Hardware

This section includes an overview of the hardware components of Freddy 2.0

Hardware Components

Base of the robot is equipped with the following key components:

  • 4 active wheel units, each with a pair of independently controlled wheels with hub motors

  • Laser scanner (Hokuyo UTM-10LX)

  • Power Management Unit (PMU), which is responsible for controlling the power supply to the wheels and the arms

  • EtherCAT board to which the wheels are connected

  • Intel NUC for processing

  • Network switch to allow communication with the rest of the components

  • Power button and charging port

  • Ports for torso connection includes a power port, an ethernet port for communication, and an EtherCAT port for a wireless emergency stop device

  • Representation of the internal components of the base in top view

    EtherCAT board

  • Representation of single wheel unit and the power button with charging port on the base of the robot

../_images/wheel-min.jpg ../_images/base_power_button-min.jpg

Torso of the robot consists of the following components:

  • 2 Kinova Gen3 arms

  • Ethernet switch enabling communication with both arms and the base

  • Ethernet port to access this switch

  • Power button and the emergency button

  • Antenna of wireless emergency stop device (RE5910) which is used to enable/disable the power supply to the base and the arms

  • Representation of the torso with ethernet port, power button, emergency button, and the antenna of the wireless emergency stop device

Torso

Communication Architecture

  • Individual wheels are connected to the EtherCAT board which his further connected to the switch at the base of the robot. Similarly, the ethernet cables from the individual arms are connected to a switch at the torso of the robot.

  • The power supply to the wheels and the arms are controlled by the PMU board.

Powering the Robot

Steps to Power On

Step1: Hold the power button on the base of the robot until the green LED turns on. Now the green LED light on the torso of the robot will start blinking and the red LED will turn on. This represents safe mode.

Step2: If not already done, pull the red coloured emergency button on the RE5910 and wait until the green LED on it to turn on. Now press the green button on the RE5910 and the same green LED will start blinking.

Step3: Now press the green button on the torso of the robot. The green LED on the torso will turn on and the red LED will turn off. This represents operational mode of the robot. Now the robot’s wheels will by default get the power and are available for communication. To enable power supply to the arms, a command needs to be sent to the PMU board. This is further discussed in the section describing the commands to control the power of the robot.

Steps to Power Off

Method1: Hold the power button the the base of the robot until it starts blinking and then release it.

Method2: Send the SHUTDOWN command to the PMU board. This is further discussed in the section describing the commands to control the power of the robot.

Charging the Robot

Connect the charger to the charging port on the robot’s base. The blinking green LED on the base of the robot indicates that the robot is charging. The robot can be charged while it is powered on or off.