ORU12 (Temporary Name)

This is my first foray into the robot building business. It is really just an experimental/training platform. It is rather large - base is 10'x12"x14" and the body is a 10" tube, 23" tall. It employs 2 motor/gearbox assemblies from a child's ride-on car. Power is supplied by 2 12 volt Ni-Cad batteries from Makita power tools. The 2 drive wheels are 10" x 3 1/2 " pneumatic. Also 2 supplementary casters are used. I plan to use 2 sonar rangers, multiple IR sensors and bumper switches. Initially, I will use a PICAXE processor and Fritsl's navigation program. The whole point is to teach myself microprocessor programming so this will just be a starting point. Eventually, it will have one or 2 arms with graspers - obviously requiring more sophisticated maneuvering and object detection capabilities.

FIRST UPDATE:

2/12/12 

Well, I am making SOME progress.  I don't have any video to show because I don't actually have anything MOVING yet.  I am having a lot of fun beginning to understand Fritz's navigation code.  I now realize that I am going to have to make a lot of changes to the code to make it appropriate for a 50 pound behemoth charging around.  I have decided to off-load the drive motor control to 2 PICAXE 08-M2s.  Now I am working on the serial communication aspect between the Master controller and the "slaves".  I  have a better appreciation of what it is going to take to keep track of the motor rotation using encoders, etc.  I would appreciate any help/suggestions on how to implement the electronics of the optical reader for the motor encoders.  Please see my "mechanical" plans (under ORU12_Mechanics.PDF,).

SECOND UPDATE

2/14/12

I've been doing some more reading and I think I've got the electronics for the motor encoders worked out.  See ORU12_ELECTRONICS.PDF  ABOVE

2/17/12

B.T.W. - I just got around to putting it on the bathroom scales.  It's really only a 25 pound behemoth.  The base, motors, wheels and batteries are 21 pounds.  The body (tube), electronics, dome, etc. are about 4 pounds at the moment.