VADR
From ISURC
Contents |
Overview/FAQ
What is VADR?
VADR (Vehicle for Autonomous Driving Research) is essentially an indoor version of the ARK. It is a MiniITX motherboard on a RC car body with Phidget servocontrollers. A pan-tilt camera setup in front provides vision input, and a mast houses a GPS receiver and a wireless network receiver.
What does VADR do?
VADR is a test-bed for autonomous vehicle algorithms--we use it to try out ideas for getting a robot to drive around by itself to do useful things.
Right now, VADR is tele-operated, which means that it can move around but only with a person controlling it over a network connection.
What can I do to help?
VADR and robotics in general combine knowledge a variety of fields:
- computer science
- electrical engineering
- computer engineering
- mechanical engineering
- team management
If you are interested in robotics and want to learn more while working on an exciting and challenging project, then you can help. We need mechanically-minded people to work on the suspension and actuator attachments. For those interested in electronics, we need to incorporate more sensors, such as wheel rotation and accelerometers. Programming-savvy students may be interested in computer vision, path-planning, obstacle avoidance, and localization from sensor data. A web interface for driving VADR would be very cool.
Components and Subsystems
- Servo Specs
- 12V Camcorder Battery - ratings and cost
- VADR hard drive - compoact flash with adapter
Gallery
Images
Front/side view of VADR. |
Top view of VADR. |
Ryan at the wheel for driving VADR. Sooo happy. |
Video
VADR-servos_alive.avi - We got the servos to work over the network. VADRrollin.avi - Adam controlling VADR with the PhantomOmni
Links
- Roboteq Robot Platform - Another Epia-based mobile robot
