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.