Introduction

Past few weeks, due to changing apartment and other personal stuff I had to pause work my WnekoTank rover project.

I’m almost at the end of 2^nd iteration, where first was just basic remotely controlled platform able only to be directly controlled like RC car, and now second being finished mostly on hardware side and having all building blocks needed for later autonomy:

• Ability to program series of movements, which can later be user by pathfinding algorithms to move over selected route,
• Having basic proximity sensors for emergency stopping on obstacles,
• Gimbal allowing view for operator around whole rover, also translating image clicks into camera or rover movement – later to be used in conjunction with pathfinding
• Base stereo camera for computer vision – to be used with stereoscopic 3d mapping of terrain in front for pathfinding and for obstacle detection
• Complete reorganization of all electronics onboard

Now I’m slowly working on 3^rd iteration – which won’t provide much hardware changes, maybe some additional sensors and finally finishing at least most important parts of chassis to allow using it outdoors. But this will require many, many different software elements to be written and put together, this time consisting of many different technologies ranging from basic console app solutions, to Azure. This post is just roadmap, where I can systematize future steps and those already taken.

Read more “WnekoTank development plan”