[left]My name is Steve, and I wanted to share with you my first attempt at building my own Astromech droid. With the new Star Wars movie being released, I recently watched the other movies which I’m a huge fan of. While watching them, they gave me the inspiration to build my own Astromech droid which is something I always wanted to do. So I figured I would post it here to hopefully give someone the inspiration to build their own, or just so you can have a read and look at some photos and videos.
There are so many great scale replica Astromech builds around that people have done, but I want to stay away from doing an exact prop replica build, and do a custom scratch build with unique paint job along with useful utility tools and sensor array, while still keeping with the overall original design. E4 was designed and built to be practical, not just a show piece.
So what’s with the name E4-B4 (Eiifor-Befour)? Well its kinda based on the EZ-B 4 robot controller from EZ-Robot which is at the heart of this little droid, and is powered with his own on-board tablet PC running Windows 8.1 which is located where the “burtt acoustic signaler” and system ventilation vents on R2-D2’s chest area is found. E4-B4 is mainly built using MDF with a HIPS (high impact polystyrene) skin, and movement is powered by 12v 30 watt gearbox/motors for the drive system. In place of the “Optical Holographic Projector” in R2’s head, is a pico portable projector which extends or mirrors the tablets display, so no holograms… yet. I just want to give a big thanks to RobotShop for their great products and outstanding service. There’s a lot of RobotShop in this little fella.
]Retractable smoke and gas detector, /:m] ]Retractable alcohol sensor (for mobile breath tests), /:m] ]Retractable 6x LED spotlight, /:m] ]Two 8x8 RGB LED light panels (logic display that are programmable to make patterns and digits) connected via i2c protocol (to be fitted when they become available), /:m] ]16x2 LCD display connected via i2c protocol showing live time, date, battery voltage and CPU temperature updates, and any custom messages, /:m] ]Miroir MP60 pico projector with servo tilt mechanism to adjust projected viewing height, and connected via HDMI to the tablet PC, /:m] ]RGB LED board (only using red and blue that alternate between colours), /:m] ]Two sound sensors connected via ADC (analogue to digital conversion), /:m] ]Servo controlled electroluminescent (EL) dome edge lighting, /:m] ]Sound reactive LED for speech (or should I say bleeps & bloops), /:m] ]640x480 resolution video camera that streams live video at 20fps with no latency used for facial, object, colour, and symbol recognition with tracking ability. It can also record video and take still photos, /:m] ]And a 180 degree heavy duty servo for left and right head movement. I sacrificed the full 360 degree rotation for 180 to have the servo linked up to the camera and sound sensors for position tracking./:m]
]Retractable electronics platform for easy maintenance, /:m] ]Retractable horizontal servo claw with ultrasonic distance sensor (mainly designed to hold a can of beer) with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Retractable vertical manipulator arm and servo claw with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Retractable multi-tool utility with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Retractable blow torch utility with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Retractable photosensitive diode sensor (reacts to different ambient light situations) with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Retractable 3x USB and memory card hub (connected to tablet PC) with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Passive infrared (PIR) sensor, /:m] ]Bluetooth/AUX amplified speaker, /:m] ]Height adjustable water jet and pump with servo flap cover, /:m] ]Acer W3 tablet PC with Windows 8.1, /:m] ]And removable front skin panel with magnetic fasteners. /:m] ]Legs and feet. /:m] ]Retractable rocket boosters with flickering LED for booster flames, /:m] ]Retractable rocket booster leg covers, /:m] ]LED illuminated inner leg panels, /:m] ]LED under foot lighting, /:m] ]Ultrasonic distance sensors for object detection and avoidance which is tied in with autonomous and user controlled drive movement. /:m] ]DSR (Distance Speech Recognition) microphone,/:m] ]And two 12v 30 watt DC motors with gearbox’s. /:m]
]An EZ-B v4 WiFi robot controller, /:m] ]SSC-32 servo control board,/:m] ]15 amp DC motor controller and H-bridge, /:m] ]10x 5 volt 3 amp UBEC voltage regulators, /:m] ]4x drop-down Buck converters, /:m] ]6x 5v brick relays from RobotShop,/:m] ]12 volt remote control board for 7.4v system and 12v DC motor batteries (for remote power On and Off), /:m] ]6-12v water pump from RobotShop,/:m] ]And 5000mAh 7.2v and 12v NiMh battery packs. (I may change the 12v NiMh to a much higher mAh LiPo or SLA battery soon)./:m]
[/left] ]Runs on the EZ-Robot EZ-Builder for PC software, /:m] ]Autonomous abilities (some are already online, but many others are still in development such as 3D room mapping), /:m] ]Speech recognition for most of the controls (too many to list), drive movement and dynamic conversation, /:m] ]Sound reactive LED which illuminate when sound files are played, /:m] ]Custom programmed AIML chatbot brain for dynamic 2 way conversation, (“how does that work with an Astromech Droid” you may ask… read on). /:m] ]On screen text to speech “droid” translator for when E4-B4 speaks (when E4 speaks with his bleeps and bloops, the translator displays what is said in English large font text, much like how R2-D2 talks to Luke in his X-wing fighter with the cockpit translator), /:m] ]Custom made mobile app for smartphone control via WiFi or cellular connection (can be controlled or get video feed from almost anywhere in the world), /:m] ]Video and music player, /:m] ]Gets latest news, weather and traffic reports via RSS feeds which is displayed using the droid translator, /:m] ]Random personality generator, /:m] ]Hands free video calling /:m] ]Uses R2-D2 sound files (which I love, but may make my own one day), and custom made sound effects, /:m] ]Home monitor and security mode which uses E4’s camera, sensors, and alarm sound files if needed, /:m] ]Reminder notifications for humans or for autonomous procedures such as the security mode mentioned above./:m]
There are some other additions that need to be completed, such as replacing the colourful piece of cardboard in the dome and installing two 8x8 RGB LED arrays, to make a charging alcove, and to add a third wireless recognition camera for automated seek/dock/charge abilities. E4-B4 was designed and made to be useful and functional around the home, and not just a showcase robot (and the fact I’ve always wanted my own Astromech droid, and wanted it to be unique). Anyway, there are a few videos for you to watch, a 118 day build diary that can be found on the “Project Showcase” section of EZ-Robot.com, and a “How it was made” on Instructables.com. Thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on my first attempt at building an Astromech Droid.
