Data Collection Guide

Script Execution

In a new RPi's terminal, run following command.

python ~/BearCart/scripts/collect_data.py

Usage

Toggle Recording

The default button for toggling data recording is R1. Headlight will be toggled as well if it is correctly wired up. Press the button to activate/deactivate data recording.

Emergency Stop

The default button for EMERGENCY STOP is X. Press this button will terminate the execution of the Python script. Release throttle (right) joystick if a normal stop is expected.

Saved Data

A data directory will be automatically created once the collect_data.py script is executed. The data directory will be located at ~/BearCart/data/<year-month-day-hour-minute>. And it will be timestamped with the moment of executing the collect_data.py script.

If toggle recording button was never pressed, the data directory will be empty.

If data was effectively recorded, extra files will be saved in the timestamped data directory. An example of the data structure looks like the follows.

BearCart/data/2024-08-13-15-05/
├── images/
└── labels.csv

The images directory stores all the images recorded during the data collection process. The saved images will be indexed follow the chronological order. The labels.csv file stores the "image file names", "human input steering values" and "human input throttle values". These files are organized in 3 columns. And each row stands for the human operator's action at the moment of the corresponding image was captured.