Project
FreeBOT - Is a Biped robot designed in Google Sketchup and printed out on a 3d print. My aim is to make it Free to everyone to print and improve. Since I can't afford a NAO.. this was the next best thing :-)
I've been buying bits and bobs which I'm currently awaiting but I'm hoping it will be able to get up if it falls over... stand on one leg and even do a little wiggle :-) It will be controlled via wifi and I will write a vb.net front end with maybe a little bit of flash so it looks nice. It's going to be a very indepth project and since I haven't built a robot before a very steep learning curve.
Progress
In design stage 30% done
3D print stage 5% done
Electronics 30% done
VB.Net frontend 0%
My first aim is to just get it walking...
Currently printing test pieces and designing the upper body :-) more to come... Steve
Well the project hasn't stopped :-) I've been busy printing... re-printing and taking one step forward and two back.. but I'm getting there slowly.
So.. the design is nearly there.. it's been tweaked that many times I've lost count ::-)
I did have a 32 channel servo controller but I couldnt get it to work directly over serial so I'm now waiting on a 16 servo controller from China. I've now got my wifi board but thats 3.3 serial so I'm waiting on some convertors which will allow me to talk to my arduino over the air.. I've tested the wifi and it works great, just the wrong voltage. I still need to order some more servos but I'm happy to report the legs work !!! I found with the 32 servo board I need to send a command even if it's to a servo channel not connected to keep the rest of the servos charged. This then give the bot a bit of a spring..and keeps it stood up. I've managed to get it standing on one leg with one stuck out so I'm more than happy once it's all built up it should walk quite easy.
I've started coding up some control software in vb.net which saves the state of the servos to an xml file. This then can be replayed back just clicking on it. I have yet to code in a play back system to join these commands together.
The sensors are now all coded up. It will have ultrasonics in its chest. These seem to work great upto about 20cm. It has an accelerometer which talks back to the PC 20 times a second so it should be quite fast to react to tips / falls etc.
I've soldered in some RGB Leds. You can set whatever colour you want from the PC and they also turn red when a command has been recieved for 1/2 second so you know it's had something. I''ve also coded in a blink routine. This is just for fun, so when he's standing there he blinks randomly ever 1.5 to 6 seconds. :-)
Communication between the bot and PC does seem quite fast and I'm confident that it will be able to react quickly enough.
I'm running a little short on pins but if anyone has any ideas then please let me know.
So.. currently waiting on some more Filament for my printer (blue this time), a 16 channel servo controller / 5v to 3.3 TTL convertor / 7.4 Lipo battery to fit nicely in his back.
Should have a new bot printed out within the next couple of weeks. That's when the fun will really start :-)
more to come
Steve
