Software

The P3-DX robots come with some software packages which I will describe below. There are other packages for an additional cost, but of course the aim of this research is to develop my own software. One of the most important aspects of this software is that it works on both Windows and Linux.

ARIA stands for Advanced Robotics Interface Application and is the API for the robots. It provides Object Orientated Classes to control peripherals, poll sensors and avoid obstacles. Now I need my network to evolve its own obstacle avoidance, but the built in version may useful in the first generations of the controller.

This is the diagram from their website showing what I believe are the components of ARIA.

ARIA is written in C++ and can be either single or multi threaded, quite useful for a neural network.

Another very useful feature, which you can see at the bottom of the diagram. It can either control a robot, which it does through a serial connection, or it can control a simulator, which it does through TCP/IP. This will enable me to evolve earlier generations of the controller on the simulator, then run a certain number of individuals on the hardware, which makes this project achievable.

MobileSim is the simulator. When it is running there we see the robot roaming within an environment which is created using Mapper Basic. Here you see the robot roaming around a building made of several rooms with various furniture. The area covered by laser sensors in shown in blue.

There is also Mobile Eyes which I have yet to get working, so I am not sure of its use or whether it would help or hinder in this project. (Perhaps I will have to read the manual). The website indicates it is a GUI, and a destination can be selected with the mouse, then user can watch the robot plot paths.


The other software that I will be using is some NEAT software. NEAT stands for NeuroEvolution of Augmenting Topologies. NEAT comes from a completely different source to the robots, so I will discuss it in the next post.