Quab

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

Update 3/27: Per request, I've attached the code I used for this guy.

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This is my next little object-avoider, made from spare parts from around the house. I actually made this guy a while ago, but I wanted to try to program a fun personality for it. Since that never happened, I'll just post it and move on.

Parts: Since the bot is powered by low-torque pager motors (yes, with pepsi caps for wheels), the body needed to be lightweight. So i made it out of some old CD cases. I accidentally stepped on the plastic partway through the process, so I ended up with lots of little plastic parts. no biggie; now the shell is just made from lots of little parts. The buck-teeth are made from an outlet cover.

This project also used my first robot part ever: my picaxe project board. While creating my own "Start Here F-type" robot, I accidentally soldered the A/B motor ports into oblivion. So as you can see, I bypassed them, and soldered pins directly to the motor driver chip outs. the rest of the chip is plugged into the board.

Code: I haven't had much success with servos, so I wanted to make an object avoider that didn't use one. To avoid getting snagged on the "blind spots"to either side of the sonar sensor, I made it wiggle from side to side as it moves forward. (I noticed that crabs, who can't move their heads, do the same thing). The goal was to make the bumper switches unnecessary.

Instead of programming "turn left / turn right" subroutines, i made a single "turn" that either went left or right based on a "direction" bit variable. The main loop then includes an "inc direction" line that toggles which way to go. That way I only have to say "go forward for X, then turn" instead of "go forward for x, turn left, go forward for x, turn right".

QUAB also has a speaker that beep-bop-boops one of dozens of little sounds when he encounters objects, in an effort to give him some personality. But there was a lot of background noise in the movie, so you'll have to take my word for it.

The top of the shell is taken from the same scrapped toy that provided my other bot's housing.

Looks tough, doesn't it? The treads are extra Tamiya treads from the infamous gearbox.

I vant to avoid your object. blah!

my jimmy-rigged h-bridge (blue wires).

 

Object Avoidance

  • Actuators / output devices: speaker, 2 clipped gm10 pager motors with pepsi cap wheels
  • Control method: automomous
  • CPU: Picaxe 28x1
  • Power source: 3 AA Batteries
  • Sensors / input devices: SRF05 Ultra Sound, bumper switches
  • Target environment: indoor, very smooth surface
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/quab
2

I like the use of the safety
I like the use of the safety outlet cover for the front support. I like trying to use everyday items to solve problems instead of running to the store and buying something off the shelf.

3

Way cool, good compact design.
These are fun to see wandering around, all one unit, twitching about. Looks like fun.

4

Good observation on the

Good observation on the crabs. I’ll have to remember taht one. I also like the front view as he appears to be lop-sided - excellent character.

Mike

5

lopsided
yeah, i wish i could say that was on purpose. Almost all features of my robots happen as compensation for something going wrong. In this case, I needed small wheels to fit on a clipped pager motor. The Tamiya wheels were perfect, but they’re convex, so i wouldn’t be able to glue them. A pepsi cap, on the other hand … was supposed to be better.

6

thanks
hey thanks

7

You are developing a style,
You are developing a style, and I like it :smiley:

8

Looks good, moves great!
Looks good, moves great! Well done.

9

Hey, perhaps you could
Hey, perhaps you could insert a pearl between the 2 sticks at the front?

10

TWSS? Ok I’m done… I will

TWSS? Ok I’m done… I will admit I had the ZZ Top song in my head when I read the post.

I like the idea of reusing parts from around the house. Did your bumper switches have leads that long or did you add something? I got a couple with roller wheels on the end but they are much shorter.

11

switches
They came that long. HobbyEngineering.com.

12

I like the way it moves, and
I like the way it moves, and takes decisions very quickly!
Good job :wink:

13

Code

I’m new to Robots and I wanted to ask if you could send me the code for that robot?

I think this robot would be a good starter-robot.

Thank you.

14

minimalistcompactefficientraw

minimalist

compact

efficient

raw aestethic

 

this bot is what i LIKE

 

 

-i have rated it 5 star… why i can not see the stars over my post?

 

15

Chances are if he sent you
Chances are if he sent you the code you wouldnt get the robot to work. Im not calling you dumb its just we have 2-3 new people a week with the same post and since they have little experience they have no idea what the code does and can’t build a bot to match the code (doing it that way is difficult). Start small and work your way up. Use the START HERE link at the top of the page as a starter. We also have tutorials that will slowly introduce you to PICs and programming them.

16

Yes that’s right. But

Yes that’s right. But anyway, I wouldn’t just copy ‘n’ paste the code. I would experiment with coding too (to be honest, who would NOT do that?).

I suppose the code “tells” the motor what to do in what situation.

 

17

I like this little guy!

Very nice crab-like aesthetic! Sometimes I’m into clean designed-looking robots, other times the Junkbot style suits me - in any case - it is the building that matters!

 

Nice video BTW. Looks like Quab is pretty good at avoiding obstacles. Looks to me like Quab has lots of personality!!

18

I didn’t mean to be harsh
I didn’t mean to be harsh its just in my experience with learning a new language or learning a new PIC it is far easier to write and build code as you learn than it is to read and tear code apart to test.

19

Looks good, Great mover!
I really like the look of this little dude, gonna start saving my bottle tops ! Nice work.

20

hey man, Im failry new to

hey man, Im failry new to picaxe and was looking over your code here… why do you need a counter? (i.e. “Alpha”)