icube

ustchuh · August 12, 2010, 8:43am

This is a project for a competition called "robogame" held by studuents in USTC.It's a five-member team and I'm one of the team .We want to make a robot which can solve Rubik's cube problems and do some other jobs(Our main purpose is to make a humanoid robot solving Rubik's cube problems ).we have finished design in July.Now we are working to build it .

solve Rubik's cube problem

Actuators / output devices: stepper motors, servo(MG945)
Control method: Semi-Controlled
CPU: Atmel ATMega16, CPU of notebook
Operating system: widnows/linux
Power source: 12V motorocycle battery for stepper motor.7.2V battery for servo
Programming language: C/C++
Sensors / input devices: USB webcam
Target environment: indoor

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/icube

ustchuh · August 12, 2010, 8:51am

Something about icube

This is a project for a competition called “robogame” held by studuents in USTC.It’s a five-member team and I’m one of the team .We want to make a robot which can solve Rubik’s cube problems and do some other jobs(Our main purpose is to make a humanoid robot solving Rubik’s cube problems ).we have finished design in July.Now we are working to build it .

ustchuh · August 12, 2010, 9:32am

some design sketchs

This is designed by solidworks

design sketch of icube's hand

geirandersen · August 12, 2010, 11:09am

Looks like fun!

But how will you feed the initial state of the cube before it is solved?

ustchuh · August 12, 2010, 11:31am

We use a webcam to read RGB

We use a webcam to read RGB value on each aera of the cube .

Then solve it with a PC program,then control the servos and stepper motors to turn over the cube.

Now we are working on the parts which is used to turn over the cube.I have more pictures ,I’ll upload it later

ustchuh · August 13, 2010, 12:51am

some pics of our robot’s hand

madhan_2005 · August 14, 2010, 11:15am

New idea

Hey nice project. can you please tell me how much torque is required by the motors to turn the rows and columns and also how much you will need to grip the cube firmly. And also It would be cool if the robot could manipulate a 555 cube cause the solution canbe easily derived from a C++ program and the difficult part lies in of moving the pieces of the cube to get to the solution. :)

ustchuh · August 15, 2010, 9:06am

Hi

It take only a little strength to turn the rows of the cube.But it takes much more torque to grip the cube firmly.We have tried many ways. We have found MG995 can be a good choice.you can view

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_4445658/anchors_4453022/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm

to get more info about this servo.In fact ,It can not give as much torque as it claimed.In our test,It takes about 10Ncm to grip the cube firmly.this kind of robot is hard to manipulate a 55*5 cube because its structure.

madhan_2005 · August 16, 2010, 10:43am

diff servo?

So you will be using different servos for building the robot. so then there will be 4 servos 2 in each arm and the gripping servo will be the one you mentioned and the manipulation servo will be an other low torque one. And how much is the total budget of the rig.

madhan_2005 · August 16, 2010, 10:55am

and also I have a small

and also I have a small doubt. How do you turn the rows of the cube in the second and third positions(marked above). The first row can be turned by the arm 1. how do you turn the other faces.

dutchbot · August 16, 2010, 2:15pm

Longer fingers of which the

Longer fingers of which the tips are smaller then a cube. Both arm 1 and 2 need to be able to move up and down.

ustchuh · August 18, 2010, 3:20am

servo and stepper motors

I use servo to grip and stepper motors to manipulate .Servo is about $7 esch and stepper motor is a little cheaper

ustchuh · August 18, 2010, 3:25am

To turn row 1,I can use

To turn row 1,I can use stepper motor on arm 1.To turn row 2 is not necessary,The solution to the cube do not need to turn the row in the middle of the cube.To turn row 3, use stepper motor on arm 2 to turn 180 degrees.then stepper motor on arm 1 is able to turn row 3