI and CEM

Today people from DFKI and from CEM at directive positions had a phone call to stablish the ground for student visiting both institutes.

More details to follow.

Understanding How It Works

Hello.

Yesterday was a very interesting day. I learned how to activate the laser on the robot in the simple world map with playerv and then how to activate the sonar changing some details in the .cfg code with the sudo gedit tool from the terminal. Also I learned how to change another things like speed, and allowed me to understand the basics of a program .cfg. Also I learned how to run a specific code from the terminal. Finally I could send the information of the courses i'm interested and could close a couple of thickets with this.

I had some problems at the moment of running the code I was using but with some modifications I made. I will try this again today with Carlos help.

Then I will go forward to the next task in C++ learning.

Regards.

Junta con Renato 1 de Julio de 2009

Vimos cómo va el convenio.

Necesitamos que Oscar llene el documento de materias (ticket enviado).

Nos dio gusto saber que ya se comunican con los robots de manera inalambrica.

HD's image

Hey!!!

Hope you're all doing well. We have successfully made the image of pio's HD but we noticed that it is a 120 GB unit and that PIO only uses 20 GB of it. I was thinking that maybe the other partitions could contain information about previous software installed in pio. Anyway it's all backed up now.
On the other hand, we have to check laura´s player/stage installation due to the problems we've been having (I don't have a computer yet and I've been working with her).
We hope to find Renato tomorrow in order to solve some doubts we have about playernav and the problems we've been having.
Regards!!!

Player installation in pio, Playernav warnings

Hi!

Yesterday we began trying to install player in Pio. We first noticed a lot of packages were missing so we decided to add repositories. When doing so, we realized that, due to the fact that Pio's Ubuntu version is quite old (7.04), the repositories aren't available anymore. We tried to upgrade the version to 7.10 but weren't able to do so. The solution we thought of was installing a more recent version of Ubuntu (8.04, 8.10 or 9.04), however, due to the architecture of the robot (128 Mb of ram and Pentium 3) it is not possible,

What we did today was download old versions of Player (1.4 first and then 1.5). We did the ./configure, make and make install but weren't installed successfully. We will continue working on that issue tomorrow, we think we can find a way to do so or maybe download the missing packages individually.

Concerning the Playernav task, we know how to complete it in Carlos's computer (his installation of Player was different). In my computer, however, I have been having some troubles when running the application. It does it succesfully, however, the terminal shows me several warnings and one of the robots won't execute the planned route in the world file.

We have researched in blogs and apparently, one of the warnings has to do with the way in which I installed Player.

We hope to receive some suggestions, concerning particularly the issue of Player installation in Pio.

Regards!!

Instalation of Player/Stage, and wireless fixed

Hello.

Today I finally could fix my wireless conection, I needed to change the driver. It was a little difficult at the beginning but with Carlos help we made it and helped me to undesrtand some instructions for the terminal. Then we installed the Player/Stage programs and teached me how to interact and control the robots. Also we could control the robots on his computer remotely from my laptop. Now I will go forward learning some other things of the Player/Stage programs.

Regrads.

Oscar Hdz.

Learn C++

Perhaps you can find useful the following link for learning C++.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/cc305129.aspx

I also added to the ticket.

Kind regards,

Renato.

Playernav execution

Hi!!!

As Laura said we were working with the Playernav execution and it worked in some kind of way, because in the playernav window the robot appeared in the center and with a different orientation from that of the .cfg file. So we wanted to know if this could be a problem with the localize or maybe the Position2D tool.Regards.

Playernav execution, drivers research

Hi!

On Thursday and Friday Arturo, Carlos G. and I began working on the execute the Playernav task.


1.- When trying to execute playernav for the first time we got the following error message:
bash: playernav: command not found

The reason for this error message was that the libgnomecanvas 2-0 was missing so we used the synaptic package manager to install it and the configured it in order to allow its compilation like so:

pkg-config --cflags --libs libgnomecanvas-2.0

We then compiled it in the playernav directory player/utils/playernav with make.

2.- We then opened the wavefront.cfg file and executed ./playernav. We started manipulating the tools provided to draw trayectories and saw that the two main devices used in this tool are localize and planner which we will analyze with more detail later on.

Here is a screenshot of playernav being executed in wavefront.cfg which in fact uses the simple.world





3. The next step was to compare the wavefront.cfg and simple.cfg files in order to find out why isn't playernav executed properly in the latter.

We saw that wavefront cfg has three additional drivers.

• The amcl driver localizes the poses of a robot using data from several sensors. It does it using a filter of particle which increase according to the uncertaainty of the localization.
• The nd driver makes collision avoidance adjusted to non punctual robots in reduced spaces by using several devices like position2d, laser or sonar.
• The wavefront driver creates paths according to the data provided by the devices localize and planner. It also uses very commonly the vfh driver.
• The vfh driver provides both obstacle avoidance and path following capabilities

4. We have been working on the modification of or lab2piso.cfg file (the one with the lab map and the two robots) adding drivers to it. We will continue with this task tomorrow.

5. We will also be working on the create map for Player/Stage task tomorrow. We have already completed the first step and we are now getting familiarized with the amcl and similar drivers so we have an idea on how to complete the second step. However we really need Carlos L. to give us back Pio's HD in order to complete the third step.

Regards!!

Revisar el Robot de Interiores

Hey!!!

Hope you are all doing well. We have been working in trying Nero to work properly but there are several things that won't let us achieve any progress. Today we tried testing a Floppy unit but since we didn't have 3 1/2 disks we couldn't know if it's working properly, from the part of getting power sources and other resources as far as now we haven't had much problem thankfully.
Also Laura´s brother (who built rescue robot a.k.a Kahuil) said that we should use that robot because it may work with player also.
Finally tomorrow will go to the lab in order to work with the execution of the playernav tool around 4:00 if anyone wishes to join us :D. Bye. Regards

Junta con Renato 17-Jun-09

Estuvimos viendo el trabajo a realizar.

Actualizamos Assembla con las siguientes mejoras:

1. Cada usuario junto a su nombre tiene el nombre del equipo principal al que pertenece (Lecturers, Hardware, Software)
2. Creamos 4 componentes (Lecturers, Software, Hardaware y All Members). Estos componentes indican a quién pertenece el ticket que se ha creado, viendo el trabajo COMO EQUIPO.
3. Los tickets ya tienen fecha de inicio de ese ticket para que sepan cuándo esperamos que empiecen a trabajar con eso. Esto es para que sepan qué cosas van a tener que hacer. La fecha de finalización la dice el milestone al que pertenece.
   

Problems with Ubuntu installation in Nero

Today Carlos G., Arturo, Carlos L. and I went to the lab to try to solve some of the existential issues Nero has.

We were trying to see if it is possible to install Ubuntu on a hardrive using Nero. We then managed to get a power source for a cd device Carlos L. brought, however it wasn't being identified.

The conclusion we got to is that one of the IDE ports available isn't working properly and we need both of them for the installation of Ubuntu (one for the HD and one for the cd device).

We are going to test tomorrow a floppy device in Nero and verify if it is being identified. We would also want to know if Renato can indicate us the specific way in which the connections of the Pioneers should be done. Maybe our problem is based in a specific missconception concerning this fact.

Work on Friday

Just like Luis just say, we go to the lab on Friday, and we try to fix the usb problem, but the time wasn't enough. Another thing that happen on Friday is that I take the "ide to usb" cable to try to get the image of the disk in a low way... I'm still with this problem, but I think is possible to get the image and we can put on any HD to make it simple(OS installation in NERO). We will find a solution for this problem soon...

Cheers :)

About USB

Hey, on friday Carlos and I went to the lab to try to fix the HD and USB problem. We catched that the Pioneer do detect the USB port, and looks that the drivers were installed too, but we didn't count with enough time to fix that. About the HD, we tried to check the second robot with some HD to see what was the problem but the time 'ate' us, so we couldn't even check it.

Regards

Tickets

Monitor et al. will be loaned to us on monday.

I've done some work on assembla to have tickets for all our tasks.

The bill of the cable is being processed.

Administrative tasks take a lot of time and are not fun at all!!!!!!! :(

JADE & Jess

I've been investigating a bit about JADE and how can it mix it's functions with Jess, to discover that it's rather simple to combine them. What I haven't look for is, if we can use them effectively in the robots, and the combination with Player, but I'm on that.

About the HD, Carlos and I will give us some time and go to the lab tomorrow afternoon to fix that.

Regards

Testing the robots....

begin:vcard
fn;quoted-printable:Carlos Gonz=C3=A1lez Avelino
n;quoted-printable:Gonz=C3=A1lez Avelino;Carlos
email;internet:carlosgoac1404@gmail.com
version:2.1
end:vcard

Hi everyone!

Well Laura and Arturo already explained what we did today in order to
get them both (Pio and Nero) working. First of all, Carlos L. said
something about the power source for the CD drive, we need to watch it
in order to determine the electrical needs of it and then figure out
what we could do, as the HDs work with 5V I think the same power source
we are using for the tests with the HD could be used to power up the CD
drive.

Now, in regard of the tests, we found several problems within. At some
printed circuits the tracks were torn and a bit burned we don't really
know why this happened, perhaps because it's an old model and it hasn't
received the proper handling so we fixed them and they are working now
properly. There are still several test we have to make because there's
something bugging us in Pio: it can only be powered up with both the
batteries and the external source at the same time, the lack of one of
them prevents it to be turned on and its internal computer isn't turning
on either so we have to still check the circuits to troubleshoot it
hoping we can achieve this by tomorrow.

With the HD issue, we really need Luis and Carlos L. to work on it ASAP
to see if it's really the HD the one that prevents Nero to start and
then buy a brand new one or if there's some kind of problem with the
motherboard or something.

So far these are the news for what we've been doing this past few days.
Sorry if we haven't closed the first tickets but we haven't finished, we
are making a lot of progress but it also takes time for we are still
students and we don't have that much experience with these issues. Be
patient! :P

Cheers!

HD tests

Hey!!!
As Laura said, today we went to the lab and made several tests with both robots. First with the voltage sources Pio didn´t work so we decided to disassemble him in order to know what was wrong, while checking the power circuit we thought it was a good idea to remove Pio´s HD and test it on Nero. We saw that mainly Pio and Nero have exactly the same components except for some ports that Pio has and Nero doesn´t (the ones for the camera). Well, as I was saying we tested Pio´s HD into Nero and unfortunately it didn´t work (not even with Pio´s cable and adapter which happened to be the same one I bought  ). Finally we think the problem might be related with what carlos said about the OS being installed with the specific controllers but I think it shouldn´t because the structure of both robots is mainly the same (maybe Carlos and Luis can help us a little bit with this).
On the other hand, there were some problems about the power circuits in Pio and we think they might be fixed by now, but we weren´t able to make further tests because of time. Regards!!!

HD tests and other issues

Today Carlos G., Arturo and I went to the lab in order to make several tests. First, we could get the three power sources we talked about on Monday. We tested Pio with the three of them and saw it wasn't turning on so we began testing the continuity and voltage of some of the circuits which were quite confusing so we didn't get to any specific conclusion. We will post the observations made with more detail later on and will continue working on this issue tomorrow.

Since we had to dissasembles Pio, we saw the opportunity to remove it's HD and use it to test Nero's HD port. With the adapter Arturo brought we could see that this HD was actually turning on, however, it seems that Nero couldn't identify this HD's operating system since we got a warning about the Grub when turning it on.

We will be posting later in order to give more details about this two problems we have been having and the possible solutions we come up with. Hope any of you can give us advice.

Meanwhile, Carlos G. downloaded a C++ tutorial and shared it with Arturo and me.

See you all soon
Regards!

New tickets

I've created new tickets in Assembla for all of you. Please see them and close those you have finished.

Junta con Renato 10-Jun-09

1. Milestone convenio CEM-DFKI (Urge materias)
2. Renato y yo vamos a empezar a subir los tickets viejos y nuevos.
3. Renato va a ver un sistema de comunicación entre robots via pizarrón que tal vez nos sea útil.
4. Los tickets que tienen en Assembla los tienen que aceptar y cerrar en caso que ya hayan terminado.
   

Problems in the Nero's OS

Hi,

Yesterday I try to install Ubuntu in "Nero". But I have one "little" problem I can't connect the CD player because I don't have the AC cable. So, if anyone have "one" haha :) Can he/she lend me for the "cause"? haha :) And with this I hope we can know what is the problem... the HD or anything else ...

Cheers,

Carlos L

In the other hand, I was thinking in the OS we will install, and I think the best option is the same Ubuntu OS that "Pio" have. Maybe Carlos G, Laura and Arturo can say me what Ubuntu "Distro" is, to find and download it.

Minuta Junta 08/06/09

1. Problemas con las baterías: Se intentarán solucionar con fuentes de voltaje para proporcionar el voltaje y la corriente necesaria por tiempo ilimitado y ya no depender de las baterías cuando los robots no necesiten moverse, se investigará si con un vale para el profesor Jorge nos pueden prestar las fuentes indefinidamente. Por otro lado, las baterías se van a quedar cargando toda la noche para que estén listas al día siguiente y se espera que se puedan comprar otros 3 cargadores para cuando se tengan que utilizar los dos robots al mismo tiempo.

2. Problemas con el disco duro de Nero: El profesor Jorge pedirá una unidad de DVD de PC para conectarla a Nero e instalar Ubuntu en el disco duro de prueba. Si funciona, se tendrá que comprar un disco duro nuevo.

3. El profesor Jorge contactará a la profesora Marissa para pedirle las llaves del laboratorio de Visión Artificial y ver lo de tener llaves para el laboratorio de Manipuladores para no depender de los policías para que abran y cierren el laboratorio.

4. Carlos L. y Luis van a checar si Jess y Jade pueden servir para la creación de agentes para Player/Stage.

5. Laura, Arturo y Carlos G. van a aprender C++.

6. El profesor Jorge subirá los tickets que faltan.

:)

Hi

Hi everyone,

Sorry for not posting :( (I don´t have the habit of writting my little steps). This weekend I was researching about Jess. I'm already download it and I'm "playing" with the program to get the advantages and disadvantages, for the purpose of the "agents" and the way the robots will communicate.

Regards,

:) Carlos

About USB

Hi all, I was waiting to the lab to be opened when I realized that the robot have no batteries. As Carlos G. said, this is slowing us a little bit, but when its up and running, Carlos L. or me could get the USB port working.

Regards

Hi everyone!

For the matter of getting to work the USB port, I will be going to lab tomorrow so I can check it out. This week I haven't had the chance to stay by afternoons, so I'll go to lab more less at 11:00 am.

Regards

Today's work at the Lab...

begin:vcard
fn;quoted-printable:Carlos Gonz=C3=A1lez Avelino
n;quoted-printable:Gonz=C3=A1lez Avelino;Carlos
email;internet:A00466801@itesm.mx
note;quoted-printable:Ingenier=C3=ADa en Tecnolog=C3=ADas Electr=C3=B3nicas 8o. Semestre
version:2.1
end:vcard

Today Laura, Arturo and I went to the lab to continue testing Pio and
Nero but the converter Arturo bought was only from mini-IDE to IDE and
he also brought a converter from IDE to USB, unfortunately both
converters need power to work which the first one has but the second one
didn't so Arturo has to look for it and bring it tomorrow so we can
finish checking Nero.

Pio is already working except for the USB port in the laser, to check
that we need Luis and Carlos L. to help us because they have more
experience in such matters. We assigned some tickets in Assembla because
we need some stuff to continue working.

We agreed now the highest priority task is to get both robots up and
running and to do that we need:

1. Get another charger for the batteries.
2. Make the backup image for Pio.
3. Check the HD of Nero.
4. If the HD is working properly then make a backup image of it, if not
then look for another HD to replace it and install everything on it.

We checked the three chargers and they are working properly, checked the
power source teacher Marissa told us she would check and repair but
apparently she didn't so we can't use it as another charger. We're
making progress but once again the issue of the batteries will probably
slow us down.

Cheers!

Laboratory reconfiguration

Hallo!

Carlos G., Arturo and I went yesterday to the laboratory to reorganized it. We cleaned the tables and we moved the wooden blocks to the corner and "stole" a table and chairs from the Vision Artificial laboratory . The final configuration of the laboratory is very convenient since we have a considerable free space and we can work more comfortably. The only thing left for the lab to be perfect is to buy candies ;).

Regards!!

Minuta junta 2 Junio 2009

Decidimos usar el www.assembla.com como trac para llevar el control.

El trac va a ser para saber que hacer y el blog para los comentarios como lo veniamos haciendo.

Oscar entra al equipo. Es mecatrónico de 5-6o semestre.

Vamos a empezar a hacer tareas de ver que los robots funcionen.

La junta quedo los lunes de 4 a 5pm en el laboratorio.

PONER EN EL BLOG ETIQUETAS QUE AYUDEN A LOCALIZAR RAPIDAMENTE LOS COMENTARIOS.

Tareas:

1. Llaves para todos los del equipo (del lab.)
2. pago del cable
3. Organizar el lab.
   

Hi!

About the courses I could be taking, I will talk to Irma (ITC principal) tomorrow so I can get the idea of what can or cant make about this topic. I'll post this and fill the form tomorrow as soon as I get this info.

Regards!

Luis

Lista de Materias

Hi all,

I would like to ask you to fill the following form with your possible subjects that could be taken in University of Bremen for the "summer semester" of 2010 which begins in April. This information is relevant in order to generate the Exchange program therefore we need your choices as soon as possible. Please feel free to ask us as many questions as possible.

List of Subjects

You will need to be sure that:

1) The subjects can be equivalent to the Tec ones.
2) The subjects you choose are going to be given in the "Summer Semester".
3) Get all the information that is required for each subject.

Many thanks in advance and we will be looking forward to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Renato.

Courses in Germany

Renato and I are working on a spreadsheet for you to put the courses you can take in Germany.

Carlos G. comments that his counselor (Navarrete-Director carrera ITE) told him:

1. Which are the prerequisites of the course that will be taken in Germany?
2. How is the relation of the "unidades" in Tec and the courses in Germany? Remember that in Tec you need to credit units - each unit is equal to 1 hour of work in the course.
3. If the project itself will be awarded academic units, then Tec can revalidate working on the project itself as a course (Proyecto).

Please continue investigating about your courses, specially Carlos L. and Luis as I recall that you did not evalated all the courses.

Hi all,

I would like to remind you to fill the already finished tasks on the Trac with your comments on all the Tickets/Tasks that you have been working since last couple of months. So far, only Carlos Lozano has filled Ticket #9 as Luis for the Ticket #15. Still we need the rest of you to fill the rest of comments.

Please remember that your comments are giving an immediate feedback for the tasks objectives' and project status, there comes the importance of filling each of them.

Many thanks in advance and I will be looking forward to see your online comments soon.

Kind regards,

Renato.

Hi everyone

Hi, I've tried to get in trac and svn but I can't, because I didn't receive the password. It seems that I'm not registered in the mail group.

Dear Students,

I hope you are doing well in your final exams and also that you have the best of the chances for obtaining very good marks. I am writing because I have some news for our project:

1) We finally have been assigned to a Trac and SVN from DFKI. The Trac system will work apart from the blog and only for everything related to the tasks performance. However, we can continue using the blog for everything else. In the Trac system you are able to see which tasks (or tickets) are emitted for being made by you. On the other hand, the SVN is a server that contains all our files related to reports, code or miscellaneous. Also, you need to familiarise to use the SVN functionality and commands only by yourselves. Then if you decide not to use the console commands, you might need to install a client as in any other server service such as FTP, HTTP, etc. The addresses for Trac and SVN are respectively:

https://rlbsvn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/itesm-agents-trac
https://rlbsvn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/itesm-agents

The task or tickets which you already have been assigned can be found in the tab option “RoadMap”. In t his section, you can see the project Milestones. The Milestones show the state of our project and are composed by tickets that you can access from the “Total tickets:” link of each Milestone. Later on, you will receive the user/password to the email account: roboticamovil.cem@itesm.mx

2) Also, for each ticket (or task) that you have already accomplished, I would ask you to put a short comment as the ones you made on the blog. The comment should have your name followed by a brief comment about the goals you achieve and the difficulties you found in order to accomplish your task. These comments will work as a testimony for the DFKI project leaders’ as a feedback of this project as of any other project from DFKI.

So, for finishing all the Milestones we need to close each of their assigned tickets. Therefore, for finishing the tickets all of you are required to type on the ticket space for “Comments” and only then the ticket can be closed. Specifically, after all of you make your comments on the tickets of Milestones 2, 3 and 4; I would like to ask Carlos G. to close these tickets as soon as possible.

3) You can continue your work for Milestone 5 and 6 as soon as possible.

4) Finally, we have some slow improvements for establishing the exchange program. As you might already know, firstly we would need to know which ones of you could come with and without any scholarship from DAAD, as this program has not been established yet. Secondly, we will need to know from you the subject you are able to take here in the University of Bremen too.

The classes are provided by Faculties depending on each subject. I would think you are capable of taking courses in Engineering and Computer Science faculties but I don’t know whether you will like to take “cursos sellos” from other faculties. Also, you will need to check the master programs as these classes are done in English and they will require mostly the same work as the ones from Bachelor. Besides, you can check also any “Erasmus” or international courses which are also dedicated to international exchange programs.

Unfortunately, most of the subjects are in German so we need you to check the following links in order to get some information about the possibilities of subjects that you can take for the “summer semester” as it is called here. The links are organised in order to provide as much information as possible and you might need to translate some parts using in online translator (google is a good one)

It is very important you can do this research as soon as possible with your degree director, so we can continue establishing the exchange program with people from both universities.

a) Master courses given in English
http://www.master.uni-bremen.de/english/nts.php3

b) Master and international programs.
http://www.io.uni-bremen.de/studiumbremen/internationalprog1.html

c) Courses given by DFKI staff that could be given in English, mostly about robotics.
http://robotik.dfki-bremen.de/de/lehre.html

d) Courses given by DFKI staff that could be given in English, mostly about robotics.
http://www.uni-bremen.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungsausgabe?pi_sg_id=239

e) List of all courses given to “Informatics” students that in the right column is possible to see if they have English information. Theoretically, it could be possible to provide such course in English but is not always like this.
http://www.uni-bremen.de/veranstaltungen/veranstaltungsausgabe?pi_sg_id=239

f) All courses given in University of Bremen.
http://www.dbs.uni-bremen.de/sixcms/list.php?page=sort&e

g) You can check if there is any course given in “Digital Media Master” as these are in English.
http://www.digitale-medien-bremen.de/images/stories/service/Courses/master_courses2009.pdf

h) The bachelor courses of Digital Media but not necessarily in English.
http://www.digitale-medien-bremen.de/images/stories/service/Courses/bachelor_courses2009.pdf

i) Courses for the "Master of Science in Communication and Information Technology and Information and Automation Engineering"
http://www.mci.uni-bremen.de/index.php3?seite=structure

Many thanks,

Renato.

Junta con Renato 21-may-09

Cursos
Vimos lo de los cursos que pueden llevar en Alemanania. Renato me mando una lista para que vean los alumnos.

Trac

1. Ya subio Renato todas las actividades.
2. Cada alumno va a ir poniendo cuando termine un comentario sobre los problemas que tuvieron y logros obtenidos (aparte de terminar la tarea).
3. Primero ver si el ticket es solo para ellos o para más de uno.
4. Se agregaron actividades (Tickets) sobre agentes.

Horario de la junta para verano

1. Necesitamos ponernos de acuerdo para el horario de la junta. Jorge manda correo con opciones.

Hola a todos:)

Hola,

Respecto a lo que se solicitó, Luis y yo investigamos con nuestra directora de carrera(Irma) y nos dijo que toda la información que nos pidieron tendría que platicarla con el profesor Jorge. Me comentó que pronto hablaría con él para aclarar estos puntos y verificar que materias y que solución se da en nuestro caso(último semestre :S). Tentativamente hablamos de las materias y dentro de las opciones que platicamos con ella fueron las de "Proyecto Integrador" y los tópicos que tenemos aún disponibles. Materias como Multiagentes, consideramos(Luis y yo) podrían ser consideradas. Esperamos una respuesta pronto,

Carlos y Luis :)

Junta con Renato 19-may-09

Convenio

1. Necesitamos saber que clases pueden tomar para el convenio. Esto nos tiene detenidos. Las clases son todas en Alemán.
   
2. ¿Clases sello como ética, liderazgo, etc.?
   
3. ¿Siguen revalidando la concentración de investigación en el Tec?
4. ¿Podrían revalidarse los tópicos?
5. ¿Quienes podrían llegar a ir a Alemania en caso de que la beca no se pueda conseguir.
6. Los que ya pasan al último semestre, ¿el Tec les permite pasar ese semestre fuera?

Trac y SVN

1. SVN (https://rlbsvn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/itesm-agents)
2. Trac ( https://rlbsvn.informatik.uni-bremen.de/itesm-agents-trac)
3. Si les dice que el certificado no es valido entonces tienen que: Add an Exception -> Get Certificate -> Comfirm Security Exception
4. Lo estamos empezando a probar. Surgen detalles sobre la administración y permisos. Renato los va a preguntar.
5. Esperamos para mañana tener funcionando esto o la decisión sobre qué vamos a hacer.
   

Hard Drive

Hey everyone!!!
Yesterday Laura and I went to the lab to work with the interiors robot. The adapter fit correctly for the robot´s hard drive. Unfortunately we couldn´t make the hard drive work, reasons are numerous and here are some of them:
1.- The voltage source that I got is not working correctly.
2.- We are not connecting the HD´s cable in the proper port.
3.- HD doesn´t work anymore.
All cables and adapters are found in the lab if any of you wish to try something else. We´ll talk today to Uresti and try to find a way to solve this problem.
Regards!!! take care!!!

Robot´s Cable

Hey!!!! great news!!!

Today I went downtown and I found what we were missing, the robot´s hard disk´s adapter. Tomorrow I´ll take it to the school, and hope I´m able to install it in order to start working with this interior´s robot. Hope you are all doing well. Regards.

Returning to CEM

Hi all,

Thank you for your posts and for your work in the project during these days.

We still do not know how are we going to manage work in this project as the suggestions are not to motivate people to work close together.

We are discussing this issue and when we have more news, will let you know.

Regards,

Execution of programs for both robots

Hi everyone!

As Arturo said, hope you are all influenza free ;).

I just figured out how to make both robots run programs. I had to modify the lab2piso.cfg file (I created a lab2piso.2.cfg file) and defined two different models, one for each robot with two specific ports like so:

driver
(
name "vfh"
provides ["6665:position2d:1"]
requires ["position2d:0" "laser:0" ]
)

# robot2
driver
(
name "stage"
provides ["6666:position2d:0" "6666:laser:0" "6666:sonar:0" ]
model "robot2"
)
driver
(
name "vfh"
provides ["6666:position2d:1"]
requires ["position2d:0" "laser:0" ]
)

Then, I looked into laserobstacleavoid's code and noted the library "args.h". Inside this library there is a function called print_usage which tells the parameters you can provide to the program. In this way, according to the ports I determined for each robot I execute the laserobstacleavoid program for one of them in this way: ./laserobstacleavoid -p 6666 and for the one whose port is 6665 I executed the example we created previously in this way: ./example.0.1.2.

In the case of example.0.1.2 it is automatically executed in te robot whose port is 6665, however if I add the "args.h" library I suppose I could execute it for both robots using -p.

Here is a screenshot of the two robots navigating in the lab2piso.world.
I hope the epidemic issue ends soon enough, meanwhile take lots of care.

See you!
Laura

Holy Influenza Week

Hey everyone
I hope and sincerely hope you´re all doing well and Influenza free. Yes, this epidemic thing has hit us and it seems it is a huge thing. Anyway, it is terrible news for me since my computer has died completely, I can´t work with it anymore so I don´t know if I´m gonna be able of doing something related to the tasks we have assigned. But I would like to know which they are in order to do some research and also start reading my great C++ for dummies book jeje. Ahm I think that would be all. Take care.Hope I´ll see you soon.

Research

I start my research about REPAST :) :P


Cheers,

Carlos L.

Influenza attacks!

Hi everyone,

The influenza has become a greater risk, so the Goverment decided to suspend school activities for the next week, so we'll not be seeing that soon. I think it's more dangerous than it seems.

Now I'm gonna be investigating about JADE, so when we return we can put in practice that interesting work.

Regards,
Luis

:)

Hi,

Just like Laura wants, I want to know the new task. In Mexico the problems with the influenza virus still the same. Maybe we can't go to school the next week. I can move in with the SW stuff.

Cheers,

:)

Carlos Lozano

Next task

Hi everyone!

Hope you are doing well. I wanted to know what is the next task we should be fullfilling or if there is any recommendation you could give us on which topics to investigate on. I have been looking at the C++ libraries in order to understand how to make a program in which the two robots interact.

Since we won't be seeing each other this next week I was also thinking if we are going to have a meeting through Skype or Google chat.

Take care and try to keep yourselves away from crowded places.

Regards!

Advance Revision

1st Advance Revision for Robotics collaboration CEM-DFKI

 

1. List of sensors and actuators.- Sick laser, Gripper, two motors, 4 wheels for the outdoors robot. For the indoors robot we located the sonar, sick laser, 2 motors and 3 wheels.
2. Check Aria demo in the outdoors Pioneer.- The demo worked correctly and I was able to teleoperate the robot, however we could not put the sick laser to work properly.
3. Installation of Ubuntu and Player/Stage. Since some time ago I have been having troubles with my computer, however I was able to successfully install ubuntu, and then player and stage.
4. I test the installation by running one of the cfg files that are already in the database of stage. There I checked functionality of playerjoy which makes it possible to teleoperate the robot. Also I used playerv which enables you to activate and see any of the tools, that the robot counts with, sonar, sick laser, etc.
5. Execution of   the laserobstacleavoid program in several .cfg files such as simple.cfg and autolab.cfg. This program allows a robot to avoid obstacles through laser readings.

The program runs in simulation with no problem although I don´t quite understand it´s content.

6. Compilation and execution of the example 0 program. Analysis of its code and familiarization with the concepts of proxy (laser and sonar mainly). Compilation of programs is done with the next command in the terminal:

g++ -o example0 `pkg-config --cflags playerc++` example0.cc `pkg-config --libs playerc++`

 

Changed the program for it to have a laser and a sonar for the robot, and also modified the speed of the robot and some other parameters in order to understand the program.

 

7. Creation world and cfg files that simulate the laboratories in which we work and creation of a program with two robots (simulating the Pioneer robots we are working with) that can navigate in this world.

First we researched some information of how a .cfg and a .world files are structured and analyze the information they handle. We discovered that the cfg files load drivers and libraries and calls the world file in which all the information of the environment in which the robot is going to interact is defined in. We saw that by changing the .png file (image bit map) in the world file, we would practically have the world file for our robot to interact. Later we tried to know how other things are defined or created in such files, and we were able to put a second robot in the file. Anyway so far we haven´t  been able to make both robots to run a program since we can only get one to obey but we are working on that and hopefully will see them interact any time soon.

Our schedule!

Hi,

These are the hours that we can work together. The schedule is in this way because the major we have and the course matching.

Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

• 12:00 - 14:00 hrs.
  

Tuesday and Thursday.

• 10:30 - 11:30 hrs and after 18:00 hrs

We hope the other members of the team share their schedule and plan a way to be in touch.

With the govenment announcement that there is no school for tomorrow (because of the increase of influensa cases in the city) we can't go further about to charge the batteries. Luis and me, planned to start charging the batteries in the morning and come back after our courses, but now it's impossible. We'll charge the bateries in the mondajavascript:void(0)y's morning.

Regards,
Luis and me(Carlos L.)

Primera evaluación

Colaboración en robótica CEM-DFKI

Evaluacion en conjunto

1. Puntos favorables (ventajas).

El equipo ha demostrado que tiene habilidades y un gran deseo para aprender acerca de la Robótica móvil sin contar con ningún incentivo académico totalmente resuelto. El equipo posee mucha energía que va muy bien acompañada por su corta edad y ansias por ser personas profesionales y competitivas a nivel internacional. Además, dentro del equipo se cuenta con personas muy valiosas provenientes de diferentes áreas del conocimiento que es una característica clave para todo aquel que quiera dedicarse a la Robótica.

2. Puntos negativos (desventajas).

En el equipo de trabajo las individualidades no fortalecen las debilidades o carencias de los demás en cuestiones de conocimiento y tiempo. Por el momento, tampoco se ha demostrado tener la confianza ni la organización para contrarrestar la falta de tiempo o la deficiencia del trabajo colaborativo dadas las habilidades profesionales de cada uno de los integrantes. Por lo cual, tampoco se comparte el conocimiento ni el éxito y sincronía con los objetivos de trabajo. Finalmente, los integrantes tampoco muestran una organización individual suficientemente apta para contrarrestar las situaciones adversas como lo son: los procesos administrativos, carga de trabajo o la falta de material.

3. Conclusiones hasta la primera evaluación.

Los alumnos están aprendiendo los fundamentos de la Robótica móvil por medio de la herramienta Player/Stage y el robot Pioneer. El desarrollo hasta el momento ha sido de forma satisfactoria, extracurricular y durante los tiempo personales de cada uno de los integrantes. Algunos de los integrantes muestran un gran interés y curiosidad propios de una carrera de vida en la investigación como lo son Laura y Carlos González.

4. Recomendaciones o acciones a tomar.

El proyecto está dirigido a desarrollar habilidades para la programación de agentes robóticos con lo cual se requerirá del uso de la programación en C++ para su realización. Los integrantes con más experiencia deberán de protagonizar un interés especial por ejemplificar la codificación base de los programas para los integrantes con menor grado de experiencia. Además de que la forma de trabajo, requiere que la comunicación sea obligatoriamente por medio del Blog, aunque al momento no todos los integrantes lo han sabido desarrollar completamente. Se implementará el uso de un servidor de concurrencias simple (SVN) para servir como contenedor de recursos y se requerirá el auto aprendizaje (guiado) del mismo.

Carlos' First Revision Executive Summary

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Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey

Campus Estado de México

Carlos González Avelino

First Revision of the CEM-DFKI Project

The work done by myself can be divided into two parts: Software and
Hardware. Having a little more involvement with the Hardware part.

Hardware:

*

Reassembly of both the interiors and exteriors robots.

o

We understood a little bit more about the interiors robot
hardware architecture which was the most disassembled one,
the exteriors robot just had some cables disconected and the
laser but should quite similar.

o

We found a problem in the laser because the USB port doesn't
seem to work, we assume it's a software problem because we
tested the cables and they worked fine, we just hope the
actual laser works fine. On the other hand we were able to
get Internet connectivity so we can do the image of the HD
by networking means before we try some other stuff on it.

o

We found some (perhaps) hardware desigin flaws at least on
the exteriors robot because of the batteries. They need to
be inside and charged before the robot can be turned on
(obviously) but also when plugged to an energy source which
is kind of weird. Speaking about the batteries, we have some
problems because we don't decide in a way to get them all
charged. It might be two at a time (because we have two
chargers) or 4 at a time which would be a lot better to
avoid different charge on them and to damage either the
robots or the batteries which would represent a significant
extra inversion. Another possibility is the use of a power
source which is at the lab to get the four batteries to be
charging at the same time but we still need to figure out if
the source is working properly.

Software:

*

Installation of Player and Stage.

o

Well, I haven't been able to completely install the software
because....noone knows why. It should be working but I'm
going to take another aproach suggested by Renato and I hope
I can get it to work ASAP so I can catch up with the others.

Tasks

Carlos David Lozano Torres
Luis Arturo López Malo Walls

The following document describes the things we do for this project. For this project, we must follow some task. The task are these:
1. Identify the actuators.
2. Check Pioneer functionality with ARIA DEMO.
3. Install Player/Stage.
4. Getting related with Stage.
5. Program a Player Client Proxy.
6. Modeling the environment for Stage simulator.
7. Map control for Stage simulator.
8. Create map for Player/Stage.

For each activity, we(Luis and Carlos L.) work as a team. The first task, identify the actuators, is pretty simple. We go to the lab and view the “pioneers”. After we verify the sensor and the actuators. For the second task, we have troubles with the “pioneers” and all the hardware stuff. But at last we were able to view the aria demo.

The most difficult part of the tasks was the installation of Player/Stage. In fact, all the installation is a mess. That's because while we were installing, they were a lot of libraries missing. And every new lib installation need another one(in a recursive way). After that all the thing were not that difficult.

Stage is a good simulator, the only things we must verify is the files we use to simulate the “pioneers”. These files are,
 World file
 CFG file (the one who reads the world configuration)
 The client proxy for the “pionners”

In the process of making the proxy client, the only thing we saw is that the libraries of the sensors(sonar and laser) are easy to use. The only thing you have to “think” is the way(distances of the object) the pionner will do in case of a object near.

Finally, we make the lab blueprint and modify some of the draw of the second floor of the CEDETEC. To prove the functionality of the pioneers in another environment, with all the interfaces(laser and sonar).

Primera Evaluación

Equipo en su conjunto

1. Puntos favorables (ventajas).

Tomando en cuenta el avance de todos los integrantes del equipo, se han cumplido todas las metas al 100% (al 21 de Abril).

Entre todos, se tiene conocimiento del robot de manera física y simulada. Además, se tiene conocimiento suficiente para seguir avanzando.

Considero que se puede continuar con las tareas para la segunda evaluación sin ningún problema.

2. Puntos negativos (desventajas).

No se trabaja como equipo. Existen sub-equipos dentro del equipo y personas que ni siquiera tienen equipo (David y Jean). Esto se explica por los horarios de los integrantes. Sin embargo, no parece haber mucha voluntad de las partes para llegar a un consenso sobre una hora a la semana en la que se puedan ver como equipo (la encuesta de Noodle que creo Renato sigue con solo 3 respuestas, de las cuales, solo una es de alumnos).

Los robots no han quedado listos para funcionar. Esto se debe a la falta de material y presupuesto del Tec.

Todavía no se tiene respuesta sobre el convenio entre universidades. Se sabe que en Alemania siguen trabajando en esto y tienen mucho interés los directivos, pero no se tienen fechas ciertas.

3. Conclusiones hasta la primera evaluación.

Sí se cuenta con un equipo humano que tenga las habilidades necesarias para continuar con el proyecto. El hecho de que los robots no funcionen al 100% es una gran desventaja que espero pueda subsanarse durante el verano.

Terminando el semestre, se espera que el trabajo en equipo sea diario y que se aproveche para avanzar rápidamente.

Una felicitación para Laura por su gran avance y entrega al proyecto. Ha demostrado liderazgo y empuje para terminar sus tareas.

Carlos G. también merece ser felicitado por su gran empeño para que los robots queden funcionales.

4. Recomendaciones acciones a tomar.

Al terminar el semestre, Todos los miembros del equipo deberán de ponerse al tanto en las tareas que no realizaron.

Carlos G., Laura y Arturo deben de auto-estudiar programación orientada a objetos, en especial C++.

Carlos L. y Luis deben de usar mucho más el blog. Arturo también.

Se debe de dejar claro el avance que se hace en pares de personas cuando se publica en el blog.

Se debe de ver la forma de que la parte administrativa del Tec nos pueda responder más rápidamente las peticiones económicas.