RCwiproc

Wireless Protocol

The host will send each robot velocity, direction, and shoot directives, at a rate of about 40-50 Hz. (This data rate still needs to be confirmed with testing) In such a way the enitre system (host, camera, and robot) will behave as a real-time system. The robot will send its current error status, battery voltage, wheel velocity, unique ID, and whether or not it has the ball to the host but at the much slower rate of 10Hz.

To Do

• Research protocols
  • UDP (User Datagram Protocol) - Dropping UDP as a choice in protocol. Would need a module that implements it already
  • Protocol Book
• Determine the rate at which to update robots - Will need to find theoretical base for this and confirm with test.
• Specify a custom protocol - Remeber to do Visio graph of packet structure
• Evaluate and compare UDP to a custom protocol

Protocol Structure

What is a Protocol?

A protocol is a set of rules to define how two or more entities comunicate. It contains 5 basic elements:

• A service definition - What information will the protocol provide the entities that utilize it?
• A set of assumptions - What is assumed to in the protocol? What isn't?
• A vocabulary - What will be the forms of data that I will use to communicate with this protocol
• A format/encoding - How will my vocabulary coherantly fit together to form larger msgs, and cmds
• A set of procedural rules - How will I intiate communication? How are the entities using this protocol indentied? What are thier roles?
  

Other considerations such as the medium are not specifically stated in the protocol but influence how the protocol is formed. Consider the difference between Wi-Fi where one router can talk to multiple devices versus communication between a wired video game controller and a console.

As an example of a protocol consider the english language in its vocal form. The service it provides is a means of conveying thoughts thruogh the use of sound. It assumes that all the parties involved can speak and understand english, that the medium is such that the transmission of sound waves is possible, and that meaning of the vocabulary used is the same among all parties involved. Its vocabulary is made up of 26 letters that by themselves or in groups represent a set of vocal patterns generated and recieved by all the parties involved. In this abstract defintion of vocabulary, it is not words but rather letters and the sounds they make that form the protocol. The basic format of the english language is such that the vocabulary of letters is formed into words, which each carry the meaning of the thought being conveyed. The procedural rules change based on the situation. Sometimes one person is communicating with a group of passive listeners, at other times several people are communicating with one person at once. There are even times (eavesdropping) where one or more parties are listening to a speaker not directly communicating to them.

Our Protocol

A vital part of our robocup team is its communication system. Therefore an effective means of sending information across this system will need to be realized with a protocol of some sort. In general our protocol needs to allow the host to command movements and actions to the robots, while allowing the robots to provide status information back to the host. The medium will be RF signals in the 900mHz range. This means that we can assume an appreciable dropped packet rate, and interfereance from other teams, and devices. Binary data clocked at 57Kbps will be our vocabulary, and the msg format will be in packets of varying length. Specifically each packet will be divided in bytes, with the first byte consisting of a know header. This will be followed by bytes containg the msg ID, its length, who its intended for, the data being sent, and a checksum. The checksum will be a sum of all the ones in the msg represented as an unsigned 8-bit number. Below in the figure is a a detail of what each packet will look like.

The information that will be sent along the wireless link will be determined by the ID of the msg encapsulating it. Other factors such as the msg destination and its DLC or data length code will further refine the msg. In the table below are the defintions for each msg. Some msg will require an acknowledgment or ACK from the recipient. An ACK will be realized as a msg of a different ID, and that msg is specified in the msg description in the table.

(Flow charts on how msgs are sent)

Articles

• Linx article on protocol design
• Paper on the Cylical Redundancy Check error checking algorithm (CRC)
• Enitre book on protocol design, a bit dated though like 1990 dated
• Berkeley article on wireless protocol design. Gives a real world example of how to design a wireless protocol.
• Ohio University article. Details an intresting communications method
• Paper from Maxim on Manchester Encoding
• Berkeley PPT on errors and wireless
• Circuit Cellar discussion on Manchester Encoder/Decoder
• Cornell electrical design document

Links

Wireless Hompage

Host to Robot Messages

MsgID	ID	ACK?	To	DLC	Data Format	Description
Wakeup	0x01	Yes	Individual robots	0	None	Host polls for each robot individually. When this msg is recieved by a robot it responds with a status msg indicating that it is ready for action.
Go/Start	0x02	Yes	Individual robots	0	None	Intiates main process on robots.
Vx Vy and Theta	0x03	No	All robots	15	See below	Streaming data sent to all robots in one msg.
Stop	0x04	No	All robots	0	None	Stops all robot motion.
Shoot Ball	0x05	Yes	Individual robots	1	Robot Angle	Commands robot to take the shot. May be folded into msg 0x04
Robot Stop	0x06	Yes	Individual robots	0	None	Commands an indivdual robot to stop.