K-Team Koala 2.5 User manual

KOALA 2.5
User manual
Revision 1.2

Revisions history
Rev. Date (EUR) Description
1.0 21.02.2014 Initial creation
1.1 15.04.2014 Add Magnetometer description
1.2 25.04.2016 Correction of GPS data acq isition
Documentation Authors
J lien Tharin, Frédéric Lambercy and Timothée Carron
K-Team S.A.
Z.I. Les Plans-Praz 28
CH-1337 Vallorbe
Switzerland
E-mail [email protected]
URL www.k-team.com
Trademark Acknowledgements
IBM PC : International B siness Machines Corp.
Macintosh : Apple Corp.
SUN Sparc-Station : SUN Microsystems Corp.
LabVIEW : National Instr ments Corp.
Matlab : MathWorks Corp.
Khepera : K-Team and LAMI
Legal otice
•The content of this man al is s bject to change witho t notice
•All efforts have been made to ens re the acc racy of the content of
this man al. However, sho ld any error be detected, please inform
K-Team.
•The above notwithstanding, K-Team can ass me no responsibility
for any error in this man al.

TABLE OF CO TE TS
1 I TRODUCTIO .......................................................................................................... 1
1.1 H OW TO USE THIS HA DBOOK ...................................................................................... 1
1.2 S AFETY PRECAUTIO S ................................................................................................ 2
1.3 R ECYCLI G ............................................................................................................. 2
2 U PACKI G A D I SPECTIO .................................................................................... 3
2.1 P ACKAGE C O TE T ................................................................................................... 3
3 THE ROBOT A D ITS ACCESSORIES ............................................................................ 4
3.1 G LOBAL V IEW ......................................................................................................... 4
3.2 F IRST START - UP ....................................................................................................... 7
3.2.1 Console access ................................................................................................ 7
3.2.2 Direct Connection ............................................................................................ 8
3.3 K OALA 2.5 R OBOT ................................................................................................. 10
3.3.1 Wheels and gear box ....................................................................................... 10
3.3.2 On/Off switch ................................................................................................. 10
3.3.3 Power ED ..................................................................................................... 10
3.3.4 Charge ED .................................................................................................... 10
3.3.5 Power supply jack ........................................................................................... 11
3.3.6 Reset button .................................................................................................. 11
3.3.7 Ultrasonic sensors........................................................................................... 11
3.3.8 Contacts for docking station ............................................................................. 11
3.3.9 Pico-ITX ........................................................................................................ 11
3.3.10 Microcontroller ............................................................................................... 12
3.3.11 GPS module ................................................................................................... 12
3.3.12 Accelerometer & Gyroscope sensor ................................................................... 12
4 I DEPTH LOOK ......................................................................................................... 13
4.1 U LTRASO IC SE SORS ............................................................................................. 13
4.2 B ATTERY .............................................................................................................. 15
4.2.1 NiMH battery .................................................................................................. 15
4.2.2 i-Pol battery ................................................................................................. 16
4.2.3 i-Pol External charger .................................................................................... 16
4.3 D OCKI G STATIO CO ECTIO PADS ......................................................................... 17
4.4 T ERMI AL BLOCKS (GPIO & SUPPLY ) ......................................................................... 18
4.5 A CCELEROMETER .................................................................................................... 19
4.6 G YROSCOPE .......................................................................................................... 20
4.7 GPS MODULE ........................................................................................................ 22
4.8 P ICO -ITX ............................................................................................................ 23
4.9 M OTORS ............................................................................................................... 25
4.9.1 Speed control (“D” command) .......................................................................... 27
4.9.2 Speed profile control (“K” command) ................................................................ 28
4.9.3 Position control (“F” command) ........................................................................ 29
4.9.4 Open loop (“ ” command) ............................................................................... 30
5 PROGRAMMI G ......................................................................................................... 31
5.1 I TRODUCTIO ...................................................................................................... 31
5.2 C O FIGURATIO .................................................................................................... 31
5.3 P ROGRAMMI G ...................................................................................................... 32
5.4 P ROGRAMMI G WITH E CLIPSE GUI ............................................................................ 33
5.5 D EBUGGI G .......................................................................................................... 34
5.5.1 Direct debugging ............................................................................................ 34
5.5.2 Remote debugging .......................................................................................... 35
5.6 M ICROCO TROLLER UPDATE ...................................................................................... 35
5.7 S ERIAL PORT ......................................................................................................... 35
5.8 T RA SFERRI G FILES .............................................................................................. 36
6 SERIAL COMMU ICATIO PROTOCOL ....................................................................... 37
7 MECHA ICAL DRAWI GS .......................................................................................... 46
8 WARRA TY ............................................................................................................... 48

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 1
1I TRODUCTIO
Thank yo for b ying a Koala 2.5 robot! The Koala 2.5 is a high end
robot that will initiate yo r experience to the extraordinary world of
mobile robotics. Thanks to its wealth of sensors, motors and its
software openness, yo will be able to create complex behavior,
making yo an expert of this promising technology.
1.1 How to use this handbook
This handbook introd ces the Koala 2.5 robot and its vario s operating
modes.
If this handbook does not answer one of the problems yo are
confronted with, please cons lt the K-Team web site (www.k-
team.com) and especially the For m and the FAQs.
Three kinds of symbols are sed in this doc ment; in order to keep yo
and yo r robot safe, please respect them:
Ignoring the mentioned warning could lead to malfunction
or reduced performance.
Ignoring the mentioned warning could lead to perpetual
damage and would void the warranty.
Danger: risk of electric shock

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 2
1.2 Safety precautions
Here are some recommendations on how to correctly se the robot:
•
Keep the robot away from wet area
. Contact with
water could cause malfunction and/or breakdown.
•Store your robot in a stable position. This will avoid
the risk of falls, which could break it or cause damage
to a person.
•Use only the official charger or the cable which is
delivered with the robot. Do not try to use another
charger; this can cause irreversible damage to the
battery and or the electronics.
•Do not attach any connector while the robot is
powered. To avoid any damage, make all connections
when the robot power is off.
•Never leave the robot powered when it is unused
.
When you have finished working with the robot, turn it
off. It will save the battery life.
• Do not manually force any mechanical movement.
Avoid to force, by any mechanical way, the movement
of the wheels or any other part.
•
Never open the case
.
Only qualified technicians are
allowed to do so.
1.3 Recycling
Think abo t the end of life of yo r robot! Parts of the robot can be
recycled and it is important to do so. It is for instance mandatory to
keep batteries o t of the solid waste stream. When yo throw away a
battery, it event ally ends p in a landfill or m nicipal incinerator. This
battery, which contains Lithi m Polymer, can contrib te to the toxicity
levels of landfills or incinerator ash. By recycling the batteries thro gh
recycling programs, yo can help to create a cleaner and safer
environment for generations to come. For those reasons, please take
care to the recycling of yo r robot at the end of its life cycle, for
instance sending back the robot to the man fact rer or to yo r local
dealer.
Thank you for your contribution to a cleaner environment!
Made in
Switzerland

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 3
2U PACKI G A D I SPECTIO
2.1 Package Content
•Koala robot
•Battery
•Battery charger
•Power s pply adapter

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 4
3THE ROBOT A D ITS ACCESSORIES
3.1 Global View
Figure 3.1 : Top view
1Wheels
2Ultrasonic sensor (9x)
3Mo nting plate
4Pico-ITX Front Panel
5IO and power s pply terminal blocks
6Battery

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 5
Figure 3.2 : Rear view
7Reset b tton
8Charge LED
9Power LED
10 On/Off switch
11 Battery
12 External power s pply connector

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 6
Figure 3.3 : Bottom view
13 Gear Box
14 Docking station connection

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 7
3.2 First start-up
It is required, before to use the robot for the first time,
to let the battery charge completely. In order to do that,
remove the battery from the Koala and connect the
battery to the dedicated charger. Please consider a time
of 5 hours for the initial charge.
Yo can test the Koala either with a serial cable to have console
access or directly to the Koala itself via USB.
3.2.1 Console access
Connect a crossed (N ll-Modem) serial cable on the top of the Koala
to a comp ter with these settings: 115200 ba d, 8N1). Open yo r
serial software on yo r comp ter and se settings above.
For Windows, yo can se Teraterm (http://ttssh2.so rceforge.jp).
On Lin x, minicom:
Open a terminal console and type (example below based on Lin x):
minicom -s
Go the "Serial port set p" men and config re as described in
fig re 3.4 .
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| A - Serial Device : /dev/ttyUBS0 |
| B - Lockfile Location : /var/lock |
| C - Callin Program : |
| D - Callout Program : |
| E - Bps/Par/Bits : 115200 8N1 |
| F - Hardware Flow Control : No |
| G - Software Flow Control : No |
| |
| Change which setting? |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
Figure 3.4: Minicom serial parameters
Save the settings with the command “Save setup as dfl” of the
men [config ration].
Switch on the robot power and wait for the login (yo may need to
p sh the ENTER key): KOA2 login

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 8
Enter the sername user and password koala
Then exec te the test program:
/home/user/koala_library/examples/koala_test
If the res lt is good (fig re 3.5), yo can see at the beginning the
version of the Koala microcontroller software otherwise an error
message is printed.
Koala V2.5 robot test program
(C) K-Team S.A
Koala version: A revision: 2
PID set to defa lt val es: P=10 I=3 D=1
…
Figure 3.5 : koala_test output
Yo can q it with the keys q and return.
To sh tdown the robot from the terminal se the command:
sudo shutdown –h now
Wait 15s, then yo can switch off the robot power switch.
3.2.2 Direct Connection
Connect a USB mo se and keyboard and a screen on the top of the
Koala robot (4 : Pico-ITX front panel of fig re 3.1).
Switch on the robot power, and wait for the login window. The ser is
user and password koala.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 9
Figure 3.6 : Ubuntu desktop
Then open a Terminal and exec te the following command (fig re
3.6):
Exec te the test program:
/home/user/koala_library/examples/koala_test
If the res lt is good (fig re 3.7), yo can see at the beginning the
version of the Koala microcontroller software otherwise an error
message is printed.
Koala V2.5 robot test program
(C) K-Team S.A
Koala version: A revision: 2
PID set to defa lt val es: P=10 I=3
D=1
…
Figure 3.7 : koala_test output
Yo can q it with the keys q and return.
To sh tdown the robot from, se the Sh tdown men (see Figure
3.6). Wait 15s, then yo can switch off the robot power switch.
Terminal / console q ick access
Network manager
Sh tdown
wn
File manager
Programs men s

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 10
3.3 Koala 2.5 Robot
3.3.1 Wheels and gear box
The Koala is driven by two DC motors, one for the three left wheels
and one for the three right wheels. The motors are co pled with the
wheels thro gh a 58.5:1 red ction gear. Each motor is eq ipped with
an incremental encoder which delivers 100 p lses per revol tion of
the motor (increased to 400 p lses with the internal hardware).
This allows a resol tion of 23’400 p lses per resol tion of the wheel.
As the diameter of the wheel is approximately 82.5mm (co ld
decrease to 80.5mm with a 3kg payload), the resol tion is 90.3
p lses per mm.
3.3.2 On/Off switch
This switch will have an action on the internal reg lators of the robot
and not on the battery, meaning that yo can charge it even if it is off
(only for the Li-Pol version, the NiMH battery can be charged only by
the external charger). To t rn the robot on, p t the switch low. To
t rn it off, p t the switch high.
When t rned on, the onboard Pico-ITX will a tomatically start the
installed OS.
Please be caref l when t rning off the system to first stop all
applications on the Pico-ITX and halt the system (to avoid any loss of
data).
3.3.3 Power LED
This green LED indicates when the power s pply is enabled (switch
ON and battery or external s pply pl gged).
3.3.4 Charge LED
This bicolor LED indicates the charge of the battery (only available
with a Li-Pol battery). D ring the charge the LED is red and it t rns to
green when the charge is finished. This indication is only available if
the Robot is t rned on. If the robot is off, the LED will remain off, b t
the charge will be active. To know the state of the charge, t rn on the
robot.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 11
3.3.5 Power supply jack
This is the 2.5mm center positive jack sed to charge the battery of
the robot. Use only the provided adapter. This will s pply the whole
Koala and charge in the meantime the battery (Li-Pol version only).
Inp t voltage is 15V (max 18V). C rrent drawn by the robot is 1A and
battery charge is 2A, so the external s pply m st be able to provide
at least 3.5A.
3.3.6 Reset button
This b tton resets the whole robot, incl ding the Pico-ITX
motherboard. A simple p lse on this b tton is eno gh to restart the
whole system.
3.3.7 Ultrasonic sensors
There are 9 ltrasonic sensors, 1 on both sides, 5 in the front of the
robot and 2 at the back. With these sensors, the robot is able to see
obstacles from approx. 250 to approx. 2500mm. Please notice that it
is not possible to meas re distance of nearer obstacles d e to the
principle of operation of this kind of sensors.
3.3.8 Contacts for docking station
The Koala 2.5 has some apparent contacts below its body meaning
that yo co ld se a docking station to charge its battery or to
comm nicate with it. The signals that are provided are: 15V DC inp t
and I2C connection.
3.3.9 Pico-ITX
The Koala 2.5 is provided with a Pico-ITX comp ter mod le with Intel
Atom processor N2800 and 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM. A SSD hard drive of
40GB (size can change d e to evol tion of available SSD) is already
installed with an Ub nt OS.
This comp ter will be the main intelligence of the robot which means
that the Robot only exec tes command sent by the Pico-ITX thro gh
a serial port (see Serial comm nication for more details).
The main connectors of the comp ter are available on the TOP of the
robot (Pico-ITX front panel):
-VGA Display connector
-Serial port connector (/dev/ttyS0)
-2x USB 2.0 connector
-LAN interface
-A dio IN (MIC) and OUT (headset)

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 12
3.3.10 Microcontroller
The Koala 2.5 has a dsPIC33FJ64GS608 microcontroller which is
dedicated to the sensors & motors management. This microcontroller
cannot be programmed by the end- ser b t answers to a list of serial
commands sent by the Pico-ITX (thro gh /dev/ttyS1 COM port). See
chapter “Microcontroller pdate”.
3.3.11 GPS module
The Koala 2.5 is eq ipped with a GPS mod le UC530 from U-blox.
As soon as the robot is t rned ON, the GPS mod le will search for
valid satellites. The robot m st be placed o tdoor in order to find
eno gh GPS to get its position.
The dsPIC of the Koala will a tomatically retrieve main data from the
GPS (position, speed, date, ho r, etc…). B t the ser can also directly
send NEMA command to the mod le to obtain more specific
information (see
“NMEA_manual_for_Fastrax_IT500_Series_GPS_receivers.pdf”
doc mentation).
3.3.12 Accelerometer, Gyroscope & Magnetometer sensor
The Koala 2.5 is eq ipped with a LSM9DS0 iNEMO inertial mod le
from ST. This mod le is a system-in-package feat ring a 3D
accelerometer, a 3D ang lar rate sensor and a 3D magnetometer.
Co pled with the onboard GPS, this will provide a complete sol tion to
make o tdoor positioning and path finding.
The max payload of the robot is 3.5kg.
Operating temperature range of the robot is 0 to 55°C.
Battery charging temperature range is 0 to 35°C. Never
attempt to charge it by higher temperature.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 13
4 I DEPTH LOOK
4.1 Ultrasonic sensors
Nine sensors are placed aro nd the robot and are positioned and
n mbered as shown in fig re below. These sensors are transceivers,
meaning that they can emit and receive p lses.
The ltrasonic sensors are powered by a 85 Vpp so rce. The nominal
freq ency of these transd cers is 40kHz +/- 1kHz.
The ret rned val e is the distance to the object in centimeters, with a
tolerance of +/-2cm. Meas ring range is from 25 to 250cm.
If the obstacle distance is smaller than 25cm, the Koala will ret rn a
val e of 0. If no obstacle is seen in the 250cm range, then the val e
will be set to 1000. Finally, when disabled, the sensor will always
ret rn 2000.
Each sensor can be disabled in order to get higher refresh rate for a
partic lar one (or gro p). One sensor meas re takes 20ms. All 9
sensors need 180ms to be read.
If the a to mode is enabled for the US sensor, every time all enabled
sensor are refreshed, the dsPIC will print the val e on the Pico-ITX
serial port (every 180ms if all enabled, every 20ms if only one sensor
enabled). This can be sef l for application sing the US sensors for
obstacle avoidance. If all sensors are disabled and the a to mode is
still active, no message will appear.
For more details abo t the ltrasonic sensor, please have a look at
the 400PT12B datasheet from Prowave.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 14
Figure 4.1 : Ultrasonic sensors viewed from top
Danger: High voltage! There is about 85Vpp on the PCB
in the area of the ultrasonic sensors: never touch it!
Turn the ultrasonic sensors off while recording sound!

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 15
4.2 Battery
The Koala 2.5 is provided with a removable battery. There are two
types of available batteries for the Koala, a NiMH and a Li-POL. See
the pict res below to determine the type of yo r battery:
NiMH Battery i-Pol Battery
There’s another way to determine the type of battery. When the robot
is t rned on and the external s pply is connected, the Koala can
detect the type of battery (see the serial command protocol,
command “V”).
This command reads also the c rrent and the voltage of the battery
which can be sed to calc late the remaining capacity (based on the
standard discharge c rve of the battery technology).
4.2.1 iMH battery
The NiMH battery can be charged only sing the dedicated external charger.
If the battery is inserted in the Koala and the external power s pply is
connected, the battery won’t be charged. The internal charger of the Koala
will be a tomatically disabled to prevent any damage to the battery.
This allows the ser to change the battery with another one f lly charged
witho t stopping the application (pl g the external s pply, then exchange
the battery).
Nominal voltage : 12V
Charging voltage : 14V
Nominal capacity : 3800mAh
Max discharge c rrent : 7600mA (2C)
Charging c rrent : 1000mA
Time for a complete charge : abo t 6 to 7 ho rs
NiMH Battery specification
With this kind of battery the koala is able to r n completely a tonomo sly
d ring more than 2 ho rs with the motor on and 3 ho rs with motors off,
r nning with a basic config ration.
There’s no specific power management on the Koala, the ser m st verify
that the voltage does not drop below 10V to avoid damaging the cells.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 16
4.2.2 Li-Pol battery
The Li-Pol battery can be charged either on the Koala itself ( sing the
external power s pply) or externally with the external charger. When
charged on the Koala, the indication of the charge (Charge LED) is only
available when the Robot is powered on. The LED is red when the charge is
in progress and it t rns to green when the charge is complete.
Nominal voltage : 11.1V
Charging voltage : 12.6V
C t-off voltage : 9V
Nominal capacity : 5000mAh
Max discharge c rrent : 25000mA (5C)
Charging c rrent : 2000mA
Time for a complete charge : abo t 4 to 5 ho rs
i-Pol Battery specification
With this kind of battery, the koala is able to r n completely a tonomo sly
d ring more than 2.5 ho rs with the motors on and 4 ho rs with motors off,
r nning with a basic config ration.
There’s no specific power management on the Koala, the battery will
a tomatically c t-off when the voltage drops below 9V.
4.2.3 Li-Pol External charger
The Li-Pol External charger embeds the same charging system as the Koala.
The charge d ration will be exactly the same as with on-board charging. The
only difference will be the LED.
On the external charger, there’s only one red LED which t rns ON when the
battery is in c rrent reg lation mode. When switching to voltage reg lation,
the LED t rns off. This means the battery is approximately at 90% of f ll
charge. To complete a f ll charge, keep the charger connected aro nd 1h
after the red LED t rns off. The polarity of the charger is defined by its two
polarizing slots.
Figure 4.3: i-Pol External charger
Do not connect this charger to a iMH Koala battery.

Koala 2.5 User Manual Rev 1.1 17
4.3 Docking station connection pads
Five contact pads are sit ated below the robot and can be sed to
connect the Robot to a docking station. The pads are placed
symmetrically to ens re a correct connection even if the Robot goes
backwards on the docking station. The main p rpose of these
contacts is to charge the embedded battery (works only with Li-Pol
Battery). Apply +15V between VIN and GND (max 18.0V) to perform
the charge. The VIN signal is the same as the external power s pply
connector and will be available on the terminal blocks (+15V).
Comm nication with the o tside is done via I
2
C external b s (level is
0 to +3.3V, same as the one available on the terminal blocks). Use
level adapter if needed.
Figure 4.4: Contact pads viewed from bottom
Never apply more than 18.0VDC between the VIN & GND
contacts.