rpi-laser-cat-teaser

Idea

A laser dot runs away from a cat using an RPi camera, a laser, and two servos.

Algorithm demo.

What the program does:

• detects the cat movement using an RPi camera
• calculates required laser dot position to be kept away from the cat
• moves the laser mounted on top of two servos (X and Y axes)
• streams a debug video over HTTP (MJPEG).

RPi configuration

raspi-config
# ---> 5 Interfacing Options
# ---> P1 Camera      Enable/Disable connection to the Raspberry Pi Camera
# ---> Yes

Build

make build # produces build for RPi(ARM)

Run

bin/rpi-laser-cat-teaser

Options:

$ ./bin/rpi-laser-cat-teaser --help
Usage of ./bin/rpi-laser-cat-teaser:
  -camera-flip-h
    	flip camera image horizontally
  -camera-flip-v
    	flip camera image vertical
  -camera-fps int
    	camera fps (default 24)
  -camera-scale int
    	camera resolution scale (128*scale x 96*scale) (default 1)
  -debug
    	print fps to output
  -detector-blind-spot-radius int
    	detector blind spot radius (to prevent self-detection) (default 10)
  -detector-threshold int
    	detector sensitivity threshold (default 7500)
  -follow
    	laser stays on run away radius
  -ramdom-amplitude float
    	laser random movements amplitude [0.005-1] (default 0.02)
  -random-interval int
    	laser random movements interval in seconds (0 to disable) (default 2)
  -run-away-radius float
    	laser run away radius as percent of width [0-1] (default 0.5)
  -servo-flip-x
    	flip servo x position calculation
  -servo-x-max int
    	servo x max angle pulse length ~[20-120] (default 97)
  -servo-x-min int
    	servo x min angle pulse length ~[20-120] (default 74)
  -servo-flip-y
    	flip servo y position calculation
  -servo-y-max int
    	servo y max angle pulse length ~[20-120] (default 75)
  -servo-y-min int
    	servo y min angle pulse length ~[20-120] (default 56)
  -stream
    	stream debug image
  -stream-port string
    	stream port, url: IP:PORT/stream) (default "8081")
  -version
    	print version

Plan

• assemble servo controller
• order potentiometer
• control servo software
  • move with servo controller
  • move with RPi PWM (?)
  • calibrate servos
• laser
  • movement mechanics
• camera software
  • connect camera to RPi
  • read image
  • movement detection
  • run away algorithm
• pair servo and camera software
• power
  • calculation and experiments
  • order batteries case
• case design
  • order case
  • fit component
• final assembling

Example

# to run same configuration as the image above has
rpi-laser-cat-teaser -servo-flip-x -servo-flip-y -camera-flip-h -camera-flip-v -stream