Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots
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___~ __ Extensible Hardware Architecture for Mobile Robots Eric Park*, Linda Kobayashi. and Susan Y. Lee* Inrelligenr Roborics Group IWSA Ames Research Center Moffen Field. CA 94035-1000, USA {epark, Ikobayaslzi, qvlee} @arc.nasa.gov Absfruct-Tbe Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames Research Center has developed a new mobile robot hardware architecture designed for extensibility and reconfigurability. Currently implemented on the k-9 rover. and won to be integrated onto the HOseries of burnan-robot collaboration research robots, this achitecture allows for rapid changes in instrumentation configuration and provides a high degree of modularity through a synergistic mix of off-the-shelf and custom designed components, allowing eased transplantation into a wide vane6 of mobile robot platforms. A component level overview of this architecture is presented along with a description of the changes required for implementation on UO,followed by plans for future work. Zndex Terns- modular. extensible, hardware architecture, mobile robot, k9 INTRODUCTION Fig. 1. K9 rover Mobile robots used for research and development are in increasing demand as the application space for robotics widens. With this demand comes the need for a smarter K9 Overview way to produce reliable mobile robots with a proven set of avionics. Time and money lost in developing custom The K9 rover is a 6-wheel steer. 6-wheel drive rocker- architectures for each new robot makes it increasingly bogey chassis outfitted with electronics and instruments important to develop extensible hardware architectures that appropriate for supporting research relevant to remote can expand and accommodate rapid changes in configu- exploration 191 [3] [4]. K9’s overall dimensions are 1.05m ration. including transfer to an entirely different mobile long by 0.85m wide by 1.6m hgh. with a mass of ap proximately 65 kg and a top speed of approximately 6 platform [l]. W-e have developed a new hardware arch- tecture that makes optimized use of both off-the-shelf and cdsec. K9’s instrumentation suite consists of a Honeywell custom designed hardware in order to achieve flexibility HMR3000 compass/inclinometer. an Inertial Sciences iner- and extensibility. We believe this architecture is capable tial measurement unit (LWU), a Novate1 differential global positioning unit (DGPS), a 5-DOF with a custom. enough to be used as the basis for a wide variety of cutrent arm microscopic imager. and three sets of stereo camera pairs, and future mobile robot platforms. two of which are attached to a pan-tilt unit set atop a rigid mast. K9’s sofcware architecture is based on Coupled Layered BACKGROUND Architecture for Robotic Autonomy (CLARA@) [5]devel- The extensible hardware architecture described is cur- oped at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in collaboration rently implemented on the K9 rover and is being trans- with NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) and Camegie planted to two K10 robots with the goal of supporting re- Mellon University. The use of CLARAty allows us to easily search into peer-to-peer human-robot collaboration. These transplant our control software to other CLARA@ based two new robots vary from K9 both in instrumentation and :&OS with GS modification to hgh-!evel code. capabilities. However, we to show that K9’s extensible aim KIO Overview architecture is scalable enough to meet the needs of KlO with minimal redesign. KIO is ow next generation mobile robot research plat- form to be used with the Intelligent Robotics Group ‘Contractor to NASA by QSS Group, Inc ORG) at ARC. Th~sseries of robots is designed to be Power Switching 1Modules Fig. 3. Power System Block Diagram The battery charging board uses an .4tmel .4VR AT- Megal 6L microcontroller and three Linear Technology Fig. 2. Conceptual model of KlO (credit: noms Hsiu) LTC1300 Li-Ioc chargng chips. The presence of a rni- crocontroller allows the board to self-monitor each battery and individually charge them as necessary when external a cost-efficient, easily maintainable robotic testbed using power is applied. A RS232 serial interface is provided to as many commercial off-the-shelf components as possi- allow the host CPV to query battery status. however no ble. Each robot features a &wheel steer, 4-wheel drive host intervention is necessary to enable or disable char-hg. rocker chassis and a top speed of 30 crdsec. comparable The autonomous nature of the battery charger enables easq to human-walking speed. Hard points on all sides allow expansion bj allowing multiple chargers to be present in a attachment of additional components including antennas. robot with no additional supervisory load on the host CFE. masts. arms, and other equipment. In this case, a custom solution was chosen over a KIOs avionics strives to duplicate those of K9 wherever commercial off-the-shelf charger because we were unable possible, including the computing infrastructure, power to find a charger that met our needs. Our battery charang system, and instrumentation. Although the KIO robots will board‘s stackable and autonomous nature underscores our draw significantly more power than K9 (approx. 500W ver- emphasis on scalability with future expansion in mind. sus IOOW nominal), K9’s power architecture is extensible enough to accommodate KlO’s power requirements with Li-Ion Battery Packs: K9 carries six Inspired Enera minimal modification, thereby saving en-@neering time and Yl2024M2 “smart” battery packs in parallel. Each Li-Ion development costs. battery nominally provides 14.4V at 6.6AH and possesses a SMBus interface for easy querying of status and charge capacity. Internal storage of charge state allows the batteries .hRCHITECTURAL OVERVIEW to be hot-swappable. enabling the rover to run continuously K9’s hardware architecture consists of several core without downtime for char-ging. However, even without hot- avionics elements including a Li-Ion based distributed swapping, K9 can typically run for a full day on a single power system. inte,gated motion controllers. and a laptop charge. KIO will use the same battery packs. but twice as based computing infrastructure. many to accommodate the high current requirements of the drive motors. Power System Although we experiemented with in-house battery packs before settling on Inspired Energy’s batteries. going with K9’s power system has four key elements that allows a commercial vendor meant that K9’s batteries would be for easy reconfiguration and expansion: a self-monitoring readily available and easily obtainable for si@cantly battery charger board, “smart” Li-Ion battery packs, a less than the cost of making custom batteries. power distribution board, and several distributed power switching modules. Power Distribution Board: The power distribution board is an in-house designed circuit board used on both K9 and Battery Charger Board: K9’s battery charm@ng system KIO. Its sole purpose is to take the power provided by consists of a single board capable of supporting the charg- the batteT charging boards and distribute it to the various ing and moniroring of up to six hot-swappab!e battery on-board instruments. Flexibility is acleved through the packs. If necessary, several of these in-house designed use of commercial Vicor DC-DC converters. Power from boards can be stacked in series or parallel to accommodate the battery charging boards is funneled through several additional batteries. Vicor converters which regulate the voltage up or down as necessary before being distributed to instruments. Since these units are available in many different output voltages. it is trivial to mix and match converters as needed. Each power disuibution board is capable of providing three output voltages but can be extended by stacking boards as necessary to provide additional output voltages or more power per voltage source. Power Switching Modules: Power switching of devices Fig. 1. L‘SB-enabled Power Swtching Module is performed in a distributed manner using custom USB- enabled power switching modules. As the number of de- vices increases, additional power switching modules can affords a virtually unlimited number of devices to be be added proportionally. The use of USB as the communi- switched. The addition of a new instrument or change in cations interface allows for a high degree of expandability power requirements merely requires the addition of a new both in bandwidth and number of supported devices. power switchmg module. or the changing of a few passive On 179, &<ices and imtmrnents inc!udxg the wheels. components respecrive!!. arm, pan-tilt, compass, and IMU are powered on and off as needed to conserve power when not in use. The Both the power distribution board and the power power switching module (Figure 4) allows K9 to selectively switching modules acheve extensibility through a hybrid su-itch peripheral device power on and off via USB (USB mix of off-the-shelf and custom components. Store-bought 1.1 and CSB 2.0 compatible). Vicors are paired with a custom designed PCB while the Each pourer switchmg module consists of a DLP De- commercial DLP-245PB is complemented by an in-house sign DLP-235PB microcontroller module, u-hich allows designed daughterboard. In both cases. the two types of a host computer to control several VO lines via IJSB, hardware are combined to create a module that greatly and an in-house desiged daughterboard which mates with increases the extensibility of K9’s architecture. the microcontroller module to allow it to handle hgh current power switching. The actual power switching is Power Management: “Smart” batteries, fine-grain con- performed by Infineon Technologies BTS428L2 MOSFET trol and monitoring of power consumption, and automated power switches connected to the DLP-245PB’s YO lines. charge management allows K9 to make informed plans The daughterboard features three switched power lines. gwen resource constraints [7]. During autonomous oper- each of wtuch can handle up to 3 amps continuous current ation, given a set of objectives and contingent plans, K9 and assume one of three input voltiges.