RoboRealm Forum

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

idea i like about the roboboard it alot faster the arduino and has a fast cpu
its like a leaf microcontroller board but alot faster
i thionk thats what other robot companies use a second or a 3 computer board,cant remember the robot designs that use it

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

Yes, that would work ... but using the RoBoard for just a sensor unit seems a little expensive. A cheap Arduino would perform the same sensor and servo interface for a lot less ... or you can try the Pololu SVP MCU's for a little more motor control/DIO.

But ... your design will work. Connecting them over a ethernet cable should work as we do that all the time with the RoBoard and a desktop pc.

FYI, RoBoard does have a H-bridge so you'd still need a motor driver system. The SVP has that built in.

Plus there are many other options in this space.

STeven.

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

thats about what i thought it would be slower frame rate
one i dea i have and i see other robot companies are doing the same
is using 2 or more computer boards
so using the ROBOARD for sensors and motors only and another faster one for camera and main software and hooking them up with null lan cable like master /slave design
any thoughts on this

No Title

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

Fred,

In order for RR to control the servos it would need to be on the RoBoard ... or you could run RR on both and use the Client/Server distributor to communicate the servo values to the instance running on the RoBoard.

Just some more info on the RoBoard. After our tests for video performance with a Logitech camera (older version of http://www.logitech.com/en-us/webcam-communications/webcams/devices/6600) we can achieve 15fps on the RoBoard using 160x120 resolution (yes I know .. that's small!), using I420 as the camera format (smaller than RGB) and setting the frame rate of the camera to 15fps (format button).

What surprized us was the setting of the fps on the webcam. Typically this is 30fps and you get what you pay for ... but in this case at 30fps the actual rate is only 10fps through RR. When you decrease this value lower the value in RR increases! So something is using that value as a limiter and is able to get more fps through instead of trying for 30. Note that your experience may differ with other cameras.

Regardless, to even get 10fps you have to use a small image which may cause issues depending on what you want to do. For basic color, etc. it will be ok, but for more detail oriented (like fiducial/object recog/etc) that may be an issue.

STeven.

about using the roboard

Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:11:00 EST

it has 1ghz processor and 256mg of ram
and you said roborealm needs 2ghz 64mb ram min
Memory - 64Meg
Disk - 100Meg
Video Card - True color - 1024x768
Keyboard, Mouse
VFW or DirectX WebCam - 320x240 resolution, 30 fps, USB1.0
CPU - As fast as possible - 2GigHz plus
so will it still work good
looking at using roboard for servo and I/O CONTROL WITH WINDOWS XP ON IT ,and roborealm,plus another mini itx board for leaf software and other stuff,will this work,using 2 boards using LAN
do i need to put roborealm on the master(leaf software) and just XP ON the slave (roboard)
or roborealm on the roboard and use the roborealm server