GPS Telemetry range with XBEE Pro 2

The range is very good through brick/steel in the building. I am thinking that when this thing is outside the building it will have a nice mile range via line of sight. I will do a walking test this weekend to see what kind of distance that we get.

I ordered a 2000mw Wifi booster and +9db antenna for the control laptop and also ordered a bluetooth to serial board to connect the android phone via bluetooth to the serial of the control arduino.

Here is what is onboard RCHL so far:

Chumby hackerboard with WiFi SSH and serial connections to each Arduino, including serial connection via Xbee if SSH has a problem. Autoreset SSH every 2 hours.

Arduino Mega 256 with the following sensors attached:
4 ultrasonic distance - NSEW
1 motion detector mounted on the top of the MechaTron
1 wind speed
1 digital compass
1 inertial measurement unit

Arduino UNO POE - softserial code running to watch multiple incoming serial data and then piped to XBEE Pro 2.

Arudino UNO - motor control and IP cellular backup communication for long range control piped to UNO POE serial.

POV and Zoom dome camera - IP controlled.

WiFi router with dd-wrt linksys 54G.

Android phone with bluetooth serial connection to Arduino mega.

60 Amp motor control board.

Optorelays connected to POE arduino to control on/off/reset of each other board.

Optorelay kill switch in a 'dead man' configuration.

Things are getting really fun. This weekend I want to accomplish connecting all of the sensors to the Mega 256 and have that dumping data over the Xbee and back to the control laptop. Cheers to robots!

GPS Telemetry is SENDING on RCHL!

We finally have the GPS sending over the XBEE! Here is the code that we used, very simple and easy code on the sending side:

#include <SoftwareSerial.h>

SoftwareSerial GPS = SoftwareSerial(8, 9);

void setup()
{
GPS.begin(9600);
Serial.begin(57600);
}
void loop()
{
Serial.print(GPS.read(), BYTE);
}

On the receiving side, Arduino UNO with an XBEE shield in USB mode and then SiRFDemo running in windows to test output. I set the XBEE's to 57600 for their comms between each other and then the GPS is sending at 9600. Works like a charm, one second refresh rate.

Steve also has all of the boards mounted and they are great looking! Nice job :)

Working on RCHL v1

I was working on RCHL v1 last night in the lab and watching Rachel Armstrong and her Children of the Industrial Revolution TEDx Talk. Really, there is an amazing amount of knowledge and passion happening there.

I installed the Arduino to control the H Bridge for the motor functions and also threw an audio/video transmitter on her to send me the video from the POV/Zoom camera and left and right stereo sound from a pair of mics that I will install this weekend.

The POV/Zoom camera below will be a nice feature. It is 24V and is operated view a web browser. I will add a power over ethernet hub this weekend as well as a 12VDC to 110VAC converter to power whatever goodies that we want to include on the chassis.

Accidental Unatheist

Yesterday I was working on a mechatron and startled myself. I was contemplating ways that humans could be invisible to the mechatron, so that if, for instance the MT was in an empty parking lot and trying to learn the edges and map it out, I would not be part of it's map. This led me to putting up a plexiglass wall that the designers would operate from behind, it would reflect the sensors on the MT and the MT would essentially be blind to the designers. Then I thought it would be cool if the plexiglass was stuck to the designers, so that they could move around, this led to the next best tech and I thought of like a plexiglass particle suit that the designers would wear. Whatever it is who cares. The point is that the designer is invisible to the MT. So let's say you put 20 MT's in an empty parking lot, they are discovering trees and light posts and etc. Soon they are programmed with some AI and begin to 'think'. They formulate ideas, ask questions, build groups, etc. When do they examine themselves or another and start to think about their creator? If I build them with sensors that work great and enable them to operate but they can't see me unless I want them to, is this what is happening daily to mankind? Is there a designer or designers that built us and watch us? What if I send an MT into the parking lot one day that repairs other MT's? It is the best MT that I have ever built and it has features that the others do not. Does this one special MT become a 'messiah' for the others?

One year later

I took a year break from NextMech to work on the old day job, which is now humming along in the background. SARA will now take up a good portion of my time in 2013. Cheers to the new year and looking forward to more eNa research.

More eNa and Mechatron Threat Modeling

So we take SARA and put a handful of different kinds of sensors on her.  Get all of that data streaming successfully back to a mega-database and get her ready to fly.  I can now use the manual control system and fly her around our test ground (the laboratory parking lot at night) and 'instinct imprint' a memory of a successful flight (not crashing).  Please note: this imprint is NOT the teaching phase that momma bear will be doing (I guess that I am momma bear).  This InsImp is simply an eNa 'chain' in the MT and with a similar airframe, the InsImp can be reused.  Next we fly SARA again but we knock it out of the air with something like a frisbee.  Using analytical computation we can '3dimensionalize' the frisbee and make it a little larger, like the size of an attacking bird or we can make it smaller, like the size of a bullet.  We can create multiple InsImp models and fill our object database.

Now that we have some instinct in our MT eNa chain and a few models of objects, how do we 'teach' it something?  In what way can we get our bear cub to explore a bit?  Let's define exploring as an act of data collection until pain is received, when pain is removed exploration can continue.  This is a very basic breakdown of a complicated system that happens throughout the natural world.  Does a human baby have curiosity as an instinct?  Putting things in it's mouth, staring intently at interesting objects or people making faces, interacting with it's environment.  If it is not in pain (physical, hunger, emotional) then it is exploring, having fun.  It is exploring because it CAN.  So we can say that a child has a natural instinct to explore, in general and throughout human existence this is a fact.

The child does not know that the Golden Eagle is hunting it, but the momma bear knows.  Does the bear cub need to be attacked to know that it is in danger?  Learning or being taught about danger or pain is a large part of a child's growth.  We teach children to protect themselves if we cannot.  We teach children that the stove will burn their hand, we do not place the hand on the stove to demonstrate.  In the case of the MT, 'parents' have an advantage.  We have the opportunity to transfer data to SARA and basically 'teach' her what things are painful and that they should be avoided, if possible.  Creating a concise 'Dangerous Situation Table' is required.  Granted all terrible situations cannot be programmed, that is a variable.  However, with enough DST data and fast enough processing, SARA should be able to look at the DST information and formulate a percentage based answer to the question "will this activity threaten me?".

With a threat model running on SARA's processor, data streaming to her in the form of DST information, model object availability and many sensors watching her surroundings, can we now place an InsImp in her chain that simply says to avoid death and collect sensor data?  Combine that with a chain that allows her to boost or diminish her flight speed and also her distance to stationary or moving objects.

The real leap will be when she flies as fast and as close to danger as SHE sees fit or the way she will fly just as slowly as she can, because her cameras are pointed at that perfect burning sunset and she can feel it's rays charging her batteries through the solar array that is part of her airframe's skin.

http://phys.org/news/2016-04-humans-supercomputer.html

eNa

When you play Need For Speed on Playstation, there exists a mode of play in the game in which you, the player, chase a 'ghost car' around the track.  The ghost car is driving an optimal path around the circuit.  Your objective is to mirror the ghost car and learn the best 'line' through that level.  Let me draw a comparison to a momma bear and a cub and tie it all into Mechatron AI.

'Teaching' a mechanical being is the stuff of science fiction, right?  What is teaching, in the context of a mess of sensors, wires, microcontrollers running programs?  In the same vein, what is learning?  I have observed in the world of Artificial Intelligence a trend.  The trend being numerous attempts to 'create' an AI personality.  If we've learned our lessons from Wargames, then we know this being must be taught, it is only a child to the world.

A momma bear must teach her cub how to hunt, defend herself, how to avoid dangers of life in a forest, etc.  Building the bear cub's mind within a digital world is our first step into Mechatron AI.  What we need to develop is a blank slate that is capable of learning, but the lessons need to be taught or programmed.  I hate to use the word programmed though.  I feel it takes the life out of the experiment.  Let's coin a phrase.  What would be the best description to describe an MT receiving a set of instructions, in which it gets to decide the 'best' course of action, as IT sees fit?  Free Will Code....  Will Free Code....  Will Code For Food...wait....

eNa

YES.  Electronic DNA.

So what is eNa?  You tell me.  Ok, eNa is the 'helper' code that is 'soul transferred' to the MT.  No more Uploads or Downloads, those are for inanimate objects!  More soon.