Robot Butler Video

Here is a video of Chives


More videos to come!

Line Following Robot

The newest robot that I am working on is a line following robot / rescue robot for my school. It must follow a line , avoid obstacles, and find the line after it has discontinued.
This will all be PIC based. I will post a tutorial as well as a ton of documents related to the robot. Things are going well for now.

The butler robot is now my side project. I try to work a little on it every week. I will taka e a video of him in action on Friday. Basically in the video he will talk to me, drive by voice command, drive by online command, and then pour me a drink. Then he will spin and "dance" to Star Wars music.

,Eric

Using Wheelchair Motors

Here is the post which I originally posted it in Society of Robots Forum. My ID there is airman00

A lot of people have been asking questions about wheelchair motors lately so I will just list some of the ideas behind using a wheelchair motors.

Note: I am assuming that you are buying the wheelchair motors along with the gearbox attached.
Why choose a wheelchair motor?
Wheelchair motors are very powerful and can handle 300+ lbs. They are relatively cheap for their size(~$75 ebay) and are very easily found online or in repair stores. Try to buy a motor with the wheels still attached.

Controlling Wheelchair Motors
When using wheelchair motors I would recommend having differential drive( two motorized wheels and one caster in front). This makes controlling the drive system easy and it allows for on the spot turning. To control the motors you can either use relays or a motor driver. Im also sure that an electric wheelchair includes a controller with joystick, so just hack that. But for most of us who are buying the motors separate from the wheelchair , make sure that your relays or motor drivers can handle at least 5 amps more than the motors draw( better safe than sorry). I personally used automotive relays bought from All Electronics Corp to control my wheelchair motors.

Mounting the Wheelchair
This varies by motor but most have mounting holes on the gearbox so all you would do is drill through the base material( i recommend wood) and stick a bolt in through the wood into the motor.

Miscellaneous Advice

Even if your motors are rated for 24V they will run on 12Volts except theyll be slower.

Install a Kill Switch : And also remember wheelchair motors are powerful machines. They are meant to carry 300 pound people @ 5 mph. Thats really strong so be careful! My biggest mistake with using wheelchair motors was too not install a kill switch. The robot just kept moving forward on a test run and I was not able to hold it down( luckily I pulled out the wires in time) Now I have one R/C kill switch and another tactile kill switch. The button should be really big so you can hit it while the robot is moving. Also it should be a direct kill switch, meaning not a switch that goes through the micro controller, but a switch that separates the motors from the batteries directly.

If the robot does not stop it will either damage itself, your belongings, your house, or you!

There is a copy of this on my blog.(http://erobots.blogspot.com) That will be the more update version if I forgot something

Any questions?
Feel free to email me - airman00@gmail.com
,Eric

Having a drink with Mr. Roboto

I made a drink pouring system. A bottle holder on a motor pours a drink into a funnel which flows into a cup.
Pictures will be up soon...

Chives Version 3

My new and improved butler bot.
Its 3' 9" and on a 21" square9 including wheels)
Also I added a mini-fridge and an extra 12V 20Ah battery.
Another improvement was that I mounted everything vertically.

WAY COOL!

videos to come later on...

CLICK HERE TO SEE PICS

Base is done! Click the link to see some pics

CLICK TO SEE BUTLER BASE

My base is done and it works amazingly. On the spot turning and awesome maneuvering. Anyway to see some pics goto Chives V 2.0 Photo Set.
Summary of it: Two dynamic wheelchair motors( 24VDC 11.5Ah) running off a 12VDC 20Ah battery. One caster in front for stability. Phidgets control automotive relays which switch the motors to go in two different directions. My computer program is the same it was before.

Got the motors! Made a template

I got the motors and wheels from eBay and I am now goingto mount it. I created a template for the Dynamo Electric Wheelchair Motors. This template is for mounting the wheelchair onto wood or metal. If anybody wants the template, I can send it to their emails and then they could just print it out to scale with Google SketchUp.
I am still waiting for my batteries , my relays , and my template which is being made into 1/4" thick metal.
I'll post pictures of the completed base when I finish. I think I should be done by next week, but I am not sure about how the charger, batteries, and motor will interact with each other due to fact that I bought the pieces separately ,on the basis that they run on 24V and 20Ah.

Batteries and motors work! The motors even run on 12V instead of 24VDC. I will use the 12V because it is slower and more suited for a home enviornment
Hope this works!