Bioloid Robot Hack

LOW LVL COMMUNICATION

Mohamed Lakhal | Robotic Report | 6/27/2019

Introduction
One of the main difficulties that we face when dealing with the bioloid (humanoid robot)
is Communication.

BIOLOID KIT

The Bioloid Comprehensive Robot Kit from Robotis is the first

educational robot kit based around "smart serially controlled servos"
which are not only capable of switching between positioning and full
continuous rotation, but also provides you with access to sensory
feedback such as position, speed, temperature, current draw and
voltage of each servo. the Bioloid Kit comes with some powerful GUI-
based software. The software is freeware, so whether you're using this
kit for education, research, or personal recreation, you can download
and install it on as many computers as you need. Bioloid Robot Kits are
perfect for Education, Hobbies, Research and Competition.

PROCESS OF BUILDING THE HUMANOID MODEL

Through following instruction on Manuel book made uniquely for this kit we
manage to get through building the model until we get finally to something like this

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  The humanoid model has 18 Actuator managed by smart servo (AX12)made by the
same company ROBOTIS

These dynamixel servos are based on serial communication and linkage is pretty
effective, they are equipped with various sensor that assure accuracy and efficiency

To control them directly, we have to use Dynamixel Library with a specific hardware (USB
to Dynamixel)

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 *Since it’s not available we resort to build a specifique firmware around The main board
of Bioloid CM-5

CM-5

 PC Link (Serial Cable): The port to connect the serial port of CM-5 and PC using
serial cable (Bioloid seriel BSC-10 cable, not included) It is used for task code download or
communication with PC.
 Start Button :  select the mode.
 MODE button: the button for changing mode, 3 modes available :
o MANAGE: Dynamixel Management Mode, used to set or test the operations
of CM-5 and AX/MX Dynamixel using RoboPlus Manager. Automatically executed when
RoboPlus Manager and CM-5 main controller are connected.
o PROGRAM: motion edit mode, used when the motions are edited with
RoboPlus Motion. Automatically executed when RoboPlus Motion and CM-5 main controller
are connected.
o PLAY: task code mode. Used after downloading the written code to CM-5
main controller with with RoboPlus Task. The Start button must be pressed directly by the
user to execute when PLAY LED flickers.
 POWER LED: Turned on if the power is ON flickers if it is being charged.
 U / L / D / R Button : The assigned buttons used for entering purpose during the
program operation commands to robots are transmitted by these buttons.
 Status Display LED: TxD LED is on while CM-5 main controller is transmitting the
data to the outside, RxD LED is on while CM-510 main controller is receiving the data from
the outside. The AUX led is at your disposal, it can be turned ON or OFF using task code.
 AX/MX Bus Port (3 pin): Used to connect the AX/MX-xxT Dynamixel servomotors in
a daisy chain method.

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 SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CM-5 MAIN
CONTROLLER
 Weight : 125.95g (excluding battery)
 Controller : ATMega128
 Working Voltage : 7 ~ 12V. Recommended Voltage: 9.6V (Bioloid NiMH battery).
 Consumed Currents

o When IDLE : 50mA

o Total Maximum Current : 5A (Fuse)
 Working Temperature : -5℃~70℃
 4 3-Pin Connector for Dynamixel using TTL Communication

Communication with CM-5

Communicating with the embedded microcontroller CM-5 is the key to accessing a very
sophisticated Motion library that control and generate specified movement

To communicate with CM-5 we used Serial Communication and Used a Specified app
(Serial Port Monitor )

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This app Can listen to the active Serial port and then what we did is to track each and
every command using the company app (RoboPlus)

In a first Step, we’ll describe the capabilities of CM-5 hardware and software and a
specified table command will follow for an in-depth explanation.

TASK STRING HEX BYTE

MANAGE MODE M
PROGRAM MODE E
ACTION MODE T

More detailed commands for each Task :

MANAGE MODE

Command String Hex Byte

Select servo dec
cid 00N
dec
Read servo pos Read 0 60
Write servo pos Write 0 30 [low
value|High value]
Toss Mode t 74 0d

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Tele-operation :
PAN TILT CAM WITH REAL TIME VISION TELE-OPERATION

Head control and Streaming :

Head control
The head is built upon a a Modified pan tilt kit and controlled with 2 servo 90g and the
cover is a customized 3d model “Designed by Firas belaid “

Streaming :
The video feed coming from webcam is handled with a streaming library mjpeg
Streamer that launches the feed through a local server to be accessible to all local devices

The latency resulted through this method is measured to be around …….

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Humanoid UI(User Interface)
FUNCTIONALITIES:
For ease of accessibility and for people who’s not well informed in robotic a user interface
is necessary thus, to handle all various functionalities that has been mentioned in earlier
sections

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