Is the RPI3 powerful enough - DIY Version

Build DIY ROVs
1

Hi @adam,

What are your thoughts about controlling the ROV via a web page served by the on-board Rasberry PI? i.e. the onboard Rasberry PI is the ground computer…

This means you can use any device (laptop, tablet, phone) to control the ROV without a separate software install or configuration. You could also utilize the movement of the mobile device itself as the controller of ROV movement - new capabilities of HTML5,

I am currently running a modified BlueRov2 this way (not with the device motion detection) and consuming on average about 30% of CPU. Has not hit the water yet so there could still be some undiscovered hooks…

(Follow on discussion from this POST)

2

@deepsouth

I asked about this a while ago, but BR did not really seemed interested.

Regards,
TCIII AVd

3

@tciii

I assume it may be a bit of a departure from the current BR product development strategy?

I think architecturally the web approach may offer simplicity (no setup) and device independence.

The device motion sensing capability provides significant opportunities - bordering on augmented reality (think BlueRov2 control via glove and VR goggles)

I am keen to try controlling BlueRov2 by the movement of my iPhone asap - should not be very hard…

4

@deepsouth,

The web page method (Cockpit) is what OpenROV used with their original OpenROV series of hobby ROVs.

Regards,
TCIII AVD

5

@tciii

It seems like no one has tried to connect OpenROV Cockpit to BR2? Looks like a nice user experience though…

The BR2 (DIY build) is possibly a little bit more sophisticated than OpenROV and I am thinking of possibly more comprehensive cockpit experience…

6

@deepsouth,

Nothing like useful alternatives.

QGC was really designed for quads and planes.

Regards,
TCIII AVD

7

I’m interested, but it is not something that we can adopt in the forseeable future.

We are invested in QGroundControl, and prefer to concentrate on improving that. QGroundControl has thousands of users and many active developers that contribute to our development, and we contribute to theirs. If we choose to do a web interface, our small team is on our own without help. Aside from that, there is the consideration of the manhours and cost of developing a web-based groundstation from the ground up, and moving all of our vehicles and customers to that. We just do not have the resources for this at the moment.

Of interest is a pull request to add the video stream to the web interface:
https://github.com/bluerobotics/companion/pull/164

8

It will not be possible to run openROV’s software on our ROVs. Totally different system architectures.

9

Thanks Jacob, I was totally expecting that if anyone had used on OpenROV software for BR2, it was on a heavily modified DIY version…