Last Updated: May 4, 2013
Table of Contents: @1 - Description @2 - Matplotlib Simulator @3 - Pybox2d @4 - Setup @5 - Troubleshooting
Description: This is a project for room cleanup of objects using the Romo robot (http://romotive.com). The problem is essentially as follow: Given control of a Romo robot, an overhead camera, and a "messy" room with objects scattered about, how can the rom be decluttered such that colored items are sorted into different areas of the room.
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Matplotlib Simulator: This was the initial attempt at creating a simulator. It was replaced by pybox2d because of the complications introduced with collision detection. No installation is necessary to run this.
The matplotlib simulator can be run using 'python simulator.py'. This reads differential drive instructions in the native iPhone SDK language and turns them into a simulated series of images. These images are placed in a new directory based on the filename of the text file of instructions. The images are stitched together into a video as well.
Please view the code in simulator.py order to change other parameters such as which file to run drive commands from as well as video parameters.
Files: -drawRomo.py - Handles matplotlib drawing -parseCommands.py - Reads commands from the input text file -objects.py - Object representation of the various items in the problem -simulator.py - Main file that imports the above and runs the actual simulation based on commands
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Pybox2d Simulator: Pybox2d is a physics library in python based off of Box2d native in C++. This allows for easier representation of the problem in simulation as many physics elements are already made. To run, use 'python pybox_romo.py'.
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Setup: Pybox2d can be downloaded here: https://code.google.com/p/pybox2d/downloads/list. The installation process is documented in the README and INSTALL file. The version used for this is 2.3b0.
Mac Instructions: There are two prerequisites needed for a Mac install, Apple Developer Tools and SWIG. The version of SWIG being used is 2.0.3 though the versions appear to be compatible.
Pygame: Pygame is necessary for running testbed examples and needs to be installed as well.
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Troubleshooting:
One issue that was run into was pygame and pybox not running with the correct version of python. A workaround is using 'python2.7-32' as opposed to just using 'python' when running from terminal.
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