Grip Module
GRIP (Graphical Robot Interface Program) is an X-application which allows
user to observe/control mobile target robot's position and orientation
through Intelligent Observer's vision system information.
GRIP can be run as a stand-alone program or through the Web via any
Web browsers like Mosaic or Netscape.
Current version of GRIP works on any workstations with X-server. Future
version may include conversion to Java language. This will allow GRIP to
work on majority of workstations and PCs since Netscape has announced
support for Java.
GRIP has a top view window showing robots' position and orientation with
respect to landmarks and obstacles in its world. A camera view allows
user to look at the world through robot's view camera. User can control
mobile target robot's position by joysticking from the control window.
User can also modify Intelligent Observer's higher-level parameters
(like cell size and minimum following distance) through the planner window.
Current bugs or problems
- GRIP program hangs whenever someone joysticks the target robot
manually while another is manuvering the same robot via GRIP.
How to execute this module
Two methods to run GRIP:
- Run GRIP from web page. URL is http://underdog.stanford.edu/GRIP. Just follow the direction on the web page to start GRIP.
- Manually run GRIP executable in ~dlin/io/grip/grip.sun4 on underdog.
Type ~dlin/io/grip/grip.sun4 -help to get a list of options.
Most common command to start GRIP is ~dlin/io/grip/grip.sun4 -nofurniture -install.
Revision history
- 8/1/95 - Initial version
- 11/2/96 - ignore '#' comments in landmark file
integrate top view with joystick control with collision detection.
- 11/6/96 - fixed bug in framegrabber which crash if /tmp/IOimageBuffer file
permission is not writable.
added target robot movement direction from topview window
- 11/28/95 - added image capture and save feature. Also allow resizing of images.
- 2/15/96 - Added visibility region algorithm for topview display.
- 2/16/96 - Divided grip into gript (GRIP for Target) and gripo (GRIP for Observer).
- 10/9/97 - Added support for UDP connection, recombine GRIPT and GRIPO into single program
Ideas for improvement
- Integrate 3D Viewer into GRIP.
- Add planner into topview control so users does not have to control
target using straight line segments.
- fix up java grip to work with netscape 2.0
Other comments
David C Lin / dlin@cs.stanford.edu
Last modified: Thu Oct 9 19:11:05 1997