Figured I'd show off my latest robotics project, this is a Robotic Paintball Gun Sentry. It's using a pair of RX-64 Dynamixels for the pan/tilt, with some major modifications to the default base platform. The entire base was designed in Autodesk Inventor and cut from 1/4" Black ABS on a lasercutter CNC. Onboard brains is an ArbotiX Robocontroller, which is programmed in the Arduino IDE. It uses a relay hooked up to a digital output to 'trip' the electronic firing control board that I yanked out of the paintball gun. Currently it's remote controlled using an ArbotiX Commander handheld controller and a pair of Xbee wireless radios, but a camera has been added and am working on a fully autonomous mode (which will also include an onboard laptop).
Very nice – the workmanship looks top-notch. All it’s missing is a sensor to tell it when it has been disabled (although that might not make much of a difference during play, as it might be easier to shoot the operator).
The PDE file (the Arduino code) would be interesting to me, if you’re willing to show it.
Thanks! I actually have such a sensor and have used one mounted on a similar (smaller) airsoft turret. Hit the target sensor and it disabled the turret for X seconds.
Code is available here, though note that it uses some custom libraries (all available for download from Vanadium Labs’ site)
The perfect match for this machine gun will be the camera you are going to install and a recognition software running on a laptop to detect movement and face recognition when the objetives are calm and quiet. But please, shoot low!
Actually, I have an RX-64 based Hexapod in the works that’ll be about 1m in diameter. That should carry the paintball gun no problem (and I intend to do exactly that).
nice project i am looking to make my own and this is a great help! how many pounds does that servo bracket hold? does a standard size servo work in the pan/tilt? Also i really like the design and the metal or whatever the base is made out of.
Love this project. You might want to try a thermal array sensor, the 16x4 variety. Even though each pixel is about 4 degrees or so, I managed to track small animals well enough to target them with lasers even while moving. You could probably combine the data from a camera and a thermal array to get even better results.
What an interesting project. The whole structure of paintball robot is perfect. I hope you will be able to achieve your targets within time. Remote controlled robot is good and surely it will be more fascinating when a camera is added. Please share with us more when you are done with the project.
How heavy is the unit? Is it easy to move and relocate during a match? That would be ideal since I’m sure players would find a way to warn other players about it after being hit.
