Monday, August 2, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Week 8
Week 8
Day 1
On this day I started to look at the options I had left so I could have some type of product done by the end for my individual project. So I began to really analyze the eeDHcontroller and the p2os drivers and I found that the drives declare what interfaces it wants to use for that specific device. So basically I came to the conclusion that I had to create a driver for the device I wanted to use.
Day 2
I began this day by going through the file system for player/stage and found the files for the limb interface and gripper interfaces. So basically I decided to create an interface that incorporated the limb and the gripper interfaces which will be called ArmManip.
Day 3
On this day I created those files. ArmManip consisted of 4 files: 066_armmanip.def - a definition file, armmanipproxy.cc – a proxy file which creates the command, dev_armmanip.c – a device file for the proxy file, pv_dev_armmanip.c – a file which is used with playerv(player viewer) which allows you to move the device from the player viewer. Later this day we had our weekly seminar on the GRE. After the seminar I began to work on the definition file and finished that.
Day 4
On this day I began to continue my work by starting on the proxy file with the commands for the limb and gripper. Some of the commands in the file are like: open, close gripper, I am also am working on where the arm will have commands like move left, move right, up, down, etc. Later we had our update meeting with Dr. Anderson to tell her where we are at and she gave us suggestions for our research posters. I spent the rest of the day working on my poster.
Day 5
I began this day by continuing to work on the proxy file for the arm manipulation. I ran into a couple of problems trying to combine some of the different commands for both the limb and gripper. I got many of the problems solved and got half of the proxy done.
Goals working on:
Interface for arm
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Day 1
On this day I started to look at the options I had left so I could have some type of product done by the end for my individual project. So I began to really analyze the eeDHcontroller and the p2os drivers and I found that the drives declare what interfaces it wants to use for that specific device. So basically I came to the conclusion that I had to create a driver for the device I wanted to use.
Day 2
I began this day by going through the file system for player/stage and found the files for the limb interface and gripper interfaces. So basically I decided to create an interface that incorporated the limb and the gripper interfaces which will be called ArmManip.
Day 3
On this day I created those files. ArmManip consisted of 4 files: 066_armmanip.def - a definition file, armmanipproxy.cc – a proxy file which creates the command, dev_armmanip.c – a device file for the proxy file, pv_dev_armmanip.c – a file which is used with playerv(player viewer) which allows you to move the device from the player viewer. Later this day we had our weekly seminar on the GRE. After the seminar I began to work on the definition file and finished that.
Day 4
On this day I began to continue my work by starting on the proxy file with the commands for the limb and gripper. Some of the commands in the file are like: open, close gripper, I am also am working on where the arm will have commands like move left, move right, up, down, etc. Later we had our update meeting with Dr. Anderson to tell her where we are at and she gave us suggestions for our research posters. I spent the rest of the day working on my poster.
Day 5
I began this day by continuing to work on the proxy file for the arm manipulation. I ran into a couple of problems trying to combine some of the different commands for both the limb and gripper. I got many of the problems solved and got half of the proxy done.
Goals working on:
Interface for arm
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Week 7
Week 7
Day 1
We traveled to Atlanta for the AAAI conference which was a conference about Artificial Intelligence. We would stay in Atlanta for this conference from Sunday to Thursday.
Day 2
The conference began on Monday, on this day we spent the day in workshops all day ranging from where we need to go with AI in the future, and AI in education. While the workshops were going they had many demonstrations of robotics from different universities like Univ of Penn, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech.
Day 3
On this day we had a demonstration to give on Pre-Op a programming program to start people out with programming robots. We had a couple of people come to see what pre-op. Also at the same time of the demonstration that had the table top chess tournament with the robots. 4 teams participated in this competition CMU, Univ of Ala, Intel, and Georgia Tech.
Day 4
On this day we had to do another demonstration and this was also the second day of the conference.
Day 5
On this day it was basically a pack up day and the last day to see anymore demonstrations you wanted to see. We left about noon back to the Univ of Ala.
Day 6
I spent this day trying out the directions from the guys at the Univ of Auckland, gave me to control the arm. Later this day I learned that this would only work for an arm connected to the pioneer robot.
Goals working on:
Interface for arm
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Week 6
Week 6
Day 1
I continued the research into the things needed for a robotic arm.
Day 2
I looked into player/stage and printed off a couple of example drivers to guide me how they created. I also found some documentation on how to actually create a driver in player/stage.
Day 3
I continued looking through these example drivers to see what I actually need to go into my driver. Later this day we had our weekly seminar which was on how to create your research poster. After this meeting I continued looking through all the drivers.
Day 4
On this day I continued working on looking at how to actually create a driver and began to program the first part of the driver. Basically what the driver would use to actually work.
Day 5
I began this day really frustrated about moving the arm so I decided to get back in contact with some guys for the University of Auckland that I had contacted before about moving the arm.
Goals working on:
Interface for arm
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Day 1
I continued the research into the things needed for a robotic arm.
Day 2
I looked into player/stage and printed off a couple of example drivers to guide me how they created. I also found some documentation on how to actually create a driver in player/stage.
Day 3
I continued looking through these example drivers to see what I actually need to go into my driver. Later this day we had our weekly seminar which was on how to create your research poster. After this meeting I continued looking through all the drivers.
Day 4
On this day I continued working on looking at how to actually create a driver and began to program the first part of the driver. Basically what the driver would use to actually work.
Day 5
I began this day really frustrated about moving the arm so I decided to get back in contact with some guys for the University of Auckland that I had contacted before about moving the arm.
Goals working on:
Interface for arm
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Week 5
Week 5
Day 1
I began the week installing Tekkotsu on the asus. This did not take particularly long, just a few hours to download. After the installation I began exploring the file system trying to understand how tekkotsu works. During this process I began to see how he already incorporated the libraries for the calliope.
Day 2
On this day I began trying to see how Tekkotsu works with the camera as it would as player/stage. It turns out that it did not work out with Tekkotsu on the desktop but it worked very well on the asus. After I dealt with that problem I began to look at the controller for calliope to see what needed to happen for it to work.
Day 3
I continued working on the problem of moving the servos with Tekkotsu. This was a pretty difficult because with Tekkotsu it uses a totally different system than player/stage. They use Targets to control different robotic hardware. Later this day we went to our weekly seminar which consisted of all the CS REU students looking at each others resumes and statement of purpose. After the meeting I began to continue working on the Tekkotsu problem and coming up with a topic for our individual research topics.
Day 4
We began this day with a meeting with Dr. Anderson telling her about our projects and what our process was going to be for the project. My project is creating an easier to use interface to control a robotic arm in player/stage. My process for this was to begin researching on how to create a driver for the calliope which I would be using for my project, then I would move on to creating a interface for the arm, and finally do testing and see which users though programming found it easier.
Day 5
On this day I began actually researching the kinematics, and how to create a driver for an robotic arm. I used this whole day trying to understand how to create this driver.
Goals working on:
Interface for robotic arm.
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Day 1
I began the week installing Tekkotsu on the asus. This did not take particularly long, just a few hours to download. After the installation I began exploring the file system trying to understand how tekkotsu works. During this process I began to see how he already incorporated the libraries for the calliope.
Day 2
On this day I began trying to see how Tekkotsu works with the camera as it would as player/stage. It turns out that it did not work out with Tekkotsu on the desktop but it worked very well on the asus. After I dealt with that problem I began to look at the controller for calliope to see what needed to happen for it to work.
Day 3
I continued working on the problem of moving the servos with Tekkotsu. This was a pretty difficult because with Tekkotsu it uses a totally different system than player/stage. They use Targets to control different robotic hardware. Later this day we went to our weekly seminar which consisted of all the CS REU students looking at each others resumes and statement of purpose. After the meeting I began to continue working on the Tekkotsu problem and coming up with a topic for our individual research topics.
Day 4
We began this day with a meeting with Dr. Anderson telling her about our projects and what our process was going to be for the project. My project is creating an easier to use interface to control a robotic arm in player/stage. My process for this was to begin researching on how to create a driver for the calliope which I would be using for my project, then I would move on to creating a interface for the arm, and finally do testing and see which users though programming found it easier.
Day 5
On this day I began actually researching the kinematics, and how to create a driver for an robotic arm. I used this whole day trying to understand how to create this driver.
Goals working on:
Interface for robotic arm.
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Week 4
Day 1
I began the week with a breakthrough, one of my colleagues in the lab got the arm moving with ROS by simply using the serial port and basically telling it different positions by changing it and saving it every time, and running it. So we went through different tests trying to create a program using that method.
Day 2
This day we began to work with the calliope robot that Dave Touretzkey created. We really just work with the servos, just to learn them and what they do. We also returned the lynx motion arm that the undergraduate team would be using for their chess bot for the AAAI conference competition.
Day 3
I spent the first part of my day looking at the different documentation on the calliope. We also had our weekly seminar which was on computer science research presentations. After the seminar we began to build calliope. This was a pretty easy build due to the fact we only had the first part of calliope which is the platform and the pan and tilt camera.
Day 4
The CS REU took a trip to Atlanta, GA to Google and we visited their facilities, and talked to their employees. After our visit there we took a trip to 6 flags and spent the rest of the day there .
Day 5
I spent that day working with the camera on the calliope I got the blob finder and camera to work. After that success I spent the rest of the day researching whether I could get the servos to work with the player/stage, which had no success.
Goals completed:
Evaluation of the 3 robotic software programs.
Goals I'm working on:
Working with Tekkotsu to get the servos to move
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Week 3
Day 1
This day began with a meeting with Dr. Anderson on what our upcoming goals are for these next two weeks. After this meeting I continued with figuring out why we could not get the arm to move with player/stage. So after reading a research paper by some researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. I decided to email them to get some help.
Day 2
I continued to look at the player/stage problem and wait for a response from the researchers. Later that day I received a response telling me that he would refer me to some one else who had the driver for the arm controller.
Day 3
I received the config file for the arm controller began working with that, I got it to compile and everything for it to work. It still did not work for me. So I went back to exploring the file system for player/stage to see if I could find what the problem could be. Later this day we had a seminar on writing research papers for computer science. We received two books on this subject.
Day 4
This day was spent having a meeting with my other colleagues in the lab. We began to look at player/stage and determined that it would not be able to work with our lynx motion arm. We began to look at ROS(Robotic Operating System). This day was taken up for the installation.
Day 5
I began to look at the ROS tutorials learning how to different things with the software. Then I downloaded the specialized pkgs that are for the arm manipulation.
Goals Completed:
Evaluation of 3 robotic software programs
Goals I'm working on:
Getting arm to work with ROS
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
This day began with a meeting with Dr. Anderson on what our upcoming goals are for these next two weeks. After this meeting I continued with figuring out why we could not get the arm to move with player/stage. So after reading a research paper by some researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. I decided to email them to get some help.
Day 2
I continued to look at the player/stage problem and wait for a response from the researchers. Later that day I received a response telling me that he would refer me to some one else who had the driver for the arm controller.
Day 3
I received the config file for the arm controller began working with that, I got it to compile and everything for it to work. It still did not work for me. So I went back to exploring the file system for player/stage to see if I could find what the problem could be. Later this day we had a seminar on writing research papers for computer science. We received two books on this subject.
Day 4
This day was spent having a meeting with my other colleagues in the lab. We began to look at player/stage and determined that it would not be able to work with our lynx motion arm. We began to look at ROS(Robotic Operating System). This day was taken up for the installation.
Day 5
I began to look at the ROS tutorials learning how to different things with the software. Then I downloaded the specialized pkgs that are for the arm manipulation.
Goals Completed:
Evaluation of 3 robotic software programs
Goals I'm working on:
Getting arm to work with ROS
Begin: May 30, 2010
End: July 31, 2010
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Week 2
Week 2
Day 1
I began the week by continuing my work programming the lynx motion arm in player/stage. I found the driver that is needed by the arm to allow it to move. I began having trouble compiling this driver.
Day 2
I continued looking into the file directory for this driver, and found that is was by default disabled, and I downloaded the required libraries that it requires for the inverse kinematics. After this was complete I found more errors with the eeDHcontroller, where it could not find the files that I just downloaded.
Day 3
Continued with trying to debug the program by digging more into the file directory. We had our weekly seminar which was about selecting graduate schools, and statement of purpose when applying.
Day 4
We had a little breakthrough with one of my colleagues who got a new error instead of the error I was receiving. We spent the rest of the day trying to figure out this problem
Day 5
We spent this day continuing our research into this problem. I found a paper with a sample program that was written by some professors at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.
Goals Completed for project:
Evaluation of all 3 robotic software programs
Goals I'm working on:
Getting lynx motion arm to work with player/stage
Monday, June 14, 2010
Week 1
Week 1
I arrived in Tuscaloosa, AL on May 29, 2010, and moved onto the campus of the University of Alabama on May 30, 2010.
Day 1
The first day of my REU consisted of an Orientation with the other REU's that are being hosted on the University. During this orientation we met the other students and were introduced to the Dean of Graduate studies here.
After orientation we got to visit the labs we would be working in and get keys to our offices where we would do most of our research. During this tour I met Dr. Monica Anderson with whom I will be working with. After meeting with Dr. Anderson she held a meeting where we would meet with the graduate students, and the other undergraduates I would be working with, and I received the project I would be working on.
My Project:
Myself and 3 other students are working with 3 main different types of software(Player/Stage, Pre-op(www.cs.ua.edu/preop ), and ROS(robotic operating system – www.ros.org )). We will look into the different pieces of software and some others to see which software has the easiest user usability.
Day 2
The second day myself and the other REU students went through a Health&Safety seminar. After that seminar I began with my research which began with looking at an existing program that the students at the University of Alabama had created which used an i robot create with a robotic arm to play chess and explain it to my colleagues. After that was done I had to install player/stage onto my computer and find a way to control the robotic arm with player/stage rather than the software they were already using.
Day 3
The third began with me continuing with installing player/stage onto the computer.
Day 4
The fourth day I made progress with getting the player part of player stage onto the computer and beginning to look at the drivers for controlling a robotic arm which are: actarray, limb, and gripper. As I found these drivers I began to look into which drivers controlled what, and I came up with the idea to use the stage part of player/stage which is a simulator to write the program and simulate it in stage.\
Day 5
I downloaded stage and began to build and compile it to install it. This part of my research will expand into week 2 of my research.
Goals to be completed during weeks 1 – 2:
Write program for arm in player/stage
Write program for arm in Pre-op
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