Friday, June 29, 2007

My new website

Go to my new website www.erobots.co.nr
It will have photos and info.

By the way the pic on the right is my first robot ever built. I will post the redesigned first robot over the weekend. Its all black and has the motorized front wheels.


Alfred the Robot Butler

I have decided to name the robot Alfred, after Batman's butler.
Anyway, I will be posting pics later this week or next week. They will show the base w/ wheels, my joystick switch I made for manual control, the relay system and schematic, robot arm, the main circuit if i put it on in the next few days. Also you'll be able to see the robot body( a plastic human)
It may show up as one post or separate posts for each thing. Look for it !
Keep sending me those ideas!

[Edit: Its not going to be ALfred, because the "fff" sound is hard to pick up on a mike. So its going to be Chives]

Robot Butler Details

OK ,so my robot butler is right now just a wooden base with two casters in front and two independently motorized bicycle wheels. The motors are controlled by four relays in combinations. Wheel 1 direction and wheel 2 direction. For turning one wheel goes forward and the other wheel goes backwards.
As for sensors, I put IR sensors on the robot for detectors but it was not precise enough. I will purchase Matbotix EZ1 Sonar modules and use those for obstacle avoidance.
Oh yeah, I use a PIC16F627 as the brains of the system. I will put on my wireless video camera and a reciever so I can see video and control the robot over the internet.
The purpose of this robot will be as a butler robot to bring me drinks by voice command, R/C rover, and security robot.
Please comment or email me if you have any extra ideas or tips.

UPDATE : (6/24/08) I'm now extenisvely documenting my new butler robot!!!! The new one can pour drinks , talk, tell time, sweep, and sooo much more. I also give detailed instructions on how you can build your own butler robot!!! All the details can be found on my main page : eRobots.BlogSpot.com and also on the links on the right side of this page. Enjoy!

Thursday, June 28, 2007

R/C Rover

One of my robotics projects which I have completed is a R/C security robot. I finished this project about a year ago, it took me about a month. I had just started robotics so it is a fairly simple robot.
I ripped off the front of a Power Wheels car and put in the front wheels of another toy car which turned with the help of a motor.
Then I salvaged a small R/C car for the remote control part. I took off the motors and attached relays and diodes in their place. The circuit of relays and diodes worked in such a way with the R/C circuit ,that only one relay per function could be triggered. For example the combinations were (forward, right) or (backward,left) but not (forward,backward.) If anyone would like a schematic of the relays and diodes circuit ,feel free to e-mail me for it.
The relays were then wired to the motors ,which made the drive system digital, the motors were either on or off, no adjustable speed. The R/C circuit and drive system were powered by one battery.
A wireless camera, walkie talkie, and a wireless robotic arm was added to it. I was able to drive the robot downstairs from my room upstairs. I hooked up the walkie talkies to my computer and played C3P0 sounds through it and talked to people downstairs.
That was my first real robot and I learned a lot from it.
Email me for info or photos

Butler Robot

I am working on a Butler Robot and wanted to know if anybody has any ideas or tips for me.