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.

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.