GPS/ Autonomous Robot

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

Hello LMR,

This is one of my robots that I have been working on for a while. I have'nt posted it yet because I wanted to make sure I have a lot done. I use the lynxmotion A4WD1 as the base. 

I want to update you on my latest robot, I am using the lynxmotion  A4WD1 as a base and an arduino microcontroller. Inside the robot I have a sabertooth 2x12 motor controller and two 7.2 nimh batteries.  I also soldered my own perf board together with two sensors, EM-406A gps and the DHT11 temperature/ humidity sensor. Also on the perf board I soldered some headers to connect servos. I just bought HMC6352 compass module and plan on soldering that in soon. On top of the robot I have a netbook running Ubuntu and installed arduino ide and processing ide. I ssh from my macbook pro into the netbook to update the code. I am working on the arduino code hoping to make the robot be able to go to certain gps coordinates. I attached some photos of the robot. 


Here is the picture of the electronics from GPS Robot. As you can see I have an arduino uno, sabertooth 2x12 motor controller, my own perf board and two battiers, one for back up.

Update 12-24-12 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With great help from markcra I have complete control over my rover through processing. The arduino is running the Standard Firmata sketch and the processing is running code that takes keyboard information and translates it into motor commands. Here is a picture of the Control pannel. Also I added a second base to my rover in order to have a place for my netbook. Im running into some issues with the serial communications between arduino and processing but hopefully I can work it out soon.

GPS Waypoints, Autonomous navigation

  • Control method: auntonomous
  • Operating system: Linux, Ubuntu
  • Power source: 12v Nimh battery
  • Sensors / input devices: Parallax Ultra Sound, EM-406A gps, DHT11 temperature/ humidity sensor, HMC6352 compass
  • Target environment: outdoor
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/gps-autonomous-robot
2

battery backup ? interesting !

Can you tell me more about your battery backup ?  how its connected ?  is it automatically switched ?

3

sorry to dissapoint you I

sorry to dissapoint you I wish it was automatic I have two battieres and when one runs out I manually switch the battery. But I did a quick google search and found this http://www.farmhack.net/wiki/back-battery-arduino 

4

not rally what i have in my

not rally what i have in my head

5

Great work!

When I first started with arduino and processing I tried the Firmata but I also had some problems with the communication and it looked for me limited and an overkill at the same time. Since then I’ve always done the arduino code as well, this is also cool because I could add back up plans in case the communication fails or if the sensors detect an imminent danger.

Just a suggestion, anyway, keep up the good work! :smiley:

 

6

Thank you! Ya I’m trying to

Thank you! Ya I’m trying to work out some bugs and I like your idea of the back up plans! thanks

7

I’m a processing fan and for

I’m a processing fan and for GUI apps I use this (http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/controlP5/)  library. It provides all the GUI elements you may need plus it makes the app look really cool (we talking about knobs,textfields,radiobuttons, dropdown lists etc.)