Roubot- My first one netbook controlled robot

This robot is piloted by me, using internet and a netbook.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

About Me and my project (you can skip this part ;-D )

First of all I want to apologize for my (bad) English. I'm 19 and I'm french.

I am student in an Institute of technology, learning sciences and measurement.

Robots have always make me dream, and a few months ago I decided to desing robots!

I would like to thanks LMR, for goving me ideas, motivation and inspiration!

But I didn't really know what to do so I made a background ( a big sheet of wood and 2 wheels with 2 continuous servos.)

I spend too much money so i didn't want to buy sensors (bad excuse I know)

And my netbook was here, lying down... I bought It because it was cheap (99€ ! ) but it was a bit uselless

But now it's usefull !

I have too much talk about me, lets talk about my robot!

Features of my "roubot"

my robot can go forward, backward, turn itself clockwise and anticlockwise.

The servos are piloted by an arduino duelaminove board, with a really simple sketch.

As input, the arduino board waits for order in the Incoming data pin.

Theses orders are sent by a small processing sketch (quite simple too) who send orders each time I press theses buttons on my keyboard: UP, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, CTRL (to stop the moving)

But there is a step left: I won't Follow my robot to keep in touch with my keyboard! I need to transmit orders via Wifi. So I use a VNC client, TEAMVIEWER, wich is quite easy (again!)

and allows me to have the control of my robot as if i was typing on my laptop keyboard, seeing what I could see on my laptop screen.

To fix/ to do

The mecanics is a little bit too small and too thin for the tall and the weight of my laptop.

So i need to design a new stronger one.

I have thought about some « add-ons »:

-Use 2 servo I have (non-modified, to make an arm, or a turret?)

-Add a webcam that i can move, maybe with an IR light :D

-a reload station (it's really cute to have dreams...)

Adding some photos

what you see where you are in front of my robot -left: webcam(like a mirror) -right: sketch processing (first version) 

what I see for exemple from my desktop (here with a computer not equipped with teamviewer, the framerate is better with the soft)

UPGRADE-21nov2010

my robot didn't move well, so I replace the motor parts:

using this (given by the little brother of my girlfriend)

I made this: (as you can see there is a little problem: I need a third wheel!)

There are two independant motors, with H bridge and all the stuff. I just remove the RC part (it still works, I keep it for another use but there are a lot of limitations like range or speed).

So i drive the H-bridge with PWM with my arduino board but I still have problems:

-if I use PWM library of arduino (fading) it works really bad: for high value ( Ton >> Toff) it runs, but too fast and with not enough torque: It can just move without the laptop and helping it.

-if i create my own PWM sketch it works better, because the frequency is lower so the torque is maximum at start and the robot go forward, and then it stops. It works, but it jerk: sart/stop/start/stop... another problem with this solution is that the sketch is a little more hard because the arduino "focus" on the PWM (it can't do anything at the same time).

UPDATE 4dec2010

I added a third wheel, installed W7 on my laptot (not really better ^^ ) and began to use Skype. ther are some thing to fix, the most important:

Change the electromechanical part (wheels, gears and motors) still too weak for the total weight.

Change the software for a much "DIY" solution (I am currently using teamviewer and skype)

new pics of my robot:

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/14542308/1/roubot?h=c35691

UPDATE  23dec2010:

I use a new way to control my robot: using this https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/22483 (well made ;) ) and the software Hamachi, which allows 2 computers to be connected as is they where in a local network, I can now send and receive data between a computer and my robot. The Processing sketch on my laptop doesn't need to have the focus, so I can let Skype in full screen. I have some improvements to make, but it works great :)

I am waiting for some servos to add an arm and a gripper, and to control (pan/tilt) a webcam (I won't use the built in webcam)