Datasheet

3.2. Low-level Communication Architecture
The onboard robot navigation computer communicates with the two boards (Sensor&Charger Board
and the Motor Controller Board) using 2 USB ports. In each board there are USB-to-RS232
converters that convert the USB data packages to serial RS232 packages for the boards’ controllers.
Each board controller will communicate with the other allowing the exchange of information between
them. This communication channel will allow the execution of low-level behaviours, for example, react
against an imminent collision, enter into charging mode with motors shut down, reduce the motors’
velocity when the batteries are low, or react to changes that can affect the robot’s operation, which is
fundamental to the improvement of the overall system dependability.
The main controller from the Sensor&Charger Board will communicate with other microcontrollers
using Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) communication ports. The main controller will act as the master
and the other microcontrollers will behave like slaves. The Sensor&Charger Board will connect to the
battery charger, sensor, devices actuators and sonar acquisition boards. The Motor Controller Board
will connect to the PI Motor controllers and also to temperature sensors.
Each controller will have a low-level fault diagnosis that will check the operation state of each
microcontroller and also monitor all the communication between the devices. The low-level
communication architecture is depicted in Figure 4.
3.3. High-level Communication Architecture
The FROG Robot has a local Ethernet network installed. A Wireless Ethernet router provides the IP
address to all of the computers and a 1Gbit Ethernet switch will allow the exchange of messages
between all the computers. The Navigation, Interaction and People Tracking computers connect to the
Ethernet switch using Ethernet cables. The Face Recognition must use a wireless connection to the
router to perform the data exchange.
External computers can also be connected to the FROG robot by using the wireless Ethernet
connection with the Router.
FROG – FP7 STREP nr. 288235
Deliverable: D1.4 – Platform User and Developer Manual 14
Figure 4: Low-level Communication Architecture