I've spent the past couple weeks writing the RoboBuggy proposal. Right now, Nate and I estimate that we can build RoboBuggy for around $800. That's pretty cheap for an autonomous vehicle, and we'll see how long our budget holds to that.
For all interested parties, I will attach the RoboBuggy proposal! Its not my finest work, but hopefully it will get the point across. The point being: This is an awesome project and needs funding.
Enjoy!
Project: RoboBuggy
Collaborators: Alex Klarfeld and Nathaniel Barshay
Introduction
Robotics and the sport of Buggy have been a trademark of Carnegie Mellon since the university's first inception. The bridge between these two ideas was first established in the year 2000 as Arne Suppe's senior research project. Partnered with the Computer Science department, Arne created a fully autonomous robotic buggy that rolled exhibitions on Race day 2001. After it successfully navigated the free roll, the RoboBuggy did not get past the monument at the bottom of the hill. Due to technical issues, the RoboBuggy did not roll after that and lay dormant for many years.
Research Question and Significance
We propose to resurrect the RoboBuggy project with newer technologies. We would like to prove that it is possible to build a vehicle capable of autonomously navigating a regular street at a low cost and with relatively limited resources. The idea of autonomous vehicles have been at the front end of today’s technical world, but are usually tackled by companies or large research groups like Red Whittaker's autonomous SUVs. Most of these projects have been funded with extremely large budgets ranging in the millions of dollars. We are looking to create a scaled down version of an autonomous street vehicle for roughly one thousand dollars. This project would prove interesting not only to members of the Carnegie Mellon Community, but to the robotics community as a whole, as we are planning on building an autonomous street vehicle for about a third of the cost of a regular, manned buggy. In addition, our main fabrication shop will be the basement of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. As one can infer, this workshop will have significantly less resources compared to one of Carnegie Mellon's research laboratories. The main point of interest is that such a sophisticated robotics project is feasible with very limited resources.
Project Design and Feasibility
The equipment for RoboBuggy will be gathered and tested during the Fall Semester of 2010. All of the equipment from the last RoboBuggy attempt has already been donated to the current project. Since the last project took place ten years ago, much of the equipment inside the RoboBuggy is obsolete. This hardware has been removed and preserved in a safe location. The hardware that will remain with the current project are the metallic buggy shell and braking mechanism, the high resolution camera, the large steering servos and the turning radius encoder. Once the buggy has been fully assembled and tested in house, we will attempt to navigate the free roll using computer vision coupled with a powerful line following algorithm. This algorithm will be adapted from the winning Mobot that Nathaniel and I built for the 2010 Spring Mobot Race. The code will be tweaked so that the RoboBuggy will be able to follow the white street lines. We are planning on incorporating the RoboBuggy with Alpha Epsilon Pi's regular fleet of manned buggies, which will allow us to complete field tests every day of the weekend between the hours of 4:30 and 9:30AM. Theoretically, the RoboBuggy will be able to be tested two to three times a day during that time span. All of the field testing will occur at the start of buggy rolls, Spring Semester 2011.
This project will be split into five milestones. These milestones correspond to different parts of the course. The first milestone will be if the buggy successfully navigates down the free roll using line navigation and successfully stops when it reaches the bottom of the hill or if its prompted to stop in case of an emergency. The second milestone will be if the buggy can navigate from the start of the race on Tech Street to the start of the free roll with the aid of pushers. The third milestone will be if the buggy can navigate along Schenley Drive, maneuvering around the monument and successfully recognizing the flaggers. The fourth milestone will occur if the RoboBuggy successfully takes the sharp turn at the edge of the chute. This milestone will be the most difficult out of all of them. Finally, the fifth milestone will be if the buggy can navigate to the finish line with the aid of the pushers. We will strive to achieve all milestones by Race Day 2011, though we realize this is a very daunting project and realistically we will have to work over multiple years. For Race Day 2011, our goal will to be to have the RoboBuggy roll up to the sharp turn in the chute.
Collaborators: Alex Klarfeld and Nathaniel Barshay
Introduction
Robotics and the sport of Buggy have been a trademark of Carnegie Mellon since the university's first inception. The bridge between these two ideas was first established in the year 2000 as Arne Suppe's senior research project. Partnered with the Computer Science department, Arne created a fully autonomous robotic buggy that rolled exhibitions on Race day 2001. After it successfully navigated the free roll, the RoboBuggy did not get past the monument at the bottom of the hill. Due to technical issues, the RoboBuggy did not roll after that and lay dormant for many years.
Research Question and Significance
We propose to resurrect the RoboBuggy project with newer technologies. We would like to prove that it is possible to build a vehicle capable of autonomously navigating a regular street at a low cost and with relatively limited resources. The idea of autonomous vehicles have been at the front end of today’s technical world, but are usually tackled by companies or large research groups like Red Whittaker's autonomous SUVs. Most of these projects have been funded with extremely large budgets ranging in the millions of dollars. We are looking to create a scaled down version of an autonomous street vehicle for roughly one thousand dollars. This project would prove interesting not only to members of the Carnegie Mellon Community, but to the robotics community as a whole, as we are planning on building an autonomous street vehicle for about a third of the cost of a regular, manned buggy. In addition, our main fabrication shop will be the basement of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity. As one can infer, this workshop will have significantly less resources compared to one of Carnegie Mellon's research laboratories. The main point of interest is that such a sophisticated robotics project is feasible with very limited resources.
Project Design and Feasibility
The equipment for RoboBuggy will be gathered and tested during the Fall Semester of 2010. All of the equipment from the last RoboBuggy attempt has already been donated to the current project. Since the last project took place ten years ago, much of the equipment inside the RoboBuggy is obsolete. This hardware has been removed and preserved in a safe location. The hardware that will remain with the current project are the metallic buggy shell and braking mechanism, the high resolution camera, the large steering servos and the turning radius encoder. Once the buggy has been fully assembled and tested in house, we will attempt to navigate the free roll using computer vision coupled with a powerful line following algorithm. This algorithm will be adapted from the winning Mobot that Nathaniel and I built for the 2010 Spring Mobot Race. The code will be tweaked so that the RoboBuggy will be able to follow the white street lines. We are planning on incorporating the RoboBuggy with Alpha Epsilon Pi's regular fleet of manned buggies, which will allow us to complete field tests every day of the weekend between the hours of 4:30 and 9:30AM. Theoretically, the RoboBuggy will be able to be tested two to three times a day during that time span. All of the field testing will occur at the start of buggy rolls, Spring Semester 2011.
This project will be split into five milestones. These milestones correspond to different parts of the course. The first milestone will be if the buggy successfully navigates down the free roll using line navigation and successfully stops when it reaches the bottom of the hill or if its prompted to stop in case of an emergency. The second milestone will be if the buggy can navigate from the start of the race on Tech Street to the start of the free roll with the aid of pushers. The third milestone will be if the buggy can navigate along Schenley Drive, maneuvering around the monument and successfully recognizing the flaggers. The fourth milestone will occur if the RoboBuggy successfully takes the sharp turn at the edge of the chute. This milestone will be the most difficult out of all of them. Finally, the fifth milestone will be if the buggy can navigate to the finish line with the aid of the pushers. We will strive to achieve all milestones by Race Day 2011, though we realize this is a very daunting project and realistically we will have to work over multiple years. For Race Day 2011, our goal will to be to have the RoboBuggy roll up to the sharp turn in the chute.
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| Above: The five milestones of the RoboBuggy project mapped out on the Schenley Course. |
In addition to the idea of methodically splitting up the course, supplementary markers will be stationed along the sides of the course for added guidance. A remote control will also be on hand so that RoboBuggy will be able to stop in case of an emergency. RoboBuggy will roll last in Alpha Epsilon Pi's fleet of manned buggies and a follow car will be right behind it. Inside the car will two individuals capable of picking up the RoboBuggy and moving it into the car, in addition to the driver. These individuals will also carry a toolbox and the emergency remote control.
The RoboBuggy will be treated as a regular AEPi buggy. We will receive support from our fraternity brothers in order to make this project a success. We will delegate tasks to competent members and work together as a group. The schedule for rolls has already been preplanned, and because this buggy will be treated like a regular AEPi buggy the amount of work that will go into the development outside of the race course will be split up amongst brothers. The RoboBuggy will receive equal, if not more attention than a regular buggy and the amount of time spent on RoboBuggy will amount to around 15 hours a week.
Background
The RoboBuggy will be treated as a regular AEPi buggy. We will receive support from our fraternity brothers in order to make this project a success. We will delegate tasks to competent members and work together as a group. The schedule for rolls has already been preplanned, and because this buggy will be treated like a regular AEPi buggy the amount of work that will go into the development outside of the race course will be split up amongst brothers. The RoboBuggy will receive equal, if not more attention than a regular buggy and the amount of time spent on RoboBuggy will amount to around 15 hours a week.
Background
Both Nathaniel Barshay and Alex Klarfeld have had vast experience in the field of engineering projects considering their young age. Alex Klarfeld worked for NASA at the age of 17 on the first and last launch vehicle of the Constellation program, the Ares I-X rocket. From there he was able to see a large scale engineering project in a professional setting. In addition, throughout his High School career, Alex placed second in a national engineering called CANSAT. This project required high school students to build a sub-orbital satellite inside of a soda can. This gave Alex the opportunity to lead an engineering project from start to finish. Alex was also was one of the few interns selected to work at SpaceX for the summer of 2011.
Nathaniel has been building robots since a young age, with high school successes including World Champion at the Trinity College International Fire Fighting Home Robot Contest, and Third place in the iRobot create challenge. He also spent two summers working for a LEGO engineering lab at Tufts University, and one summer as an intern at Qualcomm.
Both Alex and Nathaniel worked on the winning Mobot for the Spring 2010. Alex and Nathaniel are both Sophomores, Alex is studying Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Nathaniel is studying Computer Science.
Feedback and Evaluation
A blog will be kept up to document the progress of RoboBuggy (http://www.robobuggy.blogspot.com). I have sent out this blog to all interested parties with the intention of receiving feedback on the project. We will be checking in frequently with our faculty adviser, Mark Stehlik, or other adviser Arne Suppe. A copy of our projected schedule will be forwarded to them as well. Our progress will be judged on how closely we are following the projected schedule as well as how well we are documenting the issues that arise so that we do not face them again. Our goals are lofty as this is quite obviously a multi-year project, but we will hold to the schedule as best as possible.
Dissemination of Knowledge
The results of our project will be demonstrated through many different means media including pictures and video. A poster will also be created documenting the system level design of the RoboBuggy's hardware. In addition, the blog will be updated frequently with all of the progress made on RoboBuggy. This will be available for the all interested parties to see. A final engineering report will also be written, documenting all the successes and failures of the RoboBuggy project.
Budget
| Item | Vendor | URL | Price |
| Mini-ITX Mainboard | Logic Supply | http://www.logicsupply.com/ | $150 |
| PCI-Express TV Decoder | Newegg | http://www.newegg.com/ | $100 |
| picoPSU power supply | Logic Supply | http://www.logicsupply.com/ | $60 |
| RAM | Newegg | http://www.newegg.com/ | $80 |
| Solid State Hard Drive | Logic Supply | http://www.logicsupply.com/ | $120 |
| Computer case and Shock Mounting | Logic Supply | http://www.logicsupply.com/ | $80 |
| IO Coprocessors | Pololu Robotics | http://www.pololu.com/ | $100 |
| Misc. Components | Mouser Electronics | http://www.mouser.com/ | $100 |
Budget Narrative
The Mini-ITX Mainboard will be purchased as a replacement for the motherboard that was used in the year 2000. This is an industrial strength computer and is designed to withstand the bumps along the course. It is necessary for interacting with the rest of the hardware. The PCI-Express TV Decoder will be used to in order to integrate with the RoboBuggy's original camera. Since this camera was already donated to us from the previous project, it integrated very well with the RoboBuggy's original motherboard. Since we are replacing this motherboard, we need a TV decoder to utilize the camera. The power supply will be used to power the motherboard as well as supplementary power for the other components. This power supply was recommended to us by the previous project owners and should also fulfill its role as an industrial strength component. The RAM will be used in order to allow for the image processing algorithms to be run quickly and effectively. The on board RAM that came with the motherboard is not enough for the programs to run quickly. The solid state hard drive will be used to hold all the programs and operating systems we need to operate the RoboBuggy. The solid state characteristic is important so that bumps on the road do not interfere with our data. The computer case and shock mounting are important to protect the computer inside of the RoboBuggy. This buggy should be able to roll continuously without repair, and the computer case and shock mounting should ensure that. The IO Coprocessors will help us communicate with some of the original hardware that we would not be able to interface with otherwise. The legacy hardware we will be interfacing with includes the brake, the servos and the front wheel encoder. The miscellaneous components includes items such as the watchdog timer which will detect if the computer crashes, various voltage regulators and power supplies to help us supplement the hardware, as well as wires and other sorts of connectors.
-Alex
P.S. I hope you all are impressed with my immense HTML table skills.
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