Automation System
Hello everyone. Hope you guys are excited for joining this team. We have carefully calibrated th
ese questions for you to test your understanding of complex circuitry and path planning algorith
ms that we will be employing to our rover.
This assignment shall test your understanding and skill set required for the task of creating a rov
er. We don't expect you to know everything with respect to this domain but we would highly reco
mmend you to go through YouTube tutorials and other sources to complete this assignment.
Rover basics 101: Autonomous Rover From Scratch (ROS) Part 1
Automation :
We have provided a world simulation file (which has to be launched in CoppeliaSim) as well as
a python file which runs the turtlebot in the simulation. Tasks are given below the installation gui
de.
CoppeliaSim tutorial : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc7bpbeTIk77hVBw0QiST8BWxLNJsV
biM&si=wTtHwbSdW8u5A3oo
OpenCV tutorial (for brownie points):
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzMcBGfZo4-lUA8uGjeXhBUUzPYc6vZRn&si=2EMcvRgfVCI
tlW65
Installation guide :
● Download the Coppeliasim Edu version from Coppelia Robotics .
Note: For Windows, choose the platform as ‘Windows (zip package without installer)’
In case your web browser prompts you, saying that it is unsafe, choose the option ‘keep i
t anyways’. (Don’t worry, it’s safe )
● After the download is complete, move the .zip (or .tar.xz in case of Ubuntu) file to a prefer
able location and extract the contents.
● To launch the simulator,
In Windows: Run the coppeliaSim.exe file, which can be found inside the extracted fold
er. (Windows might prompt you to allow public and private networks to access the app.
Click ‘allow’.) inside the extracted folder. (If the executable opens up as a text file rather t
han being executed, right-click on the file > Properties > Permissions and enable the che
ckbox ‘Allow executing file as program’.)
Python API
The robots simulated in coppeliasim can be programmed using Python via APIs provided by
the coppeliasim_zmqremoteapi_client python library. The library can be easily installed u
sing pip.
Open a command prompt (or terminal in case of Ubuntu) and run the following command:
pip install coppeliasim-zmqremoteapi-client
In Windows, you might get an error like the one below.
'pip' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable
program or batch file.
This means that Python has not been added to your environment PATH variable. Add Pytho
n to the environment PATH variable and try again, or you could use the following comma
nd to install the library directly:
python -m pip install coppeliasim-zmqremoteapi-client
or
py -m pip install coppeliasim-zmqremoteapi-client
Documentation
To learn about Coppeliasim, refer to the Coppeliasim User Manual.
To learn about the usage of the Python API, refer to the Regular API Reference. (Google it,
of course )
Tasks:
1. You have to create an algorithm to move the turtlebot to each of the waypoints present o
n the world file in a sequential manner such that you end up in the end box. Also count t
he number of waypoints crossed. Screen record your assignment and share it with us on
the google forms.
Brownie points : Add changes to the robot to add a proximity sensor or a camera on the robot. C
hange your previous code to incorporate the visual data you get onto another window. ( You mu
st use OpenCV libraries in order to help you do this )
ALL THE BEST GUYS. REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN OUR CLUB SOO
N !!
