Sheldon - my first bot

Hello all, may I introduce you to my first ever robot Sheldon, so named after the inspiration to build a robot in the form of a Big Bang episode (the virtual presence one). Originally I was planning to mount a Windows Phone as the head unit to tie in with my inspiration, but over time and a little kinect home dev influence resulted in a Sharp IR sensor and wireless webcam combo.

The following image is Sheldon version 1.0 with just a sharp sensor for a head:

I have been working on him on and off for a while now and officially he is at 2.0 after a little mishap not so long ago resulted in the need for a rebuild. Following the need for a slight rebuild (this time I used solder instead of push fit) I decided to update the headstock and add a new bumper:

The shown version of the headstock used a TTL camera but this has now been replaced with a cheap webcam.

Key features of Sheldon 2.0 are:

·         Robot Rover tank base with custom printed bodywork and headstock

·         Netduino Microcontroller brain

·         2 * sharp sensors for object detection and point cloud generation

·         Wireless webcam for provision of vision

·         Xbee for wireless control in none auto mode

·         Controllable via xBox360 game pad

·         Servo driven headstock

·         Fog lights J

Currently I am working on extending his accompanying win-form control application and trying to enhance the overall smoothness of control etc. I am also pondering on swapping the xBee for Bluetooth and/or swapping the Netduino for the Plus model so that I can control him via both web and phone.

Hope you like

Update - I have added is some video of Sheldon running without the headstock attached. I'll add more demonstrating the full featureset asap