Nao "Helmet"

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Hello,

Working on my Diploma Thesis and really needing stereo vision on Nao, we decided (at the lab) to design a "helmet" for Nao and 3D print it. Here's how it actually turned out:

                                                                                                               

       

And with one mounted camera:

I have included the "helmet" in the URDF in the nao_dcm stack. You can view it by running rviz: "roslaunch nao_dcm_description display_nao_dcm_{BodyType}.launch". Or by running gazebo: "roslaunch nao_dcm_gazebo nao_dcm_gazebo_{BodyType}.launch". Also, you would need nao_meshes and the meshes converted to collada (.dae). Here are some sample photos (fingers are missing because I haven't implemented them on the URDF yet):

Any ideas/opinions for modifications, improvements, usages are welcomed and encouraged. The "helmet" was designed by Dhionis Sako in Solidworks and it was 3D-printed at the facilities of the Robotics Group, part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics at the University of Patras, Greece. Special thanks, then, to Dhionis for his help and to Aris Synodinos and Fotis Dimeas for helping in the 3D printing.

Best regards,

Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis 

[Armin Hornung]

Wow, that's some really cool design, congrats to you and your
colleagues! And this also nicely shows the benefit of publicly-available
high quality meshes. ;)

How rigid and stable is the mounting with an additional camera on it?

Would you mind sharing the Solidworks files? We've been thinking on a
proper solution of mounting an Xtion sensor on the Nao for some while,
replacing the fixed screws through the head place we're using now
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srcx7lPoIfw). While this is quite
rigid, it's prone to breaking when the robot falls and you cannnot
(easily) swap cameras between robots.

Best,

--
Dr. Armin Hornung
Humanoid Robots Lab, Albert-Ludwigs-Universitaet Freiburg
Contact: http://www.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/~hornunga

[Mihael Presečan]

Nice work.
I would also like to know if you would share Solidworks files too?
I would like to modify it for kinect mount, because I am working on the project to install kinect on the Nao robot and this would help a lot.
Thanks

Michael

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

I have uploaded the .stl and collada files in Thingiverse and you can also find the collada file in the nao_dcm repo (inside nao_dcm_robot/nao_dcm_description/meshes folder).

We are currently working on cleaning up the Solidworks file and we will publish it soon.

Best,

Konstantinos

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Hello,

I have uploaded the solidworks file as well on Thingiverse, so feel free to download it and modify it as you wish. Please, make public whatever modification you do for further development/ideas..

Regarding the rigidness and stability of mounting the helmet with additional cameras, we will be performing tests this week and I will announce the results here..

Best,

Konstantinos

On Thursday, May 22, 2014 12:05:58 PM UTC+3, Armin Hornung wrote:

[Mihael Presečan]

Thank you very much

All modifications, and work on the helmet i will post it here.

Best

Michael

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Hello again,

Because Nao's CPU has limited performance, we decided to use Odroid U3 to expand Nao's performance capabilities.. So, we created a "bag" for Nao in order to attach Odroid rigidly on Nao. Here's how it looks like:

I have included the "bag" in the URDF in the nao_dcm stack. You can view it by running rviz: "roslaunch nao_dcm_description display_nao_dcm_{BodyType}.

launch". Or by running gazebo: "roslaunch nao_dcm_gazebo nao_dcm_gazebo_{BodyType}.launch". Also, you would need nao_meshes and the meshes converted to collada (.dae). Here are some sample photos (fingers are missing because I haven't implemented them on the URDF yet):

Any ideas/opinions for modifications, improvements, usages are welcomed and encouraged. The "bag" was designed by Dhionis Sako in Solidworks and it was 3D-printed at the facilities of the Robotics Group, part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering & Aeronautics at the University of Patras, Greece. Special thanks, then, to Dhionis for his help and to Aris Synodinos and Fotis Dimeas for helping in the 3D printing.

Best regards,

Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis

[Vincent Rabaud]

Damn ! Beautiful, simple and complete solution ! How do you do the communication ? Through Ethernet ? (I did not see wifi in the specs). Do you even need to cross compile ros in that case or do you just have all of ros on the odroid ? What is the cost of the overall thing ? And lastly, what do you use all that CPU for ? Thx !

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[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Thank you very much for your kind words..

The communication is done through ethernet indeed. Because nao_dcm needs constant communication with Nao and neither Wi-Fi nor carrying around the laptop are good solutions, we came up with this solution. Another fact pointing to this solution is the fact that running nao_dcm (or nao_robot) driver remotely is identical in performance as running it locally (see README). So, it is better to use a more powerful CPU than Nao's. That way we also have the advantage not needing to install ROS on Nao and have all the ROS installed on the Odroid (which is not THAT easy because Odroid has ARM cpu, but still a lot easier than installing ROS Hydro on Nao).

The cost of the overall thing is basically the cost of the Odroid platform:

• Odroid U3 - 65$
  
• Odroid UPS (battery) - 29$
  
• 16GB eMMC - 39$
  

For a total cost around 130$ plus the 3D printer's material (and other accessories like ethernet cable e.tc.)..I believe it is more than affordable for really anyone.


As for the use of the more powerful CPU here are some thoughts (needed for my Diploma Thesis):

• Stereo vision (3D reconstruction)
  
• SLAM
• ROS
• ....
  

But the main problem that led us to the need of more CPU power is the very limiting (in performance) Nao's CPU. For example, only running the nao_dcm driver (remotely or locally) consumes around 75% of Nao' CPU. So, it is almost unfeasible to make any other (serious) calculations.


I have uploaded the .stl, collada and .igs files for the "Bag" in Thingiverse. Feel free to download and modify them as you wish.

Best,
Konstantinos

On Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:18:43 AM UTC+3, Vincent Rabaud wrote:

Damn ! Beautiful, simple and complete solution ! How do you do the communication ? Through Ethernet ? (I did not see wifi in the specs). Do you even need to cross compile ros in that case or do you just have all of ros on the odroid ? What is the cost of the overall thing ? And lastly, what do you use all that CPU for ? Thx !

--

[Mihael Presečan]

Hello,

I have tweaked Konstantinos' helmet to make Kinect mount.
The SolidWorks files can be downloaded here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:350908

It is truly ridged and nice piece utility.
Here are some pictures of it

And on robot mounted Kinect sensor:

I hope this is going to help someone :)

cheers,

Michael

[Mihael Presečan]

Hi Armin

While tweaking the Konstantinos' helmet i have made it also for Xtion sensor, it was little job to do, and i hope it will work for you.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8ml24dgx49gp9fj/NaoXtionHelmet.SLDPRT

On university we dont have Xtion sensor, so i cannot test it. So if you would like you can print it and test it. Basicly what i have done, i have took SolidWorks file of Xtion model, and put a base of the sensor on the helmet. So i am not 100% sure if will work. I did the same thing for the Kinect version and it worked really nicely.

Sorry i forgot to export it in stl file, if you really need it i can do it when i come back on university.

If you print it and test it, pls share the resolt here, thanks.

Cheers,

Michael

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Hello Mihael,

thank you very much for your additions/modifications. The Xtion one seems really interesting. We have one at the lab (we are waiting it ;) ), so I will test it.

To further add to your statement about the rigidness (as Armin had requested), we tested Nao walking (with its own walking engine) mounted with our Helmet, 2 cameras on it, the bag and the Odroid U3 (along with the batteries), and the walking was almost identical (in terms of appearance and stability) to the walking without all those additions. Also, the Helmet (and the Bag) attach really rigidly on Nao.

Good work and thanks again for sharing,
Konstantinos

[Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis]

Hello Mihael,

I have printed your Xtion Helmet and it looks really nice. Here's some pictures:

Thanks for sharing!! If any modification is needed (I haven't really test its rigidness), I will post it here..

Thanks again,

Konstantinos

On Monday, June 2, 2014 11:42:04 PM UTC+3, Mihael Presečan wrote: