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Topic starter
2019-06-28 1:21 pm
I've been happily hanging around the workshop since it opened without introducing
myself. The youth of today would probably call me a grumpy old grey beard. I like
making things… Even more, I love learning thing. Over the years I have taken apart just about everything I could get my hand on. Every
once it got put back together. Growing up, I was lucky enough to have a father with a
PH.D. in industrial education. He was chuck full of theory. But somewhat lacking in
common sense:) Over the years we cobbled together many crazy things. The family just accepted that sometimes it was necessary to eat standing around the
kitchen counter because the table was covered with our latest experiment. I have looked at robotics with some interest for the last several years. I even built
a few robots from cheap servos, a plastic chassis, and Arduinos. I never took the next
step because the components quickly became expensive and there was not a lot of
information readily available. I stumbled onto TheDroneBotWorkshop about the time Bill was starting the Build a Real
Robot series. His previous videos were very well done so I subscribed. I currently have three related robotics projects underway: 1. Of course there my personal variation of DB1. The last thing I did was prototype
the motor controllers. Ideas are fermenting in the back of my mind while Bill works on
his plan to move forward. 2. I have been experimenting with the Robot Operating System (ROS). The learning curve
has been a bit steep. The community Around ROS is very similar to the community around
Linux in its early days. It can be so overwhelming to get started that established
community members tends to only answer question for people who have proven their moxie
by setting up a working ROS system. It is quite understandable that the shear number of beginner questions would overwhelm
even the most generous of experienced contributors. As a result, I got a TurtleBot3. My
goal is to get the thing running as intended which hopefully be the point where I am
able to ask reasonable question. 3. I have start experimenting with a Jetson Nano. The computation capability per dollar
looks like a game changer in hobbyist robotics. I am an advocate of opensouce so using
the proprietary CUDA libraries make me a bit uncomfortable. As a pragmatist, I try to
use what works. I am trying to poke at the challenge of building my own robot which runs ROS on a
Jetson Nano from these three different angles. Looking forward to taking this journey with you all.
retroelectrons2 and NewburyPi reacted
2019-06-28 10:29 pm
Nice Bio Greybeard.
Looks like we're going to have to call you Greybeard since you didn't give us a name. ?
The ROS system sounds interesting. You'll have to get bill to devote a section on ROS where maybe you could post an introduction to the topic maybe leaning heavily on links to introductory articles etc?
A Robot Operating System sound quite interesting. I'll definitely need to look into that.
The Jetson Nano also sounds like it's going to be the next big upcoming thing. I never even heard of the Jetson Nano until Bill introduced us to it on the DBW. But it sounds quite powerful. Like you I also prefer open source products. So I'd like to learn more about what the capabilities of the Jetson Nano are. You've suggested running ROS on it, so is it possible to actually use the Jetson Nano hardware with Open Source software?
This stuff is all new to me. I'm still trying to learn more about using the Raspberry Pi. Technology is advancing faster than I can keep up with.
Anyway, nice bio Greybeard.
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
Topic starter
2019-06-29 11:15 am
In real life, I am Dave 🙂
From my personal experience projects tend to gain complexity as they go along.... maybe that is just me.
So, I am going to try to refrain from encouraging Bill to add ROS and the Nano for DB1. But since DBx is a platform meant for experimentation I'll experiment. I'll share those experiments on the forum and the resources I used.
In most respects the Jetson Nano behaves like any other modern SBC based on a ARM processor. Most SBCs have their own 'OS image' which can be download from the manufacturer's website. In most cases those images are 99.99% stock debian or ubuntu linux with a few device drivers setup for the specific hardware on the Board.
The Jetson line runs a variant called L4T or Linux for Tegra. (Tegra is the name chips Jetson's are based around.
If you find yourself reading much about Raspberry PI like SBCs there is always an undertone to the conversation about how the RPI is a little more expensive than most other clones of the same performance level but it has a large and responsive community working on it.
Hope that helps
Dave
2019-06-29 1:52 pm
Thanks for the additional info Dave,
I only just heard about ROS on this forum. And it sounded kind of interesting as a Robot Operating System. However since that time I've been somewhat frustrated by the fact that I can't see to find any place where someone can just sum up the major idea behind it in a short 15 minute video. It's kind of hard to know whether something will even be useful when it's so difficult to even learn what it does.
I did manage to glean some basic ideas that ROS somehow offers a way to allow a lot of different other software packages and various CPU platforms to communicate and share information by offering up thier information to ROS or subscribing for information from ROS. Where ROS then becomes the system that ties all the other systems together. If that's the case I'm not sure why someone couldn't have just said that in an introductory video.
In any case, I'm currently wiring a program in C# that I call the Robot Overseer. And this is basically what my program does. It oversees all of the various other programs that make my robot system work. even allowing interactions between separate robots. So I guess my Robot Overseer program is my version of "ROS" (in this case standing for Robot OverSeer) ?
In any case I thought I'd just toss that out there.
As far as the Raspberry Pi goes I have 5 of them. One is a B+ and the other four are A+. I had to get the B+ for the original set up, but once I get the OS on the SD card I just swap the card over to an A+ and the A+ is up and running. I use Raspian because I like to keep the lightest OS possible for my purposes.
I'm not sure what the Jetson Nano has to offer. I hear that it's extremely fast at computations, but I think the main attraction to it are the A.I. programs that have already been written for it. So I would imagine that I'll need to run an OS that will accommodate those A.I. programs.
Obviously I still have a lot to learn. And that's one reason I'm so glad that Bill started this forum. This allows us (his fans) to share with each other all the things we are doing. So it's great to see you on the forums.
James
DroneBot Workshop Robotics Engineer
James
2019-06-29 6:19 pm
I took a brief look at this ROS, quite a few moons ago, and came away with the feeling that it had a lot of potential but was not yet ready for prime time. I believe that Bill did mention ROS earlier, and I am looking forward to his insights into it.
--
Dale
retroelectrons2 reacted