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Running ConveyorBot

Before the ConveyorBotstarts moving it is necessary to place the markers in the desired location. See how to place markers.

Initially when robot is boot up, touchscreen display shows an Loading screen. After the system is ready you should be able to see a screen with a START button. From initial pose, it will wait for the user to press START and the move to towards the detected marker. It is important that the robot sees the first marker, otherwise it will not move and pop-up a warning on the screen.

Basic ConveyorBot Usage

ConveyorBot will smoothly navigate between markers, where each marker arrow should point in the direction of the next marker. If the robot encounters a STOP marker, it will stop on it and turn in the direction of arrow. Once robot is on the STOP marker, it will wait until CONTINUE is pressed on the touchscreen and then continue driving in the direction of the arrow. ConveyorBot does not neccesary need to see a next marker from the position on STOP marker.

To make a system work as intended, set of rules should be followed to prevent undesired behaviour.

Set of Rules

#1. Each marker should point in the direction of the next one
#2. TURN markers should be used to change driving direction (Crossroads)
#3. BIDIRECTIONAL markers should be used for two-way routes, where robot can drive in both directions and not for changing the driving direction. In other words, robot should never come sideways to the BIDIRECTIONAL marker, since it may turn in the wrong direction as intended.
#4. GO marker should be used for one-way routes, where robot can drive only in one direction

To run, type:

roslaunch ground_fiducials ground_fiducials.launch

or in Gazebo:

roslaunch ground_fiducials sim_ground_fiducials.launch

ConveyorBot main package are:

• raspicam_node that starts onboard Raspberry Pi Camera
• ConveyorBot_description that spawns a urdf ConveyorBot model
• ConveyorBot_detect for detecting markers and forwarding the pose of the markers
• ground_fiducials which handles type of markers
• ConveyorBot_nav which handles navigation maneuvers execution

For more advance usage and capabilities refere to ConveyorBot usage with touchscreen.