Off-Board Controller


The off-board computers, which run the off-board (real-time) controller and the other off-board modules (stereo, planner, arbiter, and user interface) consist of several Sun workstations connected via Ethernet. The off-board controller packages commands to the rover up and ships them to the on-board controller. It also provides some safety mechanisms, such as stopping the rover if roll or pitch inclinometers exceed certain thresholds, and performs much of the position estimation task. For example, the off-board controller monitors the position and orientation of the rover through a dead reckoning algorithm, which computes information from inclinometers (that measure the rover's changing pitch and roll); attitude sensors, including a compass; and a counting mechanism on the robot's wheels similar to the odometer in a car.


LRD Navigation Group - skoenig@cs.cmu.edu (last updated in March 1995)
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