get an bright IR led and an IR transmitter and a 555 timer and build an IR beacon that you can attach to your belt. Equpit TOBI with an IR receiver on a pan and tilt head and program it to lock in on the modulated IR signal from the beacon. That with the blob tracker should make TOBI lock onto the beacon AND the blob it is attached to. Use the Pings to keep a respectable distance.
Nice job by the way. Have you carried anything heavier than 30 pounds yet? are you going to the propepeller event in ohio this month?
Yes I want to add an IR beacon system. TOBI has carried a 55 lb network printer. TOBI’s big brother can carry around 300 lbs. I went to the West Coast Propeller event and I can’t afford to go to the one in Ohio.
I’m assuming you are using wheelchair motors for the big brother version? I have 4 of those laying around. Thinking about using two for a balancing robot. What are you using for a speed cotroller for the bigger motors? I have a roboteQ laying around. I know it can do the job. I used to have an old vantec around but seem to have misplaced it.
Wow 55 pound payload, above and beyond the bot itself. Impressive, most impressive! You got to do a blog about it.
I’ve built a bot around the parallax motors and a crustcrawler nomad platform. Nothing special but it has 6 Pings and a 13000 mAh NiMh battery pack. You should check out 12Blocks, It’s a very interesting development system for propellers. I’m using it in my bot. It’s similar to MIT’s scratch in that that you drag blocks around on the screen and it produces, in this case, spin code that you can tweak or download directly into your propeller.
Oh yea, It also has a FitPC2 talking to the propeller wich a web cam and a laser rangefinder. Wifi built it. woot!
Yep, TOBI, made of cuttingboard material [the base], ABS plastic [the bed] and aluminum side walls all powered by motors from automotive electric windows, has out done himself. The real weak point is the caster. I am not willing to try larger loads.
“The Beast” is still in the conceptual stage. But I have a wheelchair that was stripped down and turned into an RC rig by adding servo’s move the joystick. I have everything including a second set of motors, another motor controller and another joystick rig. I have a Propeller board for it and some XBee’s to start the build. I am looking for a flatbed base to bolt to it. Something like this as a base. I saw someone at the Western Parallax Expo with wheelchair motors using HB-25’s to power them.
I have played with 12Blocks and I put it aside for now but I will dig into it when my wife builds her Propeller based robot. I may try it for “The Beast”. It looks cool. I am still trying to recover my budget. I use ViewPort and love it so 12Blocks should be a good product also. Hanno makes some good stuff.
Have you posted your robot? I can’t find it on LMR.
Yes, Just did, look fror a robot called bender, Just so everyone knows, TOBI was the inspiration for Bender, It was TOBI that got me interested in building robots again. All hail theGrue!!!
Just so you know, Bender has a little brother, BJ (Bender Jr) It is a Stingray from Parallax using the MSR1 board. There is now a hardware profile for using the MSR1 to drive the H-Bridges directly from 12Blocks. Not perfect yet but will be soon. Still need to add speed control, everything else is working. This makes it the first branded robot to be configurable within 12Blocks. There are others coming down the pipe but non are currently avaliable to the public. I have the files needed so if you are interested, I can send them to you. (two spin files(mid/low drivers) and an XML file)
I would love to have the files. Are you going to post them on your BJ page or do you want to PM me to send via email? Or are they posted already on Hanno’s site for 12Blocks?
In my BJ page, there is a zip file called stingray.zip. All you have to do is extract that folder to your 12blocks/hardware folder and select stingray from the device menu. This requires the newest version of 12blocks release a couple of weeks ago. Once that is installed, you should be able to figure out how the new hardware interface for 12blocks works. (if you’re interested)
It does feel good to have that done. My next few projects around TOBI that are slightly off topic, are the buildng of ramps for my front steps and door frame. TOBI needs to be carried over my front door and the porch steps right now. These projects will not be posted on his page but need to be built anyway.
I’m always impressed with “practical” robots. And you sure won that prize. Not to mention that this is probably one of the best robot project write-ups I’ve ever seen–Especially here on LMR.
Have you considered more onboard processing? You’ve accomplished a lot with Parallax microcontrollers, but your project seems to be a perfect test case for advanced room mapping. Just curious.
Thank you very much for your comment. My next version of TOBI IV will have more enhancements including more horsepower and a different interface. Right now I am working on my quadcopter video platform but I have most of my TOBI IV electronics. So far TOBI’s mission doesn’t require room mapping. I would like to experiment with advanced room mapping but I can’t justify the processing overhead considering TOBI’s mission can be accomplished without it.
TOBI is amazing and your detailed explanation, pictures and walkthrough are extremely helpful! I bookmarked this page and will be referring to it for ideas and inspiration.
Curious to know how expensive this robot ended up being? I am seeing that you invested in some really nice parts. Last I checked the motors you got from Parallax were like $300.
Looking back now, what would you have done differently? Do you recommend these motors or do you suggest a cheaper alternative?
I was also a big fan of the BOE and BS2 when they first came out but moved to the Arduino platform recently. I see in your notes above that you ran into some road blocks with the propeller talking to the motor controllers. Was that a limitation of the propeller board or something else?
Thanks for your comment. Sorry for not replying sooner. Sometimes life gets in the way of our fun…
Looking back, the first thing that I would have done differently was to fully embrace the Propeller and not wasted my money on the BS2 board or the BS2 based wireless kit. XBee’s are far better for wireless networking and communications. Another thing is a stronger caster than the Parallax one. I broke one carying a printer that was too heavy.
The road block about the Propeller controlling the motors was that the motors come with controller/encoders and you issue commands of how many ticks [half inches] you want them to travel. I just wanted them to continue running in the direction I told them to go at the speed that I want until I issue a stop command. It meant I had to send several ticks for them to get up to speed and when you issued a stop command, sometimes TOBI would overshoot where he thought he should have stopped and then back up to the imagined spot. Plus I had to create the Object myself since the OBEX did not have one to download for those controllers. It had one for the HB-25’s and one for controlling servo’s though. Those are the two that I ended up using to control the motors with. The motors surprised me with their strength and power. They were perfect for the job. I have a second set of the same motors for TOBI IV and the EDIE board to control them with. I also have purchased stronger casters for TOBI IV but I haven’t started to really work on him yet.
im not that good at smc soldering