Project Goals

I initially came up with the idea of deigning and building a robot and then implementing vision - with internet control - on it. Basically, I wanted to build a robot I could control over the internet while being able to see everything within its vision range. This will allow me control the it from any computer - anywhere in the world - so long as it has an internet access.

After several consultation with my supervisor, he came up with the suggestion I use a robot platform from some other student's previous year final project. This will no doubt make life easy for me as I now only need to implement the vision aspect on this robot.

Apparently, the student - we'll refer to him as James from now on - built a robot platform last year (2007 session) with an intention of implementing vision and being able to control it over the internet, just like mine. Unfortunately, he ran out of time but did a tremenduous job and came very close to achieving the goal. Now all the system needs is its ability to see and being able to be controlled by anyone over the internet.

I have talked with him and my lecturer about this and have come up with the things I need to make this a success. They are the set goals that must be achieved at the end of the year. The list below show the goals in brief:

Summary of Project Goals:

i. Design/fabricate new PCB for microcontroller board
ii. Incorporate the camera (vision system)
iii. Enhance the web control
iv. Implement PID speed control of the motor.

These goals will be followed one step at a time with the hope of completing them all by the end of this session (in November 2008)

REFERENCES

Here are my references ranging from text books to web pages. This page will be updated from time to time to enable me keep track of information.

For more information, on the links below:

Cameras - Electronics123
Embedded Wireless Device Server - LANTronix
Web Enabling your Serial Device - LANTronix
Web Robot Learning Powered By Bluetooth Communication System
SRV-1b Trail (Machine Vision) - RoboRealm
Surveyor News - http://www.surveyor.com/
Mixing Biology And Electronics To Create Robotic Vision
http://www.DesignNews.com/
http://Bruce.CS.CF.ac.uk/Bruce/ - Resources
http://www.ioSoft.co.uk/wlan.php
http://www.ikaLogic.com/ - motor control tutorial
http://www.NI.com/Vision/vdm.htm - NI Vision Development Module
Google Search

Machine Vision & Implementation

What is 'Machine Vision'?

Humans beings greatly require perception in order to effectively interact with their environment. The ability to percieve and process information within our visinity is what gives us humans an edge - inteligence, power, or dominion - over other animals or creations. We use our sensory organs - the eyes, nose, ears, tongue and skin - to collect information from our surroundings. These information generate some sort of chemical reactions which are sent through the nervous systems to the brain. The brain will then process the information and send a reaction to the point of detection.

To understand the above paragraph well, lets take a look at an example; the human vision which concerns us the most as far as this project is concerned. An engineering walking around a parts shop, where he's gone to buy components for a robot he's working on, sees - with his 'eyes' - a particular part he's in search of. His 'eyes' sends this picture to his brain for processing through his nervous system. As soon as the brain processes this information, it then sends a reaction to the engineer saying for instance "check the price tag or pick up the component for payment". These are very important to us but they happen so fast that most of us barely take time to notice.

Just as humans need their vision system, and other sensory organs, so do most modern most machines. As technology advance from day to day, we continously see the need to introduce some devices that mimic how humans interact with their environment. An example of this is the use of cameras other photosensors to give a machine the ability to see. This is where the topic Machine Vision somes in.

Machine Vision is that aspect of mechatronics systems design and implementation that deals with coming up with a system that allows a machine to see. Examples of these situations are seen on simple 'pick & place' robots, robot heads and mostly situations where objects or patterns need be recognised or differentiated.

Machine vision is a broad topic as it requires certain knowledge to be implemented. To introduce vision on a machine, there are a few steps that need to be taken to succeed. First we need to know what object(s) we need to recognise. Then we decide the best vision system that is suitable for the problem at hand and where to mount the system for maxinum performance. After the steps above are completed, we can now come up with how to interface the vision system with the machine. In most cases, this requires some sort of programming using one of the numerous software - e.g. Visual Basics, C, C++, Java, etc. - available to us today.

As my project proceeds and I continue to gather information, I intend to write more about my findings as far as 'Machine Vision and Implementation' is concerned. I will talk more about the importance of this topic and how to implement it on some machine platforms. I will also be talking about how to use vision to control a system or how to control a system - say from the internet which of course is the aim of this project - based on what it sees.