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The two pc ' s that run the platform are connected to my wireless network and are operated remotely using Windows Remote Desktop connection
The drive motors, cameras, ultrasonic sensor, the 2 pan tilts, 6 degree of freedom arm, and auxiliary stepper motor all run on the Gateway and are controlled through the GUI above. The interface was written in visual basic.
The platform currently has 5 Arduinos, 4 of which run on the Gateway. The Arduinos are separated to facilitate testing and the electrical application type. For example, stepper motor applications and actuator applications get along well together, but don¡Çt get along with servo applications. It is also easier to make changes without affecting a lot of systems. You can also test parts of the system without firing up the whole shebang.
That brings us to the two boxes in the upper left hand corner.
When you fire up the program looks to see if there are Arduinos plugged in and lists them in the listbox.
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You can assign the program function and serial port assignment to the USB port by selecting the radio button and clicking on the USB port in the window.
When you plug in a USB device, press the refresh button and the USB device will appear in the list box and you can assign it to the serial port as in the paragraph above.
For the most part, if the Arduinos stay plugged in, there USB com names will stay the same and you can assign the serial ports without worrying. But occasionally, the USB com names change, typically if they are unplugged and plugged in again. What I do in this case is shut down the machine, unplug the USB ' s, fire up the machine, and then read the usb devices one at a time and assign them to the serial ports again.
The tabbed listbox is the serial log from the Arduinos. Click the tab for the Arduino log you want to monitor.
For now the rest of the controls are pretty self-explanatory and can be expanded on later.
The vision system and armzilla run on the Asus.
Armzilla currently doesn¡Çt have a GUI. I have 5 thumb joysticks hooked directly to the Arduino
The vision system uses a Kinect 2 for windows. The GUI is written in C# using Windows Presentation Foundation.
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