KRECIC (Knowledge and Robotics Educational Companion for Interactive Computing) | A Modular Wheeled Robot for Educational Usage

ELEE1036 Individual Project at the University of Greenwich | Academic Year 2023/24

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Hardware Setup
  • Components
  • Manufacturing
  • Assembly
• Software Setup
  • Operating System
  • Robot Operating System
  • Motor and Movement Control
  • Camera Module
  • LiDAR Module
• Contributors
• License

Introduction

This project has been developed as a final year project for the BEng in Computer Engineering (Hons) at the University of Greenwich (Academic Year 2023/24).

This project can only be used for educational purposes and it cannot be used for commercial purposes. All credits must be given to the creator and the University of Greenwich.

This document presents an overview of both the hardware and software setups to successfully re-create this project. This repository is organised into two predominant sections: (a) hardware and (b) software.

Hardware Setup

This sections outlines the necessary steps in successfully setting up KRECIC's hardware components.

Keep in mind, that KRECIC has been designed with modularity and evolution in mind. Therefore, the exact components are not necessary.

Components

Consider the Bill of Materials (BOM) of all electronics you may need to get started with the building of KRECIC.

Manufacturing

To successfully manufacture the 3D printable components found here, you will require either an FDM or resin printer. The following components are recommended to be manufactured using TPU, the other components may be manufactured using PLA, ABS, or PETG:

• Tyre
• Camera Case Front
• Camera Case Back

Assembly

When all components are acquired, the assembly process is straight forward. However, consider using a solder and shrink tubes for appropriately connecting the power switch to the main circuit.

Software Setup

The next section focuses on the basic software setup of KRECIC, allowing the user to test components and consequently perform educational exercises.

Operating System

The operating system used for this project has been Ubuntu 22.04. Consider following instructional steps here

Robot Operating System (ROS2)

KRECIC uses Robot Operating System 2 Humble Hawksbill. Please consider the following installation guide from ROS2:

Click here for ROS2 Humble Installation Guide

Motor and Movement Control

To test motor control please follow the circuit setup as demonstrated in the following diagrams, click here

Upon successful circuit setup, start with the single motor test, then follow up with the double motor test. Lastly, you can control KRECIC using OpenSSH (as long as both KRECIC's raspberry pi, and your main machine are on the same network). Click here to explore the motor control tests.

Camera Module

To successfully mount and test the camera module, follow the following steps:

1. Connect the camera module to the Raspberry Pi:

   

2. Verify Camera Connection and Permissions:

   After connecting the camera module to the Raspberry Pi, confirm that the camera is recognised using the following:

   vcgencmd get_camera
   

   The output of this command should produce the following output:

   supported=1 detected=1
   

   Check if your username has access to the camera by using the following command:

   groups 
   

   The output of this command should video. If not, use the following command to add your username to the video group:

   sudo usermod -aG video <your_username>
   

3. Install raspi-config:

   sudo apt install raspi-config
   sudo raspi-config
   

4. Enable Legacy Camera, SPI, and I2C in Interface Options

   

   Restart your Raspberry Pi.

5. Install FFMPEG

   Multiple softwares can be installed to test the functionality of the camera. The camera module can be tested with libcamera, ros2, opencv, etc. This tutorial uses ffmpeg.

   sudo apt install ffmpeg
   

6. Perform Picture Test

   ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 -vframes 1 test_image.jpg
   

7. Perform Video Recording Test

   ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 -t 10 -c:v libx264 test_video.mp4
   

8. Perform Live Stream Test

   ffmpeg -f video4linux2 -i /dev/video0 -f mpegts - | ffplay -
   

LiDAR Module

To successfully mount and test the LD06/LD19 LiDAR module please consider the repository by ldrobotSensorTeam. This tutorial presents a 4-step process on how to mount the LiDAR sensor, and use ROS2 to test it's functionality. It is advisable that you already have ROS2 installed on your Raspberry Pi. Consider the following link:

LD06/LD19 Testing Instructions by ldrobotSensorTeam

Contributors

• @WJOchman
• Contact:
  • Wojciech Ochman | LinkedIn

License

This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0