robots.net blog for JamesBruton

5 Mar 2008

Wed, 5 Mar 2008 21:35:40 GMT

Thought I should post something as it's been a while.

I've been a little separated from 'real robots' for a while, as I decided to build a full size Star Wars R2-D2 replica prop. You can check out all the construction pictures over on my website:

http://www.xrobots.co.uk/modules/news/article.php? storyid=28

My current project is now a C-3PO prop which you can find here:

http://www.xrobots.co.uk/modules/news/article.php? storyid=29

I built my own vacuum forming equipment for these projects. If you want to ask questions then you can post a comment in my guestbook/forum:

http://www.xrobots.co .uk/forum/

21 Sep 2006

Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:21:10 GMT

As you may have aleady noticed, the White Box Robotics corporate site has been redesigned and relaunched, with further technical details on the 9 Series PC Bot now that it is available. There are lots of fancy new graphics as well as a link to buy your Bot on line.

The prices published are those for the first low volume production run, over engineered and hand crafted version of the 9 Series PC Bot. However, there is a cheaper option for just $3995 US for the Bot with no plastic covers which is being marketed as the '9-Series PC-BOT Development Platform'

There is also a new Wiki and Image gallery over at 914pcbots.com, some new pictures have gone up recently of the PC Bot factory which is located in Ottawa.

3 Sep 2006

Sun, 3 Sep 2006 12:05:22 GMT

Hello everyone, the world of PC BOTS is getting very exciting now as several people have recieved their bots or are due to get them shortly.

Check out a brief review of the bot from the first pioneers in this thread.

There is now a new image gallery over at 914pcbots.com. So far one person has posted pics of unpacking their bot and some others are on the way.

Feel free to come over to the community if you have any interest in robots based around PCs...

10 Jul 2006

Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:03:41 GMT

All my android projects are on hold for now as I'm spending most of my free time working on www.914pcbots.com. Despite it not looking any different at the moment we are working on a new look and feel which will be launched shortly.

c6jones720 is doing most of the new artwork for the site, we spoke to Tom Burick - the man himself, founder of White Box robotics the other night. He has a very clear idea of where he's heading, from the site appearance, to the future of robotics and taking over the world with the PC Bot!.

To anyone who's wondering, there certainly is a PC Bot product that will appear shortly, despite it having been 'around the corner' for some time - this is because the product is quite unique and must be right first time to make the right impact.

Watch this space and check www.914pcbots.com over the next month or so for updates.

30 Jun 2006

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 11:17:29 GMT

So, android 9 is almost walking. I have the top section of one of the legs pretty much doing the right thing at the right time, just need to do the same with the other and it will locomote. If I get around to doing the bottom sections of the legs it should walk quite well.

I've been a bit busy recently doing stuff over at www.914pcbots.com as I've established admin rights (for now...). Hopefuly Whitebox Robotics will deliver the first shipment of robots soon and then we'll have a full blown fan site. There are already 100's of registered users although most are 'lurking' for now. From the stats is looks like there are around 300 visitors a day so it will be good once the product is available.

On top of that I've been thinking about creating a new android called 'Android X' as it will be the tenth and also matches the Website name of XRobots. Android 9 will probably be ok but I usualy get bored at this point in development and have better ideas.

I'd quite like to use actuators/motors on all the joints instead of having passive ankles because that's the hardest thing to work with. I'd also like propper knees again rather than my on-going parallel mechanism that I've used since android 3. I quite like the balsa wood construction but next time I'll use RE/RS540 motors and make my own gearboxes out of plastic gears, using skateboard wheel bearings for the output shafts. It will look a bit like the RoboOne robots that use R/C style servos but scaled up to about 4 feet / 1.5m tall.

8 Jun 2006

Thu, 8 Jun 2006 09:57:20 GMT

I've made a video in both WMV and DivX format of the android leaning side to side and using the gyro to make sure it doesn't tip over. The videos are in the bottom of the article here.

Next stage will be to sort out the leg motor controllers to make small movements so it can locomote.

4 Jun 2006

Sun, 4 Jun 2006 16:57:00 GMT

Just posted some pics of the android around the house so you can get an idea for it's physical size - it's exactly 1m/39inches tall, they are here, here, and here.

I'm doing ok with dynamic stability testing, more in the article here.

26 May 2006

Fri, 26 May 2006 07:35:18 GMT

Since my last post here I've mainly finished the mechanical construction of Android 9. I've got a few bits left to tidy up but I've now moved onto the electronics to control it. I'm using mainly Picaxe microcontrollers because they are cheap and have lots of built in functions like RS232 / PWM etc - a bit like a very low cost Basic Stamp on one chip (~$5/10). They are also pin-for-pin compatable with a standard pic (since that's what they are made from).

The basic summary for control is that the side-to-side leaning joints at the ankles are compleatly passive, i.e. no motors. The android will be dynamically stable, getting feedback from a GWS PG-03 gyro so that the hip motors can push it's weight off centre onto each leg in turn, but not tipping so far it falls over, even with momentum builds up. To start, effectively the gyro will act as a kind of safety switch to kill the momentum if the android leans too far outside a predefined safety zone.

I've already started building the picaxe/Gyro 'warning alarm'/measuring circuit so there should be something working soon...

25 Apr 2006

Tue, 25 Apr 2006 06:36:22 GMT

I'm back in the land of the robots now I've mostly finished redecorating my house. Android 9 is underway again and there should be regular updates on my website including some more this week. The legs have their motors attached so it's on with the body which will hold all the electronics.

I'll be coming back to attached the sideways-leaning motors once I know how far it will have to lean to stand on one leg, it's kind of hard to tell at the moment but once I get a feel for how tall it is and how the arms will look it will be easier to find the right place for the extra hip motors. It's going to end up over 1m / 3ft tall by the looks of it...

20 Mar 2006

Mon, 20 Mar 2006 12:53:32 GMT

A few people have asked me if there will more updates on my website soon as I haven't posted as much as I have done previously. So I've started a blog which I'll update every few days with robot things (mainly my thought process etc) as I have a few other things going on in the background at the moment: XRobots Blog