REMS (Robotics Educational Middleware System)

Currently, in early beta (v0.3.*)

PreRequirements

• Platform Ubuntu, Windows, Mac
• Python 3.8/3.9/3.10/3.11/3.12
• IDE: Pycharm(recommended) or Visual Studio

Install

Starting Ver.0.3.*

Pip install

pip install rems

Pip install Keyboard, Joystick and Async Modules

pip install rems[keyboard, joystick, async]

or

pip install rems[full]

Pip install from repo (as library)

pip install git+https://github.com/Suke0811/REMS.git@main

This installs Rems currently from a branch.

Pip install from repo (as an edible library)

pip install -e git+https://github.com/Suke0811/REMS.git@main

This installs Rems currently from a branch as edible.

Alternative methods (no pip)

clone https://github.com/Suke0811/REMS.git
pip install -r requirements.txt

This installs all requirements for you.

How to Run

• Run.py has an example of how to run it
• You can pick one of input options: FileInput, KeyboardInput, or JoystickInput
• You can have outputs as you want: FileOutput, AnimationOutputs
• You can add as many robot as you want: KinematicsModel, WebotsModel, NOPModel
• If you use FileOutput, you can reproduce the result with FileInput

Notes

• Input space
• Joystick
  • JoystickInput requires a joystick controller (not required if you don't have one), or throws an error
  • We are using pygame to deal with joysticks which suppose to work cross platform and on nearly all controllers
  • Depending on the vendor of the controllers, key mapping could be different (Defined in constants.py, class JOYSTICK)
  • We tested with Xbox and Switch controllers with no issues (Plug and Play)
  • Your controller should have 2 joysticks at least.
• matplotlib is for figures

Webots and aruco maker

• Please update Webots Woodbot motor maxVelocity to 20.(HingeJoint > Device > Motor > maxVelocity)

• Aruco Marker system is added.

• Aruco maker detection is another robot. you need to add the ArucoMaker().

  • aruco_track = ArucoMaker(track_id=1, display=False,camera_id=1)
  • camera id could be 0 or 1 if you have more than 1 camera
  • track_id is maker id on the robot
  • display True will slow down everything. Even false, you get woodbot.avi video output.

• If you like to use your own setup, you need:

  • ID 255 (right top), 254, 253, 252 (right bottom) 5by5 50mm marker at https://chev.me/arucogen/.
  • Camera calibration board and follow advices in https://aliyasineser.medium.com/opencv-camera-calibration-e9a48bdd1844
  • To run calibration, change your picture names to image0, image1, image2, ..., and then run ArucoHelper.py. You may need to change the box size (currently 0.022m)

Debugging

With Operator

You can do two ways:

• breakpoint()
• Operator(debug_mode=True)

Adding breakpoint() works for all situations, but not as convenient as IDE debuggers.

Operator(debug_mode=True) lets you use IDE debuggers (Pycarm_pydev), but this won't run robots in multi-process.

With LiteOperator

• No special methods are required with LiteOperator
• LiteOperator is NOT appropriate for hardware
• A multi-agent Webots simulation is NOT possible, but 1 Webots robot works Ok.

Process system

• ProcessSystem allows you to conduct a process after every timesteps
• returning a job at def process() creates a background job. (Either thread or multi process)
• you can set callback to know when the background task is done

Files

kinematics
│   README.md
│   run_example.py                    (An example code)   
│
└───doc
│   │   function.md               (Software architecture)
│   │   summary.md                (Lab summary)
│
└───sim
    │   fromulation.py            (You need to modify)
    │   constants.py
    │   Operator.py 
    │
    └───inputs
    │     │   InputSystem         (Base class)
    │     │   FileInput.py
    │     │   Keyboard.py
    │     │   JoystickInput.py 
    │
    └───outputs
    │     │   OutputSystem        (Base class)
    │     │   FileOutput.py
    │     │   GraphOutput.py      (You need to implement)
    │     │   AnimationOutput.py  (You need to implement)
    │
    └───robots
    │     │   RobotSystem.py      (Base class)
    │     │   KinematicsModel.py  (Kinematics Model of differential drive)
    │     │   NOPModel.py         (Do nothing)
    │     │   WebotsModel.py      Webots implementation of differntial drive
    │     │   WebsocketConnection.py  Differential drive robot hardware 
    │ 
    └───PROCESS
          │   ProcessSystem.py    (Base class)
          │   TestProcess.py      (example showing how to create, submit and get callback from a job)