I’ve made some real progress lately on my rover and I’m hoping to get some feedback/insight/criticism from some of you guys.
The bot is based on a 4WD2 (that has since been made not to articulate due to space contraints) with 12V motors powered by a 5500mAh 12V NIMH pack. I’m using the MAKE Controller for the brain and have gone a bit different route for controlling this little fella.
The MAKE Controller can recieve/send via USB or ethernet. I’m using ethernet because I hooked up a Logitech Play Link ethernet bridge and run all the logic/remote control/data processing on my laptop.
I have a Sharp IR ranger, a Maxbotix EZ-1 Ultrasonic Ranger for doing their usual duties such as object avoidance, etc. The turret sweeps 180 degrees and send back (via ethernet) the range from both units and the turret angle, which is mapped on the laptop. I’ve also added a parallax GPS unit that connects vai the serial port and my next task is to start getting this info geographically correct, navigate to a waypoint and avoiding obstacles.
The bot can also be controlled from any gamepad connected to my laptop and will switch from autonomous to remote control on the fly.
Can anyone recommend a vision system? I’m thinking about using Roborealm since I can incorporate their API into my current programming project and use a webcam.
This whole thing was coded in Visual C# Express. I’ll post pictures ASAP!
~Patrick
