More line following (now with added voice)

We are still trying to improve the line following and are ensuring that the junctions are correctly navigated.

If the line is straightforward, then we can follow at a decent frame rate (+32fps) but, as in the last post, we had real issues when we hit a junction. Looking at the Garden Path challenge rules, the highest amount of points can be obtained through using audio commands with camera based navigation (https://piwars.org/2021-vpw/challenges/up-the-garden-path/). While signposts did work, using the camera to follow the line and help with audio commands would seem to be the most reliable and best option.

Below is a short video (once again using the rolling road on another screen for the Pi's camera to decode) but now with a USB microphone plugged into the Pi to issue commands to vosk (https://alphacephei.com/vosk/) with a limited list of words.

Volume warning: It's a bit loud when Amy's Dad shouts the voice commands!!!!


We need to see if we can't improve the latency of the commands, which are queued between the main (camera) thread and the voice decoding thread.

Upgrading to OpenCV v4 and removing VNC from the equation now gives 56fps so we're very happy with the performance.





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