Airsoft Turret Project

Hi, this is my airsoft turret that i have been working on for a little bit now. When I first started this project, I wanted to make an object tracking turret using a web cam and RoboRealm. But when I saw OddBot's page on the IR compound eye I thought it would be an easier way of doing it and I could use the turret without having to keep my laptop around.

The original idea was to have the turret just scan side to side and track objects when they get to close while shootiong at them. But while I was waiting for the IR emitters and detectors to come, I decided I would add some other features like controlling it with a wii nunchuck and controlling it with a tv remote. so far I have added the  wii nunchuck and am working on the remote.

I do have the parts for the compound eye but i'm having trouble with figuring out a way to mount them. The problem is that I'm using an ultrasonic sensor to tell the distance of the object from the gun and I can't figure out how to mount the tracking sensor (compound eye) on the barrel without getting in the way of the ultrasonic sensor.

This is the turret when i just got finished making the mount. The turret's base is just the rotating base of a lynxmotion L6 robotic arm i had.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update                                                                                                                                                                                    ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have finally gotten the IR tracker and the remote working. It turned out that the whole problem with mounting the eye without getting in the way of the Ping)) sensor didn't matter at all. I ended up taking the Ping)) sensor off because I realized that I could just use the eye to get an approximate distance and the Ping)) sensor was useless. The IR tracker works very well for tracking objects that are up close and people walking by, but I decided that I'm going to add the web cam to follow people farther away afterall.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Update 12/6/10 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's been a while but I just had to post the photos of the final design.

On the back is the push button to select the mode, the IR remote reciever, the wii nunchuck socket, and the power jack.