Battery box makes some progress!
I laser cut the acrylic plates to make the battery box a little deeper. It fixed several design issues by doing this. I can plug into all three drives now and make program changes without opening the box. The receiver hanging by the wires is temporary. I’ve ordered an EZ-B controller and the drives are 18/7 Pololu. The controller will let me control the robot from my iPad.
Robot is just about done. A Ping sensor and BS2 make up the electronics in the head. There’s a mini-usb plug on the side of the head to allow digital access to the BS2. I’ve added a Text to Speech board and now the robot powers up, lifts it’s head and announces it’s name. If someone gets to close, the female robot voice says “you’re getting to close”. If someone gets really close, < 3 inches the robot announces “you’re in my personal space” and lowers it’s head back down between the tracks. I have a short video I will post as soon as I figure out how to.
The side of the robot head has a space milled out for the speaker and the side of the StampDuino board I chose to use.
Next I’ll add some LEDs in the holes right under the Ping. I’m thinking of using an LM3915 bar graph chip to make the leds flash like the robot is talking as the text is played.
Nicely done. What is the total weight?
Wow! I love the mechanical work, very pro. Great design.
Would love to see a video of it one day! 8)
Must be one of the best track projects I’ve seen so far.
I added a sub plate to connect the two track halves together. I used a Hammond die cast box as the body. The box is just over 10x10 and 4" high so there’s lots of room for electronics inside. The servo arm was copied from a T-Hex leg and will have a gripper added when the UPS guy brings it. I purchased 7 HS-7950TH (ouch!) 400 + oz in servos so the arm would have some strength. Notice the 42mm planetary motors? Ah overkill!
I’ve already got the circuit working which drives the two tracks via a joystick through Xbees. The circuit also scans the Ping and reports obstacles in front of the robot back to my computer running Stamp Plot. There’s a compass that reports the bot direction back to my computer as well. I wish I could take credit for the circuit but I can’t. I copied it from another website. Now I have to figure out how to send the data for the arm positioning over the Xbees.
The last picture shows the new bot next to one I built for this purpose before I decided to build the 3" tracks. The 3" tracks are really nice.
More to come!
Who would have thought using a large pre-made box would look this good 
This project is just about done. The bot drives around under it’s own power now. I made the controller loosely copying one I’d seen here. Using Xbee’s, the controller and robot talk back and forth exchanging compass data, ping data and drive data. The small box on top is mounted onto a HS-7950TH fitted into servo blocks. There’s a high rez low light black and white camera along with a 5.8ghz transmitter handling the video duties. I can pan the head back and forth and get ping distances to objects next to the bot as well as in front. The motors are IG42 planetary and way overkill, just the way I like it. Pololu simple motor controllers (24v23) which are programmable and work great. 2-12v Nimh 4500mah batteries power the bot.
There’s still an open stick on the controller for future mods. The 4 line LCD display gives ping distance info as well as compass info. I ran into some problems with too many variables in my program so the previously shown robotic arm will get saved for another project.
Am I the only one thinking it needs arms? (Wall-e reference)
It’s an HD2 base from SuperDroids:
robotshop.com/superdroid-hd2 … amera.html
robotshop.com/superdroid-hd2 … -tilt.html
I believe mine might be an HD1.
Not sure what I’m going to do with it yet, but it looks awfully cool sitting in the shop. Got some Victor 883s for it as well. It has 4 IG52 motors but I’m unsure of the ratio. An airsoft gun under remote control mounted on top would be fun…
Is this a new design of your own? Something that could be machined by others?
Are the tracks readily available? How about the drive sprockets and idlers; or can they be machined as well?
They look quite nice. Well Done!
Alan KM6VV
The tracks are by Lego as are the sprockets. I had to drill out the center of the sprockets and machine arbors to work with the 3mm shafts on the motors. I’m working on my own sprockets today. The lego sprockets are difficult to use with the ball bearings in the side plates. I’ll snap a picture when I get a set machined.
The side plates I drew up in CAD and sent them to the Tormach for machining. They are .25 T6061 aluminum. I machined a pocket in each side plate to cut down on the weight.
Yes, I’d like to see some more pix. You say Lego tracks and sprockets? I suppose I could mill the sprockets easily enough. Just thinking at this time.
Alan KM6VV
Here’s a picture of the inner workings of each track module.
I had to use the original Lego sprocket/wheel in the drive position. I changed to two Delrin wheels in the two idler positions. The idlers are 1.200 diameter with .1875 holes drilled through. I used steel pins as axles riding on .1875 x .3125 bearings. The drive wheel has been bored to .3125, then I turned a brass arbor for a press fit into the drive bore. I knurled the arbor for a good fit into the bore. The arbor has been drilled to 3mm to fit the motor shaft. I changed out the motors on this particular bot to low cost 6v 60 RPM units as a prototype for future units that cost less to build. They seem to work as good as the more expensive Faulhaber motors I used in the twin bot.
The whole idea was to keep the bot very low so it can drive under things easily. Right now I’m trying to find a motor controller that has a small foot print and uses an RC signal. I’ve used the DRV8833 dual motor driver with great success in the past. The down side is it does tie up 4 I/O lines vs 2 for the RC format. I plan to use ServoPals with the RC signal so the Basic Stamp can “set and forget” the drive command until it needs changing. This is a great way to keep the bot rolling while the Stamp does other things. I’ve also bought one of those cheap spy cameras to mount to the front of the bot. I’ll snap more pictures as the build progresses. I plan to remote control the bot with an Xbee.
The track plates are just about beyond the prototype stage. As you can see in the picture, I forgot to make a finish pass on the main pocket. I will program a finish pass for the next batch I make. The aluminum is basic 6061 and I can cut 4 pieces out of one piece of .25 4"x12". Two holes are bored for the bearings and one for the motor. There’s also a screw pattern on the inside plate for the motor.
The main plate is Mic-6 and has had a pocket cut to keep the weight down. I also programmed the mount holes for the BS carrier board.
I just noticed from the pictures the twin still has the Lego axles, those will change when I make Delrin wheels for this bot as well.
Good looking machining!
Starts to remind me of the Surveyor robot, not really available any more.
surveyor.com/
I have the blackfin camera from it. Never got to ordering the 'bot.
Try a RoboClaw controller, it might fit.
I have a set of 4 small motors I’m itching to try. 6mm shafts (73 x 34 mm body) geared 20:1.
If you’re doing CNC, then I’ll bet you have some drawings. I’d love to see some simple dimensional drawings of the 'bot. width between tracks, Center-to-center of sprockets, etc. You use four track plates?
A URL to the tracks and sprockets if you had some time would be nice.
Thanks,
Alan KM6VV
Very nice!