notes.md

Updated Software Architecture

1. Camera Node: This node will handle the camera input.

   • Node Name: camera_node
   • Responsibilities:
     • Access the camera (using the Android phone as an IP camera).
     • Read a frame and publish the frames
   • Topic:
     • Publish: /camera_image (sensor_msgs/Image)
   • Parameters:
     • camera_source, ip, show_window

2. Object Detection Node: This node handles the object detection and offset calculations.

   • Node Name: object_detection_node
   • Responsibilities:
     • Read a frame and detect the object and calculate the horizontal offset between detectd obj center and image center, estimated distance to object.
   • Topic:
     • Publish: /object_position (std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray) [offset, distance]
     • Subscribe: /camera_image (sensor_msgs/Image) for object detection
   • Parameters:
     • detected_face_visualization, additional_visualizations, camera_window

3. Motor Controller Node: This node will control the motors based on the detected object offset value.

   • Node Name: motor_controller_node
   • Responsibilities:
     • Send motor speed based on offset between center's and distance from camera to object.
   • Topics:
     • Publish: /cmd_vel (geometry_msgs/Twist) to send commands to motors
     • Subscribe: /object_position (std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray) to receive detected object offset, distance

4. Arduino Node: Interface with the Arduino to control the motors.

   • Node Name: arduino_node
   • Responsibilities:
     • Interface with the Arduino to control stepper motors.
   • Topics:
     • Subscribe: /cmd_vel (geometry_msgs/Twist) to receive motor commands

Suggested Package and Topic Names

• Workspace Name: robot_ws
• Packages:
  • camera_pkg: It contains camera_node and object_detection_node
  • motor_controller_pkg: It contains motor_controller_node
  • arduino_pkg: It contains arduino_interface_node
  • robot_bringup: It contains launch file to start all the nodes.
• Topics:
  • /camera_image (sensor_msgs/Image)
  • /object_position (std_msgs/msg/Float64MultiArray) i.e [offset, distance]
  • /cmd_vel (geometry_msgs/Twist)