Motivation

• Dogs are incredibly popular, 75 million in US

Motivation

• There are many health benefits to having pet dogs– Physiological: reduced stress, lower blood

pressure– Emotional: loneliness, comfort– Social: topic of conversation, family bonding

Motivation

• Some people are restricted from dog ownership– Apartment (on-campus, other)– Allergies– Costs

• Downsides of dog ownership– Constant attention– Responsibility– Destruction of property

Solution: RoboDog

• Advantages of a synthetic pet– Virtually no recurring costs– Much lower responsibility requirements• Great for children!

– No food or medical attention required– No excessive barking– No destruction of the home• Poop on the carpet• Chewing

Problem Overview

• RoboDog is built on an AmigoBot with a top-mounted Kinect sensor

• Capabilities– Wander– Identify tennis ball– Grab tennis ball– Identify human (through marker)

Implementation Overview

• Sensing– Ball/Human Detection– Obstacle Detection– Odometry of AmigoBot

• Thinking – State machine

• Acting– Wander Straight– Wander Turn– Drive to Ball/Human– Manipulate Ball

Challenges

• Vision – Hough circle detection– Lighting

Challenges

• ROS-OpenCV communication• Environmental noise– Yellow objects– Aimed Kinect downward to reduce external noise

Conclusion

• Sensing: detects ball and human• Thinking: state machine• Acting: retrieves the ball• Successful implementation and integration of

all sub-components• It works!