Socrates I is my most recent robot project, specifically designed to carry a high end PTZ IP camera and lots of battery power for long duration operation. My eventual goal is a telepresence application, implemented with the Microsoft Robotics Studio, but I am many months away from having anything operational. When I do, I will post the software and a few articles describing what I have learned. For now let me give you a walk through, taking it from the top...
As you can see in this picture Socrates I has three decks, based on the Max99 platform from Zagros Robotics. The top deck carries a JVC V.Networks IP camera with stepper motor driven PTZ. It is quite easy to command and stream video, and this will ultimately be used in the implementation of the localization and telepresence modules.
The mid deck carries an eBox 2300 running Windows Embedded CE 6.0 and a RoboticsConnection Serializer board (attached to the top of the silver enclosure). The Serializer board is, hands down, the best robot controller board I have ever used. It provides the greatest range of functionality over the BrainStem and OOPic and did not require additional expansion to satisfy my I/O requirements. And I still have a few I/O's to spare. As I describe the sensor complement you will see that this is quite remarkable.
The eBox 2300 will stream video from the IP camera and will act as a WiFi gateway to the low level controllers (Serializer board). It may also provide intermediate navigation and vision processing before sending the results to the remote PC for final processing and command and control.
Underneath the mid deck is the pan and tilt ultrasonic sensor head, equipped with three Devantech SRF08 sonar sensors. The pan and tilt mechanism was purchased from RoboticsConnection (also the supplier of the Serializer board).
The bottom desk has four Sharp IR emitter/dector sensors. The one just above the caster wheel is servo mounted to expand its range of view. The other two are pointing inward in front of the left and right wheels, and will act as IR bumpers that detect any objects which cross their path. One more IR sensor is mounted further in, on the underside of the lower deck and points at the reflective surface mounted to the caster wheel. This acts as a passive rotation sensor to detect forward motion or, more importantly, a lack thereof. This is useful when the drive wheels are slipping and continue to trigger the wheel encoders, even though the robot has ceased forward motion.
And now the journey continues to the software, where I will really focus my efforts. As you can see from the description of Socrates I, I purchased all of the hardware subsystems and just performed the assembly. My circuit design skills are limited, and this has allowed me to focus on my core interests in the creation of great robot software.
Onward!