I’m planning to make a robot with some friends of mine. It happens that none of us has technical knowledge on this, so, I would appreciate if you could give us a helping hand
So, I’ve already made a list of the needed components. My question is: are these components compatible/connectable between them? And, considering that I haven’t got any tool/component already bought, do I need any other things to start the robot?
About the batteries, I plug both arduino board and the motor controller to the same 12v battery pack?
And, as far as I understood, these are the only pieces connecter to the batteries. Then, all the other are supplied by these two. Is this right?
And, finally, can you choose to me a not too expensive and easy to use soldering kit? I’ve never soldered before
By the way, all the pieces are connected with just those types of wires?
So, I plug the motor controller to the battery and then the arduino board to the motor controller?
And, finally, can you tell me any website/video/post/etc. showing or explaining wich colours I plug where? Because I really have no idea about how to plug things to each others and I couldn’t find anything helpful so far…
Ok, I think I’ll buy the components and then, before plugging the battery, I’ll post pictures of the connections setup here, to avoid black smokes and sparks in my house
Well, in the meantime, some other questions appeared
First of all, I couldn’t find any wheels for the motor you choosed (robotshop.com/eu/lyn-ghm-16.html). Could you post here some, please?
Then, still about the motors: which alternatives do I have if I want just 2 motors? Because, with just 2 wheels, the robot doen’t balance/equilibrate (don’t know what is the right word ) himself. Is there any cheap solution for this?
Now, just one other thing: If I want my robot to, for example, recognize my face (I look at him an he does something) or to compare an image from a camera to a pre-taken photo? For example, I want my robot to do something when he finds a ball wich looks like some other ball from a picture I gave him. Is this possible? Even if it needs the help of a computer… I just want to know if it is possible or not for a hobbyst like me Even if it’s not too accured…
Well, i think I already have all the necessary things for the starting robot. However, I’m still interested in seeing what I can do in a future phase
Let’s assume that, for example, instead of the EasyVR module, I used a computer to process all the speech stuff? This would be particularly amazing because, then, I would not be limited by the 36 EasyVR voice commands, wich is quite a few… I would then be able to make the robot process entire speeches with me. Word by word! Is this possible? Even if it needs programming language… Do you have any links for me to take a look? Or any specific equipment necessary? I just want to have a brief knowledge about it, so that I can see what is prabably waiting for me
Then, about the face/object recognition, do you have any links/books/tutorials about that? Of course, with a computer helping…
I have easyvr card. I connected this card to pc without anyproblem and I added my " SD 10 different commands "
with orginal program. my aim is to light on different 10 lambs with my voice commands.this is my highschool project.
I use pic 16f877 for communication and relay outs…
EasyVR gives A, B, C, D ,E serial datas with end of the sd command provment when I connected the computer…
But There is no any action even I say my sd commands true when I connected easyvr to my pic…
( All communication datas ok… 9600 baud and anothers also… )
perhaps I need better source code files for starting recognation.
Why my system do not agree my commands… Can you help me for source code.
I have so little time for finishing my project…
I only want to light on 10 different lamb with my voice. Can you be my guide.
I wait your answer soon…
thank for your caring about my mail…
thanks regards…
To control the motors, you also need DC motor controllers - the Arduino cannot provide enough current to operate them and if you tried, you’d blow the Arduino and perhaps even the power supply. Take a look at Lesson 5: Choosing a motor controller. We would suggest a dual DC motor controller in shield format for easy connection.
The motor you chose is 12V while the power supply (4xAA batteries) can only provide 6V. We suggest a 12V battery pack and powering the servo directly from the Arduino.
That should be ok - plug the 12V battery to the motor controller as opposed to the Arduino. The other option is to split the battery; part of it goes to the Arduino and the other part goes to the motor controller.
Correct. Since the servo is small, it can be connected directly to the Arduino’s digital pins.
Arduino - no solder required
Motor controller - no solder required
Voice shield - no solder required
Battery - depends on which you choose
Not really. If you choose the shield motor controller, you don’t need to split the power.
Headers are incredibly useful for connecting wires and other devices to standard female pins. The wire you have can be used for your first robot in place of headers, but you’ll need headers eventually.
A rechargeable battery pack is more expensive, but then again you don’t need to recharge 10 batteries at the same time with multiple chargers. Most small mobile robots last for about 2 hours, and then the batteries need to be recharged. We don’t carry and 2x5 AA battery holders.
You have three modules which are plug and play - the motor controller plus on top of the Arduino, and then the voice shield on top of that. The Arduino and the voice shield should draw power from the Vin pin on the motor controller.
What you are doing is custom… Red wire to V+, Black wire to GND. If you’re nervous about making connections to sensors etc., get the IO shield. You can also post a clear image of your setup / connections BEFORE you connect the battery.
The motor’s shaft diameter is 6mm; you cannot attach most wheels directly to a motor; you need a hub. For example, you can choose RB-Ban-153 (6mm bore with 0.5" hex mount, 0.4" wide) along with RB-Ban-91 (0.5" hex bore, 0.4" wide and 2 3/8" diameter).
There are many options for 6mm shaft -> hub -> wheel.
You have many motor options. Use the Drive Motor Sizing Tool to get an idea of the specifications for the motor. To balance, you can use one or two caster wheels (ball caster or swivel) - choose one that is the right height.
Yes and no. A small microcontroller would have a very hard time trying to figure out a “face”. The CMUcam can recognize simple black objects on a white background (contrast), but recognizing faces is very different. For this, you would need an actual computer onboard; we’d suggest you start simple.
Certainly, though you would need a microcontroller as well. The EasyVR module would “understand” what you said and send a serial command to the microcontroller. The microcontroller would read that command and follow a pre-programmed motion. For example, the DFRobotShop Rover: Speech Recognition Kit used the easyVR module and the sample code interpreted “forward” “left” “right” and “reverse”. It’s understood that if you don’t program the microcontroller, saying “forward”, even it’s properly understood by the voice recognition module, would not cause the robot to move.
Dictating text to a computer is not a trivial task but there are many software solutions available. However most of them are expensive commercial products. Dragon dictation by Nuance is a very popular solution.
You could also opt to use mobile devices to process the speech such as Android. See below a robot using the google speech-to-text engine to understand questions:
We cannot help you right your own code tough, but we thing that the code from this project will help you understand how to drive the speech recognition module.
Also, please note that it is possible that the commands are not understood all the time, you need to practice the way you say them in order for the module to understand you.
