After getting a couple of the Redtree Rover prototypes working, we set out to put our system on more of a "serious" robot. We connected with a local company called Ontario Drive Gear, that makes awesome all-terrain vehicles (most of them people drive and have up to eight wheels and can float). They also have a robot version - called the J5, which is used by the military. We set out to replace the computer that was currently used in it and see how quickly we could do it.

Inside, it ships with either no computer or a single board intel-based computer (basically a laptop without the case). While this type of setup has lots of processing power, the ability to add video cards to extra vision processing etc. it lacks the ability to easily add sensors and components to the system. The current method is usually just adding another USB --> <insert x standard> + a bunch of software to make things work.

With the Redtree Hydra, since it is flexible and supports most standard interfaces its possible to connected directly to the CANbus for example and control the motors on the machine directly. More importantly, the same computer can also be used to connect LIDAR, IMUs, Manipulators and all sorts of other cool things directly and without a ton of extra adapters. Furthermore, the data from all these things is easily sharable with other robots (if you are building a swarm for example) or can be monitored live through our web interface.

Here's a few pictures and video's of our progress.

Tom doing some CANbus programming on the Redtree Hydra so we can control the motors.

Redtree Hydra inside the ODG J5 - also has a smaller footprint than most computers that control these types of robots (it is sitting on top of the existing computer it is replacing. Note: we steer the robot around with an Xbox 360 controller, but it is also possible to use a longer range controller like a Futaba, which is more common with these types of machines.

This video is our first test of the system running the robot! Overall, it took us about a day and a half to get it to work with this robot - and most of it was programming and debugging interoperability with the CANbus for the motor controllers - in the future - this will all be available for anyone using the Redtree Hydra so that type of code won't need to be re-invented again. It will be packaged as part of our API libraries.