LCR Autonomous Ground Task Guide Level 1 - directedmachines/customer-support GitHub Wiki

Table of Contents

Overview

The LCR supports multiple modes of autonomous work, coordinated at the top level by the Autonomous Ground Task. This is the first in a series of tutorials that describe the various features, user experience for autonomous work. The goal of this tutorial is to have the user setup a simple path and work area, on their mobile device connected to the robot, and within a minute or so have the LCR do useful work.

Safety

Please follow the recommendations below, it is critical you do so to reduce the chance of harm to living things and structures

  • Design work areas so they do not include known obstacles.
  • Add exclusion areas around known obstacles, with a 10ft margin between work area and paths, from the obstacles
  • Always observe the robot the first time you design a work area and be ready to stop it and adjust the work area and path if its getting too close to obstacles
  • Do not rely on the robot dynamic obstacle avoidance: The robot can not always see things, especially things close to ground or skinny posts.
  • Do not enable autonomy in areas where there are people and animals
  • The LCR will stop AGT if it perceives no progress for 60 seconds, or if it sees high amps for over 30 seconds (all tunable), but these should not be relied on to protect you from any of the above cases.

Prerequisites

  • First Use Guide
  • Manual Control Guide
  • Calibration Guide
  • User device (phone, tablet, PC) is connected to robot WiFi
  • Web Browser is open and robot dashboard page is loaded
  • Phone orientation is locked in portrait mode (to avoid page refresh on tilt)
  • Safe environment to operate robot away from objects, people and animals

Troubleshooting

The AGT User Interface will display various warnings to aid the operator in resolving potentially unsafe plans, diagnosing issues with obstacles and robot health. Please review the AGT Troubleshooting Guide and search that page for any warnings you encounter, before contacting support.

AGT UI Load

To invoke the AGT UI, start from the Manual UI screen

  • Press the color polygon icon, bottom of screen
  • AGT UI will load, with currently selected plan shown on upper left

Screenshot from 2022-10-31 12-06-57

Best Practices

  • Keep work areas simple. Do not draw elaborate polygons, use simple shapes.
  • Create small areas, connected together with paths. Every time you change a work area, you lose progress, so its best to have small, simple areas that can be modified independently
  • Do not overlap areas with exclusion areas. Design work areas around obstacles and exclusion areas
  • The best way to familiarize yourself with how the AGT works, is to pick a small, flat rectangle with clear sky access, 25' x 25' at the most, and set up a work area there. Get this small area to 100% confidence first, and then making larger areas will be easier.
  • Note that the tip of the green arrow that represents the LCR in the UI is the GPS puck antenna on top of the LCR. But do also note that GPS can vary by 6'-10', so always design and steer with that discrepancy in mind.

Task and Work Area Specific Settings

The autonomous ground task has global settings, referred to as "task settings" plus work area and path specific settings.

Task Settings

The task settings are accessible by touching the Edit button, then touching the Configure Task button

  • Axle FWD vs Casters FWD (robot UI only, not in cloud) - Determines if the robot will move axle forward (lead with the driven wheels or tracks) or casters forward (lead with the See Saw caster bar)
  • Implement Width - Set the implement width slide to match the physical implement width, for example, the mowing deck width
  • Task Speed - The LCR has a max speed of 4 meters / second or about 10 miles / hours. We strongly recommend you use a task speed of 0.2 (20%) or less for almost all tasks, equivalent of 2 MPH

Disabled parameters

If a slider appears gray, you need to touch the slider drag circle (towards the top) to enable the slider:

Work Area Settings

The work area settings are accessible by touching the Edit button (only required if plan is not in edit mode), then touching the gray/transparent section of a work area (which selects it), then touching one more time to bring up the dialog.

  • Grid spacing - this tells the LCR how dense the coverage path should be and it relates to the implement (mower for example) that is attached. You want the grid spacing to be less than the implement width so there is overlap
  • AUX power setting - The wheel side AUX power setting will determine how fast the PTO or mower blades spin. Please set that to 0.6 (60%) or above

Note:

Every work area must be configured after you place it. The AUX motors (mower) will not run by default in an area, you must enable the AUX power setting

Every work area is independent of all other areas. Configuring one will not configure other areas.

Manual Control settings have zero effect on autonomous tasks.

Progress and Reset

The work area is associated with a grid that tracks visited locations, allowing the robot planner to calculate progress. The UI will display progress in percent, for the active work area.

Progress will be lost through any of these actions:

  • Editing the plan and changing a work area parameter that affects the shape and grid (grid spacing)
  • In edit mode, selecting the work area and in the edit dialog clicking on the Reset progress button

Work Area Edit Step by Step

In the video you can see how to adjust the key parameters for a work area. Assuming you are in the autonomous task UI screen, follow these steps:

Touch/Click the "Edit Plan" button to allow plan modifications

Touch/Click on the light gray part of the work area polygon you want to configure (not the center blue waypoint)

Touch/Click one more time to bring up the dialog

The key settings are:

  • Grid Resolution - You want to set this slightly less than your implement width if you have precision GPS installed, or half your implement width, to force multiple passes, if you have regular GPS
  • Path policy - The spiral pattern is a robust policy for most work area shapes. For parallelograms you can use row scan which implements a "snake" pattern. Explore can be used for difficult areas with lots of physical and user defined obstacles.
  • Wheel Side AUX Power - This is the power setting for your PTO, mower which is usually attached on the axle side 3PT hitch. When the robot is inside the work area, it will turn the implement on, at this power level. It will turn the implement off, outside the area

Close the dialog after you are done with the changes, "Freeze" the plan and if it is safe to do so, touch the work are to make it the destination and start the task.

Work or Exclusion Area Copy and Paste

To duplicate an area, follow these steps:

Touch/Click the Edit button to unfreeze the plan

Touch/Click the work or exclusion area to select it

Touch/Click to bring up dialog

Touch/Click the Copy button

Close dialog

Click anywhere on the map outside an existing area or waypoint

Dialog comes up, select Paste

New area has the same shape as source area but in the new location. Click on the center icon of the area to connect it to another area or waypoint

Next Steps

Autonomous Task Guide, Level 2