Asked
Resolved by DJ Sures!
I am slowly getting all the quirks with the T265 worked out by docking etc. We really need some distance sensing as well so we can get better detail of our surroundings. @DJ are there any plans in adding a distance sensor like a D435 (or D435i since we already have an IMU in the T265).
Just trying to work out what I should purchase in anticipation of some future depth sensing capabilities.
Just trying to work out what I should purchase in anticipation of some future depth sensing capabilities.
I'm not sure what the link to the ROS link is for?
If you can code a bit in Python, then you can also use the NMS to connect to any sensor or service as well. The NMS has python commands exposed
I think my priority for anything navigation related is some path planning embedded in The Navigator. I hope to have time to do that in the next month or two. If I can get a small break from customer support. That eats up most of my time in a day lately.
I don’t really get a chance to play with robots ever. It’s kinda sad really LOL. I started this cause I wanted to build robots but now I just write manuals and answer support questions LOL
I personally have been trying to find time to update my skills so that I can write my own plugins to share. I used to be a decent Visual Basic 6 coder, but dotnet coding is very different, and I just haven't been able to spend the time to wrap my had around it. Also want to learn Javascript since it seems that is the direction forward over EZ-Script. Unfortunately, I just don't have the time to spend on that right now. I thought not commuting because of Covid would buy me some time, but I found it quickly filling up with working on deferred maintenance of my almost 50 year old house, and learning guitar.... But I am finally getting a little bit back into my robots. NMS has been a big inspiration to get me back onto robot building. It really is the key functionality I have been waiting for that changes mobile robots from essentially advanced RC cars to real robots.
I should point out that I suggested the plugin idea (I used slightly different words) in November of 2011. Had @DJ created it then rather than many years later, I probably would have had the time to sharpen up my skills and would have been contributing
Although, @DJ..... It doesn't help to get others to write them when someone does say they are starting one, or figures out another way to do an integration, and you turn around and publish one overnight. I have seen this happen a few times and I think it may sometimes discourage others from innovating. On the other hand, yours usually work, and some of the other ones out there that were developed don't and their developers have disappeared.
Alan
The reason the NMS didn’t get any spotlight was because there haven’t been a lot of advancements in navigation sensors etc. I was hoping the realsense would ignite completion in that space, but sadly no.
the main trouble stems about stagnant growth in robot sensors is the cost and application volume. You see, companies that invent a lidar or single sensor are so proud of it, that they feel it’s the heart of the robot revolution and they charge arm and a leg.
so when you add up all of these inflated ego product prices of each sensor product to assemble a robot, you end up with a cost that’s unbearable.
Take realsense for example. Not only is the price unrealistic as a BOM item in a product, but it’s unattainable to purchase. Intel discontinued the realsense after the first manufacturing run. It’s like they made 10,000 units and moved on to the next thing.
other navigation stuff, like industrial lidar makes me laugh. They price these units about the cost of a reliable used car. Meanwhile, selling 1 is a victory for them LOL. Sure, the single application gets some media attention and the robot report writes that the robot revolution is around the corner hahaha. That seems to happen ever few months. Usually when a floor cleaning robot comes out, but now it’s robot arms.
Anyway - I should add that it’s not customer support on the forum that takes a lot of my time. The forum is just a few old schoolers like yourselves that I enjoy talking to. The customer support I spend a lot of time on are the volume license enterprises, like schools and startup accelerators and a few r&d labs. But they are the reasons behind many of the usability and stability updates that you’re experiencing in arc. Also, the support section continually grows based on their interaction.
it’s a blessing in disguise because the manual section always needed some work
the trouble with coding on a live hack is focus and time constraint. It takes many many hours to write simple functionality. That’s why I avoid it for complicated things. Like, it would take a few days to code some path planning into the navigator. Or a week to code some map
editing snd saving features, etc..
I have to clear days of uninterruption to tackle development like that
also, since everyone is working from home for the last 13 months, we haven’t even been to the office in forever. I don’t even know why I pay tens of thousands per month for an office. It’s expensive and not even being used. So live hacks take the back burner LOL. I’ll probably shut the office down when our lease expires and move my lab back into my house. Probably do a lot more live hacks that way!
@Alan , hey I was trying to learn guitar last 10 years but I still suck LOL! I have an autograph Paul Stanley guitar from Kiss Fame. I mainly just do power chords and use my distortion box to make crazy death metal sounds.Or ACDC!
But it doesn’t make sense if it’s empty / even from me. Especially when you consider how absolutely massive it is LOL!
I still remember when you moved to that office and had 3 live webcams and we could follow the remodeling process and later all you guys at work...
Love that space!
I have the footage from the very first webcam all the way until today. They're stored on a server raid array. When the drive fills, we replace it with another and put the old drive in a storage box. I think each drive is around 4tb and there's about 4 or 5 of them. So around 20tb or so of video since 2013. I think it was 2013 when we moved into the first office.