I've built several fire-fighting robots, and several walkers, but this is my first walking fire-fighting robot. Issy will compete in the Canadian National Robot Games this November, and then the Trinity Fire Fighting Robot Contest next April.
The first Issy was originally built for Mech Warfare earlier this year. This new version is about 2" shorter in both the width and length directions, a neccesary adjustment to get him inside the rules of the competitions (all entries must fit inside a 12" cube. This new build uses similar legs, each built out of 3 Dynamixel AX-12 servos, Bioloid brackets, and SES tubing for the upright leg. The center body and chest are custom aluminum plates.
He has a head similar to some of my previous fire fighting robots. The head has an IR ranger for 99% of his navigation, a sonar ranger mainly for approaching the candle (since the IR gets wiped out), an IR photodiode for fire detection, and a ducted fan for fire extinguishing. Issy is using an arbotiX robocontroller, and power is from an 11.1V 2200mAh LiPO.
Nice job done with Issy! I am amazed at how nice it looks and how well it moves (I’ve seen it play in Mech Warfare). Someday I’ll try to build such a bot but for now I have to finish my current one.
I guess we’ll meet at the CNRG soon. I’m working on my MiniEric to make it do FireFighting (amongst other things) and I’m inspired by your code. I just hope I’ll get it to work as I didn’t make any tests on a real field yet.
Have you looked at other ways to extinguish the flames, compressed foam maybe? Love to see this as a prototype for an actual, giant firefighting robot… maybe a couple of gun turrets wouldnt hurt either;)
At the Trinity College event, there is a seperate walker division. In Canada, there’s only a handful of fire fighters so there won’t be any bonus/division for Issy – but I think he’s still got pretty good chances, he’s quite reliable and decently fast.
Well, with Trinity-style events, most everyone uses fans – there’s only a small bonus for using compressed water or whatnot. The contest is more focused on the navigation involved than on the actual fire fighting itself. Issy, being a walker, has a tough time staying inside that 12"x12" box already…
Wow, how impressive. Your arbotiX controller looks very interesting, too. I just building an Sanguino compatible controller on perfboard for a robot project.
As I see, you manged to control the Dynamixel AX-12 servos directly without a CM-5 controller. Thats is really great. Me too, I would like to play around with these servos without the CM-5 controller. So it’s good to know to have a working library.
Do you have any problems with the AX-12 running at 11.4V? The specs says 7-10V.
