Let's build a smart robot lawnmower
Quick example of localization with only a 360 degree LiDAR. The final robot will use RTK+IMU+ODOM, running through a extended Kalman filter with a 6D model (3D position and 3D orientation) to combine measurements from wheel odometry, IMU sensor, visual odometry and GPS position. The outcome from this will be feed to the AMCL package […]
This week I’ve did the first actual test drive on my lawn. Everything went fine and the robot is mowing around fine even with the mounted temporary front wheels. For the test drive I am using the morph stack with a DS4 joystick. The speed is okay, I could reduce the speed slightly in the joystick launch. […]
In order to be able to use encoders on the HW pins on the VESC (avoid modification of the VESC hall sensor filter) one need to upgrade the Firmware to a later version with the option //#define AS5047_USE_HW_SPI_PINS 1 in the conf_general.h file. by uncommenting that line the VESC will use HW ports to communicate with the encoder. If […]
So the last days I have been busy. All parts for the drive system was completed and tonight I finished the first test assembly of the drive system. Its a lot of parts for this part of the project and a lot of things need to be correct in order for a nice run. It […]
This weekend we have started exploring the ROS world, sensor simulation, mapping and localization. The project has still a long way to go, but its time to start exploring possible solution for mapping & localization in an outdoor environment for the robot. The main difference with an outdoor environment is a non flat “world” and the constant light […]
Tonight I 3D Printed mounting brackets for the front wheels. I have acquired some cheap and simple testing wheels which will be used before I spend time and effort designing my own with proper bearings. My final wheels will also be more ball-like, so they want stuck as easy in terrain. Before doing the design I also […]
Today I received the 5 inch 800×480 Capacitive TouchScreen I ordered from Amazon. I decided to mount a touchscreen on the Valify Robot so that in a later stage I could add some nice feature for it (fast settings and a GUI controlling different things on the robot). But It will also be good to have […]
The Valify robot will use a Scanse Sweep (2D LIDAR) as a low cost entry point into the LIDAR world. The Scanse Sweep is a single plane scanner. This means that as its head rotates counterclockwise, it records data in a single plane. The beam starts out at approximately 12.7mm in diameter and expands by approximately […]
Tonight I continued to work with brushless motors, VESC and ROS. The Differential drive works. I hooked up a DS4 running turtlebot_teleop_joystick In order to control the motors with a joystick. I also adjusted a few settings. I Have a good start torque with low speeds. But Its not always running smooth from low speed start […]
Tonight I tested to control the motors with VESC over ROS and Differential drive. I took some time to get it setup. But a few hours later I could control the motor with keyboard_teleop over ROS. For a first test and only a few hours spent on this I am very happy with results. I have […]