Tag Teaming It

Update on entry for cat-splat challenge.

The tracks were a dismal failure so i went back to basics and knocked up 4 wheels

with a rubber band between them, no tracks but it turns much better on carpet with just the plastic contacting the ground.

I've used one set to make reversing wall sensor with a microswitch activated from the pressure (gotta start somewhere, IR comes later:)   

the other set is a set of arms  which can be lowered to drop what its carying.

This is the plan:

 I know Guibot has recently made Ratbot, but it's such an apt name for this project :)

 Ratbot above carrys in front of him a small box, the decoy (mousebot) which contains:

a: a small motor with the shaft poking out the top, a short bit of shoelace is attached to it.

b: a 433mhz transmitter

c: a movement sensor (i'll try a mercury switch first)

d: a magnet operated reed switch to trigger the program 

e: driven by a picaxe 08M & a couple of AAA's 

 Ratbot drives around the room until he senses a wall.

He then drops mousebot and reverses back in a straight line until he hits an opposite wall then waits.

meanwhile mousebot has been activated from being dropped on the ground.

(i'll use the reed switch as an interupt to start him when the magnet on ratbots arm is no longer detected)

mousebot breifly twitches his tail with the motor every 10 - 15 seconds or so, then

when mousebot is swatted/bumped/pounced on by my cat he sends out a distress signal through

the transmitter.

Ratbot goes into action and creeps forward with the water squirter ready until he senses the cat, then attacks! 

Thats the plan. my current motors are far too noisy to creep up on the cat so i'll have to remake it into a real stealth machine. Knowing my cat if he hears anything behind him he'll probably become real wary, and we can't have that now can we ;)

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UPDATE - Havent go the arms working yet but i've worked out the basic code for the most part

it just needs some tweaking.                  See New Video above

It's a flamin' noisy bugger, i'll post a forum on the subject as i'd appreciate some ideas about making

a silent-ish drive system.