MURVV - Android Robot Controller - Revision history

Mwbenedi at 21:01, 15 October 2012

2012-10-15T21:01:24Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:01, 15 October 2012
Line 15:		Line 15:

	When this was all done, we decided to expand the scope of the project by making the robot easily accessible over the internet. I knew this was going to be a fairly complicated addition to the project, but I started working on it in exactly the same was as I had done before. I made of list of all the new functions I wanted the application to perform, potential problems I would encounter along the way, and a quick drawing of any new user interfaces I would have to include. And, much like before, after encountering more than few problems -mostly caused by my extreme dislike of computer networking- I managed to add all the new functions to the application.		When this was all done, we decided to expand the scope of the project by making the robot easily accessible over the internet. I knew this was going to be a fairly complicated addition to the project, but I started working on it in exactly the same was as I had done before. I made of list of all the new functions I wanted the application to perform, potential problems I would encounter along the way, and a quick drawing of any new user interfaces I would have to include. And, much like before, after encountering more than few problems -mostly caused by my extreme dislike of computer networking- I managed to add all the new functions to the application.

			{{#ev:youtube\|t9VDnc_vUpA}}

	{{Phlog\| Oct 11, 2012 - It's the Little Things...\|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 11, 2012 - It's the Little Things...\|Mike B}}

Mwbenedi at 19:14, 15 October 2012

2012-10-15T19:14:40Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 19:14, 15 October 2012
Line 3:		Line 3:

	__NOTOC__		__NOTOC__

			{{Phlog\| Oct 15, 2012 - Project Complete\|Mike B}}

			===Product Description===
			In the end, what we created was a simple and functional remote control for the MURVV robot. The program runs on an Android phone or tablet and is capable of preventing multiple simultaneous accesses by placing users on a waiting list, or queue as I usually referred to it as. Administrators can bypass this queue system, remove the current user and use the robot immediately via a simple login system. In addition, robot functionality is locked within certain hours of the day to prevent users from accessing the robot outside of regular working hours.

			The program was optimized to some reasonable extent and runs at very nearly the same speed as it did before the queue system was implemented. It was also simplified to some extent, making it easier to add additional functions later on.

			===Project Summary===
			At the beginning of this project we had simply wanted to write an Android application that we could use to move the robot around. I was given the task of writing this application and started by making a list of all the different functions I wanted the Android application to be capable of performing. As well as these functions, I also drew up a rough layout of what I wanted the application's user interface to look like. And after a series of problems, mostly caused by both my lack of experience in both using phidgets and programming Android applications, I managed to get the application working without having to make any major changes to my original plans.

			When this was all done, we decided to expand the scope of the project by making the robot easily accessible over the internet. I knew this was going to be a fairly complicated addition to the project, but I started working on it in exactly the same was as I had done before. I made of list of all the new functions I wanted the application to perform, potential problems I would encounter along the way, and a quick drawing of any new user interfaces I would have to include. And, much like before, after encountering more than few problems -mostly caused by my extreme dislike of computer networking- I managed to add all the new functions to the application.

	{{Phlog\| Oct 11, 2012 - It's the Little Things...\|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 11, 2012 - It's the Little Things...\|Mike B}}

Mwbenedi at 18:20, 15 October 2012

2012-10-15T18:20:38Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:20, 15 October 2012
Line 50:		Line 50:
	===Summary===		===Summary===
	The program is turning into a very ugly rat's nest and I blame it on networking problems, because networking problems are evil.		The program is turning into a very ugly rat's nest and I blame it on networking problems, because networking problems are evil.



	{{Phlog\| Oct 2, 2012 - Working Well \|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 2, 2012 - Working Well \|Mike B}}

Mwbenedi at 18:19, 15 October 2012

2012-10-15T18:19:11Z

Mwbenedi: Added some new pictures

2012-10-15T18:13:23Z

Added some new pictures

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:13, 15 October 2012
Line 41:		Line 41:

	{{Phlog\| Oct 3, 2012 - Administrators \|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 3, 2012 - Administrators \|Mike B}}

			[[File:Login.png\|thumb\|file=\|The Login Screen]]

	I have a lot of the standard administrator features implemented now, but the complexity of the program is only getting worse. At some point in the near future I will have to try and improve things, either by cutting out unnecessary functions or finding some way to rewrite parts of the program. It's not even a problem of making the thing more "object-oriented" as some of you may be screaming at your monitors right now. It's the problem of passing around so many complicated variables between the robot and the android users and somehow making sure that the robot is not going to crash.		I have a lot of the standard administrator features implemented now, but the complexity of the program is only getting worse. At some point in the near future I will have to try and improve things, either by cutting out unnecessary functions or finding some way to rewrite parts of the program. It's not even a problem of making the thing more "object-oriented" as some of you may be screaming at your monitors right now. It's the problem of passing around so many complicated variables between the robot and the android users and somehow making sure that the robot is not going to crash.

Mwbenedi at 18:11, 15 October 2012

2012-10-15T18:11:33Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:11, 15 October 2012
Line 121:		Line 121:
	{{Phlog\| Sept 13, 2012 - Completed! (Well, pretty much anyway...)\|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Sept 13, 2012 - Completed! (Well, pretty much anyway...)\|Mike B}}

	One day over a week and it's finally done. Well, not completely, there's always more things I could do to improve it, but like everyone else who's ever written software before, you know there comes a point when you just say it's finished, even if it's not really done.		One day over a week and it's finally done. Well, not completely, there's always more things I could do to improve it, but like everyone else who's ever written software before, you know there comes a point when you just say it's finished, even if it's not really done.

			[[File:CameraControls.png\|thumb\|file=\|The Camera Interface]]

	Bright and early in the morning today I moved the robot around in a circle and drove it up and down the hallway. That was pretty cool. When you spend a long time on something it's nice to see it all come together the way you wanted it to. And it's even better when things start to move along as quickly as they did. It seems like only yesterday I was first getting it to move... Well, maybe that's because it was yesterday. It's all a learning process, I know that, and the more you learn the easy things become, but I have to admit, as a first time user of these phidget things, the learning curve isn't very steep. Admittedly, there's a bit of a jump between when you first start and when you actually connect to the devices and get them to do anything, but it is surprisingly easy to make progress after that. And if we improve the Android section of the wiki and fix all the problems I ran into, it should be a reasonably simple task to get started.		Bright and early in the morning today I moved the robot around in a circle and drove it up and down the hallway. That was pretty cool. When you spend a long time on something it's nice to see it all come together the way you wanted it to. And it's even better when things start to move along as quickly as they did. It seems like only yesterday I was first getting it to move... Well, maybe that's because it was yesterday. It's all a learning process, I know that, and the more you learn the easy things become, but I have to admit, as a first time user of these phidget things, the learning curve isn't very steep. Admittedly, there's a bit of a jump between when you first start and when you actually connect to the devices and get them to do anything, but it is surprisingly easy to make progress after that. And if we improve the Android section of the wiki and fix all the problems I ran into, it should be a reasonably simple task to get started.

Mwbenedi at 22:18, 11 October 2012

2012-10-11T22:18:56Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:18, 11 October 2012
Line 96:		Line 96:
	Server: "Is it something I said?"		Server: "Is it something I said?"
	Client: "..."		Client: "..."
	Server: "Because if it's something I said, I'm sorry! I didn't ~~meant~~ it!"		Server: "Because if it's something I said, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!"
	Client: "..."		Client: "..."
	Server: "Hello?"		Server: "Hello?"

Mwbenedi at 21:08, 11 October 2012

2012-10-11T21:08:46Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:08, 11 October 2012
Line 3:		Line 3:

	__NOTOC__		__NOTOC__

			{{Phlog\| Oct 11, 2012 - It's the Little Things...\|Mike B}}

			Things are really moving along smoothly now. In fact, I don't even think I have anything to complain about today!

			At the beginning of the project, I created a list of the kind of functionality I wanted to have by the end of the project and most of that, as well as few other things, have been completed now. And although most of the things I completed today are relatively minor in the grand scale of things, I completed a whole bunch of these little minor things that have been on my "to-do" list for a long time.

			Tomorrow I will try and find any remaining flaws in the program and fix them. And after that, I think this project will be considered finished... again.

			===Summary===
			Spent the day wrapping things up and preparing for major testing tomorrow.

	{{Phlog\| Oct 10, 2012 - Chugging Away \|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 10, 2012 - Chugging Away \|Mike B}}

Burley at 20:58, 10 October 2012

2012-10-10T20:58:36Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:58, 10 October 2012
Line 6:		Line 6:
	{{Phlog\| Oct 10, 2012 - Chugging Away \|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 10, 2012 - Chugging Away \|Mike B}}

	Everything is sure coming along nicely now! I've been trying to "child-proof" the program as best as I can. I know the kind of audience that I'm going to be targeting, and I sincerely doubt that every one of them is going to be as knowledgeable and forgiving as I am. Therefore, if I want to stop people from crying out in frustration, hurling themselves of bridges and doing other terrible things to vent their anger with my software, it is my duty to make this program as unbreakable as possible. Of course, with the infamous "networking problems" this isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. There are going to be a lot of problems that pop up that are going to take a lot of work to deal with.		Everything is sure coming along nicely now! I've been trying to "child-proof" the program as best as I can. I know the kind of audience that I'm going to be targeting, and I sincerely doubt that every one of them is going to be as knowledgeable and forgiving as I am. Therefore, if I want to stop people from crying out in frustration, hurling themselves off bridges and doing other terrible things to vent their anger with my software, it is my duty to make this program as unbreakable as possible. Of course, with the infamous "networking problems" this isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. There are going to be a lot of problems that pop up that are going to take a lot of work to deal with.

	In terms of short-term goals, I've finally got the program to properly display the user's "place in line" and I've also got the program to function on a timer. (So that no one user can hog the robot for twenty years at a time... Don't think that can't happen. If you allow it, someone will find a way...)		In terms of short-term goals, I've finally got the program to properly display the user's "place in line" and I've also got the program to function on a timer. (So that no one user can hog the robot for twenty years at a time... Don't think that can't happen. If you allow it, someone will find a way...)

Mwbenedi at 20:53, 10 October 2012

2012-10-10T20:53:15Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:53, 10 October 2012
Line 3:		Line 3:

	__NOTOC__		__NOTOC__

			{{Phlog\| Oct 10, 2012 - Chugging Away \|Mike B}}

			Everything is sure coming along nicely now! I've been trying to "child-proof" the program as best as I can. I know the kind of audience that I'm going to be targeting, and I sincerely doubt that every one of them is going to be as knowledgeable and forgiving as I am. Therefore, if I want to stop people from crying out in frustration, hurling themselves of bridges and doing other terrible things to vent their anger with my software, it is my duty to make this program as unbreakable as possible. Of course, with the infamous "networking problems" this isn't exactly the easiest thing to do. There are going to be a lot of problems that pop up that are going to take a lot of work to deal with.

			In terms of short-term goals, I've finally got the program to properly display the user's "place in line" and I've also got the program to function on a timer. (So that no one user can hog the robot for twenty years at a time... Don't think that can't happen. If you allow it, someone will find a way...)

			===Summary===
			The program requires child-proofing!

	{{Phlog\| Oct 9, 2012 - Fixing the Problems Again \|Mike B}}		{{Phlog\| Oct 9, 2012 - Fixing the Problems Again \|Mike B}}

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:19, 15 October 2012
Line 125:		Line 125:
	One day over a week and it's finally done. Well, not completely, there's always more things I could do to improve it, but like everyone else who's ever written software before, you know there comes a point when you just say it's finished, even if it's not really done.		One day over a week and it's finally done. Well, not completely, there's always more things I could do to improve it, but like everyone else who's ever written software before, you know there comes a point when you just say it's finished, even if it's not really done.

	[[File:CameraControls.png\|thumb\|file=\|The Camera Interface]]		[[File:CameraControls.png\|thumb\|upright=1.2\|file=\|The Camera Interface]]

	Bright and early in the morning today I moved the robot around in a circle and drove it up and down the hallway. That was pretty cool. When you spend a long time on something it's nice to see it all come together the way you wanted it to. And it's even better when things start to move along as quickly as they did. It seems like only yesterday I was first getting it to move... Well, maybe that's because it was yesterday. It's all a learning process, I know that, and the more you learn the easy things become, but I have to admit, as a first time user of these phidget things, the learning curve isn't very steep. Admittedly, there's a bit of a jump between when you first start and when you actually connect to the devices and get them to do anything, but it is surprisingly easy to make progress after that. And if we improve the Android section of the wiki and fix all the problems I ran into, it should be a reasonably simple task to get started.		Bright and early in the morning today I moved the robot around in a circle and drove it up and down the hallway. That was pretty cool. When you spend a long time on something it's nice to see it all come together the way you wanted it to. And it's even better when things start to move along as quickly as they did. It seems like only yesterday I was first getting it to move... Well, maybe that's because it was yesterday. It's all a learning process, I know that, and the more you learn the easy things become, but I have to admit, as a first time user of these phidget things, the learning curve isn't very steep. Admittedly, there's a bit of a jump between when you first start and when you actually connect to the devices and get them to do anything, but it is surprisingly easy to make progress after that. And if we improve the Android section of the wiki and fix all the problems I ran into, it should be a reasonably simple task to get started.
Line 139:		Line 139:
	So it's been one full week since I started on this project and today was the first day I actually got the robot to do anything. It was quite the experience when I booted up the app this morning and pressed forward to see the robot slowly crash into the table down the hall. It was an equally satisfying and terrifying thing to watch through the webcam. Half of me was thinking “Uh oh... Stop it! It's going to crash you lunatic!” and the other half was thinking “Hahaha! It's alive! It's aliiiiive!” Well anyway, it did manage to stop before it broke anything...		So it's been one full week since I started on this project and today was the first day I actually got the robot to do anything. It was quite the experience when I booted up the app this morning and pressed forward to see the robot slowly crash into the table down the hall. It was an equally satisfying and terrifying thing to watch through the webcam. Half of me was thinking “Uh oh... Stop it! It's going to crash you lunatic!” and the other half was thinking “Hahaha! It's alive! It's aliiiiive!” Well anyway, it did manage to stop before it broke anything...

	[[File:Android Robot Controller.png\|thumb\|file=\|The Android Robot Controller interface]]		[[File:Android Robot Controller.png\|thumb\|upright=1.2\|file=\|The Android Robot Controller interface]]

	It still needs a little more work, but I've got enough done that I can actually move the robot around now and that's a pretty good feeling. However, I still don't really know anything about the software that's running on that strange metal box. At the current moment, we have to start up some software on the robot itself before we can connect to it. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to start the thing thing up at the same time as the android app. That way we wouldn't have to worry about whether or not the robot is actually on. Both things would boot up concurrently and it would make it a lot easier to deal with. But is that too hard? too impractical? even possible? I don't know.		It still needs a little more work, but I've got enough done that I can actually move the robot around now and that's a pretty good feeling. However, I still don't really know anything about the software that's running on that strange metal box. At the current moment, we have to start up some software on the robot itself before we can connect to it. Ideally, it would be nice to be able to start the thing thing up at the same time as the android app. That way we wouldn't have to worry about whether or not the robot is actually on. Both things would boot up concurrently and it would make it a lot easier to deal with. But is that too hard? too impractical? even possible? I don't know.
Line 192:		Line 192:
	So the guys in the office came up with a great idea for the robot they've made. They want to make an Android app for it. We could put this app on a smartphone or a tablet and use that as a controller for the robot. Being the new intern here at Phidgets, I was sent to work on it almost as soon as I walked through the door. I wasn't about to complain. At my last internship, my first assignment was to read hundreds of pages of legal agreements and safety manuals. This was a lot more interesting.		So the guys in the office came up with a great idea for the robot they've made. They want to make an Android app for it. We could put this app on a smartphone or a tablet and use that as a controller for the robot. Being the new intern here at Phidgets, I was sent to work on it almost as soon as I walked through the door. I wasn't about to complain. At my last internship, my first assignment was to read hundreds of pages of legal agreements and safety manuals. This was a lot more interesting.

	[[File:Android.jpg\|thumb\|file=\|Android - An OS for phones and tablets.]]		[[File:Android.jpg\|thumb\|upright=1.2\|file=\|Android - An OS for phones and tablets.]]

	I started the day off getting together all the necessary tools for my endeavour. I've never done any programming for Android before, so I really had no idea where to start. Thankfully, Android makes it relatively easy. They've put together a [http://developer.android.com/training/ developer training website], as they seem to call it, with a ton of detailed instructions to help you get started. I'm a staunch Linux fan-boy when it comes to any kind of programming work, so I followed the instructions for getting set up on Linux.		I started the day off getting together all the necessary tools for my endeavour. I've never done any programming for Android before, so I really had no idea where to start. Thankfully, Android makes it relatively easy. They've put together a [http://developer.android.com/training/ developer training website], as they seem to call it, with a ton of detailed instructions to help you get started. I'm a staunch Linux fan-boy when it comes to any kind of programming work, so I followed the instructions for getting set up on Linux.
Line 204:		Line 204:
	The Android website then asks you to install updates; however, I decided that I didn't want to do that and I just went on to the next step, writing my first app. A couple of hours later, I had a very simple Android application working on both my Android emulator and my Android tablet. I was even beginning to like Eclipse. Eclipse does a wonderful job of showing you exactly what you're going to see on screen when you actually run your app. It also helps you find the right libraries and imports them all automatically. Happy with my progress, I thought it was about time to start working on the real thing.		The Android website then asks you to install updates; however, I decided that I didn't want to do that and I just went on to the next step, writing my first app. A couple of hours later, I had a very simple Android application working on both my Android emulator and my Android tablet. I was even beginning to like Eclipse. Eclipse does a wonderful job of showing you exactly what you're going to see on screen when you actually run your app. It also helps you find the right libraries and imports them all automatically. Happy with my progress, I thought it was about time to start working on the real thing.

	[[File:Eclipse Logo.png\|thumb\|file=\|Eclipse - One of my least favourite programs.]]		[[File:Eclipse Logo.png\|thumb\|upright=1.2\|file=\|Eclipse - One of my least favourite programs.]]

	But before I went any further, it was time to update eclipse, the one step I had skipped earlier. And despite all my accomplishments today, this is where all my past eclipse experiences came flooding back to me in a torrent of nightmarish flashbacks. The Android website tells you to update eclipse, so that's what I did... Well, that's what I tried to do anyway. When I clicked on the update button, Eclipse popped up a window that showed me all the packages that needed updating. No problem, right? Just click on all of them and say OK. Well, that's not how it went down. Eclipse said, "No. I don't want to update." and crashed. I frowned and tried it again. And again, it crashed. "OK", I thought, "Let's try updating the packages one at a time instead. I'll just skip over the one that won't update." Well, to my surprise, this actually worked and somehow I got all of the updates installed.		But before I went any further, it was time to update eclipse, the one step I had skipped earlier. And despite all my accomplishments today, this is where all my past eclipse experiences came flooding back to me in a torrent of nightmarish flashbacks. The Android website tells you to update eclipse, so that's what I did... Well, that's what I tried to do anyway. When I clicked on the update button, Eclipse popped up a window that showed me all the packages that needed updating. No problem, right? Just click on all of them and say OK. Well, that's not how it went down. Eclipse said, "No. I don't want to update." and crashed. I frowned and tried it again. And again, it crashed. "OK", I thought, "Let's try updating the packages one at a time instead. I'll just skip over the one that won't update." Well, to my surprise, this actually worked and somehow I got all of the updates installed.