[FTC]: New Android Control System

[pyroslev]

My advice is to just wait and see what they announce next. Odds are we won't learn anything of true substance until Worlds or after.

They might put another video or two out but given that Super Regionals are over and Worlds is imminent, sit back and wait.

[DavisDad]

Originally Posted by pyroslev

My advice is to just wait and see what they announce next...

Hi pyroslev,

Yes, that'd be the logical thing to do, but I'm like a kid at Christmas and want to shake the package before mom and dad tells me I can open it.

So... I bought a ZTE Speed on Amazon ($50). I've been playing with the "WI-FI Direct" thingy. I confirmed that the ZTE Speed has this function, but don't have another phone with this (I use an iPhone).

[DavisDad]

From the FTC forum: Tom Eng (FTC Engineer)

The new platform will have a couple of ways to connect sensors. If you are using Legacy, NXT-compatible sensors (such as a LEGO light sensor or a Hitechnic IR Seeker V2 sensor), there is a new electronic module called the "Legacy Module" (LM) that you can use. The LM will connect to the Android device via a USB connection. The LM has six NXT-style sensor ports (I2C). You can plug in things such as a legacy NXT sensor, or a Hitechnic DC motor controller or a Hitechnic Servo motor controller into one of the six ports and the Android device will communicate to these legacy devices through the LM. You can add multiple Legacy Modules on the USB connection (using a special powered USB hub) to add additional ports. Also, the LM supports daisy-chaining of legacy NXT-compatible devices (although this feature is currently not enabled in the software user interface yet).

Another way to connect sensors or analog/digital devices is with a new electronic module called the Advanced Sensor Module. The ASM has several digital I/O ports, analog I/O ports, some high speed I2C ports and some PWM out ports. You will be able to connect sensors and other devices to this new ASM device. You can add additional ASM devices to the USB hub to increase the number of ports available. I believe the ASM will have something like 7 digital I/O ports, 7 analog in ports, 2 analog out ports, 2 PWM out ports and an I2C bus (100kbps).

Tom

[DavisDad]

...playing with sensor data from phone to laptop.


Video --> Test accelerometer

Andriod sensors WiFi Streamer & visualization GUI

[DavisDad]

From the FTC forum re wireless comms: Tom Eng (FTC Engineer)

The new platform uses WiFi Direct technology to provide point-to-point communications between the driver station and the robot. WiFi Direct is an industry standard and it provides reliable, robust and scalable communications between mobile and other devices (laptops and devices such as printers can support WiFi Direct). The wireless radios that are available on the new Android devices are significantly faster and can tolerate a greater amount of background wireless noise than our previous wireless control system.

Also, since the new platform is based on Android, as wireless technology and WiFi standards evolve, these changes will be incorporated into the Android platform and become available for use with our control system.

I would like to clarify the development process/environment for the new platform. As mlsamuelson and Jerry McManus mentioned, a typical team would use a computer or laptop to run the Android Studio software. The laptop can be a Windows machine, a Mac, or a Linux machine. The team will write their programs on the laptops, and then can transfer/upload them to the Android device on the robot with a USB cable. In general, your laptop/PC does not need to support WiFi Direct. You can use a simple USB cable to connect and load your programs onto the robot controller (Android device).

Also, it is possible to set up a "wireless adb" connection to upload your program and debug your program wirelessly. With a wireless ADB connection you can connect your development laptop to the Android device wirelessly. You can upload programs to the Android device via the wireless adb connection. You can also monitor/debug the program that is running on the Android device that is attached to the robot through the wireless connection. You can do this even as the Android device on the robot is also being controlled by the driver station.

So to summarize, if you'd like to develop programs for this new platform you can use a Windows PC (7 or 8 are both fine), a Mac, or a Linux machine. You can upload your programs to the Android devices using a USB cable (similar to how you can upload a RobotC or LabView program to an NXT device using a USB cable). You also have the option of doing a wireless ADB connection to upload programs to an Android device and to debug a program running on an Android device.

Hope this info helps.

Tom

[DavisDad]

Cool implementation of Android as robot controller:

[DavisDad]

I've been looking for information about FTC android system that was scheduled to be unveiled at the St. Louis Worlds this weekend. I've only found this link for training curriculum coming in June:

http://www.intelitek.com/first-tech-challenge/

Anyone seen anything else?

Here's what the Intelitek PDF says:

About the on-line learning portal
Our twenty hour program for new and existing FIRST teams is an easily accessible on-line learning environment that will engage you in hardware and programming changes including getting started, App Inventor and Intro to Java.

Hardware and Getting Started Available June 5th
App Inventor and Intro to Java Available September 1st

Hardware and Control System Components
* Robot controller – ZTE speed Android
* Driver station – ZTE speed Android
* Power module
* Legacy module
* DC motor module
* USB communication
* 12 VDC power input
* Connecting DC motors
* Retrofitting a TETRIX bot
* Retrofitting a MATRIX bot
* Servo controller module
* Advanced sensor module

So... this doesn't say much except to confirm that the ZTE Speed android phone will be the FTC standard next year. Not anything new here. Oh well...

[DavisDad]

I've been working on understanding the Android programming environment. I've installed the software and used the tutorials to write my first "Hello World" program.

[DavisDad]

The JAVA based Android Studio reminds be a lot of the Visual C++ "programming environment": wicked complicated for the beginner and installing the software is not trivial. I'm hoping JAVA will be like C++ in that once you'd set up all the installation and configuration stuff, you can find example programs on-line and cut-n-paste programs together. I followed this YouTube tutorial


and had no problem getting it to communicate with my phone and run the tutorial "Hello World" program.

A lot of the programming functions are designed for making graphic interfaces (GUI) for all the different phones, and I'm thinking this complexity won't be a problem for our robotics use. I'm thinking that the programming will be mostly communications stuff between phones and the FTC controller thingy, and the algorithms for robot control.

Since I'm too impatient to wait for the FTC hardware, I've purchased one of these: SparkFun IOIO boards which "connects an app on your PC or Android device to low-level peripherals like GPIO, PWM, ADC, I2C, SPI, and UART" I'll set up a test-bed with some servos and hopefully will have a hardware/software set-up that will allow study of the new control system's capabilities.

[DavisDad]

Now I'll do some research to understand what's happening between the Android and the robot controller board:

Simple demo of IOIO with USB connection to phone

Relay control

Servo contro

The IOIO board has a "collection of libraries" and "libraries expose a set of Java interfaces". I have no idea what that means, but will jump in and see if I can figure out enough of this gobbly-gook to get the phone controlling a servo...

[levydev]

From what I've seen at the Android demonstration at Worlds, the IOIO board will not be a component used on the FTC platform. The controllers from Modern Robotics will be performing those functions in a way that will make it easy to facilitate OTG comms between the phone and the controllers. I'm also under the impression that teams will not be writing Wifi Direct routines despite that being the method of communication between devices.

I also heard that although there will no longer be a central control mechanism, there will be an attempt to ensure that a robot can be shut down in case of emergencies. (i.e. required code in place to stop motors - if say the driver station app crashes). For the 2016 season, this MAY result in a required driver station runtime app from the Google play store ( no source ). However on the robot side, source will be made available with plenty of sample code.

On Android Studio and your earlier comparison to C++:
I'd say this would be a similar experience to using RobotC in that there will be plenty of examples to use.

The phones:
I can't make any predictions whether or not FTC will require you to use the phones that come with your 2016 registration. All I can tell you is that the phone would need to support "usb host mode", have a snapdragon processor, and run KitKat. (supposedly Lollipop support is still pending).

Again - These are only my impressions from what was demonstrated at Worlds. I do not speak for FTC so I'd suggest that you continue to wait for further announcements.

Hope this helps.
David

[MattRain]

The Electronics. Shown at the 2015 FTC World Championship.

[DavisDad]

Originally Posted by levydev

...Again - These are only my impressions from what was demonstrated at Worlds...

Hope this helps.
David

Originally Posted by MattRain

The Electronics. Shown at the 2015 FTC World Championship.

Thanks David for your observations. I think you've painted a very accurate emerging picture of the new system.

Thanks Matt for posting the photos!

Much appreciated!

[Coach#3536]

It is nice to have the new device interface module. I hope it works as good as our protoboard has in the past.

[DavisDad]

Modern Robotics Inc. is on-line: