Adding Accessories To Robot Base
From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support
This page provides general advice for adding your own custom equipment to a robot. If you need to add an accessory purchased from MobileRobots, refer to the documentation and Manuals provided with the device. Contact support if you need more help or information.
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How can I attach my own equipment and devices to my robot?
For the most secure attachment, equipment may be screwed into the robot top plate. Most pre-drilled holes are for M3 x 0.5mm machine screws.
Plans showing some measurements of the robot are in the robot manuals. If you need more detailed or specific measurements or plans, contact support.
When mounting equipment, place it such that weight is balanced side-to-side, and in the most stable front-back location (for example, center of the robot for an AT, and slightly behind the center for a DX; the PeopleBot is more top-heavy, so heavy equipment should be mounted on or in the bottom base.)
For maximum payload capacities and robot weights, see Appendix C (Appendix D for PowerBot) in the Operations Manual.
How can I supply power to my device?
There are several ways to supply power to a device. If you are adding a device to the microcontroller which uses only signal level power (<500 mA total), there is 5 and 12 V power available on the user I/O header on the controller board. For accessries requiring more power, there are several auxiliary power connections, both switched and unswitched, available on the Motor/Power board. For a device requiring more than 1 A of curent at other than batery voltage, it is recommended that you connect a DC-DC converter to one of the 12 V outputs and use it to power your device. 24 V is also possible on the PowerBot and PatrolBot.
For details on the locations of power connections, see the appendices of the appropriate Operations Manual.
Additional information and instructions on accessing the Pioneer 3 motor-power board is available at Connecting Devices to the Pioneer 3 Motor-Power Board.
Note that damage caused to the robot by user-added equipment is not covered under warranty. If in doubt about which robot connections to use, contact MobileRobots support.
How can I communicate to my device?
There are several ways to communicate with a device attached to the robot. The robot platform's microcontroller has digital I/O (8 each of inputs and outputs, though some of which may be used for grippers or docking, if you have those accessories installed) as well as 5 analog inputs (some of which are used for the joystick, if present). There are also 2 or 3 auxilliary serial ports (RS232) on the microcontroller which can be used for camera PTZ, compasses and other serial devices. See Appendix A fo the Operations Manual for locations and pin definitions of the Microcontroller I/O. You can send and recieve data to/from the auxilliary RS232 serial ports on the microcontroller using ARCOS commands: see the robot manual and ARIA documentation for how to do this.
If you have an onboard computer, there are some additional I/O options: The onboard computers typically have 4 serial ports. One is used for the robot controller and one for the laser. The other two can usually be used for your application, but may require special custom cabling. (See also computer serial port configuration There are also many products providing analog and digital I/O connected to a computer via serial port. The onboard computer may also support USB. If you have a SICK laser, a USB port connection has been provided on the back of the laser. This USB port is intended for use with a joystick but can also be used for other devices. If you do not have a USB port on the robot body, you will need to purchase or make cabling to connect a port to the computer motherboard. Onboard computer boards also support a parallel port (printer port), though custom cabling may also be required (In Linux, the "Parapin" kernel device driver module can be used to access the individual parallel port pins: http://parapin.sourceforge.net/). Contact support with questions. The computer manuals can be found on the manuals page.
Will adding custom equipment or devices to my robot void the warranty?
Adding equipment or modifying the robot may void the warranty. Any damage resulting from internal modifications to the robot or from inappropriate or careless modifications will not be covered. To be sure you are doing things correctly and to avoid damaging the robot, it is always best to contact support before adding to or modifying the robot in any way or if you are unsure about anything.
How can I control the robot by adding my laptop computer to the robot?
You can connect your laptop via serial cable to the external SERIAL or HOST port on the side or top panel of the robot. Only one computer can control the robot; if there is also an onboard computer, keep that computer turned off while operating with the laptop. If you are using a USB serial port adapter with your laptop, ensure that ARIA is opening the correct port (by default, it uses the first serial port device: COM1 on Windows, /dev/ttyS0 on Linux), that that serial port is correctly configured. For more about serial port settings on computers, see Computer Serial Port Configuration.
