YAM

YAM (Your Automated Machine) is a mobile robot that I have been building on and off for the past several years. I use it as a test/experimentation platform and as a learning experience.

Documentation (and the project itself) are in progress.

Architecture

The compute architecture for YAM consists of two Arduino microcontrollers and a nVidia Jetson Nano. One microcontroller is repsonsible for low-level drivetrain and spatial sensing. The other inferfaces with YAMs frontpanel IO.

A schematic and software stack diagram are provided in the documentation (comming soon).

ROS Package Structure

YAM Core

To connect to Xbox Driver follow this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/724246/can-i-run-blueman-from-command-line https://www.thegeekpub.com/16265/using-xbox-one-controllers-on-a-raspberry-pi/#:~:text=Pairing%20Bluetooth%20Xbox%20One%20Controllers%20to%20the%20Raspberry%20Pi&text=With%20ERTM%20enabled%20the%20Xbox,adapter%20or%20a%20USB%20cable.

YAM Firmware

YAM Messages

YAM provides a set of custom messages, services, and actions used to easily transfer data within the stack when standard ROS messages are insufficient.

Messages

• CartesianDrive ~ Exposes cartesian drivetrain control from the microcontroller to ROS
• DifferentialDrive ~ Exposes differential drivetrain control from the microcontroller to ROS.
• RobotState ~ Presents the current low-level navigation firmware state.
• Ultrasonics ~ Presents the current readings of the three ultrasonic sensors attached to YAM. This is used instead of multiple Range messages being sent from the firmware layer.
• Infrareds ~ Presents the current readings of the two infrared sensors attached to YAM. This is used instead of multiple Range messages being sent from the firmware layer.

Services

• None right now :(

Actions

• None right now :(

YAM Description

This is where any descriptive files such as URDFs or custom meshes are stored. Currently I have written a simple URDF so that I can visualize the robot in RVIZ.

Documentation

All relevant development or explanatory documenation is provided here if not directly written in the Readmes.

External Dependencies

There are several external dependencies needed in order to effectively run the YAM software stack. First, and obviously, ROS 1 needs to be installed. As Python 2 is dying and ROS 1 is soon to follow I expect this installation to become more difficult. Perhaps I will rewrite all of this in ROS 2 in the near future.

Install the following python dependencies

• Adafruit SSD1306 ~ Note its deprecated but gets the job done for simple OLED display control.

Then install the following ROS packages

• MP9250 IMU firmware driver

Optionally install,

• ROS Joystick Drivers via sudo apt install ros-melodic-joystick-drivers ~ Used for manual control with an Xbox One controller.
• Joy via sudo apt install ros-melodic-joy ~ Joystick interface
• FaBo9Axis_MPU9250 via pip install FaBo9Axis_MPU9250 ~ For testing the IMU in a script.

VIO https://github.com/uzh-rpg/rpg_svo https://github.com/uzh-rpg/rpg_svo/wiki/Installation:-General-for-ARM-processors

Fork Notes

I forked this from an alt github that I intend to delete in the near future.