Onboard DSP for Surveyor Robot

The surveyor robot SRV-1 has a platform equipped with wireless and video modules which can operate autonomously or operated remotely through wireless Internet connection and console while incorporating DSP processor embedded systems.

The main heart to control the robot platform is the processor which runs the onboard interpreted C programs, compress and transmit the captured images through WLAN. The uClinux embedded OS is used to complete these tasks and is compiled with GNU tool-chain. The SRV-1 was made to have direct interface with browsers and smart phones. The navigation board used in the project includes GPS, 3-axis compass, tilt, 8-channel A/D board, and 3-axis accelerometer.

A very basic HTTPD capability is built into the SRV-1 firmware because of interface with smart phones and browsers. The HTML and javascript are employed as it uses image mapping for the robot controls without installing any special application since it only uses the built-in web browser.

The camera sensors to be used can be the low light Omnivision OV7725 but will only be as add-on option to the SRV-1 controllers since the OV9655 has higher resolution and very good color in full lighting at lower frame rates.

Rest of the project