Multi-Functional Astromech Droid Based on R2-D2

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

E4-B4:

Astromech Droid for the Home,

 

With the new Star Wars movie being released, I recently watched the other movies which I'm a huge fan of. While watching them, they gave me the inspiration to build my own Astromech droid which is something I always wanted to do. So I figured I would post it here to hopefully give someone the inspiration to build their own, or just so you can have a read and look at some photos and videos.

 

There are so many great scale replica Astromech builds around that people have done, but I want to stay away from doing an exact prop replica build, and do a custom scratch build with unique paint job along with useful utility tools and sensor array, while still keeping with the overall original design. E4 was designed and built to be practical, not just a show piece. So what's with the name E4-B4 (Eiifor-Befour)? Well its kinda based on the EZ-B 4 robot controller from EZ-Robot which is at the heart of this little droid, and is powered with his own on-board tablet PC running Windows 8.1 which is located where the "burtt acoustic signaler" and system ventilation vents on R2-D2's chest area is found. E4-B4 is mainly built using MDF with a HIPS (high impact polystyrene) skin, and movement is powered by 12v 30 watt gearbox/motors for the drive system. In place of the "Optical Holographic Projector" in R2's head, is a pico portable projector which extends or mirrors the tablets display, so no holograms... yet. There is much more that he is capable of, so here is a more detailed list of E4-B4's functions...

 

E4-B4 features.

The Dome.

  • Retractable smoke and gas detector,
  • Retractable alcohol sensor (for mobile breath tests),
  • Retractable 6x LED spotlight,
  • Two 8x8 RGB LED light panels (logic display that are programmable to make patterns and digits) connected via i2c protocol (to be fitted when they become available),
  • 16x2 LCD display connected via i2c protocol showing live time, date, battery voltage and CPU temperature updates, and any custom messages,
  • Miroir MP60 pico projector with servo tilt mechanism to adjust projected viewing height, and connected via HDMI to the tablet PC,
  • RGB LED board (only using red and blue that alternate between colours),
  • Two sound sensors connected via ADC (analogue to digital conversion),
  • Servo controlled electroluminescent (EL) dome edge lighting,
  • Sound reactive LED for speech (or should I say bleeps & bloops),
  • 640x480 resolution video camera that streams live video at 20fps with no latency used for facial, object, colour, and symbol recognition with tracking ability. It can also record video and take still photos,
  • And a 180 degree heavy duty servo for left and right head movement. I sacrificed the full 360 degree rotation for 180 to have the servo linked up to the camera and sound sensors for position tracking.

The Body.

  • Retractable electronics platform for easy maintenance,
  • Retractable horizontal servo claw with ultrasonic distance sensor (mainly designed to hold a can of beer) with servo flap cover,
  • Retractable vertical manipulator arm and servo claw with servo flap cover,
  • Retractable multi-tool utility with servo flap cover,
  • Retractable blow torch utility with servo flap cover,
  • Retractable photosensitive diode sensor (reacts to different ambient light situations) with servo flap cover,
  • Retractable 3x USB and memory card hub (connected to tablet PC) with servo flap cover,
  • Passive infrared (PIR) sensor,
  • Bluetooth/AUX amplified speaker,
  • Height adjustable water jet and pump with servo flap cover,
  • Acer W3 tablet PC with Windows 8.1,
  • And removable front skin panel with magnetic fasteners.
  • Legs and feet.
  • Retractable rocket boosters with flickering LED for booster flames,
  • Retractable rocket booster leg covers,
  • LED illuminated inner leg panels,
  • LED under foot lighting,
  • Ultrasonic distance sensors for object detection and avoidance which is tied in with autonomous and user controlled drive movement.
  • DSR (Distance Speech Recognition) microphone,
  • And two 12v 30 watt DC motors with gearbox's.

The Electronics.

  • An EZ-B v4 WiFi robot controller,
  • SSC-32 servo control board,
  • 15 amp DC motor controller and H-bridge,
  • 10x 5 volt 3 amp UBEC voltage regulators,
  • 4x dropdown Buck converters,
  • 6x 5v brick relays,
  • 12 volt remote control board for 7.4v system and 12v DC motor batteries (for remote power On and Off),
  • And 5000mAh 7.2v and 12v NiMh battery packs. (I may change the 12v NiMh to a much higher mAh LiPo or SLA battery soon).

Other Functions.

  • Runs on the EZ-Robot EZ-Builder for PC software,
  • Autonomous abilities (some are already online, but many others are still in development such as 3D room mapping),
  • Speech recognition for most of the controls (too many to list), drive movement and dynamic conversation,
  • Sound reactive LED which illuminate when sound files are played,
  • Custom programmed AIML chatbot brain for dynamic 2 way conversation, ("how does that work with an Astromech Droid" you may ask... read on).
  • On screen text to speech "droid" translator for when E4-B4 speaks (when E4 speaks with his bleeps and bloops, the translator displays what is said in English large font text, much like how R2-D2 talks to Luke in his X-wing fighter with the cockpit translator),
  • Custom made mobile app for smartphone control via WiFi or cellular connection (can be controlled or get video feed from almost anywhere in the world),
  • Video and music player,
  • Gets latest news, weather and traffic reports via RSS feeds which is displayed using the droid translator,
  • Random personality generator,
  • Hands free video calling
  • Uses R2-D2 sound files (which I love, but may make my own one day), and custom made sound effects,
  • Home monitor and security mode which uses E4's camera, sensors, and alarm sound files if needed,
  • Reminder notifications for humans or for autonomous procedures such as the security mode mentioned above.

There are some other additions that need to be completed, such as replacing the colourful piece of cardboard in the dome and installing two 8x8 RGB LED arrays, to make a charging alcove, and to add a third wireless recognition camera for automated seek/dock/charge abilities. E4-B4 was designed and made to be useful and functional around the home, and not just a showcase robot (and the fact I've always wanted my own Astromech droid, and wanted it to be unique). Anyway, there are a few videos for you to watch, a 118 day build diary that can be found on the "Project Showcase" section of EZ-Robot.com, and a "How it was made" on Instructables.com. Thanks for reading, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on my first attempt at building an Astromech Droid.

Helps and entertains around the home

  • Actuators / output devices: Servos, 2x DC motors
  • Control method: Semi-autonomous, WiFi, Cellular
  • CPU: 120MHz ARM 32-bit Cortex-M3
  • Operating system: Windows, Android, iOS
  • Power source: 7.2V NiMH, 12V NiMh
  • Programming language: EZ-Builder and EZ-Script
  • Sensors / input devices: Flammable Gas & Smoke Sensor MQ-2, Pasive infrared sensor, Alcohol sensor
  • Target environment: Indoors is best
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/multi-functional-astromech-droid-based-on-r2-d2
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Sweet Jaysus

This is phenomenal. This is the exact thing I have longed to make for a very, very long time.

I need to build this mother lover!

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Thanks Sweet Jaysus.

You really gotta build one for yourself. You won’t regret it.

4

Sausage fingers!

I would love to build one, but unfortunately I dont have the the skills to make something like this. I would love to do the electronics and software if I can find someone to build it ha ha

5

Great piece of work.

This is a really great piece of work…so many moving parts and different systems to integrate.  I am using the SSC-32u board now and have borrowed arms from EZ-Robot.  I found the image recognition features you showed in one of the videos intriguing…is that a feature of the EZ software?

Very impressive, not many people have the commitment to see it through like you did.  I would love to build one if R2 had used  spoken words instead of beeps…all my bots are verbal.  A voice coming from a can could be creepy though.  By the way, I love the projection capability.

Do you plan on continuing to work on the software or do you have a new project in the works?

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Hi mtriplett.

Thanks for you comments, and really pleased you like my first attempt at an Astormech droid build. It was a challenge, but well worth it in the end. Yeah, the SSC-32U as a great and reliable bit of kit and very pleased I used one. In regards to speech, that was something I played around with, and tried it with a Cepstral speech synthesis voice with a robotic effect, but it just didn’t suit the little guy. It’s all about the bleeps and whistles with an Astromech, so the translator idea was the next best thing. Maybe a mixture of bleeps and speech could work.

About the camera control, yes the whole recognition package is in the EZ-Builder software. I did start using RoboRealm and used variables to pass the information back to EZ-Builder, but there was a recent EZ-Builder software update with improved recognition features, so I use that all of the time now . There’s lots of different settings so you can customise the cameras settings for individual robots and lighting conditions. All of the object, facial etc is down to the user to train the robot, but it’s fairly easy to do once you get the hang of it.

E4-B4’s current software project was recently re-written to make it more streamlined and efficient, and have added a few more features. Truth be told, I don’t think I’ll ever finish working on the software as I’ll always be adding or improving things such as his random personality generator and improving on speech recognition. The plan to make E4 as autonomous as possible will be a big job, so I’m getting through it one piece at a time learning as I go.

Anyway, thanks again you your kind words, and I hope I sufficiently answered your questions. :slight_smile: