thjc / ardev Goto Github PK

ARDev is an augmented reality toolkit to assist robot
developers in debugging complex robot sensors. 

It primarily provides sensor visualisations at this stage. 

The currently implemented objects primarily work with 
Player/Stage based robots.

ARDev has been developed and tested in ubuntu linux, 
other flavours of linux should work fine but are not 
tested.

ARDev was written by Toby Collett as part of his PhD research
at the University of Auckland. I am keen to hear any feedback, 
and should be able to provide 
some personal support getting it running, so get in touch by 
email to ardev _at_ plan9.net.nz 

More detailed documentation is available in the doc directory.
You may need to use doxygen to generate it.

INSTALLATION
------------

1. Download and install libthjc (from the same place you got ardev)
2. Make sure the other required components are installed on the system
   This should be a reasonably accurate list, they need to be the dev versions
	qt (4.1)
	gl/glu/glut
	sdl
	libjpeg
	imagemagick
3. Download any of the optional extra libraries
	doxygen (if you want the API documentation)
	libdc1394 (built with version 2.0-pre6, later versions may work)
	ffmpeg (often not functioning)
	artoolkit (if you want to track artoolkit markers)
	libfep (inhouse to the university of auckland robotics group at this stage)
	playerstage
	opencv
	artoolkitplus
4. run configure (dont forget to enable any of the optional libs you want)

5. build the project (make)

GETTING STARTED
---------------

There are two basic methods described here, one just gives an idea of the
software using the stage based debug objects for capturing. This is likely
to work first try out of the box, but is not that useful.

Option 2 uses an overhead camera and a player based robot. This is useful
but more complicated. Probably trying option 1 first and then progressing 
to option 2 once thats done is a good plan.

Both the methods described here use the aride GUI for configuring ardev so to 
get start go to the aride directory (util/aride), then follow either option
1 or 2 below.

OPTION 1:
You will need player (tested with 2.0.1), with at least the fake localize
driver, and stage (2.0.1)

Run stage using the config file in util/aride/example/simple.cfg

then run aride specifing the stage aride config file
i.e. ./aride ./example/stage.aride

then click on control->run and it should be all go.
You should be able to driver the robot using playerjoy or playerv etc and
watch the visualisation of the sensor data. This is simulating the ardev
system running on the robots on board camera.

OPTION 2:
This is based on player and the artoolkitplus fiducial tracker.

My example uses our labs pioneer robot, with a player server for serving up the camera images.
The default artoolkitplus marker is ID '10', this can be changed in the config GUI.

Change to the aride directory.
run ./aride example/overhead.aride
(sleepy is our pioneer, we have seven...sleepy, happy, grumpy ... got it?)
check the settings the UI, particularly you will need to change the server addresses 
for the player interfaces.

you will also need to specify a camera calibration file the format is:
Translation (3 floats)
Rotation Matrix (9 floats)
focal distance
sensor width (x and y)
image size (x and y)
scale factors (x and y)

Fields are sepearated by white space.
the application ./util/calib/calibapp may help you generate this file. It uses tsai calibration to get the values
and does basic detection of circles on a large cube to find the source points.
If you are not using the artoolkitplus or opencv trackers then you may be able to omit the calibration file altogether.

you could generate the file manually the most important value is the 'tilt' or y axes rotation values.
an example calibration file is also provided in the example dir.

in theory, provided your parameters are all correct and your player servers are running, simply click on
the green play button ('start') and things should be all go.

Im keen on people using this software so dont hesitate to contact me if you are wanting to try the software and
are having trouble. This project is under active development and any ideas voiced will certainly be considered.



OTHER STUFF
-----------



3rd party projects used/referred to
** Ive attempted to keep this list fairly complete, 
but obviously there will be projects I have referred to 
online that I have missed out ****

Player/Stage
NeHe Studios (lots of varied reference for open gl sections
DigiBen/Gametutorials.com (the 3ds model loader)
MIT HITlab ARtoolkit
ARToolKitPlus
OpenCV