Rob Kremer
	Group Assignment: Robot Soccer (sorta...) CPSC 662/568: Agent Communication Winter 2015	Computer Science

Implement a CASA agent that plays robotic soccer. For this assignment, you will use a real robot and an overhead-mounted camera. The camera is an agent at 136.159.7.26:9001, which responds to commands allowing you to calibrate colors, request the position of the ball, and request the position and orientation of the robot (which will have a colored triangle mounted on the top of it). You should make use of

• the request, query-ref, query-if, and subscribe messages and conversations supported by iRobotCreate,
• the iRobot commands (see iRobot Create Open Interface) available via the iRobot.execute lisp function in iRobotCreate.

(request
:act get-color-position
:receiver 136.159.7.26:9001
:content "triangle,green"
)

You will get back a message like this:

(propose
:act discharge|request|get-color-position
:sender 136.159.7.26:9001
:receiver <you>
:content "triangle,(LIST 445 388 90)"
)

which means your robot is at coordinate (445,388) and has a heading of 90 degrees ("downward").

To request the position of the ball, use the following message similarly:

(request
:act get-color-position
:receiver 136.159.7.26:9001
:content "circle,red"
)

Your can recalibrate any color (or introduce new ones) on the camera by completely covering the center mark on the field with a sample of the color and sending the camera the following command:

(request
:act execute
:receiver 136.159.7.26:9001
:content "(camera-agent.calibrate-color \"<color>\")"
)

The colors "red", "blue", "green", "yellow", and "purple" are predefined, but you may wish the recalibrate them if lighting conditions change. These colors have been calibrated in daytime with the shades down, and the fluorescent lights turned on.

Startup

At startup, the robot should just acknowledge it's ready by flashing lights, playing a short song, or something appropriate of your choice. (This is the default anyway for iRobotCreate.)

Commands

The agent should accept the following run-time commands:

• (start :my <color> :partner <color> :op1 <color> :op2 <color> :goalzero <bool>): The robot begins playing soccer by attempting to move the ball into it's goal. If :goalzero is non-nil, then you trying to score at the goal at y=0 (the top of the image). Once this command has been given once with all the parameters, it may be repeated with no parameters, and the robot will use the previous parameters. You should map this command onto pushing the "play" button on the robot.
• (report): The agent prints it current state (waiting, in progress, etc) and any available results (goals scored) together with any errors or warning or accuracy considerations as appropriate.
• (stop): resets the robot, clears any results, and goes into waiting state. You should map this command onto pushing the "play" button on the robot - the robot stops if it is playing and starts if it is stopped.

You may implement other commands as appropriate.

Play

The game is simplified so your only objective is to get the ball into the target goal. The opposing team will try to get the ball into your goal. There are no rules, except for trying to get a goal. You do not necessarily need to pay any attention to the opposing team (as a matter of fact, this is recommended as your first try). You do not necessarily need to defend your goal. You do have to pay attention to bumps and overcurrents by stopping an taking appropriate action. If there is no real wall at the edge of the playing field, you may use your foot in place of the wall. The game ends as soon as someone scores a goal. If there is a goal scored, the server should beep (3 times). (Note that if I'm in my office, those beeps get annoying, so they will probably be turned off. I'll try to turn the sound up when I'm not there.) Bonus points for doing a victory dance when you have scored.

We will play two versions of the game:

1. There will be only one robot per team. This is pretty simple: just get the "ball" in the right goal.
2. There will be two robots per team. In this case, you can use actual strategy as you have one robot for offense and one for defence.

Notes

The State pattern is highly recommended to implement your controller.

You can download the basic iRobot software, just like CASA download, at the iRobotCreate download site.

Hints

The camera agent will NOT always give you accurate data as color recognition and pattern detection are difficult under changing light conditions. Be aware of this, and take all data with a grain of salt.

To support the conversations with the camera, your .ont.lisp file should look like this:

(declOntology "camera.CameraClientAgent"
      '("casa.TransientAgent") ; super ontologies
      '(
      (ont.assert isa-parent           "register-color" register)
      (ont.assert isa-parent           "get-color-position" get-info)
      (ont.assert isa-parent           "calibrate-color" get-info)
      (ont.assert isa-parent           "set-display" get-info)
      )
    )

Your .init.lisp file should look like this:

;the request content should contain <color>,<R>,<G>,<B>
(request-client "register-color" 
   `(jcall
      (jmethod (agent.get-class-name) "receiveRegisterColor" "casa.MLMessage") 
        agent (event.get-msg)
    )
  )

;the request content should contain <color>,<shape>
;the propose/discharge content contains <color>,<x>,<y>,<angle>
(request-client "get-color-position" 
   `(jcall
      (jmethod (agent.get-class-name) "receiveGetColorPosition" "casa.MLMessage") 
        agent (event.get-msg)
    )
  )
  
;the request content should contain <color> and your target should cover the centre circle in the image
;the propose/discharge content contains the average pixel color and the color is remembered
(request-client "calibrate-color"
   `(jcall
      (jmethod (agent.get-class-name) "receiveColorCalibration" "casa.MLMessage") 
        agent (event.get-msg)
    )
  )

The assignment can also be done in a simulator environment. A simple agent running in the simulator environment is shown in the Lisp file below. These agens don't play soccer, they just chase the ball around aimlessly. You will need to downloaded the lastest copy of the iRobot software to run this file.

A few precautions about using the simulator environment:

• The simulator runs in virtual time, while the iRobotCreate agents run in real time. On a fast computer virtual time and real time will be very close (we don't let virtual time get ahead of real time). But on a slower computer, virtual time may run much slower than real time, which will cause some odd effects on agent behaviour. In particular if you start a robot moving and go by the system clock to calculate the distance it has moved, you can be quite far off: you are calculating in real time, and moving in virtual time.
• The ball in the virutal environment is done to save CPU cycles, and only comes close to real behaviour of a (frictionless, enertia-less) ball. Don't expect this behaviour to be completely in tune with the behaviour of the real situation. (The ball sometimes exhibits very odd behaviour like bouncing a great distance or disappearing alltogether. Have fun with that!)
• A ball and a triangle of the the same color will be treated as the same object, so don't do this!
• The simulated system always recogizes objects and makes not errors on object recognition. The real system doesn't even come close.
• The simuated system is very accurate on it's movements and speed (modulo the above warnings). The real system, not so much.

(let (
        (trace-tags "info5,warning,msg,iRobot,-boundSymbols,-policies9,-commitments,-eventqueue,-conversations")
        (trace-code 10) ; bit 1=off, 2=on, 4=to-monitor-window, 8=trace-to-file
        (sleep-time 2) ; time to sleep between starting dependent agents, adjust for slower machines
        )
  
        ;; Set the options for the agent running the commandline
        (agent.options :options.tracing T)
        (agent.options :options.tracetags trace-tags)
  
        ;(new-agent "casa.LAC" "ResearchLAC" 9000 :process "CURRENT" :markup "KQML" :trace :traceFile :traceTags "warning,msg,commitments,policies5")
        (sleep 2)
  
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.simulator.Environment" "RoomEnvironment" 5780 :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML")
        (sleep 5)
        (declare (integer width))    (setq width 2304)
        (declare (integer height))   (setq height 1384)
        (declare (integer goalCtrX)) (setq goalCtrX (/ width 2))
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.new-bounds 2304 1382)") 
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.new \"goal0\" \"Rectangle2D\" goalCtrX 25            (floor (/ width 3)) 50 :paint T :corporeal NIL :color #x8888FF)")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.new \"goal1\" \"Rectangle2D\" goalCtrX (- height 25) (floor (/ width 3)) 50 :paint T :corporeal NIL :color #xFFFF88)")
  
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.puck :name \"puck\")")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.set \"puck\" :labeled NIL)")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.circle \"puck\" :color-name \"red\")")
  
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.simulator.CameraSimulation" "camera" 9001  :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :scale (/ 1280.0 width))
  
        (sleep-ignoring-interrupts 2)
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.iRobotCreate" "Alice2" 9100  :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :outstream "Alice.out" :instream "Alice.in")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.triangle \"Alice2\" :name \"red-tri\" :color-name \"purple\")")
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.iRobotCreate" "Bob2"   9101  :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :outstream "Bob.out" :instream "Bob.in")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.triangle \"Bob2\" :name \"green-tri\" :color-name \"green\")")
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.iRobotCreate" "Carol2" 9102  :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :outstream "Carol.out" :instream "Carol.in")
        (agent.tell ":5780" "(iRobot-env.triangle \"Carol2\" :name \"yellow-tri\" :color-name \"yellow\")")
  
        (sleep-ignoring-interrupts 2)
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.BallPusher" "ControllerOfAlice" 9200 :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :controls ":9100" :color "purple" :ball-color "red" :scale (/ width 1280.0))
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.BallPusher" "ControllerOfBob"   9201 :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :controls ":9101" :color "green"  :ball-color "red" :scale (/ width 1280.0))
        (agent.new-agent "iRobotCreate.BallPusher" "ControllerOfCarol" 9202 :LAC 9000 :process "CURRENT" :trace trace-code :traceTags trace-tags :markup "KQML" :controls ":9102" :color "yellow" :ball-color "red" :scale (/ width 1280.0))
    ) ;let   

CPSC 662/568: Agent Communication

Last updated 2012-12-17 21:42

Rob Kremer