Recent Weblog Entries

8 Jan 2009 roschler » (Master)

A quick note to those looking at WowWee's products shown at the CES 2009 show. The Spyball, the rolling robot that can morph between a ball and a spycam, does not have audio. This is not be mentioned by the press. Rovio, it's big brother release in 2008, does have two way audio and also is capable of driving itself.

6 Jan 2009 bozooka » (Apprentice)

Bozooka The projects details are as follows:

Robot consists of: - 2 wheel chair Magnetic motors (run at 12 or 24v, each about 4.5hp+) - 1 RoboteQ 2550 Motor Controller (dual channel) 120 amps per channel - 1- On board 125w power supply (to power Fuzzy MSI 945gm1 MII core 2/2gh w/ 2gb ram - 1- 80GB hdd 7200 rpm - 1- Robotics connection Serializer robot controller with 2- I2C expansions - 2 ZX 1280 Dev Boards

- 1- On board color web camera (wireless) - 6- Max EZ-1 sonar’s

- 6- Sharp GP2D12 IR Sensor

- 1-CMUcam2+ w/ Turret for vision applications

Note: there are other parts, but those relative to programming and to give you an idea of what this project consists of are listed above.

Task:

Primarily this robot needs to be versatile, it should be able to switch between various modes. These modes are separated as follows; Manual mode via web GUI similar to the

RoboteQ Roborun interface with a web cam screen, or a Joystick. RC mode which allows the user to control it via RC , and autonomous mode. In autonomous mode it must have also other modes such as, Line following, object following and predetermine route following via GPS and magnetic compass. I must stress that this is a very strong and considerably heavy robot,

and safety is a primary concern. I wish to program in C# with dot Net frame work( I am open to other )

in order to take 4 SRF08 sonar’s in order to avoid obstacles in autonomous mode, and to discontinue movement in remote control mode (in direction of obstacle). These sonar and iR's are located on servos for panning , thus there movement must also be programmed accordingly. This robot must also consist of bumper switches which if triggered, stop the robot and cause it to retrace its last 5 or so seconds of movement In autonomous mode, the line following mode is considerable strait forward, it must follow a line laid out on the floor, using a line tracker (serializer and the ZX 1280 accessory). In object following most probably the more difficult part of this project the robot must follow a pre-determined object , and maintain it’s distance. This task must be done using the on board camera (cu2cam), if necessary a secondary camera may be used. As for the GPS mode I wish to instruct the robot through a map on the computer to follow a specific route, the route will recorded

and re used as a program to run the robot thru.

Height With body and dome; 3’6". Without body and dome; 2’ 2" Diameter With body; 18". Without body; 17" Speed 1 ½ feet/second; three football fields in 10 minutes Motor-wheel range Minimum of 20 miles on a full 4 battery charge Wheel size 13" Diameter Microprocessor Mini Itx 2.2 Mhz processor Memory SDRAM 2 GB Data storage 80GB Disk and 1 GB (Gigabyte) Compact Flash Drive Operating system Windows Xp Programming languages C# ( Visual Basic Express supported as well on the Serializer robot controller board) Microsoft Robotics Studio Communications Wireless 802.11b (Wi-Fi) to Web, PCs, LANs and other robots Connectivity USB, Serial, I2C and Ethernet ports and connectors Robot control Serializer robot controller board Robotics Connection Motor Controllers RoboteQ AX2550 dual channel 120 smart amps per channel Batteries Four 12v33Ah gel cell batteries; 1 electronics, 3 motors (provision for a battery for addition of robot arm) Navigation Map-based way-point navigation, Sensors Wheel encoders, GPS, Compass, Sonar (obstacle avoidance), Infrared, Temperature Wheel encoder Measures/detects approximately 0.157" incremental distance traveled Web connectivity On-board web server for serving up data and overall web accessibility Motor-wheel configuration Two independent drive wheels (differential steering) and two casters (one spring loaded and the other offset from the ground --- able to negotiate door jams and wheel chair ramps) Educational uses C#, programming languages, networking, wireless technology, electronics, mechanical technology Add-ons Voice Synthesizer and Amplified Speaker

Visit my robot space at http://my-robotspace.com

2 Jan 2009 motters » (Master)

Working mainly on the odometry, trying to get dead reckoning performance as good as it can be. In this case just controlling the individual motors as closed loop systems seems to be insufficient for accurate movement. It looks like I need a higher level differential drive control which coordinates the action of the two motors together. I'll probably do this by adding two additional PID control objects, one being for forward velocity control and the other being for angular velocity. The outputs from these higher level objects will become an auxiliary error term within the PID loop which controls each individual motor.

30 Dec 2008 The Swirling Brain » (Master)

We went to Disneyland over the Christmas holidays. We had a great time. Everyone told us that Disneyland was smaller than DisneyWorld. It is, but it wasn't as dire as people made it out to be. We went to California Adventure and Disneyland and there was certainly plenty to do and enjoy for the 3 days we were at disney (and 6 days total in California). It was cold and rainy and that kept the crowds at bay so we were able to ride many rides twice and three times and only have wait times of 5, 10 and 20 minutes; unheard of for the busiest time of the year for them. We also went to Universal Studios Hollywood which we hated. We also saw Hollywood (Chinese Grumman Theater & the walk of fame stars and the Kodak Theater), Santa Monica beach (which has a nice carnival type pier and beach), and Long Beach (which has the Queen Mary and a Ferris Wheel). We stayed at Castle Inn and Suites which looks sort of like a castle and was only two blocks from the Disneyland Entrance so we walked to Disney every day. The Hotel looked cool from the outside but was basically a cheap motel on the inside. It was good enough to sleep in, though, and they kept it clean, and it was close, so we were happy. Disneyland, I thought, was as big as The Magic Kingdom in Florida or bigger and was just as good if not better. California Adventure was as good as MGM Studios in Florida if not better. So overall I thought it was at least 2/3rds as good as the 4 parks in Florida. Of course DisneyWorld is much more than the parks so it doesn't really compare in that respect (probably 40 times bigger) but I think as far as the major parks it ranks nearly as good. I was really surprised at that given so many people told me how bad Disneyland was (or perhaps I just perceived they were telling me it was so bad). I'll still probably go to Florida from here on out but I was pleasantly surprised with how good Disneyland was.

Of course Disneyland gave me lots of robotic, graphics, mechanical and video inspiration. Hopefully it won't all go to waste.

My rolling ball sculptures have been doing well. Before I left I sold a sculpture for $275 so that about made our vacation paid for before we left. I also listed a sulpture before we left on vacation and it sold the day we were coming back so that was another $75. However, we went way overboard on food cost at the parks so I guess we really didn't break even. It really is amazing how much they gouge for food at the parks. It was easy for the four of us to spend over $40 a meal and that was just burgers, fries and a drink. My hopes is that I'll sell some more RBSs and I'll be able to pay off that small debt rather quickly and begin saving for our next vacation.

I've been doing a little coding at work and at home I've really be craving doing some PIC code slinging. I lost just about all of the PIC code I had in the past since my last hard drive crash. I thought I had some backups but I can't find any backup DVDs that work yet so all is lost on that. It may be fun to recode the RTOS I made for the 16f877 and perhaps do it better this time. I had pretty much polished it. I also had a nice LED text display pretty much polished and it's lost too. I had some nice I2C bit bang code polished and it's all gone too. I could cry as it will take a while to recreate all that stuff from scratch. There's a lot to be said for doing backups and using a system that actually is able to restore the backup. grr.

One of the things I'd like to mess with is getting a wireless network connection going on a pic board. I think it would be nice to talk to a pic controlled RBS where I could tell a sculpture to do some commands like drop a ball or give status from my wifi connection to it. Then from the pc I could do stuff like a cron job to drop a ball every hour or something or do a internet webcam rbs with internet control or something like that. I'll probably settle with having a USB pic dongle that does wireless codes to a PIC board on the sculpture but I'd rather have the sculpture be self contained with a wifi connection then any old computer could talk to it. Hmmm, security. Well, I guess it would be nice to be WEP or WAP enabled too. Oh well, it's getting complicated. I guess it's just a dream anyway, I don't know if I will give that much time to it anyway.

My mom took care of our hedgehogs while we were on vacation. I think they secretly love the hedgehogs too. They apparently took them out a lot. They bought the girl hedgehog a new wheel to run on. They bought them different food and cleaned their cage a few times (wasn't needed) and talked about them a lot when we got back. I guess if they ever have babies I'll offer one to them and see if they take it. We'll try to breed them again in January.

At work, they're letting me code a little more and there's less customer service to do. I'm liking that and hoping it will go more that way as time goes on. They're starting to hire a few more people so that hopefully means there's a little more job security where I work. I've worked there for about a year and a half but there's no mention of reviews or raises to anyone. I guess in this economy, just having a job is good enough so I'm not complaining.

We left Golden Meadows Baptist Church and have started going to First Baptist Church in Garland. We really like it there. I'm sort of worried for GMBC. I'm hoping it can turn around but I'm really doubtful. :-( It's quite a contrast going from a really small church to a really big church. I'm really enjoying the change so far. We'll probably join this Sunday.

26 Dec 2008 steve » (Master)

Merry Christmas

Another Christmas has come and gone. On Christmas Eve Susan cooked a pot roast in the traditional style I grew up with. The meat came from a small order we placed with Dominion Farms, a local organic farming operation. All their animals are fed natural diets, no hormones or antibiotics. The meat was really tasty, so we'll probably get more from them in the future. My brother Randy joined us for dinner and we played several games of Scrabble afterwards while eating Apple Pie.

Susan and I spent Christmas morning at home opening a few presents for each other and then we drove up to McKinney to spend the rest of the day with family and friends. There was more opening of presents, large quantities of food, and lots of catching up on family news. We played a couple of games include Mexican Train dominoes and something new called Catch Phrase that our niece and nephew talked us into.

I spent some time helping my nephew rip audio tracks from a CD to use as ringtones on a his new phone. I'd forgotten how difficult it can be on Windows boxes to do simple things like converting from one audio file format to another. His phone needed MMA or MP3 audio but Windows would only rip CDs in WMA format. I Googled for downloadable sound utilities but could only find crappy shareware and freeware stuff that mostly didn't work. Then it occurred to me to see if any free software audio tools had been ported to Windows. I was pleasantly surprised to find Audacity for Windows. It's really amazing how much better most free software apps are compared to your average Windows programs these days! Audacity really saved the day for us. We were able to edit the track down to size, convert it to MP3 and get it onto his phone's SD card. And all in time to grab a piece of home made fudge before it vanished.

11 Dec 2008 beowulf » (Observer)

Today I got the latest version of our Mobot running. It can at least move now. Power needs upgraded, the battery pack doesn't have enough current for the motors. All in all, everything went together nicely. Programming it wasn't too difficult either.

Hopefully I can get a second battery pack soon and add it in parallel as well as finish the sensor array so we can actually test it.

Tomorrow I hope to get a chance to write a program for our secondary mobot. Also need it to stop raining so i can test the thing.

2 Dec 2008 Robot Shop » (Observer)

RobotShop Affiliate Program is a Go

RobotShop is pleased to announce the launch of the RobotShop Affiliate Program for Canadian affiliates. The RobotShop Affiliate Program echoes to sky- rocketing robotics market growth, what we believe to be opportune for affiliate marketers and webmasters.

The RobotShop Affiliate Program proposes solid and competitive incentives. Whether you wish to promote Roomba robot vacuum cleaners, and other Wow Wee products, Lego Mindstorms, VEX robotics kits and parts, Lynxmotion robotics parts and platforms, all products made available through the RobotShop online store are included in the RobotShop Affiliate Opportunity.

Interested Canadian publishers can get more information about the RobotShop Affiliate Opportunity and sign up by visiting the “Affiliate opportunity” link at the bottom of the http://www.robotshop.ca website.

Take note of RobotShop’s plans to extend its program to International affiliates shortly. Interested international affiliates are welcome to contact us to share their interest for the program and their coordinates. We will contact you as soon as the RobotShop International Affiliate Program is ready to be launched.

For more information on RobotShop, please visit http://www.robotshop.com or visit the RobotShop Support Center for further assistance.

24 Nov 2008 SauserEric » (Journeyer)

Do you remember the old-fashioned game Pong? So we are proud to present Pong: the Robot Edition!

This project is an entertainment application based on Human-Robot Interaction, where the robot (Fujitsu's Hoap-3) gives a new gaming dimension to that old-school arcade game.

Rather than playing alone against a computer, the human player faces now a robot, which reacts according to the state of the game. Through appropriate speech dialogs and gestures, it engages the user in a fierce but unfair competition. Indeed, all disturbing techniques, such as in-game speech are included.

Will you dare to beat the robot?

This project was developed at the Learning Algoriths and Systems Laboratory (LASA) at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), and was presented at the ICRA'08 conference in Pasadena, USA in May 2008.

For more information, please check the following websites:
lasa.epfl.ch
www.sauser.org
www.calinon.ch

24 Nov 2008 phooky » (Journeyer)

In this troubling economy, who has the resources to build a hexapod? Thus, I'm building a pentapod-- the people's robot.

The skeleton is up on thingiverse. I'm using one of Raph's awesome, hacked-up twitchie boards to carry the chip. Some observations so far: I need a shorter thigh member, and I'm going to need more powerful servos for those joints-- hs-311s aren't cutting it.

6 Nov 2008 Regonics » (Observer)

Hello! I have recently gained interest in robotics and I've been reading books about it for several weeks now. I would like to start making one now but I have no clue where to get the materials. The only part im pretty sure I will buy is the Parallax Basic Stamp 1. I am going to Manhattan soon and some hobby stores where i can get certain materials and parts is greatly appreciated.

My email address is E.Song.Hyun.Joon@gmail.com

Thank you in advance :D'

6 Nov 2008 explicit » (Observer)

My name is Musolola Tembo. Attempting to create strong AI is something I will do for as long as I live.At the moment I am just a 4th year physics student at the University of Zambia. I spent 3 years just studying the brain by orbserving my own behaviour and know I think I have found the solution. I have got my leasons about computers from physics lessons and my own research. Where I came from it seams I am the only one intrested in robots, so I have no one to chart with. I need a friend my email adress is tembo.musolola@gmail.com

5 Nov 2008 Wes_Hewell » (Apprentice)

Hello! I have not be interested that long so any tips or useful info anyone has on robots so I can work on one myself would be great! My e-mail address is weshewell@yahoo.com

Thanks you!

30 Oct 2008 Sergey Popov » (Apprentice)

Here is a video of a terrain matching demo based on Skilligent's robot vision software

17 Oct 2008 N0 D0UBT » (Observer)

Hi!

I am interested in building my first robot, but, I can't decide
which programming language would be the best to use. It would be great if someone could give me a push in the right direction. My email is tttutin@optusnet.com.au

Thanks Heaps

15 Oct 2008 jkkroll » (Master)

Want to find your ideas in a year? Write them down!

I’ve been a big proponent of keeping my ideas, schematics, drawings, etc. in a lab notebook for years now. I’ve even started putting my notebook online. My current preference is for Moleskine notebooks, but the folks over at the Black Cover blog are convincing me that there are other alternatives out there. They specialize in reviews of pocket-sized notebooks, preferably with black covers. My favorite kind!

Want something more official (and expensive)? Try one from Scientific Notebook Company.

If you are looking for something more robot-related try the Makers Notebook. It includes squared pages as well as an appendix with resistor codes and all kinds of other useful information.

Finally for the ultimate in customization: Make your own notebook. I call mine Myleskine.

The one pictured is covered in “pleather” recycled from a freebie portfolio. I recently made one for my wife with a cover made of hot pink Cordura. Also a pocket size version covered in black 300 denier ballistic nylon is undergoing “stress testing” in the back pocket of another engineer at work. So far it is holding up very well.

Syndicated 2008-10-15 22:37:47 from robotguy.net/Blog

14 Oct 2008 robozom » (Apprentice)

Hey, I have finished building my WiFi robot. It is using a mini-itx board running windows. Basic stamps control the motor controller and retrieve sensor values. This is the first robot I have documented so check it out!

**Please note that the software and vids will be posted soon.

13 Oct 2008 klawson114 » (Observer)

Hi im new at this and i was wondering if anyone can give me any ideas and instuctions for building some simple robots

9 Oct 2008 JamesBruton » (Master)

I seem to have spent most of my time building movie props rather than robots recently.

I've just finished my life size statue of Iron Man, so now I'm doing my own custom wearable Iron Man helmet sculpt in clay, which I'll recast into fiberglass or some other rigid resin.

Poor Android 10 has been a bit neglected recently, but I'll probably get back to it sometime.


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