FollowBot

This robot will consist of different phases:

1. Following mechanics, sensor intel. (Stage 1)
2. Carrying mechanics, power efficiency. (Stage 2)
3. Pathfinding mechanics, power efficiency. (Stage 3)
4. Cost efficiency, balancing efficiency. (Stage 4)

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Features
• Design Details
• Installation
• Configuration & Usage
• Contributing
• License

Introduction

Followbot is a companion robot that follows you around. The goal for this project is to build a low cost robot that can carry you belongings for you. Currently Followbot is useful within school/city settings. Future endeavors include developing the capability for Followbot to traverse uneven terrain such as dirt of gravel

Features

• Carry up to 50 lbs
• Mapping capabilities to traverse from one point to another
• Following mechanics
• Companion app and website to monitor and control robot remotely

Design Details

The construction of the Followbot presents a significant challenge, given the intricate engineering required to create a device capable of carrying and autonomously following a user. The hardware components and their assembly will demand meticulous attention and precision.

On the hardware side we are utilizing the Arduino Uno Rev4 in order to send and do important tasks for the user. We will be developing a webpage and a app with valuabe information for the user to use when needed. Mapping capabilities and path-finding algorithms will be applied to the Followbot in order to avoid obstacles while following a designated path to a specific location. Computer vision techniques will be used to allow the Followbot to follow the user if needed in order for it to carry their belongings. Sensors such as LiDAR, RGB etc. will come with software that will allow us to really improve the machine learning models that we will apply.

In terms of project success, our primary focus will be on systematic organization and incremental prototyping. We plan to develop a prototype during the first quarter and progressively refine it. Our goal is to deliver a practical and beneficial product for any consumer seeking a Followbot to carry their belongings or allow the Followbot to go to designated places.

High Level Design Architecture

Installation

Installation Steps

Before you clone your repo you will need to first download vscode. The reason being is because when developing on the Robotics side There is a nice extension that is not found in any other IDE's. To make your life easier and for you to not try and configure PlatformIO on another IDE with hassle. I would absolutely advise you to download VSCode.

• In VSCode click the extensions icon.

• Look up PlatformIO IDE

• Install it

After VSCode with the PlatformIO extension has been installed we can now git clone the repo.

Configuration & Usage

Front-end & Back-end

Developing on the front-end requires to set up the server side. And it's quite easy.

• In your command prompt go to the BotServer directory

• Once in the directory you must run these pip commands:

  pip install Flask
  pip install -U flask-cors

• Once those two things are installed and hopefully you have npm installed you will need to do the next following commands:

npm i
npm i -g npm

• Now after these above steps you are ready to build the front-end and back-end

npm run build

• After the build run the server

npm run start

• In your browser be sure to use this url: http://xx.xx.xx.xx:5000
• the xx.xx.xx.xx is showed in the server command window.

Robotic-end

The robotic side of this project will involve the integration and communication between an Arduino board and a Raspberry Pi running ROS2. The Arduino board will facilitate motor and sensory communication by allowing messages to be sent back and forth, enabling various applications supported by the Raspberry Pi with ROS2. Utilizing ROS2, we can develop learning models and employ computer vision technologies to enhance the accuracy of our mapping, following mechanics, voice recognition, path-finding, and user recognition. The required steps in order to begin development on the robotic side of this project is found in the link below. It will direct you to another Repository that will connect back as always to our master repository:

ROS2 Development for FollowBot

For Arduino Development:

• If you have not already please download VSCode with the PlatformIO extension in order for you to develop on the Robotic side.
• Within the PlatformIO homepage there are 4 side buttons that you will be allowed to click on. Please click on the Open Project Button

• When you do so please go where you placed your repo and you will need to open this folder: FollowBot->FollowBot

• After you do so you will see all of the files that we have made for the development of FollowBot.
• To run it you will need to press the blue checkmark icon on the bottom of the screen

• To push and build the code on the Arduino board or any Microcontroller that is applicable press the arrow icon on the bottom of the screen

• When you are programming on the device, sometimes you will want to print something to the Serial port. Click the plug icon to open the Serial Monitor.

• When you need to input PlatformIO specific commands, you will need to open the IO terminal. The icon is a small cmd screen.

Other Documentation:

Within the Repo there is a directory called Documentation Most of the documentation is around the requirements and the design of our Project. But there is specific docs that I recommend you guys reading up on. Please read the RunningUnitTestsPlatformIO documentation, JestUnitTesting Documentation, And for future references the ROS2_Important_Commands Documentation.

• Running Unit Test PlatformIO
• Jest Unit Testing Document

Contributing

We are a small team of college students, any help is appreciated! You can clone the repository on GitHub and submit a pull request.

git clone https://github.com/FrankVanris2/FollowBot.git

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2024 Trong Duong, Joeseph Hoang, Igor Janotti, Frank Vanris

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files ("Followbot") to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.