CN115026811A

CN115026811A - Multi-robot serial port-to-WIFI communication and cooperative motion control method

Info

Publication number: CN115026811A
Application number: CN202210558533.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吕茂斌; 何兴秀; 邓方; 陈杰; 解博炜; 董娟; 刘格远
Original assignee: Beijing Institute of Technology BIT
Current assignee: Beijing Institute of Technology BIT
Priority date: 2022-05-20
Filing date: 2022-05-20
Publication date: 2022-09-09

Abstract

The invention provides a method for controlling multi-robot serial port to WIFI communication and cooperative motion, which comprises the following steps of 1: adding a virtual serial port on an upper computer, and determining a host robot and slave robots in a plurality of robots, wherein the plurality of robots are provided with OpenCR controllers; two serial port-to-WIFI chips are arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the master robot, and one serial port-to-WIFI chip is arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the slave robot; step 2: the upper computer and the host robot are connected to the same wireless network, TCP connection is established between the upper computer serving as a server and the host robot, and a control instruction is sent to the host robot; and step 3: the slave robot moves in coordination with the master robot.

Description

Multi-robot serial port-to-WIFI communication and cooperative motion control method

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of multi-agent control, and particularly relates to a multi-robot serial-to-WIFI communication method and a cooperative motion control method.

Background

In recent years, with the gradual improvement of the intelligence level of the robot, the applicable scenes of the robot become very wide, and as the tasks to be executed and the functions to be realized become more and more complex, a single robot cannot meet the application requirements, and the control of multiple robots is now the focus of research. In the multi-robot cooperative motion control, each robot and an upper computer need to communicate with each other to obtain data information. At present, the method which is commonly used is to connect the robots with respective upper computers through serial ports, and then network communication is carried out among the upper computers, but the method is higher in cost because one upper computer needs to be equipped for each robot, and the upper computers occupy a certain space and are not suitable for application scenes of some small robots. Therefore, the communication from the serial port to the WIFI is directly realized on the OpenCR controller, and the key is to solve the problems.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, the present invention provides a method for controlling multi-robot serial port to WIFI communication and cooperative motion, including:

step 1: adding a virtual serial port on an upper computer, and determining a host robot and slave robots in a plurality of robots, wherein the plurality of robots are provided with OpenCR controllers; two serial port-to-WIFI chips are arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the master robot, and one serial port-to-WIFI chip is arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the slave robot;

step 2: the upper computer and the host robot are connected to the same wireless network, TCP connection is established between the upper computer serving as a server and the host robot, and a control instruction is sent to the host robot;

and step 3: the slave robot moves in coordination with the master robot.

Particularly, the step 1 also comprises the steps of establishing a TCP server side on the upper computer, setting IP and ports and establishing connection with a virtual serial port through software; setting the baud rate and the data bit of the virtual serial port, and sending the monitored virtual serial port data in a TCP client-side mode.

Particularly, in the step 2, the upper computer sends a control command to the upper computer, wherein the control command can be output by adopting keyboard control to directly control the angular rotation of each steering engine.

Particularly, the step 2 further comprises that the upper computer can control the task coordinate of the robot through keys, and the rotation angles of the steering engines are obtained through inverse kinematics calculation for control.

Particularly, step 2 also includes setting some special postures, rotation tracks or rotation speeds of fixed points through keys; the speed of the robot can be controlled by controlling the moving time between target points, and the execution mechanism of the robot is controlled by a plurality of PID links to form position feedback.

Particularly, the host robot also sends data of all steering engine sensors to an upper computer through a TCP client.

Particularly, in step 3, the master robot establishes a TCP server, the slave robots respectively establish TCP clients to establish connections with the master robot, and the transmitted data are converted by an OpenCR driver, a WIFI transmitter, and a serial port to WIFI chip and finally transmitted to the OpenCR controllers of the slave robots; and the slave robot sends a control instruction to each joint steering engine by the OpenCR controller according to the obtained data.

Has the beneficial effects that:

1) according to the invention, serial port-to-WIFI communication is directly realized on the OpenCR controller, inconvenience that a plurality of serial ports are required to be connected with a plurality of upper computers in a plurality of robot scenes can be solved through a WIFI protocol, and resource consumption and space occupation are saved;

2) in the invention, the host robot and the slave robot are connected by adopting a TCP protocol between the host computer and the host robot, so that the connection stability and the data transmission accuracy are ensured;

3) the upper computer can directly control the state of the host robot in various modes such as angles of steering engines, task coordinates, special postures, rotating tracks or rotating speeds of the host robot, and the like, so that the host robot has high flexibility;

4) the host robot also sends the data of each steering engine sensor to the upper computer through the TCP client, so that a closed loop of a control system is formed, and whether a control command takes effect or not can be verified.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a structure for controlling serial ports of multiple robots to WIFI communication and cooperative motion;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of an actual scene of multi-robot cooperative motion.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in detail below by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The invention provides a method for controlling multi-robot serial port-to-WIFI communication and cooperative motion, the process is shown in fig. 1, the actual scene is shown in fig. 2, and the method specifically comprises the following steps:

step 1: adding a virtual serial port on an upper computer, and determining a host robot and slave robots in a plurality of robots, wherein the plurality of robots are provided with OpenCR controllers; and two serial-to-WIFI chips are arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the host robot, and one serial-to-WIFI chip is arranged and configured for the OpenCR controller of the slave robot.

The Ubuntu system is used as an upper computer and is installed on the Vmware Workstation virtual machine. The method comprises the steps of installing virtual serial port application software on a Windows system, adding a virtual serial port for the system, adding a virtual serial port on a host system on a virtual machine, setting a network as a bridge network, and monitoring virtual serial port data.

Each robot is composed of five steering engines, the steering engine is connected to a steering engine interface of the OpenCR controller through a wire, two serial-to-WIFI chips are installed on a UART/USART port of the OpenCR controller of the host robot, one serial-to-WIFI chip is used as a TCP client to be connected with an upper computer, the other serial-to-WIFI chip is used as a TCP server to be connected with the slave computer, a serial-to-WIFI chip is installed on a UART/USART port of the OpenCR controller of the slave robot and used as a TCP client to be connected with the host robot, and bidirectional transparent transmission of serial data and WIFI data is automatically achieved through the chips.

And 2, step: and connecting the upper computer and the host robot to the same wireless network, establishing TCP connection between the upper computer serving as a server and the host robot, and sending a control instruction to the host robot.

And establishing a TCP server for the host system of the host computer, setting IP, ports and the like, and establishing connection with the virtual serial port through software. And setting parameters such as the baud rate and the data bit of the virtual serial port, and sending the monitored virtual serial port data in a TCP client-side mode, wherein the sending mode is a transparent transmission mode, namely, the serial port data is not processed at all. Meanwhile, return information received by the client is also sent to the virtual serial port, and bidirectional data conversion and transmission between the virtual serial port and the WIFI are achieved.

The upper computer and the host robot chip are connected to the same WIFI network, and the host robot chip is used as a TCP client to establish connection with a TCP server of the upper computer.

The upper computer outputs a control command by adopting keyboard control, wherein the angle rotation of each steering engine is directly controlled by a part of keys, the opening and closing of a robot gripper are included, the xyz task coordinates of the robot are controlled by a part of keys, the rotation angle of each steering engine is obtained by inverse kinematics calculation and is controlled, the special postures of fixed points can be set by one key, the rotation track is used as a solution when the maximum value of the rotation angle in all joints is minimum, and the rotation speed can be set before the steering engine rotates. The steering engine is controlled in position and is internally composed of a plurality of PID links.

The virtual serial port is opened, a control instruction is output to the virtual serial port in a serial port data form, after the virtual serial port data are monitored, virtual serial port application software transmits the data through TCP connection of an upper computer and a host robot chip, the data are transmitted to the chip and then converted and output to a UART/USART serial port, a conversion program from the serial port to a steering engine interface is recorded in the OpenCR controller in advance, and finally the data are transmitted to the steering engine to be controlled.

Meanwhile, the information of the angle position and the rotation speed acquired by the steering engine sensor is transmitted in a completely reversed sequence, namely, the information is firstly converted into a program through an OpenCR controller, then is converted into a WIFI chip through a serial port, and finally is fed back to an upper computer through TCP connection and virtual serial port monitoring, so that closed-loop control is realized.

And step 3: the slave robot moves in coordination with the master robot.

All robots are connected under the same WIFI, the master robot establishes a TCP server side, and the slave robots respectively establish TCP client sides to be connected with the master.

The master robot sends the data of each steering engine sensor to an upper computer through a TCP client, and also sends the data to all slave robots through a TCP server, and the data is finally transmitted to OpenCR controllers of all the slaves through OpenCR program conversion, WIFI transmission and chip conversion.

Specifically, the same steering engine position control instruction is directly sent to the steering engine of the slave robot according to the obtained master robot information, so that the steering engine angle is the same as that of the master robot, and meanwhile, the slave robot sensor directly feeds back the steering engine position control instruction to the OpenCR controller, so that closed-loop control is realized.

In summary, the above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the embodiments of the present invention are not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the embodiments of the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the embodiments being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned. Furthermore, it will be obvious that the term "comprising" does not exclude other elements or steps, and the singular does not exclude the plural. Several units, modules or means recited in the system, apparatus or terminal claims may also be implemented by one and the same unit, module or means in software or hardware. The terms first, second, etc. are used to denote names, but not any particular order.

Finally, it should be noted that the above embodiments are only used for illustrating the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention and not for limiting, and although the embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the above preferred embodiments, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that modifications or equivalent substitutions can be made on the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present invention.

Claims

1. A multi-robot serial port-to-WIFI communication and cooperative motion control method is characterized by comprising the following steps:

step 2: the host computer and the host robot are connected to the same wireless network, TCP connection is established between the host computer and the host robot as a server side, and a control command is sent to the host robot;

and step 3: the slave robot moves in coordination with the master robot.

2. The method for controlling the conversion from the serial port of the multi-robot to the WIFI communication and the cooperative motion as claimed in claim 1, wherein the step 1 further comprises the steps of establishing a TCP server at the upper computer, setting IP and ports and establishing connection with a virtual serial port through software; setting the baud rate and the data bit of the virtual serial port, and sending the monitored virtual serial port data in a TCP client-side mode.

3. The method for controlling the conversion from the serial port of the multi-robot to the WIFI communication and the cooperative motion as claimed in claim 1, wherein the upper computer sends a control command to the upper computer in the step 2, wherein the control command can be output by adopting keyboard control to directly control the angular rotation of each steering engine.

4. The method for controlling the conversion from the serial port of the multi-robot to the WIFI communication and the cooperative motion as claimed in claim 3, wherein the step 2 further comprises the step that the upper computer can control the task coordinates of the robot through keys and control the rotation angle of each steering engine through inverse kinematics calculation.

5. The method for controlling the conversion from the serial port of the multi-robot to the WIFI communication and the cooperative motion as claimed in claim 3, wherein the method comprises the following steps: step 2 also comprises that some special postures, rotating tracks or rotating speeds of fixed points can be set through keys; wherein the speed of the robot can be controlled by controlling the moving time between target points, and the actuating mechanism of the robot is formed by a plurality of PID links to be in position feedback control.

6. The method for controlling the conversion from the serial port of the multi-robot to the WIFI communication and the cooperative motion as claimed in claim 3, wherein the method comprises the following steps: and the host robot also sends the data of each steering engine sensor to an upper computer through a TCP client.

7. The method for controlling the conversion from serial ports of multiple robots to WIFI communication and cooperative motion as claimed in claims 1-6, wherein in step 3, the master robot establishes a TCP server, the slave robots respectively establish TCP clients to establish connection with the master robot, and the transmitted data is finally transmitted to OpenCR controllers of the slave robots through OpenCR driver conversion, WIFI transmission and conversion from serial ports to WIFI chips; and the slave robot sends a control instruction to each joint steering engine by the OpenCR controller according to the obtained data.