1. Nir Mendel, Yuval Pick & Ilya Roginsky Advisor: Prof. Ronen Brafman
Robot-NYi
Nir Mendel, Yuval Pick & Ilya Roginsky
Advisor: Prof. Ronen Brafman

2. Project’s objectives Adding new capabilities for the robot.
Combining capabilities of the robot in to a single package.
Providing an easy interface for using each task independently.
Creating sub-methods (services) for a simple creation of future capabilities.
Written in Python over ROS (Robot OS), for the Komodo Robot.

3. Robot’s description Comprised of 3 modules: Significant Sensors:
Rover Module.
Sensors Module.
Arm Module.
Significant Sensors:
3 range sensors (left, right, front)
Laser Rangefinder (Hokuyo URG-04LX-UG01)
Asus XTION PRO LIVE - RGB and Depth Sensor
IMU (3-axis accelerometer, gyro and magnetometer)

4. ROS Environment
ROS is an open-source operating system of the robot. It provides services such as: low-level device control, message-passing between processes, and package management. It also provides tools and libraries for writing, and running code.
Sample topics in the robot package:
/komodo_1/ranges/left_urf
/komodo_1/cmd_vel
/komodo_1/scan
/komodo_1/odom_pub …

5. ROS Concepts
Packages - the main unit for organizing software in ROS. A package may contain nodes, libraries, datasets, configuration files, or anything else that is usefully organized together.
Messages - a data structure used for communication between nodes. (like C structs)
Topics -  Publish / Subscribe communication. A node sends out a message by publishing it to a given Topic. All nodes that are subscribed to that Topic will receive that message
Services - Request / Reply communication. This is defined by a pair of message structures: (request/reply) A node offers a service under a name and a client uses the service by sending the request message and awaiting the reply
Nodes - processes that perform computation. A robot control system usually comprises many nodes.

6. Existing capabilities
Cupinator – a cup detection and approach capability of the robot. Created by Lior Zur-Lotan, Maor Ashkenazi and Micahel Bar-Sinai. This project enables basic object recognition in an unknown environment, for known objects. This is done by a specialized implementation of the the ShapeContext algorithm

7. New capabilities
Safe hallway movement: Moves inside a hallway while detecting obstacles and stops when reaching an impassable obstacle. Managed in ‘HallwayEngine.py’.
Obstacle avoidance: Passes obstacle in front either from the left or right side. If impossible returns to original position. Managed in ‘ObstaclesEngine.py’
Door passage: Searches and passes through a given door in a hallway. Managed in ‘DoorEngine.py’

8. Menu The flow control of the robot. Has 4 options:
‘door’/’d’ – Door passage.
‘obstacle’/’o’ – passes an obstacle.
‘cup’/’c’ – searches a cup and navigates towards it.
‘hallway’/’h’ – moves safely in a hallway.

9. Provided methods
Methods provided for future implementation of additional capabilities:
Moving forward a single step.
Moving forwards a given amount of steps.
Managing small obstacles by making small fixes.
Turning in 90 degrees.
Bypassing an obstacle.
“Sticking” to a wall at a given side of the robot.
Checking if the robot is near a door.

10. Problems Software – Administrative – Re-executed old commands.
Physical –
Cannot move straight.
Difficulties turning.
Slides
Software –
Re-executed old commands.
Administrative –
Real Robot vs. Gazibo
Only one robot – and several teams
Robot sent to fix
פיזי – הגלגלים מונעים מהרובוט לנסוע ישר
קשה לרובוט להסתובב
מחליק קדימה/לצדדים

11. Project’s Diagram

12. Summary
We gathered several tasks into a single package, and provided a simple interface for each task.
The division of the project into many classes (in such a way so that each class is responsible for some subtask), Allows for each service to used in the future in additional capabilities.
The implementation was based mainly on Trial and Error, due to the lack of documentation during the last year, Komodo’s software bugs, inaccurate results returned from the robot’s sensors, and unplanned malfunctions occurred to the robot.

13. Microsoft Engineering Excellence
Questions?
Microsoft Confidential