All bar one

 Final blog entry for this year. We got four videos created, and the blog, but failed on the Natures Bounty video.

Most of a sophisticated apple picker was built, but not enough to be ready for using in a videoed challenge.

We did try to rustle up an alternative in the last few hours which basically knocked the apples off but time just ran out, and we concentrated on delivering what we could do. Disappointing, but our first try at the competition and we've learnt a bit in the process. 

It'll be fun seeing what everyone else has done, but not sure we'll get away with doing it again, just a bit to much time.

Still, next up is Sidmouth Science festival, when we'll have a lot more robots wandering about. Think that's where we came in!!!!

East Devon Pirates

Videos

 Just a brief post to show our video recording area....it's actually a bedroom with the arena laid on top of the bed.

We moved here from the kitchen floor due to other people needing to use the kitchen for space and we can use this all day without being trodden on!!!

The camera is mounted on a tripod to the right and to the left is a table to sit with laptop for robot set up, in this case with the next variation on out sheep herder, in this case a very much more 'beefed up' version made up from recycled robot arms.....and Lego!

A farmyard tour

 From the beginning we'd had lots of ideas, but the practicality of most of them, while not beyond us, meant that just getting on and making a video was more time important. The venue was to be a garden, giving us three different surfaces very quickly, grass gravel and paving. Obstacles are easy to find, but they have to be ones which the robot can negotiate, so small steps are ok, garden tools etc. 

One thing we didn't have was something which would mean the robot would be able to climb higher than itself, so as the garden was hosting us, we decided to make something for the garden and constructed a bridge over the garden pond, "The Bridge of Pi's" out of reclaimed pallet wood. 

Not very 'robot like', but just the practicalities of making an interesting course. :)

Similarly, we needed a obstacle which the robot would have to manipulate before continuing, so for our video, we made a 'kissing gate', something which is very common on farmland to provide a pedestrian gate which can't be negotiated by animals but doesn't require closing. 

Again, reclaimed wood is used to build a simple and portable obstacle.

The robot enters via one side, moves the 'gate' to the other and then drives out. In practice the driving in proved to be the biggest problem!!!!

The rest of the challenge is populated with farm characters/animals and a few signs to give a 'tour' feel. The following pictures just give an idea of what it looked like and some of the features.

This is a view of the garden we were fortunate to use, driving round it twice used up our 5 minute video allowance! It had gravel, grass and paving to give us the required three surfaces, though in the end it had several more!!!

The video is linked here......East Devon PIrates

Starting from the beginning.....

The ticket office....

Mine host....sings Old MacDonald....

The Sheep Dip Seesaw....

Robot Restaurant...and for anyone who might recognise it, Hitchhikers Guide references.

Hungry Cattle Cafe.....most of the rice eaten

The Troll Bridge......

...and a better view

The Lamb Joint......

 Wolf Hall......

The World's Simplest Maze....

And for Indiana Jones fans.....see the video for how this worked out!!!!

Finally, a picture of the gardens owner sunbathing !!!!!

Zyderbot Architecture

 Zyderbot is very modular and the parts have been assembled to work together around ideas put in place early on in the competition. This is a brief overview of what it comprises. 

The central chassis, as described in previous blogs. houses the controller Raspberry Pi and it is this which forms the central control and communication hub of the robot. 

A VNC connection to this Pi is used to connect to it from a laptop and programming is done using the Python IDE or Thonny. The controller Pi also runs the camera, support for which is built into the Pi.

The rest of the robot platform is modularised to provide dedicated functions, there are two groups, the main chassis controllers and the attachment controllers. As this is our first entry into PiWars, we've designed something which is reusable and the design and code is on Github. 

The main controller runs a command queue, onto which commands can be placed, either from an onboard file, as running a script, from the command line as direct input, or as a response from a separate controller, which in this case is either a Pico or an ESP32.

For autonomous processing, the controller reads a script file and runs commands to either take actions or invoke further autonomous actions, such as running a trough filling hopper or picking an apple. 

A motion command will be sent to the Motor Controller Pico which measures distance and actuates the four chassis motors. 

For Remote Control operation, an ESP32 is used with a PS3 handheld controller to submit commands to the controller, which are passed onto the Motor Controller, providing the necessary control.

For audio input, a separate Pico is used to listen on a microphone, interpret the audio signals it receives, and then pass these on to the command queue.

The Camera is invoked by commands to enable seeking and following operations, itself issuing commands back to the queue to act on received information.

The attachment controllers are there to enable easy integration between the chassis and the attachments, running all the attachment motors, servos and sensors so relieving the main controller of that burden and providing a division of labour.

For each PiWars challenge, an attachment is provided, to a standard mounting specification, power supplied from the batteries as a nominal 12V and communication to the Pi controller is over USB, which also supplies controller power an enables coding on the attachment controller from the central Pi.

There's a lot of code around this, as well as some direct handshake signals to get the timing right, but it's a good platform to take forward into future projects and competitions.