Control iRobot Create through Windows
Roy
dnevill
around with that OI in the early days, but it's very incomplete and
very inefficient: you can't have very many sensor packets streaming or
it'll start to bottle up, and a large portion of sensor packet types
aren't defined anyways.
Since you're using visual studio, it's pretty easy to setup
communications. Create a new SerialPort object on whatever COM port
the 'bot is connected to, call that object's Open function and you're
good to go. You don't need to specify baud rate, parity bit, data
bits, etc. as the class already defaults to the settings the Create
uses. Then you can call it's Read (or ReadByte if you prefer) and
Write commands to communicate with it. Be sure to call its Close
function when you close your program or you may have trouble with that
port showing up as closed or otherwise inaccessible.
I just set up a namespace full of constants for all the open interface
OpCodes with <summary> tags on them, so it's quite easy to work with
in Visual Studio. You'll find an incomplete file that does something
similar among the thirty billion documents in that CreateOI C#
framework. I'd be happy to send it your way if you like. Add a
reference to that namespace and you can type out
"SerialPortName.Write(OpCodes." and get a nice drop down box of all
the OpCodes and what kind of data bytes they expect.
(If you think you'll be using the Create's music player, I have the A0
through D5 notes defined as well in another file.)
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
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dnevill
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.serialport.aspx
The MSDN site is pretty useful when you're working with a .NET language.
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
Roy
I won't be using the music at all. Really we're just going to make it
rotate and drive.
We don't really need the sensors except to prevent damage (like
falling off a cliff), but I think "Safe Mode" should prevent that.
We probably will need to interface with the sensor to see if we're
driving/pushing into a wall though.
Otherwise, we won't really need to interface with many of the sensors
or commands.
Yes, please if you have that file or a skeleton project/files to work
with, that would be very helpful,
Did you mean the whole Create Open Interface is inefficient or just
the CreateOI C# framework is inefficient?
Thanks,
Roy
dnevill
dislike is you can't get raw wheel displacements like on a Roomba, it
calculates it's own distance traveled and angle turned, so if it's
turned through less than 1 degree it'll just report 0 degrees.
Yes, in safe mode it'll stop if the cliff sensors trip or if one of
the wheels drop. If you think you'll be using it around stairs, keep
in mind the cliff sensors are on the front and sides of the Create, so
be careful about driving in reverse.
Sensor packet ID 7 covers the bumper and wheel-drop states. There are
no drop-offs at my facility, so I only care about the bumper status.
Here's an edited version of my C# code for handling the bumper packet
once it's ready to be read.
byte wheelAndBump = (byte)yourSerialPortObjectHere.ReadByte();
if ((wheelAndBump & 0x01) == 1)
bumperRight = true;
else
bumperRight = false;
if ((wheelAndBump & 0x02) == 2)
bumperLeft = true; //If the first or second bits are
1, the bumper is pressed.
else
bumperLeft = false;
If you query for the distance or angle packets, they're two byte
values with the high byte sent first, so you can read them with
something like this:
int newDistance = (short)((yourSerialPortObjectHere.ReadByte() << 8) |
(yourSerialPortObjectHere.ReadByte() & 0xFF));
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
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Roy
and saw your improvements (like how odd it is he kept '130').
To start interfacing with the sensor (like the bump status code you
posted) I first need to initialize a stream, correct?
Seems there's several things needed to get up and running with just a
bot that moves forward, rotates on the spot, doesn't fall, and stops
at a wall - which is all we need.
If I can get the CreateOI C# Framework to work, it does have all that
(among tons of files! Didn't think the framework would require so much
code).
But you said you encountered problems with the framework?
It's a shame iRobot didn't put out just a barebones project that just
includes, for example, a drive forward and stop if bumper is hit. Then
the stream and objects would already be there, and developers can add
their actual movement.
> 21KViewDownload
dnevill
stream, then start the stream and have an interrupt in your code for
new packets from the 'bot. Or, you can use the sensor query (or query
list) opcodes to just ask for sensor data once, read the data, and
repeat this only as often as you want new data.
When you start up, make a new serial port object. Call Open() then
send OpCode.Mode Passive, wait a moment, then OpCode.Mode Safe
I have mine run a new set of packets every 100ms (stream by default is
every 15ms). You can make a Timer object to send & read your sensor
packets regularly.
If that's really all you want it to do, we're talking 10 or 20 lines
of code for that. A timer (you can use the visual studio component
toolbox to add it if you want) and have it send OpCode.Query 7 (the
bumper sensor packet ID), then reads a byte and updates your bumper
status variables like the code I posted and/or trigger whatever you
want to happen when it bumps into a wall.
Your drive, turn in place and stop functions are just one line each:
OpCode.DriveDirect [two bytes for one wheel] [two bytes for the other
wheel].
When you close your program, call the Close() routine on your serial port.
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
Roy
data.
The idea of adding objects in VS is very new to me :)
Are you comfortable with sharing your stripped down code with the
basics (your polling and serialport object, etc)? You don't need to
share the code that makes your bot unique.
If you're not comfortable with that, I understand. But I think it
would be useful to many people for getting started with the iRobot.
Github if you want to make it widely available, if you use Git.
Either way, thank you for your helpful advice.
Roy
dnevill
project: since I'm a graduate student here a lot of the code in the
project I've been developing is technically owned by the university,
and by extension the State of Oregon, not by me. But if you lay down
for me what sensors you want to poll I'd be happy to lay out a basic
C# application that sets up the port, polls for data, and updates some
labels for you. I'm assuming you want a windows forms application
(i.e. a windows style GUI) rather than a console application, yeah?
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
JoeCreate
On Saturday, February 25, 2012 8:07:58 PM UTC-7, Roy wrote:
...
It's a shame iRobot didn't put out just a barebones project that just
includes, for example, a drive forward and stop if bumper is hit. Then
the stream and objects would already be there, and developers can add
their actual movement.
dnevill
from their Kinect rather that for 'bot logic.
Sincerely,
Delvan Neville
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Roy
But I didn't post that we're using a Kinect on the forum, it was in a
private email to you, so JoeCreate wouldn't have known.
dnevill
Ah, gotcha, I handle the forums via email too, didn't realize that message wasn't there :D
On Feb 26, 2012 10:27 AM, "Roy" <royal...@gmail.com> wrote:
Exactly - the Kinect is why we need the laptop.
But I didn't post that we're using a Kinect on the forum, it was in a
private email to you, so JoeCreate wouldn't have known.
On Feb 26, 8:54 am, dnevill <dnev...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sure the laptop is on the robot mainly...
> On Sun, Feb 26, 2012 at 7:47 AM, JoeCreate <2joes...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > At Laptop on a Robot th...
