Vision Framework

Objective

Create a reprogrammable module in which a Raspberry Pi 3, protective case, power cable, light ring, and camera are self contained and execute a base program on startup. The base code of the module continuously reads the camera feed (subscribes to camera) and publishes corresponding data via the Pi's serial output (located on the Pi's GPIO connector). This data can then be fairly simply read by the RoboRIO. We hope that this will make implementing a vision subsystem a more simple proposition, allowing more teams to do so.

Materials

• Clear Case
• Raspberry Pi 3 (with NOOBS installed on Micro SD card)
• Ribbon Cable Camera (need 3)
• Micro USB Cable
• Light Ring
• 3-pin female to female jumper wire

Raspberry Pi Setup

Raspbian Lite

Install ​Win32 Disk Imager
Install ​Raspian Lite onto MicroSD card via Win32 Disk Imager

Load Raspberry Pi 3 (rpi) with the newly imaged MicroSD

username: pi
password: raspberry

connect to wifi by adding the following to the /etc/network/interfaces file:

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
  wpa-ssid "your-ssid"
  wpa-psk  "your-password"

reboot the pi:

sudo shutdown -r now

update with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get clean

set localization configuration options:

sudo raspi-config

reboot:

sudo shutdown -r now

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X server

Install Xorg and Xinit:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xserver-xorg
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends xinit

Install the MATE GUI:

sudo apt-get install mate-desktop-environment-core

Install LightDM login manager:

sudo apt-get install lightdm

reboot:

sudo shutdown -r now

login to MATE
At the top left:
navigate to preferences -> hardware -> keyboard shortcuts to set Run a Terminal to Ctrl + Alt + T or the like

open a terminal
navigate to Edit -> Profile Preferences -> Colors to deselect Use colors from system theme
select Built-in schemas: White on black

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Development Tools

Java 8

Now that the terminal color scheme is not killing you, we are going to start off by installing java:

sudo apt-get install oracle-java8-jdk

test the java installation (output should include "1.8.0_65" and should not include "openjdk"):

java -version

Let's also set the JAVA_HOME variable to be exported on startup:
edit your bashrc:

sudo nano ~/.bashrc

and add the following line:

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8-oracle-arm32-vfp-hflt

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Pi4J (Java-GPIO Interface)

Now we can install ​pi4j, a Java interface for the pi GPIO:

curl -s get.pi4j.com | sudo bash

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rpi_ws281x (NeoPixel? Control Library)

Then we can use the rpi_ws281x library for controlling the ​Adafruit NeoPixel lightring
But first, let's install some tools and dependencies:

sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev git scons swig

Now we can install the rpi_ws281x library:

git clone https://github.com/jgarff/rpi_ws281x.git
cd rpi_ws281x
scons

Let's also install the python library:

cd python
sudo python setup.py install

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OpenCV

First of all, you need a heatsink for your processor before building OpenCV. If you see this overheating symbol, you will die. Straight up.

If you don't have a heatsink on hand, tape some pennies to the CPU like we did:

If this still doesn't work, it may be necessary to water cool your pi:

Make sure to change the ice cube at least once per hour.

Now we are going to install OpenCV and its dependencies.
We only install OpenCV for C++ and Java, not for Python (we ain't scrubs):

sudo apt-get install cmake git libgtk2.0-dev pkg-config libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev
cd
git clone https://github.com/opencv/opencv.git
cd opencv
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_RELEASE_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF ..
make -j $[$(nproc)+1]
sudo make install