it does have sound. I have a
it does have sound. I have a card on my pc which has the yellow-white-red slots (like the ones on tvs). I don’t know what software to use though (never used them).
Global Build Club
How exclusive is this club? I didn’t get the memo. Is it because my new deodorant isn’t working as well as teh old one?
I for one, welcome our new
I for one, welcome our new web robot conspirator, even as smelly as he is! How about it jklug80 ?!?
I was surprised when you
I was surprised when you didn’t reply in the previous “who wants to” post. Feel free to join in. We are still trying to nail down WHAT the project is before we get into the HOW to do it.
**brainstorm bot! **
we could build a bot to brainstorm
I do hope people are getting my british sense of humor and not just assuming im a mong.
Semicton…
Definitely ask Semicton about your webby stuff. He’s really into that kind of computer-web-robot interface kinda thing. 
Wassup?
So any thoughts? We got a camera idea, the wireless pinhole cam for cheap on Ebay. It looks like it can use a 9 volt battery, which could be derived in many ways. Is the camera to be on the robot or overhead observing the robot?
On recharging, if going with the 4 AA NiMh, a charger can be put together from the many charging chips available, or we could just buy one and rewire it to different terminals. Just thought, may need to make sure it can charge them in pack, in series, trather than individually, might require building a charger. Once built, a little IR beacon can be placed on it sinilar to what we’ve seen others working on here.
Any thoughts on object manipulation? Just a gripper out front? A grabber and lifter? Frits robot used 3 servos, one lift and 2 jaw. A bobcat type could use 1 or 2 servos.
For object detection, I’d thought of using something like this IR Prox kit. I’ve used one on a little sumo robot, and it worked ok, somewhat short range (6"-8" 15-20 cm). Basic idea is the PNA4602, taking several readings to qualify a “hit”. This sensor could also be used to look for the beacon on the charging device. If the robot is slow (possibly a good thing for a web controlled robot) a short range detector might be ok, and combining functions could be good. Might good to have 2 or 3 of these, for all around detection.
I guess we haven’t talked about the configuration of the robot. I’d be in favor of a skid steer type, like the bobcat (though not necessarily with tracks) to provide a stable base for the manipulator in whatever form it comes in. We could get 4 of the Solarbotics gearmotors, add some wheels, and something to attach it to. Pololu has some intersting motors, mounts and wheels, but they cost a little more.
I would think it would be
I would think it would be cooler and work better if it were mounted on the robot. That way you see what the robot sees and can move, stack or do whatever easier.
I would like to make a charger from scratch since we have several posts here asking how to do it. We could kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Plus it is more of a challenge.
For manipulation it would be easier to make a claw or gripper that moves up and down and then use the robot for forward, backward, and side to side movement. Trying to get 4 or 6 axis movement would get costly and hard to do with servos or motors.
Skid steer is easiest and will probably work for our needs.
As a side note I will be offline starting tomorrow through early next week so keep up the ideas and hopefully we can assign tasks and get some building started in a week or two.
Grabbers and Wheels
I’m not sure skidsteer’s an appropriate system. I supose in one way it’s a track drive without the tracks, but it suffers from the same problem: it’s very difficult to tell how far it’s rotated and that constant changes depending on the surface. For slightly different reasons, a rack-and-pinion steering device might suffer the same problem.
I feel that the ony way to achieve any decent kind of positioning is to use the more traditional co-axially mounted motor pair with a third trailing (or leading) wheel such as a castor.
I like the grabber idea. Let’s be careful not to duplicate degrees of freedom which are already offered by the platform. That is to say we can minimise the number of servos by not allowing grabber to move left and right, since the robot can already do this
…on the other hand, if we do opt for skidsteer, it might be prudent to allow a grabber to move left and right as skidsteer might be quite difficult to position.
Just saw I missed the link
Just saw I missed the link for that little IR Prox, thought you might like it BOA. Uses a 12C508, I’ve used a couple, It works pretty good, but is short range. Think Dennis got it from a DPRG tutorial.
On the skid steer, do we really need positioning? I mean, folks will be driving it, it’s not like it will have to get to a particular point by itself. Except in charging, but I think a skid steer could swivel it’s way in to dock as a differential drive could. I was looking at the skid steer (in either dual wheels or tracks) as providing greater stability to whatever gripper lifter is on front.
Frits’ grabber has a wide reach that could make up for some inconsistancies in placement, plus it just makes me laugh whenever watching the video.
For the camera, to power it from a 4 AA pack, thought the Pololu Boost regulator would work nicely. Still thinking on a charger for the bot, was thinking of working with a Maxim MAX8725, but haven’t looked through parts yet.
Hey, just saw a link to a
Hey, just saw a link to a similar camera, cheaper, but may not be so after shipping, so maybe it’s just a push. :
Friction burnz
It would need to be quite positionable forgrabbing stuff. I suppose if the wheels are nice and hard, it can be positioned quite readily. Trouble with hard wheels is the lack of friction, though.
You reckon a skidsteer would be as steerable as a differntial drive? Might be worth a shot, I suppose.
The skids might be ok,
The skids might be ok, haven’t really talked about the arena surface, could wind up being someones linoleum floor. And whatever is being picked up is unknown too. jklug mentioned stacking stuff, which a diff drive might be better for, and there has also been throwing stuff talkedabout,which wouldn’t matter on the drive system.
What do you thinik of the little IR-Prox? Think it can be hacked into double duty, doing both obstacle avoidance and picking up charger beacon signals to home in to?
what about?
what about a robot that has to find its way out of a maze? that way u could have multipul players racing each other to get out of the maze. sorry about my spelling
Sounds like a good idea but
Sounds like a good idea but it would require multiple cameras and a normal household connection wouldnt have the extra bandwidth to keep 2 cameras running at a speed fast enough for real time movement for a time based trial.
hmmm yeah
yeh i didnt think it through very well did i?