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Sun, 04 Jan 2009
Robot NASCAR - modifying a stock r/c car for robot control
With the new year, I was reminded of the Robot Magazine RoboRacer project and my HPI Micro RS4 1:18 scale r/c car that had been gathering dust for 2+ years. I took a stock SRV-1 Blackfin robot controller, added connectors to the switched battery power and 2 servo signals, and mounted the Blackfin with little trouble to the RS4.
This is stock photo of an unmodified RS4 -
Here is my RS4 with the r/c receiver removed, ESC (speed controller) moved toward the front of the frame, and SRV-1 Blackfin board set with Wifi radio mounted on standoffs -
The underside of the SRV-1 radio/motor board with pins 5 and 6 of the expansion header connected to the servo input signals for steering and speed control -
The RS4 is controlled via Wifi connection to the same java console we use to control the Surveyor SRV-1 Blackfin Robot, though a joystick control would be much more effective than the button commands shown below. For those familiar with the SRV1Console, the only change was a redefinition of the 'M' motor commands in srv.config to 's' servo commands, e.g. changing
button.2=buttons/forward.png
command.2=4D323200
to
button.2=buttons/forward.png
command.2=73303100
Next step is autonomous control. A race track is not complicated visually - the processor needs to differentiate between ground and walls, and eventually be able to detect other cars on the same track. Orientation and track position are more complicated - we might want to add road signs for visual marker beacons and perhaps use different color markings on the left and right walls. The design of the track will "steer" some of the decisions on the best approach to image processing. This is a cool project, and it would be nice to see it gain some "traction".
Posted Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:04 | HTML Link | see additional stories ...