WALL-E EVE Challenge
Now it's time to make an EVE bot.
EVE Requirements:
- She should not fly or be dangerous (not true to character, but that's OK).
- She must use at least one Parallax microcontroller (this is a Parallax forum).
- She must have only one point of contact with the ground and balance while moving.
- She must be true to general EVE shape (garbage can with salad bowl on top OK).
- She can be as tall or short as practical (some misproportions OK).
- She must have one or more LCDs or other LED arrangement for emoting.
- She can have a wireless communications port.
- She must have a storage door and storage compartment.
- She must be able to detect some target object.
- She must have arms that move.
- She can have openings for object detection sensors.
- Her exterior must be wireless except for attaching body parts.
- She must use batteries and can be rechargable.
- She can be programmed in any lanugage.
- She can be made of any material.
- She should be able to move her head in some way.
The word *must* means there is no choice.
The words *can* and *should* mean there is choice.
Anyone up for a challenge like this?
Comments
"She must be able to detect some target object." Perhaps something green?
For reference...
And http://www.instructables.com/id/11-Scale-EVE-from-the-film-Wall-e/
A very nice toy model reviewed here - and apparently gotten for a bargain price at a yard sale!
[video=youtube_share;F3mKZl7Kwqs]
I'd be amazed if someone here could pull off a base like this...
The hills we climb lift us up.
One person may have a hard time, but a team could meet the challenge.
The "target object" can be anything. I was thinking some ferrous metal would be easy to detect.
I would like to try a Challenge like this, But, explaining to my wife that I am building a Girl Robot will be awkward at best...
-Tommy
Like this:
https://www.ted.com/talks/boaz_almog_levitates_a_superconductor
It's not technically flying because it's only a few inches off of the ground, so it doesn't break rule #1. If the superconducting magnets are strong enough, maybe a few hundred teslas or so (a trivial matter), it won't even need a metal surface to levitate on! The fact that this would wipe everyone's hard drives within a large radius is a small matter. Does this break rule #3 for not having exactly one point of contact with the ground?
What do you mean "not be dangerous"? That takes all of the fun out of it!
I'm going to have to make my own robot that balances on a ball after seeing that video. What if it was strong enough for a person to ride around on it?
Indeed.
Those look like stepper motors. I just happen to have 3
Either way, EVE was obviously female in the movie.
In the WALL-E movie. WALL-E seemed to portray a male character (rough and tumble), and EVE a female character (round and graceful).
My requirements used the female pronoun mainly because I thought "it" was too impersonal and I didn't want to keep repeating EVE (which I spelled EVA at first ... as pronounced in the movie).
BTW, ships (and many vehicles) have traditionally been mentioned in terms of female pronouns. That is, "She's a good ship."
And, "Robot Girl" or any implications of that was never the intent of this challenge.
Well without a head and most of its body, it is absolutely a UNI.
reorder requirements, changing SHE with IT
1.IT MUST BE SAFE should not fly or be dangerous (not true to character, but that's OK).
2.IT must use at least one Parallax microcontroller (this is a Parallax forum).
3.IT must have only one point of contact with the ground and balance while moving.
4.IT must be true to general EVE shape (garbage can with salad bowl on top OK)...... CLOTH OR MESH COVER OK?
6.IT must have one or more LCDs or other LED arrangement for emoting.
8.IT must have a storage door and storage compartment.
9.IT must be able to detect some target object.
10.IT must have arms that move...................................................... CAN THIS BE REPLACED WITH "IT MUST HAVE THE ABILITY TO load and unload the storage compartment by itself"
12.IT's exterior must be wireless except for attaching body parts................... DO YOU MEAN SMOOTH, OR CAN THIS BE THE CLOTH COVER MENTIONED IN #4
13.IT must use batteries and can be rechargable.
NON-REQUIREMENTS so why include them
5.IT can be as tall or short as practical (some misproportions OK).
7.IT can have a wireless communications port....................................... RF, IR, AUDIO-COMMANDS ?????
11.IT can have openings for object detection sensors.
14.IT can be programmed in any lanugage.
15.IT can be made of any material.................................................. reword with ANY COMBINATION OF MATERIALS
16.IT should be able to move IT's head in some way.................................. BODY ROTATION OK ?
THINGS NOT MENTIONED
MAX WEIGHT
TIME DURATION OF OPERATION BETWEEN RECHARGES
MTBF
MAX INCLINE PLANE TO BE ENCOUNTERED
MAX CURB TO BE ENCOUNTERED ............................. A SMOOTH FLOOR WOULD BE NICE AS A REQUIREMENT HERE
MAX TARGET ITEM (SIZE, WEIGHT, DURATION) TO BE HANDLED AND STORED...... DURATION WOULD BE TIME/TEMP/EXPOSURE IF ICE CREAM IS INVOLVED
ADDITIONS THAT MIGHT BE NICE
SOME FORM OF SPEECH (ENGLISH OK)
CAPS do not mean yelling, I just like things I changed to CAPS for comparison
Though there is Ice Cream involved, It still might be difficult to convince my wife that i will need $800 dollars to build 'IT'.
Goodwill Rocks!. I can drop $400 dollars from the BOM price of 'IT', If I keep my eyes open for the good bargains.
-Tommy
????????
The EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator) mission is to find evidence of life such as vegetation for purposes of habitability. My own vision of "a task" for EVE is something like an easter egg hunt or some other scavenger hunt idea.
I want the "finding experience" to be something I can share with my grandson. Ferrous metal objects would be a good targets because a metal detector (a circular wire on the bottom of the bot) can be used to find them and an electro-magnet can easily be used to pick them up (a retractable magnet "finger body part" on a wire attached to an arm). A colored ball might be interesting too.
Wireless communications can be anything you like. IR, Bluetooth, microphone, Wifi, RC controller, etc.... Just don't break any laws ;-)
The propeller can talk and sing with some of Chips vocal tract code. The Activity Bot .wav file player is pretty good too.
Is there any requirements (or restriction) that says EVE ("IT") is allowed to shift a BUT (counter-weight) out while picking things up or setting them down?
Just getting a bot to balance on a ball would be an amazing achievement. Sweat the small stuff later?
Agreed!
By the way Wall-E was on T.V. last night. What a great movie!
1. tri-bot wheels get sand and dirt in them when testing in a large playground sandbox, resulting in a "Falling Off Ball Report" (FOBR)
2. Center of Gravity very high using air filled children playball, tried substuting a Bowling ball so that the "systems" center of gravity was much lower. tri-bot wheels slide on a large heavy solid ball (bowling ball), resulting in a FOBR.
3. Placing a 5 lbs scuba weight on the tri-wheel base and then traveling across a bunch of small pebbles on a driveway resulting in an ball bounce oscillation. Tri-bot wheels ended up in a FOBR.
4. tri-bot wheels surface friction seem too low on playball surface when trying to cross yard grass, resulting in a FOBR
5. tri-bot wheels and playball handled a "flat PUTTING GREEN" surface well
6. tri-bot wheels and playball handled clean "standard pitch Concrete Driveway" surface well
7. tri-bot wheels and playball did not traverse front door threshold, resulting in a FOBR
Anyone want to comments on the center of gravity and wheel surface friction issues?
The balancing will be a challenge notability when trying to pick things up and move into the storage bay, as the center of gravity is suddenly changed. I think I need a good degree of friction on the wheels / ball to force the center of gravity back while I try loading / unloading.
Comments about the physics of the system ?
http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-14839
http://www.irobotics.re.kr/eng_sub1_1
http://www2.cs.siu.edu/~hexmoor/classes/CS404-S09/RobotLocomotion.pdf
I would think that that balancing in two axes on top of a ball is considerably harder than a Segway-style inverted pendulum, which only balances on one axis. Certainly the mass and rotational inertia of the ball add more complications.
It might be helpful to start testing in one dimension using a cylindrical roller instead of a ball.
I wanted to see the overall "system" parts that I would need (counter balancing, wheel friction, center of gravity location) before I commit parts and software design.
I agree that seqway and this ball are different balancing problems.
If anything I post can help others, then they are welcome to use it (mistakes and success).
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/143908-TriWowbot-Hacking-a-propeller-into-WowWee-products
I most certainly appreciate your research and test cases. Not being able to travel through sand makes it look like the ball-balancing-bot will not be very useful for rocky planet exploration.
I do however believe that there is much to learn from trying to balance on a ball.
When I first wrote up the EVE Challenge, I was thinking of a unicycle rider. In that case, a few things are clear: 1) there must be a system of balance monitoring and counter-weight motion to keep the bot up-right, and 2) the method of locomotion and navigating through turns would interact with the balancing system. Having "a head that moves" can be part of the counter-weight system.
So far the best ball has been a Basket Ball. It seems to have enough little bumps to get a grip on (must be why basket ball players like it also).
A floor structure that has a little support also seems the best. Hard flat tile has less "stability" then a small pile putting green surface. I think the fibers help with stability.
The issue with sand was dirt/sand getting up into the wheel rollers. A BOT sent for PLANET exploration would have better shielded bearings and may not experience the same problem.
A real issue seems to be the door-way threshold. So far all I've seen is BUMP-OOPS-BANG, as if it has enough inertia to get up then it always (maybe a better x-DOF and improved software) falls (really flings itself) over.
As far as the CHALLENGE, if you didn't say it, maybe others wouldn't be trying (and learning).
The balance system is based on a simple metal ball bearing + hanging wire + segmented round "touch/bump" disk (8 electrical segments). It is not good for navigation but is enough to tell if the unit is starting to lean or falling over.
Is this my own blog or I anyone else doing something?
GrandeNurse, Can you make video of your 8 electrical segment, touch/bump, hanging wire, ball bearing, balancing system thingy?
It sounds very interesting, but is hard to picture.. especially on top of a rubber ball.
-Tommy