Beobot 2.0
From ILabWiki
Beobot 2.0 is a project to create a human-sized high-performing parallel computing mobile robot platform utilizing miniature-sized Computer on Modules (COM). The COM Express module is a small 12.5x9.5cm form-factor embedded system that are equivalent to a regular desktop computer. We use a module with a 2.2GHz Intel Core2-Duo processor. In our robot we will have 8 of them to total 16 processing cores. As fas as we know, we believe this is the most powerful robot for its size. In addition, it is important to note that the total cost of the robot is under $25000, far below what a robot of this capability goes for in the market. We estimate that, given all the provided instructions and design files, the amount of time to assemble (no re-designs) a new robot is about 1 month.
And now, given the available processing, the software goal of our system is to create a general vision architecture where the robot are able to self localize, recognize objects, people, and faces. Furthermore, in our system, we would like to emphasize that all these capabilities will be implemented in a unified architecture. This way all available information obtained from all modules in the previous frames are available as context to every module that is currently running. In addition, we plan to fit Beobot 2.0 with a Scorbot Robot Arm to enable it to perform object manipulations.
This robot is an improvement from the previous version Beobot 1 (http://ilab.usc.edu/beobots/), where it has 4 cores of 1GHz each. In addition Beobot1 is also smaller in size as it uses a remote control (RC) car as a platform.
| Table of contents |
People
| 1. Christian Siagian (http://ilab.usc.edu/siagian/) | Mechanical and Electrical. |
| 2. Randolph Voorhies (http://www.linkedin.com/pub/1/4b0/a72) | Mechanical and Electrical. |
| 3. Kai Chang (http://ilab.usc.edu/~kai/) | Mechanical and Electrical. |
| 4. Dicky Nauli Sihite | Mechanical and Electrical. |
| 5. Laurent Itti (http://ilab.usc.edu/) | Mechanical and Electrical. |
Deadlines
| Todo | Date | |
| Wiki started | September 10, 2008 | |
| Overall robot design started | September 11, 2008 | |
| First Electrical prototype started | September 14, 2008 | |
| First Electrical prototype sent to AdvancedCircuits | October 31, 2009 | |
| Main Robot Order BOM1 out | November 17, 2008 | |
| * Part List 1 (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pI3A5bo5esPAACrmXN17MYQ) | ||
| Start Mechanical Machining & Assembly | December 28, 2008 | |
| First Electrical prototype tested | January 21, 2009 | |
| Electrical prototype 1.1 tested | February 26, 2009 | |
| Mechanical done | March 15, 2009 | |
| Robot Order BOM2 Sent out | April 15, 2009 | |
| * Part List 2 (http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pD1mdbmFyQFSFLRtZWSVhBw) | ||
| Final Electrical prototype Sent out | April 28, 2009 | |
| Robot Anodized | June 17, 2009 | |
| Robot Almost done | June 28, 2009 | |
| Robot done | July 7, 2009 |
Weekly Meeting Notes
| Date | Summary |
| September 9, 2008 | Kickoff again |
| September 16, 2008 | Be ready for prototype deadline Oct 3, 2008 |
| October 14, 2008 | Final decisions for first prototype |
| December 14, 2008 | Last week of semester report |
| Demo Script | July 1, 2009 DARPA meeting |
Design and Implementations
The system has two parts: software and hardware. The hardware part has two sub-systems: the mechanical and electrical system.
The integration issues between these two sub-systems usually pertains to:
- Making sure size (length, width, and height) of boards are accomodated.
- Specifying connectors and their placements so that they are easily reachable.
- Cable placements.
As for the software system, we discuss the unified vision architecture and its capabilities below.
Mechanical System
The mechanical system consists of the following components: locomotion, battery, cooling, and computer protection system.
This section discusses the design decisions, part manufacturing and assembly, as well as testing.
Electrical System
The electrical system consists of the following components: processors, power, and peripherals.
This section discusses the component selection, board design, connections, interfaces, and power management.
Software System
The software system discusses issues from low level computer communication to the contemporary robotics topics such as localization, navigation, SLAM, multi-task learning.
Total Cost
The total cost is $24923.29 with mechanical system total cost being $4646.69 and the electrical system $20276.6. Note that this does not include shipping costs.
Links (Related Robot Projects)
- Open Automaton Project (http://oap.sourceforge.net)
