These are tests for QuickBot motors, IR sensors and wheel encoders.

QuickBot is a simple wheeled robot, built as part of Coursera "Control of Mobile Robots" class. It uses BeagleBone Black ARM-based mini-computer as its "brains".

These tests have to be run on the QuickBot side. These tests directly "talk" to BeagleBone hardware.

opkg install python-misc

git clone https://github.com/pgmmpk/qb_test.git

This will create a directory named qb_test with the test scripts. Go into this directory to run them.

cd qb_test/

Tests motor wiring by running each motor in each direction. This test runs for about 30 seconds total and does the following:

1. Runs left motor forward for about 5 seconds and then stops
2. Runs left motor in reverse for about 5 seconds and then stops
3. Runs right motor forward for about 5 seconds and then stops
4. Runs right motor in reverse for about 5 seconds and stops

Start it like this:

python qb_test_motor.py

Tests IR sensor wiring by printing IR readings for about 30 seconds. You can use your hand to simulate "an obstacle" in front of each IR sensor and see how readings change. Unobstructed reading is low (zero). If you place an obstacle in front of a sensor, reading should be high (approximately 300-800).

Start it like this:

python qb_test_ir.py

Tests wheel encoder wiring by reading values for about 30 seconds and printing them out. Manually rotate each wheel to see encoders generate periodic pattern. Note that encoder readings are very noisy, they may fluctuate even when wheels are not moved. However, rotating wheels should give you much larger amplitude of change.

Start it like this:

python qb_test_encoder.py

This is an optional (research) tool. It reads encoder values and stores them in a file for later analysis. Data is stored in standard CSV format. Upload it to the host computer and analyze with standard graphical tools (e.g. matplotlib or Excel).

Start it like this:

python qb_grab_encoder_values.py

Result is stored in file named data.csv

MIT