My New Project
Jim Richey
Posts: 82
After long hours of cutting,welding,wiring and more I have completed my new track drive robot.It has been performing great in several hours of reckless testing [noparse][[/noparse]most exciting of which was sneaking up on the neighbors dog in the dark foggy night].
It has 2- 250 watt geardrive motors controlled independently at a distance of up to 1/4 mile via Japan Radio digital PWM control.The track drive parts were from a Cub Cadet snowblower.The rest of the stuff was fabricated by myself.It also has been using a wireless color camera with audio,sent to the house TV.With the signal dropping out as it prowls about,the video is fun but not reliable enough.
I would like to add a Basic Stamp to the machine,but as yet have not thought of a unique use for it,other than to tell people "yeah,it's got it's own computer".If anyone has an idea,please leave it here and we will give it a try! No weapons,please.I get in enough trouble just being the neighborhood wierdo.
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Thanks, Parallax!
It has 2- 250 watt geardrive motors controlled independently at a distance of up to 1/4 mile via Japan Radio digital PWM control.The track drive parts were from a Cub Cadet snowblower.The rest of the stuff was fabricated by myself.It also has been using a wireless color camera with audio,sent to the house TV.With the signal dropping out as it prowls about,the video is fun but not reliable enough.
I would like to add a Basic Stamp to the machine,but as yet have not thought of a unique use for it,other than to tell people "yeah,it's got it's own computer".If anyone has an idea,please leave it here and we will give it a try! No weapons,please.I get in enough trouble just being the neighborhood wierdo.
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Thanks, Parallax!
2048 x 1536 - 170K
Comments
Data logger seems an obvious choice.
You could log total left and right treads revolutions.
Log heading, yaw, pitch, roll, temperate, etc..
Sense that the radio controller has lost contact and bring itself to controlled stop.
Log the fact that the radio controller lost contact.
Monitor on board systems and stop if there is an issue.
Great project. Best of luck with it.
We had three BS2's on this project:
www.parallax.com/html_pages/resources/custapps/app_ripsaw.asp\
Jack
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- - - PLJack - - -
Perfection in design is not achieved when there is nothing left to add.
It is achieved when there is nothing left to take away.
Post Edited (PLJack) : 12/29/2005 10:37:07 PM GMT
how about putting the snow blower back on and making it autonomous clean the drive from the easy chair·please keep us poasted·and how about some·more pics·
Brian
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There's nothing a good wack with a hammer won't fix
Darn I let the white smoke out again
They'd allow for some idea on where it is when you've lost signal. Maybe a beacon.
Monitor the battery voltage?
How big is it and what do you want to do with it?
Some sonic sensors for distance/object avoidance....
How about putting an IR transmitter on it and sneaking up to ppl's houses and changing the tv channel on them....
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Steve
"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."
Hehehehe.. That would be sweet!
This doesn't involve a stamp but you could use a HAM radio to extend range and or create a beacon if out of range via a large power burst with GPS coords. You could also think about using a laptop to update a google maps API to plot in real time(-5 min or so)the location of the bot. Beacon bursts could be shown on the maps as Red GPS coords, Video Feed Downage shown as Yellow GPS coords and fully operational time shown as Green GPS coords. You could also use google maps API to record such things as how many satalites and such were aquired in each GPS coord so that you could determine a ring of error around each GPS coord. THis could really help in providing data analysis.
I might build an arm of sorts that will sequentially extend,grasp and lift an object.The Basic Stamp would be perfect to direct a chain of events of that nature.It could be carried out with one start command from the R/C transmitter.
Some specs of the machine:
weight-90 lbs.
range-about 5 miles
battery-group 23 marine deep cycle
length-24 in
width 22 in
motors-invacare wheelchair
operating voltage-12VDC
climb stairs-maybe/maybe not
The military uses a similar machine.I understand it costs us around $105,000.This one cost about $600. See the website for Foster/Miller look for the machine being used overseas for bomb and surveillance work.
Here's a photo of my unit removing a Jeep from a snowbank.
And another of it next to a race car tire,to illustrate the size.
Thanks for the suggestions,please keep them coming!
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Thanks, Parallax!