New Robot Project!

A friend of mine at work has had an R2-D2 full sized robot that he has been working on for years. He's got the frame and a bunch of parts including a nice dome. However he's not really a programmer or electronics type, more of a mechanical and artist type. So we decided to work together to finally complete R2-D2. I'll be working on the electronics together with him, and doing all the programming. Here's a couple pictures of the "prototype phase" where it's got temporary wood feet and most of the outer "skin" is not in place.

The main body is made mostly of wood, the legs are aluminum, and there is a metal pipe going through the middle connecting the two side legs together. There are a whole bunch more parts that will eventually go onto this frame and make it look like the real deal, but those are in boxes waiting until we get all the mechanical and electrical stuff worked out.

The center leg has a mechanism to allow it to be retracted up into the body using a power window motor. However, that is not functional yet, so it's just locked in place. Long term we want to make it so that it can transition from 3 foot mode to two foot mode and back, but that will require a lot of work and before then we want to get it driving around in 3 foot mode, and get the dome working (able to rotate around and with all the lights/displays).

Below is a close up of one of the prototype feet showing the motor and wheels.

We're using a Parallax 12v motor kit with a different tire mounted to the hub along with a Parallax HB-25 motor controller. This is the same drive mechanism I have on my Wood Platform Robot (mentioned in my blog a while ago). We're also using an omni wheel (the same one that's on the Stingray robot) to stabilize the foot and allow for a differential drive system. We'll be running power and signal wires up through the legs into the main body where we'll have some 12v SLA batteries, and a Propeller Proto board that I am putting together with connections to an R/C receiver. This will let us drive it around easily while we work out any issues/details with the feet and drive wheels.

Random stuff from the last few months.

So, first off, I moved and expanded my workbench. As you can see here, it's already covered with stuff. I really need to finish sorting out my tools and parts so this is less messy and easier to work on.

Next up, I went to UPEW (Unofficial Propeller Expo West) at Parallax's offices in Rocklin, CA. I got to see lots of cool stuff like the gas powered bot on the left.

I, also, met and talked with Chip Gracey. He invented the Propeller chip that I use in a couple of my bots, and he's busy working on the next version that is being called Propeller 2 or TurboProp for now. It was really awesome to sit down and talk with him about the stuff he is doing and all sorts of things.

I Also met and talked with several other really cool people at UPEW, like Ken Gracey (he "runs" Parallax and is a really nice and generous guy. He also designed the wood platform bot.), Jeff Ledger (who is the primary organizer of the UPEs), Beau Schwabe (who does IC layout, and took the time to explain some of that to me at 2am), Peter (pjv, he shared some really neat scheduler code for running multiple "threads/tasks" in one cog on a Propeller) and others. I hope I get to see you all again next year.

This is the new addition to my robot collection. It's called a Penguin Robot, because it looks and walks kindof like one.

Most recently, I visited my Mom and friends for my birthday last week. This is mom's cute dog "Diva".

More Parallax wood platform robot fun

Just a quick update to point you at another video I just uploaded.

More Parallax wood platform robot fun

I added a IR detector and an XBee module. They're on a breadboard for now. Just so I could get it functioning. I coded it so I could drive the robot around using a tv remote and it reports move and turn commands back to my PC via XBee. I have another XBee module hooked up to the PC via USB.

The wood platform robot is alive!

I finally got the wood platform robot running today. This is an picture of the top of it. You can see the 10 PING))) sensors, the 20x4 LCD display, and I have a 7.2v R/C car battery powering the MSR1 board.

Here's the bottom. You can see the 2 HB-25 motor controllers and the 12v battery that is powering the motors. I'm currently holding the 12v battery in place with a large zip-tie, but I want to figure out something better.

I put a video of the first run of this robot on youtube here.

So, I have been slacking a bit on updates here. Part of it is because it's rained the last 2 weekends so I couldn't work on the backyard project, and I haven't done as much on the chainmail as I would like so I didn't want to do an update with only a little more on it. I have also been working on a new project (CNC machine) that I will post an update on tomorrow.

Intro to my Robots

I've been into robots ever since I first saw R2-D2 in Star Wars when I was a kid. I saw Star Wars in the theater way back in 1977. I was 7. I have always thought it would be cool to have R2-D2 roaming around my house and stuff. Sadly, It's still a ways off before we have robots with that level of intelligence and ability. Of course, R2-D2 had a person inside of him to help make him such a character, and then there was all the special effects added in (like having him fly or whatever).

Anyway, since I went down the path of computer programming instead of the electronics and hardware path, it was a long time before robots became affordable and easy enough to put together that I could start having my own.  I started with the Lego Mindstorms robot stuff, and it was cool, but I wanted something more like "real" robots with proper sensors and servos and more programmability. I found a lot of that with the VeX Robotics stuff. However, once I discovered Parallax and their robot kits, I found what has worked pretty well for me so far. Really decent base platforms with the ability to work with "normal" sensors made by a lot of different places instead of special ones made specifically for VeX or Mindstorms. They also have a thriving community of really helpful people that I can turn to for help and ideas. Many of the Parallax employees also participate in the community which I think is rad! They are some very cool people.

I've also started learning the electronics stuff I need to know to properly support this hobby. Soldering, resisters, capaciters, transisters, 74xx ICs, 4xxx ICs, and so on. I've got some learning kits from the MakerShed as well as the Make: Electronics book (which is awesome).

So heres my robots.

A Boe-Bot with a PING))) addon kit. It's really easy to program (PBASIC on the Basic Stamp 2), and I've had a lot of fun getting it to roam around avoiding things.

A Stingray with 3 PING))) kit, shaft encoders on the motors, and using R/C car batteries instead of the 6 AA thing it comes with. I also have a compass module and a dual-axis accerometer module stuck on the breadboard that I intend to start utilizing soon. This is like the Boe-Bot's big brother. It's bigger, faster, and a lot more programmable. It's based around the Parallax Propeller MCU. Parallax is busy working on more addon kits for this thing that I am really excited about, like a gripper.

This last robot is still under construction. Its a big round wood platform designed to work with Parallax's really nice motor and wheel kit as well as their caster wheel kit. I've got a pair of their HB-25 motor controllers on there, and an MSR1 controller board as well as a Propeller Protoboard.

I had to do some of my own drilling to mount the HB-25s and the controller boards, plus I have to do my own wiring. I've only gotten the stuff hooked up between the motors and the HB-25s, I've still got to put on the battery wiring to everything. Then I need to secure the wiring and make it look neat. I've got a 20x4 LCD display to put on it, as well as an microSD card port, a Xbee module, and an sram memory board. For sensors I've got a bunch of PING)))'s on backorder, I've got a compass module, and I'll probably take the accelerometer from the Stingray (or maybe get another one). I plan to also get some kind of camera system on there too.

So that's my robots. I'll post an update on the wood platform robot once I have it more completed.