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RTOS/EK-TM4C1294XL: Seeking advice in selecting a TI kit capable of video processing and servo control with FreeRTOS

MICHAEL RILEY
Prodigy 180 points
Part Number: EK-TM4C1294XL

Tool/software: TI-RTOS

Good Evening Everyone!

I am a college student at Embry-Riddle in Prescott, AZ.  I have been accepted into the Accelerated Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering and next semester I will be taking Real Time Operating Systems at a graduate level while still in undergrad.  Since I am the only student doing this my professor and I have had discussions regarding a special project, relative to the undergrad course, which I will have to perform next fall.  Being not the type of person to wait around to make decisions I am beginning research on suitable elements to fulfill complete this project.  Here is a description of what the project will entail:

Using TI-FREE-RTOS implement the control of two multi-axis servo's which will have mounted on them at least one camera and one laser pointer.  The camera is to spot the laser and follow it as the other servo moves it around.  I personally would like two cameras with two laser pointers to implement a reactive cat and mouse sort of game.  

We have a lab with with jetsons which run linux and my professor has advised me to use the jetsons to process the camera information and send that data over to the TI board via ethernet since there are already drivers for cameras available on the linux machines.  I understand that he is saying this to try to save me some pain in writing my own drivers but I am wondering:

  1. Can I do servo control and camera processing with FREE-RTOS
  2. Are the MSP432 (doubtful), TM4C123G, TM4C1294XL, or the Hercules suitable for this sort of project, and if they are
  3. Are there drivers for cameras already available?

I have done quite a bit of work with the boards mentioned above, as well as already own all of them except the Hercules, but have no experience with FREE-RTOS with exception to playing with it last summer. 

I do not yet know the type of camera that I will use but I do know the servo's, they are here.

I would like to start working on this over the summer so I can be ahead of the ball come the fall semester as I am taking a full credit load on top of this.  

Any advice is appreciated and I think you for your time and consideration in this matter. 

Cheers

  • 0
    TI__Guru*** 129490 points

    Hello Michael,

    I can't speak to MSP432 or Hercules, but my first thought is that C2000 might also make sense depending on what your Servo requirements are, though if it's just a lot of simple PWM then you should be fine with TM4C. I don't know much about motor control though, so if those multi-axis servos need control algorithms to operate with the desired granularity, then that is something you are far more likely to find with C2000. That said, I don't know if they support FreeRTOS though or if you are limited to ARM only.

    Our TM4C devices are differentiated more on connectivity aspects like USB, Ethernet, CAN etc., so aside from maybe being able to leverage Ethernet for the TM4C129 devices, you'd be using it as a generic ARM processor more than anything. So keep that in mind if you go that route.

    It looks like your motors will need an IC between the TM4C and the motors to drive the voltages, so you would need to look at our DRV motor drivers portfolio as well. We do have a motor driving reference design for Stepper motor, so not the same as Servo but migh tbe a helpful start: http://www.ti.com/tool/TIDM-TM4C123STEPPERMOTOR

    For the camera processing, we have a reference design you can look into: http://www.ti.com/tool/TIDM-TM4C129CAMERA and this would be the only source of a camera driver available from our end. The FreeRTOS portion would need to be integrated into that along with servo control.

    Regarding FreeRTOS, you'd be on your own in terms of TI support as we don't have expertise to help with that. We do have a TI-RTOS team which can handle questions specific to TI-RTOS, but among our TM4C apps team, we have negligible RTOS experience. I am not sure what support structure FreeRTOS offers though, so you may be able to get help from other avenues, or even perhaps E2E community members.

    Hopefully these resources are helpful, and I definitely would recommend looking into C2000 to see if that can be an option as I think at least from motor control standpoint it is better suited.

  • 0 in reply to Ralph Jacobi
    Prodigy 180 points
    Mr. Jacobi,

    Thanks for pointing me in those directions. I think I'ld like to try TI-RTOS. Will look into all of this and see what my professor thinks about these options. Thanks again!