3 ms·

A bunch of us in the robot club are using Neato Botvac's and RasPi's. Significantly cheaper.

sbierwagen 10y ago
Which ROS package are you using for the neato? I had a lot of fiddly compatibility issues with mikeferguson/neato_robot: https://bbot.org/blog/archives/2016/06/09/using_ros_with_the_neato_xv-11_in_the_year_2016/ https://bbot.org/blog/archives/2016/06/09/using_ros_with_the...
- dbcurtis 10y ago
  Fergs' node is kind of old, and he's a bit busy being CTO at Fetch Robotics, so don't expect him to put a lot of bandwidth into updates. Ralph Gnauck's fork of Ferg's original node has been updated for D-series Botvacs and recently added support for ROS Kinetic. We are on Kinetic.
kyrofa 10y ago
Is it? Which one are you using? Walmart has the D80 for $499, which is about $50 more than the Kobuki.
- sbierwagen 10y ago
  I bought a used XV-11 for $179, but budget buying a replacement battery immediately (~$60) since any used robot vacuum is going to have a bad battery.
- dbcurtis 10y ago
  I'm using a D80, but they can be found for less. The D-series is much preferred, because the XV-11 has a lame USB driver and the LIDAR data chokes it. I didn't realize Kobuki's were that cheap.
  - kyrofa 10y ago
    Yeah, the Turtlebot 2 is significantly more expensive than just the Kobuki, as mentioned in the post. But you get more stuff, too.
dharma1 10y ago
Would be good to know how hackable this is. It's got SLAM http://www.gearbest.com/robot-vacuum/pp_440546.html http://www.gearbest.com/robot-vacuum/pp_440546.html
- dbcurtis 10y ago
  Ridiculously hackable. Plug in a USB cable, open your favorite serial terminal, and type "help". There are Neato ROS nodes, and it isn't hard to hack around with other interfaces. edit: I should note that through the USB interface you get raw LIDAR data, but not access to the internal SLAM. The LIDAR itself is decent, 1 degree angular resolution, 5m indoor range (2+ m outdoors with a sunshade) and 2cm distance accuracy at 5m, 1mm distance resolution. I've given multiple XV-11's LIDAR-ectomies, (get dead robots off E-Bay) and as soon as it spins up you start getting data. A simple PID controller (or even an "I" controller) will get you spinning at 300 RPM +/- 1%, which will give you very good quality data. Easily done with Arduino or better.

Which ROS package are you using for the neato? I had a lot of fiddly compatibility issues with mikeferguson/neato_robot: https://bbot.org/blog/archives/2016/06/09/using_ros_with_the_neato_xv-11_in_the_year_2016/ https://bbot.org/blog/archives/2016/06/09/using_ros_with_the...

dbcurtis 10y ago
Fergs' node is kind of old, and he's a bit busy being CTO at Fetch Robotics, so don't expect him to put a lot of bandwidth into updates. Ralph Gnauck's fork of Ferg's original node has been updated for D-series Botvacs and recently added support for ROS Kinetic. We are on Kinetic.

kyrofa 10y ago

Is it? Which one are you using? Walmart has the D80 for $499, which is about $50 more than the Kobuki.

sbierwagen 10y ago
I bought a used XV-11 for $179, but budget buying a replacement battery immediately (~$60) since any used robot vacuum is going to have a bad battery.
dbcurtis 10y ago
I'm using a D80, but they can be found for less. The D-series is much preferred, because the XV-11 has a lame USB driver and the LIDAR data chokes it. I didn't realize Kobuki's were that cheap.
- kyrofa 10y ago
  Yeah, the Turtlebot 2 is significantly more expensive than just the Kobuki, as mentioned in the post. But you get more stuff, too.

dharma1 10y ago

Would be good to know how hackable this is. It's got SLAM http://www.gearbest.com/robot-vacuum/pp_440546.html http://www.gearbest.com/robot-vacuum/pp_440546.html

dbcurtis 10y ago
Ridiculously hackable. Plug in a USB cable, open your favorite serial terminal, and type "help". There are Neato ROS nodes, and it isn't hard to hack around with other interfaces. edit: I should note that through the USB interface you get raw LIDAR data, but not access to the internal SLAM. The LIDAR itself is decent, 1 degree angular resolution, 5m indoor range (2+ m outdoors with a sunshade) and 2cm distance accuracy at 5m, 1mm distance resolution. I've given multiple XV-11's LIDAR-ectomies, (get dead robots off E-Bay) and as soon as it spins up you start getting data. A simple PID controller (or even an "I" controller) will get you spinning at 300 RPM +/- 1%, which will give you very good quality data. Easily done with Arduino or better.