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rflex [Drivers] The rflex driver is used to control RWI robots by directly communicating with RFLEX onboard the robot (i.e., Mobility is bypassed). To date, these drivers have been tested on an ATRV-Jr, but they should work with other RFLEX-controlled robots: you will have to determine some parameters to set in the config file, however. As of March 2003 these drivers have been modified to support the b21r robot, Currently additional support has been added for the power interface and bumper interface. For the pan tilt unit on the b21r please refer to the ptu46 driver. Compile-time dependencies none Provides The rflex driver provides the following device interfaces, some of them named: position : This interface returns odometry data, and accepts velocity commands. "sonar" sonar : Range data from the sonar array "sonar2" sonar : Range data from the second sonar array ir bumper power aio dio Supported configuration requests The position interface supports: PLAYER_POSITION_SET_ODOM_REQ PLAYER_POSITION_MOTOR_POWER_REQ PLAYER_POSITION_VELOCITY_MODE_REQ PLAYER_POSITION_RESET_ODOM_REQ PLAYER_POSITION_GET_GEOM_REQ The ir interface supports: PLAYER_IR_POWER_REQ PLAYER_IR_POSE_REQ The "sonar" sonar interface supports: PLAYER_SONAR_POWER_REQ PLAYER_SONAR_GET_GEOM_REQ The "sonar2" sonar interface supports: PLAYER_SONAR_POWER_REQ PLAYER_SONAR_GET_GEOM_REQ The bumper interface supports: PLAYER_BUMPER_GET_GEOM_REQ Configuration file options port (string) Default: "/dev/ttyR0" Serial port used to communicate with the robot. mm_length (float) Default: 0.5 Length of the robot in millimeters mm_width (float) Default: 0.5 Width of the robot in millimeters odo_distance_conversion (float) Default: 0 Odometry conversion. See Note 1. odo_angle_conversion (float) Default: 0 Odometry conversion. See Note 2. default_trans_acceleration (float) Default: 0.1 Set translational acceleration, in mm. default_rot_acceleration (float) Default: 0.1 Set rotational acceleration, in radians. rflex_joystick (integer) Default: 0 Enables joystick control via the rflex controller rflex_joy_pos_ratio (float) Default: 0 Joystick to movement conversion ratio rflex_joy_ang_ratio (float) Default: 0 Joystick to movement conversion ratio range_distance_conversion (float) Default: 1 Sonar range conversion factor. See Note 7. max_num_sonars (integer) Default: 64 See Note 4 num_sonars (integer) Default: 24 See Note 4 sonar_age (integer) Default: 1 Prefiltering parameter. See Note 3. num_sonar_banks (integer) Default: 8 See Note 4 num_sonars_possible_per_bank (integer) Default: 16 See Note 4 num_sonars_in_bank (integer tuple) Default: [ 8 8 8 ... ] See Note 4 sonar_echo_delay (integer) Default: 3000 Sonar configuration parameters sonar_ping_delay (integer) Default: 0 Sonar configuration parameters sonar_set_delay (integer) Default: 0 Sonar configuration parameters mmrad_sonar_poses (tuple float) Default: [ 0 0 0 ... ] Sonar positions and directions. See Note 6. sonar_2nd_bank_start (integer) Default: 0 Address of the second sonar bank (lower bank on the b21r) pose_count (integer) Default: 8 Total Number of IR sensors rflex_base_bank (integer) Default: 0 Base IR Bank rflex_bank_count (integer) Default: 0 Number of banks in use ir_min_range (integer) Default: 100 Min range of ir sensors (mm) (Any range below this is returned as 0) ir_max_range (integer) Default: 800 Max range of ir sensors (mm) (Any range above this is returned as max) rflex_banks (float tuple) Default: [ 0 0 0 ... ] Number of IR sensors in each bank poses (float tuple) Default: [ 0 0 0 ... ] x,y,theta of IR sensors (mm, mm, deg) rflex_ir_calib (float tuple) Default: [ 1 1 ... ] IR Calibration data (see Note 8) bumper_count (integer) Default: 0 Number of bumper panels bumper_def (float tuple) Default: [ 0 0 0 0 0 ... ] x,y,theta,length,radius (mm,mm,deg,mm,mm) for each bumper rflex_bumper_address (integer) Default: 0x40 The base address of first bumper in the DIO address range rflex_bumper_style (string) Default: "addr" Bumpers can be defined either by addresses or a bit mask rflex_power_offset (integer) Default: 0 The calibration constant for the power calculation in decivolts Notes Since the units used by the Rflex for odometry appear to be completely arbitrary, this coefficient is needed to convert to millimeters: mm = (rflex units) / (odo_distance_conversion). These arbitrary units also seem to be different on each robot model. I'm afraid you'll have to determine your robot's conversion factor by driving a known distance and observing the output of the RFlex. Conversion coefficient for rotation odometry: see odo_distance_conversion. Note that heading is re-calculated by the Player driver since the RFlex is not very accurate in this respect. See also Note 1. Used for prefiltering: the standard Polaroid sensors never return values that are closer than the closest obstacle, thus we can buffer locally looking for the closest reading in the last "sonar_age" readings. Since the servo tick here is quite small, you can still get pretty recent data in the client. These values are all used for remapping the sonars from Rflex indexing to player indexing. Individual sonars are enumerated 0-15 on each board, but at least on my robots each only has between 5 and 8 sonar actually attached. Thus we need to remap all of these indexes to get a contiguous array of N sonars for Player. max_num_sonars is the maximum enumeration value+1 of all sonar meaning if we have 4 sonar boards this number is 64. num_sonars is the number of physical sonar sensors - meaning the number of ranges that will be returned by Player. - num_sonar_banks is the number of sonar boards you have. num_sonars_possible_per_bank is probobly 16 for all robots, but I included it here just in case. this is the number of sonar that can be attached to each sonar board, meaning the maximum enumeration value mapped to each board. - num_sonars_in_bank is the nubmer of physical sonar attached to each board in order - you'll notice on each the sonar board a set of dip switches, these switches configure the enumeration of the boards (ours are 0-3) The first RFlex device (position, sonar or power) in the config file must include this option, and only the first device's value will be used. This is about the ugliest way possible of telling Player where each sonar is mounted. Include in the string groups of three values: "x1 y1 th1 x2 y2 th2 x3 y3 th3 ...". x and y are mm and theta is radians, in Player's robot coordinate system. Used to convert between arbitrary sonar units to millimeters: mm = sonar units / range_distance_conversion. Calibration is in the form Range = (Voltage/a)^b and stored in the tuple as [a1 b1 a2 b2 ...] etc for each ir sensor. Example driver ( name "rflex" provides ["position:1" "bumper:0" "sonar::sonar:0" "sonar2::sonar:1" "power:0" "ir:0"] rflex_serial_port "/dev/ttyR0" mm_length 500.0 mm_width 500.0 odo_distance_conversion 103 odo_angle_conversion 35000 default_trans_acceleration 500.0 default_rot_acceleration 10.0 rflex_joystick 1 rflex_joy_pos_ratio 6 rflex_joy_ang_ratio -0.01 bumper_count 14 bumper_def [ -216.506351 125.000000 -210.000000 261.799388 250.000000 -0.000000 250.000000 -270.000000 261.799388 250.000000 216.506351 125.000000 -330.000000 261.799388 250.000000 216.506351 -125.000000 -390.000000 261.799388 250.000000 0.000000 -250.000000 -450.000000 261.799388 250.000000 -216.506351 -125.000000 -510.000000 261.799388 250.000000 -240.208678 -99.497692 -157.500000 204.203522 260.000000 -240.208678 99.497692 -202.500000 204.203522 260.000000 -99.497692 240.208678 -247.500000 204.203522 260.000000 99.497692 240.208678 -292.500000 204.203522 260.000000 240.208678 99.497692 -337.500000 204.203522 260.000000 240.208678 -99.497692 -382.500000 204.203522 260.000000 99.497692 -240.208678 -427.500000 204.203522 260.000000 -99.497692 -240.208678 -472.500000 204.203522 260.000000 ] rflex_bumper_address 64 # 0x40 range_distance_conversion 1.476 sonar_age 1 sonar_echo_delay 30000 sonar_ping_delay 0 sonar_set_delay 0 max_num_sonars 224 num_sonars 48 num_sonar_banks 14 num_sonars_possible_per_bank 16 num_sonars_in_bank [4 4 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3] # theta (rads), x, y (mm) in robot coordinates (x is forward) mmrad_sonar_poses [ 3.01069 -247.86122 32.63155 2.74889 -230.96988 95.67086 2.48709 -198.33834 152.19036 2.22529 -152.19036 198.33834 1.96350 -95.67086 230.96988 1.70170 -32.63155 247.86122 1.43990 32.63155 247.86122 1.17810 95.67086 230.96988 0.91630 152.19036 198.33834 0.65450 198.33834 152.19036 0.39270 230.96988 95.67086 0.13090 247.86122 32.63155 -0.13090 247.86122 -32.63155 -0.39270 230.96988 -95.67086 -0.65450 198.33834 -152.19036 -0.91630 152.19036 -198.33834 -1.17810 95.67086 -230.96988 -1.43990 32.63155 -247.86122 -1.70170 -32.63155 -247.86122 -1.96350 -95.67086 -230.96988 -2.22529 -152.19036 -198.33834 -2.48709 -198.33834 -152.19036 -2.74889 -230.96988 -95.67086 -3.01069 -247.86122 -32.63155 4.18879 -130.00000 -225.16660 3.92699 -183.84776 -183.84776 3.66519 -225.16660 -130.00000 3.40339 -251.14071 -67.29295 3.14159 -260.00000 0.00000 2.87979 -251.14071 67.29295 2.61799 -225.16660 130.00000 2.35619 -183.84776 183.84776 2.09440 -130.00000 225.16660 1.83260 -67.29295 251.14071 1.57080 0.00000 260.00000 1.30900 67.29295 251.14071 1.04720 130.00000 225.16660 0.78540 183.84776 183.84776 0.52360 225.16660 130.00000 0.26180 251.14071 67.29295 0.00000 260.00000 0.00000 -0.26180 251.14071 -67.29295 -0.52360 225.16660 -130.00000 -0.78540 183.84776 -183.84776 -1.04720 130.00000 -225.16660 -1.30900 67.29295 -251.14071 -1.57080 0.00000 -260.00000 -1.83260 -67.29295 -251.14071 -2.09440 -130.00000 -225.16660 -2.35619 -183.84776 -183.84776] sonar_2nd_bank_start 24 rflex_power_offset 12 # deci volts? rflex_base_bank 0 rflex_bank_count 6 rflex_banks [4 4 4 4 4 4] pose_count 24 ir_min_range 100 ir_max_range 800 rflex_ir_calib [ 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 0.0005456 -2.086 ] poses [ -247 32 532 -230 95 517 -198 152 502 -152 198 487 -95 230 472 -32 247 457 32 247 442 95 230 427 152 198 412 198 152 397 230 95 382 247 32 367 247 -32 352 230 -95 337 198 -152 322 152 -198 307 95 -230 292 32 -247 277 -32 -247 262 -95 -230 247 -152 -198 232 -198 -152 217 -230 -95 202 -247 -32 187 ] ) Authors Matthew Brewer, Toby Collett