Project X

Let's Make Robots Projects Showcase
1

Hi !

This is my first post on this forum, my name is Sven and I found this site thanks to Tyberius’s project - Johnny 5. (I simply googled pico itx running on batteries)

Anyways, I don’t know if this is the correct place to post this, if not someone can lock this thread and ill create a new one in the right place.

Basically I don’t have any hobbies whatsoever, and I started to think about creating a robot, the idea evolved into creating a robot that could be used in a kids hospital. I live in Brazil, and well, the hospitals here are horrible, and the kids are often having a rough time.

What I’d like to do is construct a robot that could be taken there a few times per week to lighten their day up.

The basic things I want it to have is a Pico ITX board, the ability to have the computer to run on either one or two notebook batteries (I was thinking of using the ones for the Asus EEEPC)

Object tracking, the ability to walk around itself in a logic way without hitting objects or just walking in circles, for example if I tell it to go to a certain place I’d like it to do that.

I am thinking of incorporation ALICE AI, together with HAL so I can call it and tell it to do stuff.

I’d like to be able to incorporate gadgets on its arms, like a flashlight and ask it to light up certain spots.

Now my question is: Should I go with a Johnny 5 and be a copycat, should I create a bi-ped myself or go with a rover?

Do you have any suggestions of what I could add as functions? What parts will I most certainly need?

I am even willing to pay someone 200 usd / month just to help me out with the construction / programming, the help could be given via msn or mail. If 200 is too little, just tell me and we can figure something out.

2

Hello!

Glad you liked my project. In my opinion you’d be solid with a rover or a J5, a humanoid is going to be quite a challenge to mount an onboard PC on due to the payload constraints. The johnny 5 is an excellent platform to build from, and certainly has enough space for adding additional gadgets. Few things to consider though-

Object tracking is no problem with something like roborealm, I’ve implemented it easily on my bot and am more than willing to share my code. Navigation via roborealm is a bit more difficult, you do have the ability to track wall-floor lines and such, but it could be a lot more easily accomplished using distance/collision sensors such as sonar or IR.

Navigation via video is possible, but you’re looking at getting into vSlam, which might be getting a bit deep for your first robotics project. Simply ‘telling it where to go’ falls under the same category, you’re looking at some pretty advanced navigation programs which might be a lot to bite off.

Alice and UltraHAL is pretty solid, takes some tweaking to get the voice recognition working well (Im still working on that myself) but overall is a very nice addition to the bot.

As far as additions go, with an onboard PC you’ve got a LOT of options. What did you have in mind?

Simply being able to remote control it via Remote Desktop Session, have it track colored objects, and talk might very well be enough to cheer kids up and ‘wow’ them… but it really depends on where you want to go with it.

Let me know if you have any more questions, I’m always willing to help.

3

Hi Tyberius !

Thank you for getting back to me, I’m so happy to receive an answer from you since I want to do something pretty similar. So then its either a rover or a J5, I prefer the J5, however, I fear that its too small to place lots of things on it, but maybe I’m wrong?

I’d like it be able to grab stuff, fetch, calculate the distance either via a laser or a sonic pinger, hmm what more, I have this idea of making a charge station and let the J5 go and charge itself, is it doable ?

What about controling the J5’s arms with Wiimotes? I know you can use the Wiimote as a joystick for pc games, it then outputs the movements as control-outputs for a joystick, is it possible to control the J5’s arms with a joystick? If yes, I can imagine its possible to control the arms with a Wiimote.

What about the Asus EEEPC’s battery, I’ve heard its very very lightweight and small, is there any place under the J5 ? (Beetween the tracks?) because thats one more thing that is bothering me about the J5, you mentioned you have to charge each hour right? Is there anyway of adding more batteries, or more powerful/long-lasting batteries to your rig?

The Asus EEEPC has a 6-cell battery that lasts 2.8-3.5 hours, and thats for running the notebook with the screen on, imagine without a screen then.

4 cell with 5200mAh (4.5 x 4 x 14cm), thats almost the same size as the Pico-itx board? Just four cm longer right?

Right now I only have a budget of 2500 USD, is that enough you think?

4

You would have a bit more room plopping the J5 torso onto the A4WD1 chassis instead of the tracked chassis. There are mounting holes for the base rotate so it’s a modular thing… Just an idea.

Just imagine J5 on top of the base instead of the L6.

5

I’ve thought about that, but it will be able to reach all the way down to the ground to fetch things? Actually that was my main idea, but I am afraid it wont reach down.

By the way, does Lynxmotion ship worldwide?

6

One of the biggest obstacles you’ll face in navigation on the J5 is the fact that implementing any sort of dead reckoning will be difficult, I’m not sure how accurately you could track distance traveled using encoders on those tracks… so you’d be looking at a more dynamic visual and range finding sensor based navigation. I’m not sure how feasible SLAM is without reliable dead reckoning… but then again I’m fairly novice on the subject. I just know basic theory and haven’t really dove into it yet in real world app.

I’d say controlling the arms via Wiimote is certainly a possibility. I’ve thought about that but sort of have my mind set on building a telemetry suit based on SES. It’s doable for sure though.

It will probably be easier for you to mount actual LiPo batteries in the base of him than trying to fit in the EEEPC’s battery pack. You only have about 2" of width in between the standoffs that support the base. I actually run out of servo battery power before my pico-itx’s battery runs out currently. Eventually I’ll replace all the NiMh batteries I’m using with 5000mAh LiPos, which will be lighter and provide more runtime. That said- I really have the base of my J5 crammed full, so theres not a ton of room down there after you factor in cabling, batteries, picoPSU and the motor controller. My pico-itx is actually mounted on the rear where the SSC-32 normally mounts in the stock version.

$2500 budget is within reason. The kit is roughly $1000, figure another $500-600 for the pico, ram, harddrive, wifi, picoPSU and that leaves you with almost another $1000 for batteries and any additional components you want to add. The biggest cost on my J5 was the redesigned arms and upgraded servos. I think I passed the $3500 mark a few months ago but havent added too much hardware wise since.

7

J5 cant reach the ground with the tread base either so its a non-issue as far as thats concerned. I believe as Jim put it, they’re more aesthetic than functional. That was why I redesigned the arms on mine so that they would be able to pick up an object from the ground. It can currently reach in front of itself and pick up a can of soda or a bottle of beer using two hands.

You’re looking at a good amount more to upgrade the arms though, depending on how you do it. The 645s arent enough to support the additional modifications I added, and I had to go with 5990TGs.

Jim’s suggestion of using the 4WD base is a great one though, I really had to cram to get the pico-itx and all of its supporting components to fit in the base.

8

Yes we do. We also have a large distribution chain. We use UPS which has great tracking ability, but it a little more expensive than other methods.

The Rover method also allows the addition of more decks to provide even more room for storing stuff.

9

Do you have any log on the parts you needed in order two make the arms-upgrade? I’d be happy to pay you if you could just teach me the basics, that is how make a pico-itx run on a battery, how to make the arms upgrade and well, thats about it. I’d really be more then happy to pay 200-300 usd / month to have a personal tutor.

My idea is to ultimately incorporate a Neural Impulse Actuator to control the robot, OCZ is planning to release one later this year and it will only cost around 300 usd.

Both because its cool but also because there are some paralyzed kids, and that would help a lot.

I’ll have to think of what I’ll do, and first I should maybe contact Lynxmotion and see if they even can ship it out to me, although that would be a smart thing to do because I’ve got previous projects covered up by Brazilian press, and I’d be more then happy to tell where I bought all the parts from, and besides, it says Lynxmotion on practically all the robots parts right?

10

Sigh… I thought I taught you to use your powers for good, not evil. :open_mouth:

11

If you were considering the Eee PC’s battery, why not just consider an Eee PC?

That way you don’t have to protect a pico itx from fingers, and you can give the robot an emotive face :stuck_out_tongue:

12

I have no problem at all helping you out with this project, by all means consider me an open book, but I would just as soon not accept any monetary compensation for it. I don’t mind helping for free, especially on something with such excellent intentions :wink:

As far as getting a pico-itx to run on battery, that part is extremely simple. Check out the PicoPSU it accepts a wide range of DC input, so you’re basically looking at attaching a battery to the DC input and plugging the PicoPSU into the pico-itx, and you’re good to go.

The arms I can provide full details on, a parts list will take me a bit to double check everything, but I’m sure I can put together one based on my order history on Lynxmotion’s site.

The second page of my image gallery has some good shots of the arms as I was building them as well:

forums.trossenrobotics.com/galle … 492&page=2

13

Hehe :slight_smile: thing is, it costs much more then a itx, its more heavy and its more big…but about the fingers - you are right, however I was not going to leave the itx out like that without a case.

But if use a rover, why not. Ill have to think about it.

Can the 4WD1 be equipped with tracks? Does it move fast?

14

Would be hard to mount it as a head on a J5, and no way you could fit one in the tritrack base of a J5, so he’d be looking at using the 4WD base. Pretty sure someone else used the 4WD base with a EEEPC though with great success.

15

If you go the 4WD base route, and still want to go with the pico-itx, check out the Artigo setup. It’s essentially a nice compact enclosure combo for the Pico-ITX. They werent available for purchase when I added my pico-itx, and I wouldnt have had room in the tritrack base anyway.

16

Thanks for your help Tyberius & Robot Dude, now I just need to think about if I will use a 4WD1 or the J5 kit, and I have some other issues regarding ordering that need to be sorted out first.

17

Not really. They’re a completely different animal and use a completely different mounting arrangement. All of the kits have specs but you have to scroll to the bottom of the product page. :wink:

Overall Length: 11.00"
Overall Width: 12.50"
Overall Height: 4.75"
Chassis Length: 8.75"
Chassis Width: 7.00"
Chassis Height: 3.50"
Ground Clearance: 1.63"
Weight: 4lbs 6 oz.
Speed: 36" per second

18

You’ll be hard pressed to fit the Artigo on the back of the J5…

http://www.huv.com/Artigo-J5-small.jpg

huv.com/Artigo-J5.jpg

  • Jon
19

thats a dusty J-five…and you beat me to that answere too!

20

This is a great project! Especially since you want it to cheer up the kids! That’s grand!

I just built my own tri-track base for my robot NINA, using the lynxmotion 3"inch tracks, sprockets, windshield wiper motors and hubs. The chassis was done from aluminum angle stock, flat stock, and sheet metal. I built my own because I wanted my robot to be bigger and more level to human height so no one would have to bend down to talk to her.

I’m also working on an A.I. code for her human-socialization. I’m giving her a very sensitive personality. Right now she can talk to me about a limited number of things, like dinosaurs or Disneyland, or even whom she’d like to marry someday (other robots 8) )

While her personality is progressing, she’s about half-way built physically. I’m anxious to see how well she performs.

Keep up the good work! I hope this project gets off the ground. What I would give to see a robot lightening up a sick-kid’s day! :smiley:

White Crow