SES Heads?

Help & Support Robot Parts
1

You have a great selection of SES parts, including chassis or bodies.

You’re a little light in the ‘head’ department though.

The old CMUCam turret head was great, could it be somehow resurrected? A few variants for inline vs round hexes, versions for bipeds, etc. Hell, its only sheet metal.

Maybe even a lightweight plastic - save weight, and electrically and magnetically isolate the head. Good for the compass.
The microcontrollers, circuitry, power, etc. will still be body-mounted, but a nice variable platform for sensors can go a long way.

Besides, it gives users a point of visual focus.

2

I thought the same thing and decided to make one for my biped. The head is what we humans relate to. I created the head out of aluminum that will accept a variety of sensors; examples include a variety of vision devices such as small cameras, sonar and IR. The underside can be fitted with a speaker for speech, and the side of the head can be fitted with any 10mm microphone element.

Two pictures of the design are on my personal web page.

sites.google.com/site/mybotmachines/home

3

Wow. its’ beautiful, but … massive? Billet work?

Any head is better than no head at all.

If you’re familiar with the CMUCam turret (not available here) I think you’ll agree it fits the SES style well. I’m really just thinking of maybe 4 mix 'n match SES style pieces, with mounting holes in popular places. Enough variety for flexibility, and standardized enough to fit well.

And while we’re at it… how about stocking plexiglass hemisphere domes, for covering the head like Robby the robot.

And more lasers!

4

massive? If you mean in size, not at all if you mean in weight, it only weighs about the same as two stard size servos. It does require several steps to machine but not to bad and yes it is a solid billet piece of aluminum.

5

That head is a nice piece of work, I like it!

6

Thanks! I appreciate that. I have 4 other design variations that I plan to make in the future.

7

I’m not sure what you mean by resurrecting the CMU cam turret. I don’t remember ever having one. We are working on some projects that use the CMUcam though. So I’m open to ideas. Drawings?

8

He is talking about the Turret that was designed for the CMUcam2 and sold by Acroname. Now out of production.

Mark

9

Here is a pic of the turret he was talking about:
MainTabbedpageCMUcam2Plus.jpg

10

Interesting. I should do something like that. We’ll see…

11

The unit in that picture looks a little large, I think you can make it around 50% more compact unless the board is that large.

12

I never liked that turret for that reason! I’m sure we can coax Jim into doing something much nicer for us!
:smiley: Mark

13

Agreed it’s really too big.

14

I have an earlier model (no pix right now) of the CMUCam head, I kind of like the size. It has room for extra sensors as well as the cam unit.
I can mount 3 Sharp IRs (L45, Ahead, R45), 3 SRF04s, and have room for Laser eyes, a speaker… you get the idea. The self-contained Tilt is just a bonus. Combined with around 140 degree of Pan, and you can have 360 coverage.

Anyway, while that ‘Art-Deco’ head IS beautiful, to me it would mean ya now have to re-do the whole SES series, to match. Hey, Art Deco is TOPS, but without a classy body to match it would look overdone. SES is classy, but more in a functional-industrial kind of way.

Any mobile bot that you are going to have interact with people… should have a ‘head’. We humans are hard-wired (pun intended) to react to things with HEADS.

Any lasers coming out of its’ eyes is just another plus.

(Now get to work on making Art-Deco SES to go with that bitchin head!)