ECE497 Project Beaglebone Blue Robotics

Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder

Team members: Mark A. Yoder, (List all the team members here with link to their eLinux User page. Use my format.)

Grading Template

I'm using the following template to grade. Each slot is 10 points. 0 = Missing, 5=OK, 10=Wow!

00 Executive Summary
00 Installation Instructions 
00 User Instructions
00 Highlights
00 Theory of Operation
00 Work Breakdown
00 Future Work
00 Conclusions
00 Demo
00 Late
Comments: I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Score:  10/100

(Inline Comment)

Executive Summary

We will be interfacing the newly developed Beagle-bone Blue with an existing Robotics Platform from spark fun. Build an interface for existing libraries for motor control, servo control, and sensors will be developed. Stretch goals include some amount of image processing.

We have the blue working and mounted to the robot frame. We are able to connect to the school WiFi and host a web-server to interface with. We have rewired the robot to be connected to the beagebone blue board. We can read all the sensors on board and interface with the pixy camera.

What we haven't been able to get working is motor control because the motors for the spark fun robot were rated for much lower than what the blue provides so we had to replace those with continuous rotation servos. We have had power issues with the board itself, these are related to the 12 volt jack and the 6 volt regulator, sometimes the jack disconnects or something causing the whole board to shut down, and sometimes the 6 volt regulator fails to work. We have yet to find a solid reason to why these things happen.

In conclusion we had a number of difficulties getting the blue to work, and part of it would definitely be due to how experimental its current state is. After getting everything set up though we found it to be very easy to use.

Packaging

Experimental schematics for a beaglebone blue If you have hardware, consider Small Build, Big Execuition for ideas on the final packaging.

Installation Instructions

Give step by step instructions on how to install your project.

• Follow git hub instructions to configure blue for robotics
• Github Project
• Include your github path as a link like this to the read-only git site: https://github.com/MarkAYoder/gitLearn.
• Be sure your README.md is includes an up-to-date and clear description of your project so that someone who comes across you git repository can quickly learn what you did and how they can reproduce it.
• Include a Makefile for you code.
• Include any additional packages installed via opkg.
• Include kernel mods.
• If there is extra hardware needed, include links to where it can be obtained.

User Instructions

Once everything is installed, how do you use the program? Give details here, so if you have a long user manual, link to it here.

Highlights

Here is where you brag about what your project can do.

Include a YouTube demo.

Theory of Operation

Give a high level overview of the structure of your software. Are you using GStreamer? Show a diagram of the pipeline. Are you running multiple tasks? Show what they do and how they interact.

Work Breakdown

List the major tasks in your project and who did what.

Also list here what doesn't work yet and when you think it will be finished and who is finishing it.

• Alvin's Tasks

1. Build web interface
2. Update Wiki page
3. Interfaced connectors

• Sam's Tasks

1. Find connectors
2. Work with pixy camera
3. Mounted the blue to the robot

Future Work

Suggest addition things that could be done with this project.

Conclusions

Give some concluding thoughts about the project. Suggest some future additions that could make it even more interesting.

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Embedded Linux Class by Mark A. Yoder