PlayerClient Question

In the following code:

PlayerClient robot("localhost");

if we want the stage to be the host running the client, what should we write?

Meeting 31-Mar-09

Meeting with all (almost, missing Jean):

1. Talked about progress installing player/stage.
2. Luis finally installed both programs. His version of Ubuntu is newer than Laura's.
3. We met David.
4. Luis and Carlos G. are trying to make the USB port of the exteriors robot to work so they can access the disk and make an image.
5. The interiors robot is almost completely assembled, only a cable is missing (Marissa has it).
6. Laura and Arturo have managed to finish up to the task that uses the playerv using the laser, gripper and the sonar.
7. Laura and Arturo will start the final task of player/stage setting up (player client).

We need to know if we have access next week to the lab.

Create map for Player/Stage - Notes for task

The student is required to simulate the general use case in Player/Stage. This process involves the following steps:

1. The robots are given an assembly module in which the pieces are located.
2. The closest available robot to the piece should book it to the master system and generate a navigation local plan for going to this piece. Then, the robot should make the plan public to the master system. In this case will be used a GoTo function with VFH, Wavefront and AMCL drivers from Player framework.
3. The robot will reach the piece and report that the piece was reached to the master system. Then, the robot will make a local navigation plan to deposit the damaged piece in a central waste deposit.

The robot should report a stand-by status and look for the report of a next damaged piece.

Map control for Stage simulator - notes for task

In this task the student will get in familiar in how to handle map files obtained from image bitmaps and of creating a simulation use case map.

In the first step, the sample handling file for maps can be found in Stage installation path:

“$STAGE_PATH/worlds/map.inc“. The student will require executing Player/Stage service with the different PNG images files provided in the path of Stage installation: “$STAGE_PATH/worlds/bitmaps“.

The second step involves creating a simulation map according to the Use Case in use and attaches it to the Stage simulator. Such map will contain the following features:

1. An assembly line divided in modules.
2. From 1 to 5 robots
3. Different damaged pieces over the assembly line.
4. Movable obstacles defined by user in execution time.
5. A central waste deposit for damaged pieces.

A general overview will be given and discussed with the lecturers involved.

Modeling the environment for Stage simulator. - Notes for task

This set of tasks intent to generate the environment for the use case in use with Player/Stage. The goal is also to create the show-off of robot-user interface for adapting the agent requirements and procedures to this approach.

Meeting via Skype

Jorge and Renato met using Skype:

1. Discussed progress of each person in the project.
2. Discussed about progress installing player/stage.
3. Decided to give more time in the player/stage phase.
4. Defined new schedule for tasks.

The new Gantt for the project is here:

In a moment I will post the notes for the task that are new.

Notice that the new revision date has changed a little bit but we still need to decide if we are going to set this new date for revision of continue with the previous date.

URGENT!!!!!!

Teacher Marissa we need the bus for the HD which is in the locker at Visión Artificial Lab, is the only thing we need to finally finish assembling the interior robot but we can't because it's locked up.

Guide to Install Player/Stage

Hi! Sorry for not posting in a while. I've been working on installing Player and Stage on Ubuntu, I had many, and I mean a lot of troubles trying to do that, but now I successfully installed it, and made a little guide for everyone else to install it easily.

Hope I didn't miss any step.

Guide
This guide is made to install Player/Stage in Ubuntu 8.04
** This should be working on any Linux platform **

First of all do
sudo apt-get build-essential

Before COMPILING and INSTALLING anything else be sure you have installed thes libraries:

Try to install them in this order
*Note: Many of this libraries may defer on a number at the end, representing the version
*The one that say Download and install... refers to do a "./configure", "make" and "make install" on each package

Download and install >=glib-2.0
Download and install pango
Download and install atk

sudo apt-get install libtiff-dev
sudo apt-get install libjasper-dev
sudo apt-get install libxext-dev
sudo apt-get install libltdl3-dev
sudo apt-get install libplayerjpeg2

Download and install gtk+

Finally,
Go to player/stage sourceforge webPage http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/ and download the player and stage softwares, and first do a "./configure", "make" and "make install" on player, then do the same on stage.

To test you have installed everything and is running do:
player /usr/local/share/stage/worlds/simple.cfg

-----------

PROBLEMS!!!

Hi everyone!

Just for give some BAD NEWS :( I haven't found my charger and I can't go on the installation. Just like I post before, I'm already install Player and already install some of the libs Stage need... While I found my charger I will be helping to install Stage in Luis computer....(It seems to be ready right now). Will be in touch!

Regards

Player/Stage installation

Hey everyone!!!

I hope you're all doing well. I have good news. I've already successfully installed Player/Stage and I can open the .cfg files. Tomorrow with Laura I'll try to see how playerjoy works and hopefully get to work with the robot as soon as possible.
The problems I had while trying to test stage by opening a .cfg file were:

•  error while loading shared libraries: libplayerdrivers.so.2.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
• err: unable to open color database: No such file or directory (stage.c stg_lookup_color)

To solve the first one I have to export the libraries every time I open the Terminal, and I know that this can be made automatically by putting it in the bashc file or something like this but I don't exactly know how to do it so if you could help me with this it would be really great.

And in order to solve the second problem, I had to create a file called rgb.txt that was deleted from the newest versions of ubuntu (they thought it wasn't necessary anymore) so you have to create it with some information given in this link:
http://www.nabble.com/Problem-installing-stage-td22283413.html

I think that would be all, regards!!!

Tomorrow's Meeting

Hi!

I was wondering at what time will tomorrow meeting be, 10:30 or 11:30?

Regards to all!

Pioneer functionality with Aria

Hi!
Today I went to the lab and checked the Pioneer’s functionality with Aria demo in order to teleoperate it.

The directory in which this demo is found in /usr/local/Aria/examples/demo.

It has several modes. In the teleoperate one you can move it around using either a joystick or a keyboard. Italso tried the gripper controls and they worked just fine. The only problem I had was the laser mode since the connection was never achieved.

While I was trying this, the robot suddenly restarted itself. Twice actually. I hope that the cause for this is that the batteries aren’t entirely charged.

I’ll be seeing you soon.
Regards.

Comentarios de Carlos Nieto sobre los demos de ARIA

Es muy sencillo /usr/local/Aria/bin/demo.. o el directorio puede estar en /opt/Aria/lib/demo ese es el general, hay un directorio de demos.. solo make y listo. Crea los binarios para correr los programas.

Stage y Player es muy utilizado en Alemania y Francia, la ventaja es que puedes tener diferentes robots y sensores. Lo que no me gusta es lo de crear modulos o drivers para cada sensor de robot..

Si quieren programar en python o java usando Aria, lo pueden hacer. Estan instalados tambien los demos de estos lenguajes, lo unico que no probe fue lo de los sensores.

Player/Stage, Aria and other issues

Hi everyone!

I didn't have the opportunity to post this last days however I think I am beginning to understand how does Player/Stage works. On thursday Renato helped me with the task that demanded to execute the playerjoy utility in order to teleoperate the robot.

Yesterday I was looking at the next task which implied the execution of a sample control program. Before executing the instructions included there, I went to Player/Stage main page to get familiarized with this type of tools. I opened the simple.cfg file and used the graphical tool playerv to see the simulated robot's laser in 2d. I could teleoperate it using one of the optios available at the playerv window. Then, in order to see how would it act with autonomous control I executed the laserobstacleavoid program included in one of the libraries.

What I didn't entirely understood was the part that said i had to "set the correct path value for the serial connector for the robot and laser (connection path known as tty0 or tty1)".

Yesterday I also verified that Aria is already installed in the outdoors Pioneer. I tried to teleoperate the robot and the sick sensor through a demo included in the library, however I kept getting some errors related to the ports, I think I would need to read a little more about the correct usage of this type of software since yesterday I was just sort of inferring and making experimentations without having a clear idea of what I was doing. I think it would be convenient to look at that all together in order to give ideas to each other because some of us are more experienced in certain areas than the others.

I also wanted to suggest that, if you keep having too much trouble installing Player/Stage, we could meanwhile work with my laptop. It would be very helpful if all of you could give me suggestions on how to use all of Player/Stage features.

Finally, for me Carlos's post was a great notice, I am very glad that you are figuring out how to fix the interiors Pioneer.

Take care!

Great news!

Hi everyone!

Today Jean, David and I went to the lab to try to assemble the interiors robot and we almost succeded. Everything in the inside of it is almost connected, we just need the bus for the HD so we can connect it to the motherboard and to take away the laser from the rescue robot so we can finish assembling the interiors robot. When we get the bus for the HD we will start making test to verify that connections were made successfully. We hope on monday teacher Marissa will provide us with the bus and make everything we need to start "playing/staging". Have a nice weekend!

Junta 26 Marzo 2009

Junta con Renato. Asistentes: Marissa, Laura, Carlos L., Arturo, Carlos G., Jorge.

1. Presentación de cada uno (la cámara de Renato no funcionó).
2. Instalación del player/stage. Laura ya lo instalo y vimos como hacer que corre al playerjoy.
3. Los demás siguen intentando instalar el player/stage.
4. Se discutió sobre lo que se tiene que hacer para armar los robots.
5. Se tomó la foto de los integrantes.
6. Renato va a tener una junta para ver como se formaliza todo con Alemania.
7. Hay que mandar información al blog diariamente.

Run time error detected. Language not recognized :)

Photo

Hi, here I post the photo of the team assembled after today´s meeting.

Regards..
Marissa

Lost my computer charger:(

Hi, I lost my charger just after the meeting... I'm not sure but maybe someone took it... Please let me know if someone saw it:(:(:(:(:(

Thank you, regards

Player/Stage

Hi everyone!

I just successfully installed Player (I think...) but to install Stage requires a lot of other programs and libraries which I was trying to install but somehow I wasn't able to do so because it said at the output that there were some errors and nothing about them so I didn't know what to do. Hope someone can make a quick guide to install Stage and some troubleshooting for us that don't know a lot about Ubuntu.

In other news, we checked the USB port and the cabling is right so perhaps someone can tell how to bring up the port in Ubuntu, I guess that's the problem about the USB.

Good things to all!

Hi everyone!!!
Today I went to the lab to try and finish assembling the interiors robot and several things happened:

• First I found some screws in a tool box that is there in the laboratory, and I think they are enough to finish assembling the pioneer.
• Second, since I don't understand much of circuits and there are a lot of loose cables and ports without connection I decided to wait for the other members in order to see what we need to get for the robot to be complete and assembled.

Talking about other things I have a Hard disk you could use to do the image of the exteriors robot, I think we'll see each other tomorrow so I'll make the offer in order to get this done as soon as possible and start working on the robot.

Hello :)

Hi!

I went today to the lab and after getting some help from Carlos with some technical misunderstandings I thought I could maybe start checking the ARIA software the robot includes. However I saw Carlos's earlier post and agree with the fact that the image of the robot's HD should be done before we start testing and installing programs. During the period of time I was there I didn't see the people who were supposed to make it, please let me know if I am wrong.

I read in an earlier post that Marissa or Jorge were going to bring DVD's and I have the impression Luis was going to make the image. I think that this should be done pretty early in order to have the opportunity to make advances tomorrow. In case they are needed, I have some DVD's in my house, I can bring them tomorrow. My mobile phone’s number is 044 55 12 90 10 15 in case you need anything.

See you tomorrow! :)

Hi everyone!

Hi! I'm already install Player on my PC. But i have some problems with Stage installation. I hope i can fix it for tomorrow.

Regards:D

Meeting 26-apr-09 10:30 am

Hi all,

Renato has agreed that tomorrow (thursday 26) at 10.30 am we can have a Skype meeting with him.

Please be ready. We meet at CEDETEC 1st floor, Pintura lab. near the stairs that go to the CCI. If you do not know how to get there, please phone me (ext. 2463).

Please let the other not in the blog (Jean, David, Marissa) know about this meeting.

Robots

Hi everyone!


Sorry for not posting sooner! Today Jean and I tried to debug why the USB port in the laser of the Pioneer is not working, in the electronics part it's working just fine so perhaps there's a problem with Ubuntu where we have to turn it on or something like that which I don't know how to do it, perhaps Luis or Carlos could help us with that part. On the other hand, the interiors robot got to us when we were leaving so we didn't check it out until tomorrow. I don't know ifLaura and Arturo made some advance but if not I certainly hope we can do now that we know a little more about how the other one works.

Today while we were checking if the USB could work we thought about updating Ubuntu but perhaps it's wiser to wait to make the image of what we have on the Pioneer's HD and then update and see what happens, perhaps the problem with the USB can be fixed that way. Any suggestions about that?

We'll keep in touch!

Hi everyone!!!

I hope you are doing well, the reason I haven´t been able to post lately is that I´m experiencing some trouble with my computer. So for now until further notice I think I won´t be able to install Aria and Player/Stage on my PC so it would be really helpful if we could get some computer for the project that we could all use in the laboratory.

Talking about the robot, I think there are some screws missing in order to complete the assemble of the in-door pioneer, I don´t know if you storaged them in some place or they´re completely missing.

I hope I can solve this thing about my computer soon enough to keep up with my team mate´s work.

More information about Player/Stage

Hi there!

Good news, the good person that helped me yesterday just got here and reminded me of the main action we took in order to install correctly the programs. I'm thinking now that the problems I had with Stage's installation were related somehow to an error in Player's installation... Well here is what we did:

laura@lola:~$ sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf

and inside this directory we included the following:
include /etc/ld.so.conf.d/*.conf
include /usr/local/lib

I just saw Luis's installation problem in his post but unfortunately I don't really know how to solve it.

Hope this information is useful.

See you!

Stage installation

Hi everyone!

I have already tested the .cfg file and it works fine. I get a window with the simulated robot.

Jorge told me that some of you have been having some problems with stage's installation. Yesterday was a lot about improvisation and I ended up with about 15 open tabs from which I got different suggestions and ideas. Unfortunately, I didn't exactly saved the url's that helped me and I can't remember what did I exactly do to make this work.

I did have the idea of saving in a document a lot of the things I did in the terminal. I can share them with you even though I don't know if I will be able to explain clearly what did I do. However, I think this can give you an idea of what can you do to solve this problem.

The error I got was the following and actually I think is the most common error when trying to install stage, I suppose it is the one you are currently dealing with:

error while loading shared libraries: libplayerc++.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

So after several hours of looking in forums and web pages and getting some help, I created a link with ln -s, and... after several other failed attempts I did the following.



laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ sudo ln /usr/local/lib/libplayerdrivers.so.2 libplayerdrivers.so.2
ln: creating hard link `libplayerdrivers.so.2': File exists
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ cd ..
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player$ sudo ln /usr/local/lib/libplayerdrivers.so.2 libplayerdrivers.so.2
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player$ cd config/
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ player pioneer.cfgplayer: error while loading shared libraries: libplayerdrivers.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ sudo player pioneer.cfg
player: error while loading shared libraries: libplayerdrivers.so.2: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ sudo gedit /etc/ld.so.conf
^[^Tlaura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ sudo ldconfig
laura@lola:/usr/local/share/player/config$ player pioneer.cfg
Registering driver
Player v.2.1.2

* Part of the Player/Stage/Gazebo Project [http://playerstage.sourceforge.net].
* Copyright (C) 2000 - 2006 Brian Gerkey, Richard Vaughan, Andrew Howard,
* Nate Koenig, and contributors. Released under the GNU General Public License.
* Player comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you
* are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; see COPYING
for details.

And that is about it, what is between this two steps are just a bunch of different attempts.

I was going through the history of my browser and I found out that these were some of the links I checked yesterday:

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Program-Library-HOWTO/shared-libraries.html

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Admin/ld-lib-path.html

http://celtico-celtico.blogspot.com/2007/12/instalacin-del-proyecto-rabotron-p

http://www.nabble.com/error-while-loading-share-libraries-td11350894.html#a11350894

http://escalant3.blogspot.com/2007/01/el-simulador-playerstage.html


I hope you find them useful.

I'll be waiting tonight for the person who helped me yesterday in order to see if he can collaborate in this explanations and make them clearer.

If you are willing to see all of the actions I did at the terminal, including every mistake I made in it just let me know and I'll send or upload the complete file.

I'll be seeing you soon. Take care!

Meeting 24-Mar-09 - Part B

Meeting with Arturo and Laura:

1. Laura has already installed Stage and will post the steps she did to install it.
2. We need that everyone posts its progress every time so we can know what need to be done, for instance, right now Arturo and Laura want to assemble the interiors robot but they do not know how far Carlos assembled the robot as he did not blog his progress, also, we do not know if the USB port of the exteriors robot is working or not.
3. We talked about all the details we discussed at the morning meeting.
   

Meeting 24-Mar-09

Attendants: Carlos G., Luis, Jean, Marissa.

Meeting at the lab. at 11.30 am.

Various:

1. The lost pioneer robot was recovered by me when I was told Enrique Navarrete had it. It is now safe in the lab.
2. Marissa, Jean and David are joining the group. Marissa is a lecturer. Jean and David are mechatronics students - 7th semester.
3. The exteriors Pioneer is almost completely working. It has Ubuntu and almost everything seems to be working. There are minor stuff that need to be sorted out.
4. The lost robot (interiors) is in the lab. and Jean and Carlos G. are starting working on assembling it.
5. Jorge and Marissa are going to get 4 DVDs to save an image of the current HD of the exteriors Pioneer.
6. Carlos G. and Laura seem to be the students that are most active in the project. What about the others?
   

Player/Stage

1. What is Aria exactly? What must be done with it?
2. Should Player/Stage must be installed in the robot? In the students' computers?
3. Stage is not compiling and Luis does not have a clue.
4. How does the player/stage connects with the robot? By using WiFi?
5. How can be monitor the robot when player/stage is runnning? And without player/stage?

Finally a photograph of some of the members (Luis, Carlog G., Jean):

Check Pioneer functionality with ARIA demo - Notes for task

This task requires installing ARIA software which it is included as part of the Pioneer robot software. The installation should be done into the computer which will be used to control the robot. Once the demo program has been located, the student just need to start the ARIA demo program and press control keys to teleoperate the robot.

Progress and notes for tasks.

I've just posted the task instructions or notes for the task that are runnning since the project started.

The following is an image of the tasks that must be finished soon. You can see the progress and the name of each task.

Notice that we are behind schedule. Please try to catch up.

All the best,

Program a Player client (a.k.a. ClientProxy) - Notes for task

In this task is required to compile and execute a sample PlayerClient for C++, as it is described in:

http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/doc/Player-2.1.0/player/group__cplusplus__example.html

The program should be tested and executed in simulation (Stage) and with the robot too using a Player service for each CFG file.

Execute samples for robot and laser sensor in Player and Stage - Notes fo task

In this task will be required to execute a sample control program for the Pioneer robot and Sick sensor.
The sample program can be executed by running an already done CFG file: “$PLAYER_PATH/config/pioneer.cfg”.

It is also required to set the correct path value for the SERIAL connector for the robot and sick sensor. The connection path is normally known as “tty0” or “tty1”. The Player can be executed in a terminal by the command:
“$ player $STAGE_PATH/worlds/pioneer.cfg”

After executing the Player framework with the correct configuration file, the robot and sensor can be accessed by the “playerv” utility, contained in Player installation path: “$PLAYER_PATH/utils”. The application can be executed by setting the HOST of where is executed the player service. In this case the Player service will be executed in the same computer in which the Player service has been initialized. So, the command has to be execute in terminal is:
“$ playerv –h localhost” or
“$ playerv –h 127.0.0.1”

The player user interface is described in:
http://playerstage.sourceforge.net/doc/Player-2.1.0/player/group__util__playerv.html

Getting related to Stage service - Notes for task

The Stage program requires identifying the main features and key concepts of the Stage simulation framework. The objective of this task is to familiarize with the syntax of a Window, Models and Worlds. Also the student is required to execute a stage application for teleoperating a simulated version of the robot, as is shown in the following instructions:

1. Start Player by executing a Stage CFG file contained in folder installation path: $STAGE_PATH/worlds/simple.cfg. From a terminal is required to execute the following command: “$ player $STAGE_PATH/worlds/simple.cfg”

1. Execute the “playerjoy” utility in order to teleoperate the robot from another terminal. The “playerjoy” can be found inside the Player installation path: “$PLAYER_PATH/utils” depending on the installed version (whether CMAKE or ./CONFIGURE). Moreover, after a correct installation this utility can be executed in any part of the user system. The application can be executed by typing the following command: “$ playerjoy”
   

1. Then, robot movements can be controlled by following the screen instructions.

In this task the student will also be required to understand and rename basic features from Window, Models and Worlds files in order to use them appropriately.

Install Player/Stage - Linux (Ubuntu) - Notes for task

This task requires the user to have a Linux computer (e. g. Ubuntu Hardy) and of downloading the last stable version of the Player and Stage frameworks. Then the student will need to install the Player/Stage frameworks, but initially to install any required packages into the operating system. The goal of this task is to generate a functional developing platform.

The installation can be done by downloading two versions of the code. The first is the SVN version which uses a CMAKE method of installation and the file ./CONFIGURE version. The CMAKE version can be found in the SVN and downloading by “checking out” the source code. The ./CONFIGURE version can be obtained by the TAR file provided in the Player/Stage website.

The installation procedure is very important in order to generate the appropriate commands and libraries for Player/Stage. It is also required to redirect the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH from the “.bashrc” in each user HOME path.

Problem with stage

Hi, player is already installed and running, but I can't get stage to install... I downloaded the stage-2.1.1 and when trying to compile I get an error about some headers in the file gui_prefs.c

I can't figure why is this happening, if someone has passed through this, I would appreciate your help.

Newflash!

I'm already install de Linux OS in my PC(I erase de VM Linux OS). And I will install the Player/Stage, I hope to not have problems! See ya!

Player Stage prob

Hi, in all this time I was trying to install and run successfully Player/Stage but had lots of troubles. Great comment Claudia... I'll be trying to get it run tomorrow morning, I hope it works for me.

Some questions on Player/Stage installation

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well. I agree with Carlos in that we should start working on the small robot at soon as possible. Meanwhile, I installed Player/Stage according to the manuals included in the main web page.

At first I had some trouble with the instructions indicated at the project file " It is also required to redirect the $LD_LIBRARY_PATH from the “.bashrc” in each user HOME path.", but I fortunately could get some help and I think I have figured it out.

However, when installing Stage, I came to a step that said as follows: "Test to see if Stage works by running the stest program:
src/stest worlds/simple.world robot1
If you see a robot running around, your build was successful." Well, I didn't see the robot so I went to a user group for debugging help indicated in the same step. A lot of the suggestions and comments there didn't seem entirely clear to me so I just decided to continue with the next step assuming I wasn't running the test program correctly.

This is why I would like to know if there is a way I can check that my installation process was concluded successfully. I would really appreciate your feedback in this aspect.

I will make an effort to visit the lab daily at every available hour I have in order to see if we can meet during this periods of time. I'll be seeing you soon.

Take care!

Some news!

Hi everyone!

Sorry for not blogging in all this time. I have some troubles installing Ubuntu, but now it's working(I'm already install it in a VM, I hope not be a trouble in Player/Stage environment). I'm already download de Player/Stage software and I'll try to install just in few minutes. I will report my progress about that.

Carlos G. Please tell me more about the things you want about OS... I don't get it, in your post...

Cheers!

Good News...

Hi everyone!

Sorry for not blogging but it is a busy week and we haven't made much progress. This week we tried to assemble the robot so today we would be able to make some test. Unfortunately the computer of the robot reboots every now and then so it gets a little harsh to start. However on Monday we will start making tests and we hope it will work properly. In other news teacher Marissa finally found the second robot so we'll start assembling it as soon as we get our hands on it. So maybe Carlos L. and Luis can help with the OS part while Laura, Arturo and I assemble the other robot and maybe you can start making some tests on Player/Stage because we haven't made anything about that because of the lack of experience with the robot.

On tuesday at the meeting with teacher Jorge....let's hope we have some really good news.

Blog and meeting

Hi all,

Sorry about tuesday, I sent a message to several lists about me having a splinter in my eye and not coming to Tec.

However, today I received a message from Germany asking me about how you are doing with the player/stage. Unfortunately I couldn't reply as I missed the weekly meeting and you are not blogging you progress, as it was requested.

Please, even if I do not see you, you must blog your progress in this blog. It doesn't matter if it is something very brief, but we need to know how you are progressing.

I see all of you on tuesday at the lab.

Useful link

Hi everyone!

Hope you are doing well. The person that went on Friday to meet us at the lab shared with us the following link

http://verlab.cem.itesm.mx/verlab/

In the mobile robots folder you can find some useful files to download.

I hope to post later today to give you some notice about my doubts with ARIA and Player/Stage. Hope we can have a meeting very soon because I haven't had the oportunity to meet all of the members of the team. I included my available schedules on an eralier post, I hope you can take a look at them. See you later.

Take care!

Once again... about the robots

Hi everyone!

I just went to the lab and met with teacher Marissa who told me they can't still find the second robot so she was going to send an e-mail to everyone involved in the different robotics projects to find out if someone has information about the location of the robot. On the other hand, the other robot is almost completely assembled but there are some wires here and there on the outside so tomorrow I'm planning on taking it apart and reassemble it so we can begin making tests. If someone would like to be present to assist on it, it would be great!

By the way, Marissa told me tomorrow at 1 someone will go to the lab to tell us where is all the software for the robots so I hope you can make it so we can start installing software and begin testing ASAP.

Best Regards!

Project Overview.

Project Overview

The CEM-DFKI project will create a robotic agent for an online collaboration which will find and move pieces in a automated factory domain. The overall project from which it will be serving is called SemProm and it involves several partners in Germany and Switzerland.

For this project, DFKI Bremen is in charge of creating the robot platform. The main goal is to have a robot platform that will manipulate and redirect manufactured pieces or packages along a smart factory environment.

The robot platform has to be constructed in three main stages:

1. Object manipulation with dual arms.
2. Robot navigation in an dynamic indoor environment.
3. Collaborative robot navigation and planning.

In this moment, the DFKI team is in charge of developing the manipulation elements of the robot. Specifically, the DFKI-SemProm is developing two arms and one head with all the necessary sensors and actuators for recognizing and manipulating small production pieces.

The proposed robot is conformed by a double arm manipulation, a gripper and a robot head for mainting most of the robot visual sensors. As it can be seen in the following images, the robot still has a static position but with the possibility of manipulating small pieces that are continously moving infront of it.

Our SemProm robot, now is able to manipulate a small piece that is moving along a sliding band from a Smart Factory-DFKI module. It is also receiving information from a visual servoing system that is located in its left arm and from a stereo camera that emulates two eyes.

Additionally the robot has a Swiss Ranger camera that generates images 3D perception in a range of 7 m. Basically, this images obtains an image of 176x144 pixels tht represent a sets of 3D point clouds.


The robot is meant to act in a cooperative environment as a tool for a flexible manufacturing process. The manufacture process involves reading and writing of Siemmens RFID chip that stores both product and process information. Therefore, SemProm project is developing a system and methodology for making a more flexible and efficient form of manufacturing products and services by implanting relevant information into a RFID chip.

The robot collaboration will become valuable and important whenever groups of robots will need to exchange valuable information about products and processes. The robot seen as an agent will effectively develop a more adaptable machine. Specifically, it will continuously relate with its environment and create a new form of human-robot relationships.

List of Sensors and Actuators

List of Sensors and Actuators

When I first got to the lab, I was told that one of the robots is missing. The robot that is missing is the small one and the one we are supposed to assemble. So for this first task of listing sensors and actuators, I am going to describe the other robot (P3-AT) the big and already assembled one.

Actuators:

·         4 motors, one for each wheel.

·         2 servos in top of the robot, assembled in order to have 2 ways of movement ideal to put a camera on top of it.

·         A motor that moves an endless screw that fulfills the function of gripper.

 

Sensors:

• Rangefinder laser, this device makes a scan of what is in front of it within its range of operation and gives the posibility to build a map of what is near the robot.
  

Changing the subject, the hours that I am available to work are also Monday and Wednesday from 1 to 2pm and from 5 to 6 or 7pm, Friday from 1 to 2 pm, and 3 to anytime. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I am available from 5 to anytime. And also on Saturdays I could be able to work in the project. May be in some of this hours I might not be able if I have to work in any class project. Goodbye.

Sensors, actuators and other issues

Hi everyone!

I hope you are all doing well.

The sensors and actuators I could identify in the Pioneer 3, (the biggest one) are the following:

·         SICK laser: The laser of this sensor allows it to make a sweeping of the environment in order to construct 2D or 3D mappings.

·         Gripper: The gripper allows the robot to manipulate objects. In the case of this robot’s gripper I could observe that it functions with a small motor and an acme screw that enables its movement. I was reading that grippers used for this kind of applications usually have pressure sensors , however, I wasn’t able to identify them clearly in the Pioneer.  

·         Pan tilt system: This system is intended to hold either a camera or a sensor. It is composed by two servos that would enable the camera’s movement in two directions.

·         Wheels and motors: The robot has four monster wheels and several motors.  

The smaller robot is currently missing, however I was talking to Marissa and she told me that she is having a meeting tomorrow with the students that have been working on it. We hope to have information about the location of the robot as soon as possible.

I am also shearing every time period I have available for working in the project in order to see if one of them agrees with yours ‘.  I think it is convenient to have personal meeting besides communicating through the blog.

Mondays and Fridays: I am available between 1 pm and like 6 or 7 pm.

Wednesdays: I am available between 1 pm and 6 or 7 pm as well unless I have physics laboratory which I usually finish by 3 pm.

Tuesdays and Thursdays: I have a free hour from 1:30 to 2:30 pm and then from 4:00 to 5:30 pm.

I was also wondering if it is necessary to install Player/Stage in Ubuntu and if it is I would like some advice on how to do so.

Have a nice day, see you soon!

 

Saludos.

Hi all,

Many thanks for your blog entries. I will putting here some pictures of the robots we might be using for testing our agents at some point this week.

I am also looking forward to meet you all soon.

Regards,

Renato.

About the robots...

Hi!

I found some link that may be useful to get information on how to rebuild the robots, perhaps teacher Jorge could send an e-mail so they can send us the diagrams so we can put it back together.

Here are the links:

http://www.mobilerobots.com/ This one is from the company that makes the robots.
http://robots.mobilerobots.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://robots.mobilerobots.com/wiki/Manuals and here we can find more information, I tried to download one of the manuals but I wasn't able to do it because I don't have a password.

Best Regards to all!

Carlos

Junta con grupo de trabajo CEM - 10-mar-09 b

Junta con Laura y Arturo.

Les mostré todo lo que les dije a los demás en la mañana. No fuimos al lab.

Como publicar en el blog desde su correo electrónico

Si necesitan mandar mejor un correo electrónico al blog porque tienen prisa y no pueden entrar, hagan lo siguiente:

1. Vayan a la opción de Settings.
2. Seleccionen e-mail.
3. Donde dice "e-mail posting address" agreguen una palabra al lado de su usuario de blogger. Por ejemplo si su usuario es jorge@blogger.com agreguen la palabra que quieran en el espacio, por ejemplo jorge.secondlife@blogger.com, esta será la dirección a la que pueden enviar sus correos electrónicos y apareceran en el blog.
   
4. Activen la primera opción: "publish emails inmediately"
5. Graben la información.
6. Ya pueden mandar sus correos electrónicos.

Visita al laboratorio de manipuladores

1. Vimos el lugar y platicamos con Marissa.
2. Pasamos el pionner de exteriores al laboratorio de manipuladores para poder trabajar con él.
3. Marissa les explicó cómo pueden trabajar en el lab.
4. Marissa nos va a enviar la lista de acceso al lab. aprobada por planta física.
   

Junta con grupo de trabajo CEM - 10-mar-09

Asistentes:

Carlos L., Carlos G., Luis.

1. Se explico planeación. Jorge va a enviarles la planeación.
2. Se les van a dar permisos para entrar a los laboratorios de visión y manipuladores.
3. Se les hizo hincapie en que publiquen en el blog sus avances.
4. Quedamos que de hoy en adelante todo será en Inglés.
5. Carlos L. va a traer una bolsa de dulces para la siguiente junta (petición de Luis).
6. Asignamos tareas en el project para cada persona.
7. Subimos al laboratorio.
   

Junta con Renato 10-mar-09

1. Vimos la planeación en project actualizada.
2. Proxima semana habrá una junta en Alemania para ver cómo vamos y si nos dan acceso a SVN, Trac. También verán más detalles del convenio.
   
3. El jueves a las 10.00 am de México se van a hacer pruebas de videolance con Alemania.
4. Renato va a poner en el blog las fotos de algunos de los robots que tal vez utilicen en Alemania.
   

Horario de la junta

De acuerdo con los horarios que me enviaron, el horario en el que más personas (3) pueden estar presentes es el Martes (o Jueves) a las 11:30 hrs.

Considero que es buena hora ya que Renato (Alemania) puede estar a las 10.30 am todos los martes y tal vez en ocasiones nos podamos enlazar con él.

Por lo anterior, la primera junta del proyecto será el Martes 10 de Marzo a las 10.30 am en mi oficina. Espero que Renato nos pueda acompañar.

Favor de confirmar asistencia a mi cuenta juresti@itesm.mx

Se agregan integrantes

Se agregan 4 integrantes del proyecto al blog: Arturo, Carlos G., Carlos L. y Luis (no ha respondido nada Laura).

Se agregan sus cuentas para que les lleguen los mensajes del blog.

De acuerdo con lo platicado con Renato hoy, este va a ser el medio oficial de comunicación y documentación del trabajo en el proyecto.

Todo lo que se suba de documentación tiene que estar en Inglés para que lo puedan leer en Alemania.

Junta 3 de Marzo de 2009

Asistentes: Renato y Jorge

1. Ayer mandé el mensaje de aceptación a los alumnos del CEM
   
2. Vimos la manera de hacer video enlaces. Aqui en el CEM necesitan saber los detalles de marca, modelo y protocolo (IP o ISDN) en Alemania. Me van a mandar un mensaje con los detalles para poder hacer pruebas con Alemania. Si allá tienen Internet 2 será más rápido.
3. Vimos que el proyecto de seguridad de ellos es sobre seguridad róbotica y no sobre seguridad en protocolos.
4. Vimos la planeación del proyecto. Agregamos tareas milestones. Renato lo va a ir pasando a Inglés.
   
5. Existe un programa ejemplo que traen los Pionner. Parece ser que se llama Aria o SonARNL. Depende de la versión del Pionner, buscar en la red el programa ejemplo y este permite ver como se va a controlar el robot con una computadora para hacer movimientos básicos. Así pueden ver si funciona.
6. Se necesita poder tener un SVN para trabajar guardando versiones. Renato va a ver si en el DFKI nos dejan poner un servidor.
7. Todo tiene que ser escrito en Inglés.
   

Minuta 1-Mar-09

Reunión entre Renato y Jorge via Google Chat:

1) El estatus del proceso de convenio entre universidades y un prospecto del plan de intercambio, trabajo y desarrollo para el tiempo de los estudiantes. La iniciativa se trata de proponer que los representantes del ITESM CEM que se presentent en Bremen para Enero del 2010, trabajen 3 meses de tiempo completo (10/20 hrs?) en le DFKI y comenzar el semestre de Abril-Julio en la universidad de Bremen. En ese tiempo los alumnos podrán asistir tiempo parcial al DFKI y generar una sesión seminario para sobre nuestro proyecto de agentes.

2) Dividimos la metodología de desarrollo en: a) Control, b) comunicación con el robot y b) La generación del método de colaboración

3) Se requiere que se analice el estado del arte de nuestro problema y proponer un par de ideas de investigación y desarrollo dispuestas a evaluarse en publicaciones.

Los aspectos claves que llevamos hasta el momento son:

1) Control del Robot

a. Aprender a utilizar las herramientas de interacción (playerv, playernav)

b. Programar clientes y proxys con Player.

c. Generar plano para la simulación

d. Programar en el robot movimientos simples (control directo y con coordenadas de objetivos)

2) Comunicación de Agentes

a. Generar las performativas de modelado de ambiente

b. Crear el parsing del lenguaje para los robots (Jade o Repast?)

c. Programar un ejemplo de comunicación y/o colaboración

3) Simulación de Agentes robóticos

a. Programar el servicio de decisión para el robot

b. Programa ejemplo de colaboración entre robots simulados

Anexo el Gantt hasta el momento:

Prueba post desde correo electrónico

Va prueba.