Transcript Investigating Power Management in a Robot

Investigating Power Management in
a Robot Colony
Meeting of the Minds
Symposium
May 7, 2008
Christopher Mar and
Austin Buchan
Colony Project, Robotics Club
Colony Project
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Ongoing Robotics Club project, started in
2003
About 20 undergraduates
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All years represented
Mostly Engineering and CS majors
Weekly status meeting plus work nights
throughout the week
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Colony Robot
Bearing and
Orientation Module
(BOM)
Dragonfly
Microcontroller
Board
Tri-color
LED x 2
Sharp IR
Rangefinders
Motors
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Goals
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Low-cost Robots (~$350)
Homogenous, distributed architecture
Develop applications that are robust to non-idealities:
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Noisy sensor data
Limited computation
Communication delays
Use the Colony as a research platform
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Emergent behaviors
Path planning
Controls
Cooperation and task management
Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)
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Why Recharging?
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Goal is to perform long-term
tasks with multiple robots
Tasks completed with
minimal human intervention
– On-the-fly task allocation
and management
– No humans (or
monkeys) changing
batteries
Fuel Cells
Charging
Station
Obstacle
Warehouse
Factory
Task Model
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Autonomous Recharging
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Hardware
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Robot
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Software
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Detect and interface
with charging station
Regulate charge cycle
Robot
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Environment, Station
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Supply power
Produce homing signals
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Recognize need to
charge
Locate and home on
charging station
Environment, Station
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Manage charging bay
allocation
Battery prioritizing
algorithm
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Robot Charging Hardware
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Charge Board
– High current circuitry
– Controlled by dedicated
microprocessor
– Communicates with robot
over I2C
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Homing Senor
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Wireless communication and
BOM localization
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Charging Bay
Tricolor Orb
Wireless
Module
BOM Segment
Homing Beacons
Power/I2C Connections
Charging Contacts
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Power Management Topology
ATX
Power
Supply
Wireless Network
Power
Data
Bay
Bay
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Bay
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Docking with Bay – Procedure
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Request charge bay, wait for accept
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Locate bay, get in homing range
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Home to docking bay
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Dock
Wireless
BOM/Wireless
Homing Sensor
Robot Hardware
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Autonomous Recharging Video
Beacon
IR Beacon Homing
Max pulse width
Left
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Center
3n
Right
2n
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Charge Board
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Charge Board monitors
battery, manages charging
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Temperature and Voltage
Observation
Current Control
Necessary for fast, high
current charging
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Charging Algorithm
•Regulate current into
battery to maintain
constant 1C (2.6A)
charge
•Terminate at either
–Voltage Drop
threshold
–Temperature
dT/dt threshold
•Trickle charge an
option if robot not
needed immediately
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ColoNet
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Remote control and monitoring
of the Colony over the Internet
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Global Colony task queuing
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Monitoring and recording of
wireless communications
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Web-based Java GUI
Colony Members
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Austin Buchan
Christopher Mar
Brian Coltin
Siyuan Feng
Jason Knichel
James Kong
Eugene Marinelli
Brad Neuman
Gregory Tress
Justin Scheiner
Andrew Yeager
Kevin Woo
•Jimmy Bourne
•Rich Hong
•Victor Marmol
•Evan Mullinix
•Ben Poole
•John Sexton
•David Schultz
•Bradley Yoo
•Prof. George Kantor
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www.robotcolony.org
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