This robot abandons the previous (all very similar designs) robots I have and tries something different, and it works well!!! The motivating influence is a ZBasic ZX24su running compiled, multitasking Basic. It is quite a change from the C/C++ used with the Arduino and a nice change of pace. (Please. I know some of you hate Basic, but I grew up on it, and for me it is like an old, comfortable set of shoes.) The two front wheels are actually gears with clear (oxygen machine) tubing epoxied to them. Works great! This bot has a unique "fish tail" motion when it turns that really attracts attention. And it still manages to turn nicely. I have plastic "junk parts" laying around and a bunch of them went into the structure of this bot. Waste not, want not! Five AA rechargeable cells hung underneath the robot provide nice long run times with the low power the processor and the L293 motor controller use. Forward, reverse, speed its all there. I uses switches on both main power and the motors so I can work with the bot with the motors disabled.
Roam the floor in a funky sort of way...
- Actuators / output devices: 2 DC geared motors
- Control method: autonomous
- CPU: zx24su
- Operating system: ZBasic
- Power source: 5 x AA Rechargeables
- Programming language: ZBasic, compiled, multitasking Basic
- Sensors / input devices: Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F IR sensor
- Target environment: indoor on smooth surfaces
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/thin-bot-unlike-any-other-robot-i-have-built
Maxhirez…
The “fishtailing” during turning was because those “special” wheels weren’t worth crap! (Live and learn.) Rubber beats plastic any day for turning and substituting a set of real wheels. Some “sacrificed” from another robot. I only have two sets of real wheels. Now it turns much more “boring” like any other bot turns.
I have a friend that has better ability to film a bot in motion (mine blurs so bad it is hard to make out the bot!). Someday…
Question: (anyone please respond!) Programming one of my bots involves a LOT of “tweeking” run times, turn times, delay times and so on. Is there any way to set up code (psudocode would be great) so the robot can “adjust” these paramaters itself (maybe this is an area for neural nets?) My bots have HUGE memory spaces available (128k to 512k depending on the controller used). Once these parameters are optimal my bots “navigate” nicely.
I can “imagine” a bot you place on the floor (or ground/grass) and it gets “stuck” a few times at first, but quickly learns and soon can “pilot” itself out of almost any situation. NASA bots can do it but I am no NASA scientist.
Update…
Notice the “standard” wheels and now there is an up-front microswitch that also triggers the “find a new route” routine.
Maxhirez, I will check that video out, thanks! I also agree with what you said and am wondering if a little, iexpensive GPS unit might go a long way in helping the robot out. Have to see if I can do that in ZBasic and then determine what to do with that data. Sounds like a LOT of fun to me! This version of ZBasic has been improved to include some OOP featurs so class structures are possible.
(I still love looking into neural-net design and if I am not right, a girl here did a really nice blog on that. I just can’t remember who are where to find it.) Of all the things I have lost, it is my memory I miss the most…
BTW: I also use PWM to control my bots motor speed using a L293 chip. That works well in ZBasic.
Found the neural-net girl.
She is here at: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/29591
Quite a brillant girl I would say. MANY brilliant people hang out at LMR. It makes this one of the best “bot” sites on the web!
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Nice bot. I am curious to see the fishtailing.
As for the tweaking; there is a nice (but long) video about closed loops, PID and other subjects, that explains many concepts that might help you to have te robot self-tweak the basic parameters. The more complex the behavior is harder to make the robot learn. You could read up about neural nets.
Sorry…
Great videos guys! Lots of really fascinating information. Now to just make use of some of it.
Sorry about the stopping of the “fishtailing”. It was caused by slick wheels and the good old wheels work just fine (and the turning is now more “boring”, but it sure works well.) Slick wheels do not a good robot make… I will NOT be putting those plastic tube wheels back on again!
Subsumption, neural-nets and so much else to try. Nobody ever said a really good autonomous robot was going to be easy to program…
Recomendations on a inexpensive, easy to program and use GPS unit???
Added some "personality"
Medicine cups work great for faces! I try to add a bit of “personality” to all my bots. After all, it is only human…
Emotional level system…
I now have a 3 color LED that indicates the “emotional level” of my bot. The level system is in decreasing number of points, the most points turns the green LED section on indicating it is “happy” and has not had to reverse. The next level down is blue indicating some displeasure with having to do some reversals. The last level is red or “angry” where the bot has done a LOT of reversing and isn’t happy at all. Of course it can’t remain angry and finally pops back up to the “happy” green level and the whole cycle starts again.
I really need to give mtriplett credit for getting me to think about this area of robotic science and while it doesn’t help the bots ability to make decisions, it does somehow seem to make the bot act a little more “human” (that being a good thing or not…)
I tried something similar this in the past, but this versions implementation is greatly improved and works as planned.
