Very nice mike 
canse wait to see that mounted on a biped 
Thanks Chunga!
I just bought a bunch of brackets to build a BRAT and should get them soon. I plan to mount the head on it and will install my home made RSCU board for speech. All I need are the servos, battery, battery wiring harness and charger.
Finnaly I am going to get some where on this project! Also, I spoke with my CNC machine budy and I will probably get another bot head made but instead of PING sensors for the eyes, I will have red LEDs. It is likely I will have it some time around October or November.
I might even have a handful of “skulls” made and sell them to who ever would like one. Don’t hold your bredth because It’s just a thought at this point.
Great looking skull! Test video was cool, it’ll look great in the torso.
I’m not familiar with the software you’re using, though. How does it track where the camera points? I initially thought it was tracking a colour blob, but that would pan the head in the opposite direction to the camera motion (unless you invert the movement, I suppose).
I’m sure there are a few people who’d be interested - and a bulk run might drop the cost of it a bit. I’d definitely want one (or two!)
You are right, the head was not moving properly. I did not spend enough time to make a robust tracking configuration. I only wanted to show that the head can react to video. There needs to be a way to invert the servo movement, perhaps in the VBScript, I need to take a looksee. I have tried to get this to work before and failed. After downloading the latest software, I tried again and it worked. I was so excited; I grabbed my camera and started shooting. 
RoboRealm is a free program that allows you to take raw video images in real time and process the video to do something useful, for example, you can take a red ball and filter out all colors but red and have the COG Center Of Gravity track the red ball. This generates X/Y movements that can be sent to the SSC-32 causing the servo to move in response.
Go here for ore information:
It’s been a long time since I did anything with my Bratinator but I have some extra time being off on Fridays. I decided to get back to work on my original project so I have been working on a new board that includes the following:
- Speech synthesizer
- Simple IR object detection
- Sound sensors
All packed on a single board that is Bot Board stackable.
This new board I’m calling ECHO1. My last board had tilt and ping support but with the Bratinator there really is no need for tilt, and the ping is to big for my skull without de-soldering them from the board which led to other issues. Simple ir detection is a lot more skull friendly.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Echo1.gif
I bought a pair of IR sensors to use with my skull design but I will only use one set, one emitter and one receiver module. Since the head can pan back and forth, one set is all I will need. I tested it out and it worked very well.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Eyes.jpg
My next plan is to buy another new SpeakJet Module so that I can bring it all together.
I made some progress with the IR sensors. Although it may not be as good as the sharp IR range finders or as good as the sonar range finders, it’s an ultra cheap solution for object avoidance. I does very well with navigating around flat walls and my legs.
Using two old servo cables, I made one set of “eyesâ€
Here is the schematic of my IR cable assembly.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/IR_Cable.gif
Here is the video of my second test.
For some reason you may need to click play twice. It starts then stops but will resume playing when you click play again. I will need to re-upload this some time later.
youtube.com/watch?v=S53x0O_R1EQ
The current value of the resistor for the emitter is 1k ohms. I can improve the sensitivity by replacing the resistor with a lower value such as 500 ohms.
1k works well with light color walls but darker colors and corners are a little tougher as seen at the end of the video.
When the IR sensor detects an object, it makes the botboard RED LED turn on and begins a short backup sequence and then a short turn sequence. I want to remove the head servo and connect it to the botboard so I can dynamically control the positions as needed.
Note: I had to use tape on the receiver to keep the pins from shorting on the aluminum. I originally had the pins pushed through the foam and then soldered to the wires but I was having a problem getting it to work so I cut away the foam. I replaced the foam once I figured out the problem but it was to late, the wires were already soldered. For testing purposes, I used tape instead of going through the pains of de-soldering and re-soldering.
Mike,
What IR LED and sensor are you using? Something like the TSL262R?
Alan KM6VV
I’m using this IR Module: parallax.com/Portals/0/Downl … A4601M.pdf
and this Emitter:
parallax.com/Portals/0/Downl … oSheet.pdf
Here’s a fuzzy cell phone picture of them installed. I really need to get a new digital camera.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/ir_skull.jpg
It’s been a while since I did anything with my bot, so I sat down and came up with a biped leg design that should work well for my next biped project.
I took some pictures to share, so that others wanting to build a biped “Pete” or “Nick” sized bot can use this design. I was determined to get the most aesthetically appealing design possible without restricting any of the joints. This design is very similar to the “Pete” style except that I have the knee servo bracket vertical rather than horizontal. This helps take up all that blank space you see with the original design. An “L” bracket was used to secure the knee servo.
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Hobby/Left.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Hobby/LeftSquat.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Hobby/Squat.jpg
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/botwire/Hobby/Front.jpg
So without adding to much to the length of the leg, you have a nice solid looking appearance.
Comments welcome.
Coolness! 8) Nice job!