Chac Mool, the robot

What is this about?

Chac Mool is a robot whose purpose is to patrol and sweep areas in search of specific trash with the task of picking it up for a later disposal.

Key elements

For this implementation we have considered the following elements:

• Compaq Notebook 1245 (?) - without display to reduce power consumption.
• Creative Webcam X2Z24-38b (?) USB.
• Radio controlled Ford F-150 truck from RadioShack™.

Goals

To make this project more feasible, the robot has been limited to search for soda cans within a controlled space -- a white background. These limits are imposed greatly by the complexity of the trash identification and recognition algorithms. The robot's brain is the notebook computer.

• Build the basic foundations of the project in a Linux system with the required features.
• Implement via hardware a movement controller for the R/C truck.
• Implement via software a movement controller for the R/C truck.
• Implement a program that identifies soda cans.
• Create and assemble a mechanical arm to pick up the soda cans.

So how are we doing, champ?

We worked on this project during the Aug-Dec '02 semester. Many of the specified goals were completed; however the implementation details were not as best as they could be because of lack of time. In the project's due date --November 26th 2002-- we handed in the following:

A laptop mounted over the R/C truck where potentiometers that manipulated the direction and speed of it were controlled via the notebook's parallel port. The laptop was programmed to receive the login of the 'control' user to which this identification provided access directly to the command console for the movements of the truck. The program that identified and recognized soda cans was running constantly in the background. The robot --laptop-- included a wireless PCMCIA card that permitted the team to control the robot from any site that was within access point range. By means of an alias in the Apache server, we could see the most recent image that the robot was processing and analyzing. To administer the programs and the system in general we obtained a domain --chacmool.dyndns.tv-- that allowed us to enter via Secure Shell (SSH), although the robot upon boot spoke to us --Spanish via Festival on Linux-- its IP address so that we could connect to it directly.

Files

Here are the slide presentations of the 4 teams that worked on the project (Digital Electronics and Microprocessors, Mechanics, Vision, and Wireless Communications):

• ElecDigital.ppt.
• Mecanica.ppt.
• Vision.ppt.
• Wireless.ppt.

• apacheconf.tar.gz. Configuration files for the Apache Web Server.
• control.tar.gz. Login script for the 'control' user.
• vision.tar.gz. Implementation kit that includes the functions for Hu moments definitions. Also contains a Perl script for soda can detection and identification.
• wireless.tar.gz. Client-Server programs to control the speed and direction of the R/C truck.

Pictures

The pictures of the hand-in of the project can be found here.

About...

The following individuals participated in the project:
Carlos Pfeiffer, Ph.D & Jesús Santana Blanco, BS
Luis Augusto Ángel
Mario Aníbal Cruz
Daniel Díaz
Pedro Espinosa
Daniel Esquer
Jorge Herrera
David Leal
Adelfo Gallardo
Luis García-Calderón
Óscar Garza
Estuardo Gorián
Juan Guzmán
Gustavo Muñoz
José Antonio Palacios
Leo Palacios
Fernando Rivero
Jorge Robles
Manuel Torres
Carlos Treviño