Surveyor Robotics Journal

RoboCup Junior soccer team based on SRV-1 Blackfin headed to Singapore - 12 Mar 2010

This is a high school RoboCup Junior soccer team VELASRANDY from Slovakia using SRV-1 Blackfin camera and SRV-RCM expansion board for image processing and control. They just won their national competition and are headed to international competition in Singapore. Very impressive !!!

Original Video

More information here.
(Posted Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:00)

miniSVS - a reduced footprint version of the SVS Blackfin stereo vision system - 13 Feb 2010

In response to a request from the GMU RoboPatriots for a more compact version of the SVS to fit their RoboCup robots, we shrunk the original SVS layout from 6" x 2.5" to 4" x 2.5" (100mm x 63mm). The new camera spacing is 2.25" (55mm), though for the RoboPatriots, the spacing isn't an issue, as they are running ribbon cables from Blackfin to cameras mounted elsewhere on the robot.

We are calling the new board the "miniSVS". In shrinking the board, we removed some functionality that the soccerbots didn't need, including FAN8200 H-bridge, antenna mount, laser pointer drivers, and SPI interconnect. In place of the SPI interconnect, we are using a pair of GPIO lines with a soft UART driver.

The basic assumption was that this board would be used with other motor drivers with serial or servo interface, though perhaps this configuration would be attractive to existing SRV-1 robot users. If that turns out to be the case and there is sufficient interest, we can look at adding back the H-bridge and laser drivers.

As with the full-sized SVS, the miniSVS does include interfaces to 8 timers (4 on each Blackfin) with 5V power and servo headers, along with low battery detect circuit.

Those who are interested in the miniSVS or variations should send us an email, and we will consider adding this to our standard product list.
(Posted Sat, 13 Feb 2010 19:02)

SRV-1 / SVS Blackfin HTTP functionality extended to support most SRV_protocol robot control functions - - 09 Feb 2010

The latest version of SRV-1 / SVS Blackfin firmware adds most of the SRV_protocol functions to the HTTP interface, enabling more complete robot control via a standard or mobile web browser. Motor control functions are provided for the existing SRV-1q PWM, the new SRV-4WD controller, as well as RC ESC controllers such as Sabertooth and pan/tilt servo interfaces.

Camera resolution and JPEG quality can now be set via HTTP. Also supported are the SRV-NAV gps, a/d, tilt and compass interfaces, generic I2C devices, SRV-1 vision processing functions, and laser pointer controls.

Using the SRV-1 HTTP interface is really simple. To test these, you can point your browser to
      http://robot-ip:10001/robot.cgi?____
where ____ represents the SRV_protocol function, e.g.
      http://robot-ip:10001/robot.cgi?V
will display the firmware version string

As before,
      http://robot-ip:10001/robot.jpg
will capture a new JPEG frame. We have also provided a simple webcam script using this capability.

Surveyor Robot Forum discussion with additional details is found here - http://www.surveyor.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1265742063. Example code for a simple webcam interface is provided.

The new firmware has been posted to http://code.google.com/p/surveyor-srv1-firmware/
(Posted Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:27)

RoboPatriots humanoid soccer players for RoboCup using Surveyor SVS Blackfin - - 28 Jan 2010

The Autonomous Robotics Laboratory of George Mason University has fielded a team, RoboPatriots, for the RoboCup humanoid league, a prestigious international autonomous robotic soccer competition. RoboPatriots is one of only two teams from the USA that competed in the RoboCup humanoid league in 2009 (of 24 teams overall). The team is small and has never received any outside funding, so one of their goals is to present an inexpensive and robust robot platform that still competes well. In comparison, their competitor's robots generally cost 4-5 times as much.

As the team prepares for next year's competition in Singapore, they are developing tools for humanoid motion and path planning, vision-based localization, and multiple-robot coordination, as well as physical simulation software. The Surveyor SVS (stereo vision system) has proven to be a critical part of their robot architecture, acting as the brains and eyes of the robots.

2010 Robot Specs:

Team Name: RoboPatriots (Johnny 5, Newton, and Stephanie)
Height: 53 cm
Weight: 900 grams
DOF: 18 (5 DOF per leg, 3 DOF per arm, 2 DOF neck)
Motors: Arms and Legs (16): Kondo KRS-2555HV digital servos
Motors: Neck (2): Kondo KRS-788HV ICS Digital Servos
Computing Unit: RCB-4 from Kondo
Camera: Surveyor SVS stereo vision system, 640x480 resolution per camera, two 500 MHz Blackfin processors
Sensors: (1) RAS-2 dual-axis accelerometer from Kondo (2) KRG-3 single axis gyro from Kondo
Walking Speed: 25 cm/s

Links:

(Posted Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:40)

Inertia Labs introduces Renegade SRV all-terrain robot - - 18 Jan 2010

Our manufacturing partner Inertia Labs has just introduced an up-scale version of the original SRV-1 Blackfin robot, intended for larger payloads and outdoor operation, but still based on SRV-1 Blackfin and SVS control electronics. The Renegade SRV employs four high-quality planetary gear motors with encoders to directly drive the five inch rock crawling wheels. The chassis is laser cut and bent .125" 6061 aircraft aluminum with an ABS impact plastic lid. Surveyor has designed a custom speed controller for this chassis that also takes the input from each motor encoder and direct support for Sharp IR range sensors.

Technical details and order information are found here - Renegade SRV.
(Posted Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:25)

New blob tracking display feature added to SRV-1 Blackfin firmware - - 16 Jan 2010

Don't know why we didn't add this sooner, but latest version of SRV-1 firmware now includes a display function for blob tracking results. The console command 'g6#' enables display of boxes outlining the results of vblob() function, where '#' is the color bin for the blob search, e.g. g63 displays the blobs matching color bin #3. 'gx' turns off the blob overlay.

Forum discussion is found here.
(Posted Sat, 16 Jan 2010 14:32)

Large treaded robot with SRV-1 Blackfin controller - - 04 Jan 2010

Inertia Labs has developed a upscale version of the SRV-1 Blackfin robot with a beautifully integrated camera tilt mechanism. Other than the larger motor controllers, this is basically a standard SRV-1 controller setup. For more information, contact Inertia Labs
(Posted Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:50)

Solution for Surveyor SRV-1 via iPhone (also EDGE) - - 22 Dec 2009

EWE Software has added SRV-1 robot control via iPhone or iPod Touch to their Befree4iPhone remote control program. The software is a freeware, downloaded from www.ewe-software.com/download.html, and it requires no iPhone modification or iPhone market download.

Further discussion of the Befree4iPhone is found on the Surveyor Robotics Forum.
(Posted Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:53)

Excellent tutorial on the Surveyor SVS (stereo vision system) - 08 Dec 2009

AForge.NET is an open source C# framework with SRV-1 and SVS Blackfin support that was designed for developers and researchers in the fields of computer vision and artificial intelligence - image processing, neural networks, genetic algorithms, machine learning, robotics, etc. We first described AForge.NET SRV-1 and SVS support here -
http://www.surveyor.com/cgi-bin/robot_journal.cgi/2009/11/05#238.

Since that post, the AForge.NET developers have written an excellent introduction to SVS, describing system setup along with a guide and sample code to create C# applications which control the board remotely, interface to servos, ultrasonic ranging, I2C devices and motor control. The tutorial is found here -
http://www.aforgenet.com/articles/svs_start/
(Posted Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:02)

Bat-tek Project - 03 Dec 2009

Bat-teK is a Carnegie Mellon + Lockheed Martin project that uses a lot of Surveyor's robotic technologies, including the YARB blimp, SVS, and SRV-1 robot, along with CMU's console applications and mapping technology. CMU produced this very cool promotional video for the project.
(Posted Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:35)

First production SRV-4WD motor controllers shipped to test sites - 30 Nov 2009

We have sorted out the assembly issues with our first batch of production SRV-4WD motor controllers, so we shipped a couple of boards to test sites today.

Most of the first boards have been committed to new robots being built by Inertia Labs -

but we will be building another batch of boards before the end of December and will soon set pricing / availability. If interested, drop an email to support@surveyor.com.
(Posted Mon, 30 Nov 2009 19:43)

TUlip humanoid soccer robot with Surveyor SVS Blackfin (stereo vision system) - 16 Nov 2009

We just received these videos from Team EINDroid Humanoid Robotics of the 3TU, a cooperation of the Netherlands technical universities of Eindhoven, Delft & Twente.

The team is using the Surveyor SVS for color tracking via blob detection with one of their humanoid soccer robots. This is a very interesting and challenging problem, and we look forward to their continued progress.
(Posted Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:58)

Web-based "Admin" interface for SRV-1 Blackfin & SVS robot controllers - 14 Nov 2009

Extending the direct web interface to SRV-1 Blackfin and SVS we recently introduced, we have added direct support of HTTP POST methods for uploads of firmware, html pages, picoC scripts, etc, to the SRV-1 / SVS firmware. Those familiar with our existing firmware & file upload mechanism using XMODEM with Teraterm, lsz, etc, will recognize this as a significant enhancement.

Here is an example of the browser interface after selecting the srv1.ldr firmware image to upload:

and the browser display after upload has completed:

As with the web-based interface to the robot controls, no special console software is required - only a browser. Thus far, we have successfully tested with Firefox, Internet Explorer 8, Chrome and Safari, including iPhone and Google Android phone browsers. This capability is included in the latest version of SRV-1 / SVS firmware posted to code.google.com.

Beyond the file upload capability, we will be looking at ways to employ HTTP POST functionality for other functions such as robot configuration (selection of sensors, motor drive mechanism), image calibration (lens rectification, color range selection), neural net specification, etc. We have just started to explore the possibilities.
(Posted Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:46)

New C# framework for machine vision and robotics adds support for Surveyor SRV-1 and SVS Blackfin systems - 05 Nov 2009

AForge.NET is a C# framework designed for developers and researchers in the fields of Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence - image processing, neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy systems, machine learning, robotics, etc. The latest release, version 2.1.0, has introduced support for the SRV-1 Blackfin and SVS (stereo vision system).

Several sample applications are provided for the SRV-1 and SVS. The following screenshot demonstrates usage of AForge.Robotics.Surveyor namespace to control Surveyor's SRV-1 Blackfin robot. The application allows receiving video feed from the robot and manipulate it by driving the robot using predefined commands or using direct motor control.

The following demonstrates AForge.Robotics.Surveyor for control Surveyor's Stereo Vision System. The application allows receiving video feeds from both cameras, show stereo anaglyph images and manipulate robot by driving it using predefined commands or using direct motor control.

AForge.NET is extensively documented and well worth investigating.
(Posted Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:33)

Feature article on Surveyor SVS (stereo vision system) in Nov/Dec Robot Magazine - 24 Oct 2009

The latest issue of Robot Magazine has an excellent in-depth five page review of the Surveyor SVS, starting on page 30.

The author, Harry Mueller, explores many of the capabilities and limitations of the system in its current form, including stereo correspondence, neural net, picoC, RoboRealm, and other features. As Harry notes, "The SRV-1 and its most recent incarnation, the SVS, can best be characterized as a very sophisticated and evolving toolkit for vision experimentation". His conclusions are right on the money as well, though you will have to read the article to find out what he wrote.

(Posted Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:04)

New tool for SRV-1 Blackfin color blob searches - 14 Oct 2009

There is a new C library for AVR processors called "WebbotLib" that has added support for the SRV-1 Blackfin camera as an alternative to CMUcam. In the process of adding the SRV-1 support, the developer realized that we had no good tools for analyzing and selecting colors used for blob searches, so he wrote a new Java-based console, as described here.

This console is particularly useful for identifying colors and color bin ranges that will be used in blob searches. As seen above, I worked out a color range for the "red" of a spool of wire, and the actual blob outlines are displayed. The console is designed to work with serial rather than network interfaces, as this is the typical configuration for the SRV-1 Blackfin camera when connecting to an AVR-class processor.

Note that WebbotLib is an open source project - sourceforge.net/projects/webbotavrclib
(Posted Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:54)

Embedded Stereo Correspondence on the Surveyor SVS Blackfins - 10 Oct 2009

Just posted on The Streeb-Greebling Diaries , this is a very helpful explanation and demonstration of stereo correspondence on the Surveyor SVS (stereo vision system) based on code from the Sentience Project.

===========================================

  A video showing the results of the stereo correspondence algorithm embedded on the Surveyor SVS. This is running on two Blackfin DSPs with synchronised frame capture. Larger red spots correspond to objects closer to the cameras. The big metal object is the left shoulder of the GROK2 robot.

  There is some "pollution" where matching of horizontally oriented features causes bad matches in the surrounding region of the image, but most of the time the spot sizes are inversely proportional to range. There is always a certain amount of noise in the matching, but if the features are converted into sensor models and used to update an occupancy grid then this tends to cancel out with repeated overlapping observations.

  Ordinarily horizontally oriented features can't be matched, at least by sparse feature based correspondence methods, but it does seem to be a useful heuristic to apply similar disparities to horizontally oriented features which are in the neighbourhood of matched vertically oriented ones. Even though it sometimes produces errors, this helps to provide more information about the structure of the environment which can be useful when creating maps or avoiding obstacles.
(Posted Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:34)

Direct interface to SRV-1 Blackfin / SVS from browsers and smart phones (iPhone, Google Android, etc) - - 08 Oct 2009

As first discussed last month, we have extended the httpd support in the SRV-1 Blackfin / SVS firmware for a more robust browser interface and some extended user functionality. As shown below, we have continued with the idea of image mapping the robot controls, but now we have a graphical overlay that can be turned on/off to show the actual controls.

There is still work to be done with the stability of the connections, but this seems to work quite well with iPhone and Google Android smart phones. We look forward to tester feedback.
(Posted Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:11)

Update on the new 4WD motor controller - - 26 Sep 2009

We have working prototypes of the ARM7-based 4WD motor controller for next-generation Surveyor Blackfin robots as previously discussed here. There were a couple of design issues which we think we have resolved, so next step is to do some stress testing. If we don't encounter any more problems, we will start a first production batch in October.
(Posted Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:04)

Finally - the navigation board is shipping ! - 12 Sep 2009

We teamed up with another company - Ryan Mechatronics - to get the new navigation board into production. We will be carrying other Ryan Mechatronics products, including an AHRS, in the future !

As discussed before, the board includes GPS + compass + tilt + 8-channel A/D board with uBlox5 GPS, the new 3-axis Honeywell HMC5843 compass, ST LIS3LV02DQ 3-axis accelerometer and Analog Devices AD7998 8-channel 12-bit A/D. I2C interfaces are provided to all onboard devices, plus uBlox5 GPS supports UART and a time pulse. Final board dimensions are 1.25" x 2.25" (35mm x 60mm). Weight is 0.7oz (20gm). Mounting holes are on 1" x 2" centers.

Online orders here - surveyor-corporation.stores.yahoo.net/srnabo.html

(Posted Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:41)

HTTPD experiment - a web app approach to smart phone (e.g. iPhone) robot control - 08 Sep 2009

We have been experimenting with a different approach to SRV-1 interface with smart phones and browsers, building a very basic HTTPD capability into the SRV-1 firmware. It employs just HTML and javascript, using image mapping for the robot controls, so no special application is installed - it just uses the built-in web browser. This is NOT robust (put your robot up on blocks, not on a table top, if you plan to test this), and performance will be lower that what will be achieved with native apps for iphone, android, etc, but it is simple and stability will likely improve.

Basically, there is now a minimal HTTPD function in the SRV-1 firmware that parses the HTTP GET command, and there is minimal knowledge of filenames, specifically '/', '/index.html', '/00.html' (same as /),'/01.html' ... '09.html'. These files correspond to flash sectors, where 00.html is stored in sectors 10-11, 01.html is stored in sectors 12-13, etc. An HTML file in this system can occupy up to 2 sectors (128kB), and a couple of console commands have been added to read ('zAxx') and write ('zBxx') these double sectors. The HTTPD parser recognizes two other special names - '/robot.cgi?' which is used to send robot commands for motion and laser on/off, and $$camera$$ which signals the insertion of a live captured JPEG frame. Perhaps the most important line of code in the following html is -
<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,$$camera$$" width=320 height=240 usemap="#map1" />
which shows how the jpeg frame from the robot is embedded in the web page.

Assuming you have a new version of httpd.c and /index.html shown below is stored in sectors 10-11, you would point your browser to http://robot-ip:10001/ and the robot should start to serve live frames (approx 3fps). If you click on different areas of the image, different robot commands should be executed.

===============================================
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0;">
<script language="JavaScript">

</script>
<title>SRV-1 Robot</title>
</head>
<body>
<map name="map1">
<area href="/robot.cgi?l" alt="laser on" shape=rect coords="1, 1, 25, 120">
<area href="/robot.cgi?L" alt="laser off" shape=rect coords="296, 1, 320, 120">
<area href="/robot.cgi?+" alt="faster" shape=rect coords="1, 121, 25, 240">
<area href="/robot.cgi?-" alt="slower" shape=rect coords="296, 121, 320, 240">
<area href="/robot.cgi?4" alt="left" shape=rect coords="26, 1, 100, 80">
<area href="/robot.cgi?8" alt="forward" shape=rect coords="101, 1, 220, 80">
<area href="/robot.cgi?6" alt="right" shape=rect coords="221, 1, 295, 80">
<area href="/robot.cgi?0" alt="spin left" shape=rect coords="26, 81, 100, 160">
<area href="/robot.cgi?5" alt="stop" shape=rect coords="101, 81, 220, 160">
<area href="/robot.cgi?." alt="spin right" shape=rect coords="221, 81, 295, 160">
<area href="/robot.cgi?1" alt="back left" shape=rect coords="26, 161, 100, 240">
<area href="/robot.cgi?2" alt="back" shape=rect coords="101, 161, 220, 240">
<area href="/robot.cgi?3" alt="back right" shape=rect coords="221, 161, 295, 240">
</map>
<img src="data:image/jpeg;base64,$$camera$$" width=320 height=240 usemap="#map1" />
<br>
<a href="/index.html">reload</a>
<br>
</body>
</html>
===============================================

This is approximately how the image map is configured based on the above HTML code -

Note that there are issues - the javascript seems to be very sensitive to timing so links break pretty easily and you have to refresh to get things restarted. The frame rate is low, and I don't know how much it can be improved. Also, Android G1 support for embedded JPEGs is broken, though we have reported the problem. In any case, this DOES work on an iPhone.

This code has been posted to code.google.com/p/surveyor-srv1-firmware/. There is not yet a zip download version. You can track progress on this project on the Surveyor Robotics Forum.
(Posted Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:12)

Now offering choice of OV7725 low-light VGA or OV9655 SXGA camera with all SRV-1 / SVS controllers - 07 Sep 2009

As first discussed here, we have been offering the Omnivision OV7725 low light camera sensor as an add-on option to the SRV-1 Blackfin controllers for several months, and have received a number of requests to offer the OV7725 as an alternative to the OV9655 in standard controller configurations. The OV9655 has higher resolution (1280x1024 max) and very good color in full lighting at lower frame rates, while the OV7725 is limited to 640x480 resolution with very good low-light performance and ability to capture at up to 60fps.

In response to these requests, we are now offering the choice between OV7725 and OV9655 on orders of SRV-1 Blackfin Cameras, SRV-1 Blackfin Robot, YARB and SVS. Standard lens on both cameras is still the 3.6mm f2.0 with approx. 90-deg field-of-view.
(Posted Mon, 07 Sep 2009 12:46)

RCM expansion boards for SRV-1 Blackfin now shipping - 22 Aug 2009

The RCM expansion boards with interfaces for 20 servos, 16 A/D, 16 GPIO and microSD are now shipping. The boards can be ordered here:
Surveyor Online Store.

One of the RCM developers made a short video of the RCM exercising 20 servos simultaneously:

(Posted Sat, 22 Aug 2009 13:06)

iPhone console for SRV-1 / SVS Blackfin now on Google Code - 22 Aug 2009

Thanks to the outstanding work by Nick Kitchener (NickK1066), we now have a working prototype of an iPhone console for the SRV-1 and SVS, hosted on Google Code as GPL Open Source:
http://code.google.com/p/iphone-srv/

Currently, the console supports live feeds from dual camera SVS (as seen above) or single camera SRV-1, and has the basis of a touchpad joystick interface for motion control, so driving capability is planned but has not yet been added.

A full discussion of the project is found here on the Surveyor Robotics Forum:
Controlling SRV-1 with iPhone

(Posted Sat, 22 Aug 2009 12:45)

New 4WD motor controller in the works - - 10 Aug 2009

As discussed earlier, we have been experimenting with various motor configurations for larger payload versions of an SRV-1 4WD motorized robot base. One of the first prototypes, which hosts an SVS camera head, was briefly described here a few weeks ago -

In the process of testing this configuration, we found that the pan head added significant instability to the camera mounting, and that by reducing the camera mounting to a tilt-only servo with bearing pivots and using on-axis rotation of the robot body, we had the functionality of pan/tilt with greatly reduced camera flop. However, in order to achieve the need position accuracy of the robot rotation, we needed more precise motion control.

The result of this exercise has been the design of a new motor controller, currently designated "srv-4wd-v1". The controller has separate 5A Infineon TLE5205-2G h-bridges for each motor, and should be able to support doubled output by stacking additional h-bridge devices. The motors we have been testing have bearing-supported planetary gearheads and integrated quadrature shaft encoders, and while only rated at 3A stall current, seem to provide adequate power to the 10-lb prototypes. To integrate the encoder data with the PWM motor output, we have added an ARM7TDMI processor (NXP LPC2101) with UART and I2C host interfaces. Using the LPC2101 analog inputs, we have added a battery monitor circuit and headers for 4 Sharp IR ranging sensors. And finally, we have added 2 headers to interface to either 3.3V or 5.0V yaw gyro. Between the encoder and gyro feedback, we should be able to develop a fairly complete dead-reckoning position solution, freeing the host Blackfin processor for higher level navigation tasks.

Board size is 1.5"x2.5" with 1"x2" centered mounting holes. We have started the prototype fabrication and firmware development process, and hope to have first production boards in 4-6 weeks. No idea yet of pricing, but we will post that information once we have working prototypes.
(Posted Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:25)

Model-free Learning and Control in a Mobile Robot - 05 Aug 2009

Sandia National Labs' Biologically Inspired Brain Project (BECCA), first described here, is being presented at ICNC/FSKD 09 conference in Tianjin, China. A copy of the paper is found here - Slearning.pdf

Here is the abstract from the presentation -
A model-free, biologically-motivated learning and control algorithm called S-learning is described as implemented in an Surveyor SRV-1 mobile robot. S-learning demonstrated learning of robotic and environmental structure sufficient to allow it to achieve its goals (finding high- or low-contrast views in its environment). No modeling information about the task or calibration information about the robot's actuators and sensors were used in S-learning's planning. The ability of S-learning to make movement plans was completely dependent on experience it gained as it explored. Initially it had no experience and was forced to wander randomly. With increasing exposure to the task, S-learning achieved its goals with more nearly optimal paths. The fact that this approach is model-free implies that it may be applied to many other systems, perhaps even to systems of much greater complexity.
(Posted Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:24)

SRV-1 RCM Expansion Board now available to order - 05 Aug 2009

We are now taking orders for the RCM expansion board (20 servo, 16 A/D, 16 GPIO, microSD), as previously discussed here:

Price is $175, with 10% discount for orders placed by education institutions. Order details are found on the Surveyor Online Store.

Note that we only have 50 RCM's available to order. However, if you previously contacted us by email to place an order, don't worry - you are at the beginning of the line and you should hear from us shortly by email.

(Posted Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:54)

First test release of stereo feature detection code built into SVS Blackfin firmware - 26 Jul 2009

Many new features added since last firmware update in May, including picoC autorun(), limited support for HTTP GET, uBlox5 support, and integration of Bob Mottram's Sentience stereo vision code . As illustrated by the video, we have a fair amount of work remaining to make full use of stereo correlated features, but this is a good starting point.

More firmware details found on the Surveyor Robotics Forum.
(Posted Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:43)

In the works ... - 30 Jun 2009

We haven't posted much development news lately, but there are several significant projects that should soon see the light of day ...

onboard depth mapping for the SVS (stereo vision system) - we have a port in the works of Bob Mottram's Sentience stereo vision code to the SRV-1 Blackfin processors. this is a feature-based mapping approach that computes distances to various object features in the overlapping stereo cameras fields of view. the project is progressing nicely, and we hope to make a firmware update with this capability available soon.
GPS + compass + tilt + 8-channel A/D board - we have working prototypes of the new version with uBlox5 gps and new 3-axis Honeywell compass, with I2C interfaces to all onboard devices. once we have nailed down a production schedule for these modules, details will be posted. production prototype photos here (final pcb will be red):
optical flow - we have integrated some optical flow functions into the core SRV-1 firmware, and just need to create a graphical display of results and some functions in picoC to access the vector data. this should emerge in a few weeks in a firmware release.
autorun function for picoC - we have a tested version of code which enables the SRV-1 to launch directly into a picoC script from flash storage on system startup, and just need to generate a release version of firmware that includes this feature.
ruggedized robot base - Inertia Labs has developed several prototypes of larger SRV-1 robot bases with 4WD, planetary gearhead motors, shaft encoders, larger battery, etc. we don't have a production schedule or pricing yet, but these new bases look GREAT, and we look forward to getting them into production. here's a photo of the latest prototype with SVS and pan/tilt head:

(Posted Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:53)

Carnegie Mellon "RoboGuard" - 28 Jun 2009

"RoboGuard" is a project at Carnegie Mellon University using the SRV-1 Blackfin robot as a development platform for automation of security personnel personnel functions. A variety of sensors have been added to the base SRV-1, including:

IR based line following
Motion detection
Compass
RFID reader
Battery monitoring

The project is can be accessed on Google Code - http://code.google.com/p/roboguard/

Video of a test run is shown here:

(Posted Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:26)

Status of new SRV-1 RCM 20 servos / 16 analog in / 16 gpio / micro-SD expansion board - 25 Jun 2009

The SRV-1 RCM expansion board has gone into production. An initial batch of 100 boards has been ordered with delivery scheduled for end of July, though 50 boards have already been allocated.

Schematics are found here -

Preliminary user guide is found here -

RCM User Guide

The RCM has been priced at $175 ($157.50 to education customers). If interested in ordering, please contact support@surveyor.com. As noted above, only 50 boards are currently available from this initial batch.
(Posted Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:23)

Surveyor + RoboRealm bundle ! - 12 Jun 2009

Starting next week, we will begin bundling CDROM's with a registered version of RoboRealm robotic vision software at no additional cost (an $89 value) with purchases of the Surveyor SRV-1 Blackfin Robot, SRV-1 Blackfin Camera + Wifi, and SVS stereo vision system from the Surveyor online store.

RoboRealm has been customized for the Surveyor robot controllers, and they have introduced a series of tutorials for the Surveyor robots and controllers called "Fun with Surveyor". The tutorials include keyboard driving, joystick driving, chasing a light, chasing a red ball, chasing movement, finding a target, and following lines.

Target finding:

Line following:

Visit "Fun with Surveyor" for more details.
(Posted Fri, 12 Jun 2009 20:00)

Some price increases on Monday, June 15 - 11 Jun 2009

Due in large part to the falling US dollar, we need to make a few pricing adjustments. Effective Monday, June 15, 2009, the following price changes will take effect:

SRV-1 Blackfin Robot - $495 (up from $475)
SRV-1 Blackfin Camera + Wifi - $350 (up from $325)

Other prices are unchanged (e.g. the SVS will remain at $550). If you already have a quote from Surveyor for a future order, your prices on that order will be unchanged. New orders received before Monday will receive old pricing, even if delivery is post-June 15. Also, academic discount rates remain unchanged. If you have any questions about pricing, please email support@surveyor.com.
(Posted Thu, 11 Jun 2009 23:52)

We now have a twitter feed - 01 Jun 2009

twitter.com/surveyorcorp
(Posted Mon, 01 Jun 2009 12:29)

Updated version of software-based horizon finder for SRV-1 Blackfin camera - 22 May 2009

Here's an updated version of the software-based horizon finder for SRV-1 Blackfin. An actual slope and intercept is now being computed, and some filtering has been added ...

(Posted Fri, 22 May 2009 18:22)