Hi Robotshop forums.
I had an idea to build a humanoid robot using conventional computer parts. You know, RAM, a CPU, Power supply unit, a motherboard. I plan to program it. Have a strong 8 core processor and lots of RAM.
DO any of you think this is possible? I’m planning on programming a dynamic AI- with a body.
That’s essentially what Coroware and WhiteBox Robotics did. Normal computers are power hungry with 100 to 200W power supplies (drains a battery very quickly and weighs a lot), which is why you might consider a Mini iTx motherboard. Other than that, you’ll still need a motor controller and everything else that a normal mobile robot needs. The difference will be that instead of a microcontroller, you’d be using a full PC motherboard.
Mini itx is what I had in mind. To power it, I was looking at car batteries to power it, will that work? or any idea to power it at all?
Car batteries are fine, but lead acid is heavy, meaning your drive motors need to be more powerful. Perhaps the following tutorials will help:
robotshop.com/blog/en/robots … ke-a-robot
uhh Benson, 1 last thing, if I use the motherboard, how will it be powered? how did coroware and white-ox power theirs?
Normal battery; many mini ITX motherboards (and nano and pico ITX) only need one DC power supply. If you need several (12V, 5V etc) then that’s a bit harder to reproduce.
Some manufacturers offer a “splitter” of sorts which takes power from a single 12V battery and provides the normal power connectors for the board (so there are several voltage regulators within one unit).
