Posts tagged with "OMar"
Thursday, 15. November 2007, 02:45:54
OMar, Robotics, Mechatronics
Still crazy busy with work, and getting even busier, but i am trying to make a little free time for myself. In what little free time i can scrounge up, i have been playing with OMaR and i love it. i have not had the opportunity to do much reading on robotics or mechatronics lately, but today i took a little trip over to Design News (3M R&D giving up on Six Sigma) and visited the Mechatronics Zone -- very interesting stuff is listed including GT's plans for a huge RF research lab (gotta keep my eyes on that one).
Monday, 13. August 2007, 18:28:09
OMar, Linux, C/C++
COM Port issues have been resolved!? i was finally succesful in getting COM port to talk to OMaR, i got the OOPic IDE to recognize the a "Serial Programmable Cable" was attached and that it was a good connection on the correct port. However, this, as i have come to discover, is a work in progress that involves ridiculous amounts of frustration. See, the connection is only sometimes good. The IDE (in my opinion) is a piece of crap that needs alot of work in terms of debugging. After trying, trying, and trying to establish the connection, and then finally making that connection, it returns additional errors when trying to download code to the OOPic. Crud! There seem to be countless incidents of this, because i've read numerous posts on Embedded Related that refer to the same topic(s). No one seems to have a definitive answer for solving the problem though -- it all seems like riding a carousel of "solutions" that you cannot get off of.
At any rate, i have decided to forgo the OOPic IDE and more importantly, the even worse M$ environment (OOPic IDE is M$ only), all together and attempt to come up with a solution on Linux. i know that i can use minicom to talk to the tty on Linux, but this too seems like a pain in the ass. We will see though, maybe there is a better solution out there, if not, then i will try to create my own. i have been looking at SDCC -- the Small Device C Compiler so maybe that will be able to work, i just need to experiment with it, to really learn about all that it is capable of. If anyone out there knows of a better way of communicating with the OOPic II+, please let me know.
Sunday, 12. August 2007, 01:29:34
OMar, Robotics, C++
OMaR is here. i am having a bit of trouble getting the serial cable to talk to the COM port though. Not sure what the trouble is, but i am just not having any luck with it. i have tried everything, so now, i have to step away from it for a while. i will look at it again in the morning to see if i was just making a mistake somewhere or if i merely overlooked something. In the meantime, i am messing around with some C++, experimenting with a few things to see what will happen. Hopefully tomorrow i will be able to connect and thus, load a program for preliminary testing.
Saturday, 4. August 2007, 21:20:50
OMar
There is been a small setback; a critical component that i was expecting today -- Saturday, will not arrive until Monday. Alas, there has to be a postponement of the hardware development (assembly) until next week.
Thursday, 2. August 2007, 18:02:47
Mechatronics, Robotics, *bot, OMar
i have been a bit busy this week, but i am hoping to debut OMaR this weekend (Saturday, specifically). He has to be able to see (he does), measure distance and direction, as well as demonstrate edge-awareness. i have started working on some of the code to handle some of the functionality -- particularly distance measurement. The objective is for him to be able to measure a specific distance from himself to a pre-determined object, and choose the shortest 'best' path to that object. In case of an obstacle or some other obstruction, he must then re-calculate the distance, and then choose a different direction in which to travel. Upon successfully arriving at the desired object, he must then push -- 'object Manipulation' -- it to some other location and put it in place.
More specifics on his functionality features in the future.
i have also been thinking of different ideas on how to skin him -- not skin him -- but apply some skin to him. i like seeing the wires and circuitry, but he can't just run around naked. Ha!
Tuesday, 31. July 2007, 17:28:39
OMar, Robotics, C++, Java
Had to take a little break form OMaR to do some "real" work. No, no, this is not like the previous break, this should only last a little while (if all goes well). At any rate, i was evaluating some robot code in Java in an effort to compare it to C++ to see how much of a stretch it would be to program OMaR in C++; i really don't see it as being much of an issue. Of course, i have not really looked at anything very complicated just yet. The code has primarily been for direction, navigation, and measuring. So the question is: "Why C++?" Well, most of the robots that i have seen featured have brains provided by BASIC (Stamp), C, Java, etc. Being a Java engineer, it would seem like the most likely path for me to take, but i think i really wanted the challenge of using C++ to accomplish the task(s) as well as to do something different. Rest assured however, the next (not-so-experimental) robot will have Java brains.
i have added an early production pic just to give a clue as to what he looks like. Clearly, he is not yet skinned and he is a mini-sumo. However, he will not serve in that capacity. This is just and experimental/learning tool for my robotics studies. i want him to take certain actions in order to do a specific 'non-battle' task(s). i will add some more pics as time goes on, but for now this is it. Back to work for me.
P.S -- There is a change coming that, if you look closely at the pic, you will know what it is.
Saturday, 28. July 2007, 19:55:41
OMar, C/C++, Java, C++
...
OMaR -- Object Manipulation Robot development is coming along nicely. i seem to have however, hit a snag. i think there may be a mis-connection somewhere and i am now going to have to reverse engineer it. i'd hate to have to desolder and then resolder, but i will if i must. For the time being though, i am taking a break from working on it. i will be posting some pics representing a tiny timeline of the development process a little later on. OMaR's brains will not be written in Java (that's for our other buddy), but will instead be written in C++. i have not really tested out too much C++ robot code, but i did mess around with writing a little LED blinking program as well as a timer/delay program. Since those programs were successful, i am imagining that the rest will be fairly easy to work out (besides, experimentation is the most fun).
Saturday, 28. July 2007, 14:57:46
C++, OMar, *bot, C/C++
Here we are. i took a bit of time off from making any posts until i recieved my *bot kit; i did! Yes! Assembly is underway and the long awaited debut is drawing near. Now, i must say a little about the plans. The initial direction that i was going in was put on hold (for a little while). i decided instead to work on a different robot and write a different set of instructions for him. With that, i purchased a Mark III kit and began woking on it. The new robot is called OMaR -- Object Manipulation Robot. His objective is simple; manipulate specific objects within his environment.
Running out to the 'Shack'...more to come.
WIDGETIZE