This is my first attempt at building a robot. I drew it up on paper and thought I was pretty smart for using CD's as a chassis. I hadn't looked up robot designs on the web, and imagine that... I wasn't the first to do it this way!
At any rate, I purchased and scrounged parts, and over Christmas 2011 my boy and I assembled it. It wasn't until this past weekend we programmed the Arduino and did a test run. He thinks it's pretty cool to build robots with Dad. Not bad for a 4 year old.
Ultrasonic and Tactile Sensors, line following
Control method: autonomous
Power source: 9V
Sensors / input devices: IR, ultrasonic, Bump Switches
Looks good! I used CDs for one of my bots as well, except I merely stuck everything together with tape, yours looks a lot more professional with the standoffs seperating the two decks. Can you give some more info about your bot and its sensors, program, etc.?
The servos are continuous from Solarbotics. I got the wheels from them as well. I’m running an Arduino Uno. I was going to use a PIC but got playing with the UNO and next I knew, I was doing a test run. I have the Solarbotics L298 motor driver to run the servos. I have an ultrasonic sensor for it. Not a Ping… I forget who it’s from. I have a couple IR sensors for line following, and some tactile switches for bump sensors. The picture is during initial assembly. While it is still clean, there are a few more components now.
I have found that I really enjoy programming the Arduino. Im still going to put the PIC in a robot as I have it almost complete in Assembly Language…
Unless the servos are sans their control boards, you should not need a motor drive to get them to move. Standard continuous rotation servos have only had, either the pot replaced with a pair of equal resistors with their paired leads connected to where the pot wiper was and the other two legs in the remaining two holes from the removed pot, or, the pot is left in and the gears are made to freely spin around the shaft of the pot. The servo at that point would still only need power and ground as all servos do and a signal line that can be driven straight from the microcontroller. The only reason a motor driver would be necessary would be if the control board was completely removed and then the servos are no longer servos, but, geared motors in a servo case.
Yep, looked at it last night. They are the GM4 from Solarbotics. I had them for some time for a BEAM project that never materialized. So yes, they are now gear motors, not servos. Also, I had built the motor driver for another project as well. Granted, it is not needed if I was running servos.
Nice bot! I built my first LetsMakeRobots bot (Leo) using three CDs, a Basic Stamp board, and a Ping sensor. I’m experimenting with the Aduino Uno now and planning my next project!
Sweet! Go for it. I didn’t do anything special to them, just marked and drilled holes. Some of the stand-offs I have are threaded on the one end and have a stud on the other. I’m considering another layer! I can screw another stand-off to each of the studs and have room for more stuff. We’ll see. Make sure you post yours! I’m anxious to get the Arduino mounted and get the sensors installed. I was a little dissapointed though… My dogs watched it run and just continued to chew their toys. They showed no interest at all. I figured the motion and the whine of the motors would freak them!
I have a Brutus Bot chassis built that I am going to run with an Arduino, along with a Ping sensor. I have a camera for it also. The pics from it will go straight to my computer, and i will use them with SSTV on my ham radio. Should be interesting.
