robotics kit?

xtricity

Are there any robotics kits that use the propeller chip?

I read through the 1337 robot information here.
http://www.parallax.com/propeller/custapps/app_1337bot.asp

What got my attention was the article on the crustcrawler in Nuts and Volts mag.

http://crustcrawler.com/articles/NnVaug2005.php

Here's the interesting line.
"With all that empty space between components, maybe this is the time to play with distributed processing and some sort of bus architecture, one computer for each leg, and one for the head. "

Is the Propeller a good chip for robotics? I know that it's great for video processing. I have no experience with the Propeller. I would like to learn more about it from a kit.

I am currently learning about the sx28 by programming it with assembly. This is fun. At some point in the coming months, I will move on to projects that interact more with the physical world, probably with a quad or hex crawler. I've consider the AVR. This seems to be popular for robotics. I've had a lot of fun with Parallax kits and like the clear style that they have.

statemachine

The Prop is a whole new game.I would say that it is much easier to use for robotics than the AVR.The support here is second to none. Bry.

Post Edited (statemachine) : 3/17/2007 1:22:46 AM GMT

Forrest

How about 28 Servo's running off a single Propeller chip - check this out www.wulfden.org/PRC/index.shtml

OzStamp

Hi Xtricty

The Propeller Demoboard is a good platform to get started with Robotics.
Is there a better chip available for Robotics ... NO NO NO
Its ability to do multiple tasks SIMALTANEOUSLY is still creepy when experienced..
Control ( as mentioned already) 28 servo's in one COG (CPU) may want to add some sensors that detect
that your robot is not going over an edge (on a table) .. want to add encoders on the wheels for dead reckoning...
Some PING ULTRASONIC sensors in another COG .. add some INFRARED sensors .. use another COG.
You want sauce with that ...

Ronald Nollet

Andy Lindsay (Parallax)

Here's a link to a robot that combines the Propeller Education Kit and the Boe-Bot Parts Kit:

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=635059

The thread also has some clips and code examples.

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Andy Lindsay

Education Department
Parallax, Inc.

rjo_

Xtricty,

Whatever it is that you want to do... you can probably do it with a Propeller or two.

AND the guys at Parallax want to see you do it. There is a large group of guys here that seem to know just about anything you could care to ask... and if they don't exactly know a specific answer to a question, they know how to find answers and are willing to share their gifts.

There really isn't anything else like this; a new chip with its own language and culture... what more could a person want?

???Have you been here yet: http://www.wulfden.org/PRC/index.shtml.... not exactly a kit, sort of the heart and soul of a robot, you just have to add the arms, legs, ears, eyes and mouth.


Rich

acantostega

The Propeller makes parallel processing very easy, which in turn makes makes programming small behavior based bots easy. The AVR Atmega's are nice and work well with the GCC toolchain, which is a great advantage. But if you want to do a lot of non-trivial things at once, you'll soon find yourself mucking around with an RTOS and the associated complexity.
Also the PRC board (which is at the heart of the 1337 bot) is very recommendable.

xtricity

Thank you very much for the information. This is exactly what I wanted to know. I tried to use Google search to get an idea of the Propeller and robots, but I didn't find the information that I wanted. This forum gave me the information very quickly. The people here are very nice and very helpful. I think I will go and buy the PEK now.

lnielsen

There are also several of us using the Bioloid robotic system from robotis. Each servo has an embedded AVR chip and are connected to a serial bus. They provide feedback on servo position as well as motor loading. The propeller can interface to a whole bunch of these servos using only 2-3 pins.

merlin

Is there any way to combine the AX-12 Bioloid servos with Propeller capabilities?

There are some AX devices libreries already developed by Parallax or some users?

Any experience on this area?


daniel

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Visit my Personal Home Page:

http://darnoff.vtrbandaancha.net/

parts-man73

The Protoboard will fit right on a Boe-bot chassis, and yo can buy a boe-bot kit without the stamp board just for that purpose.

See what I did here - http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=691174

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Brian

uController.com - home of SpinStudio - the modular Development system for the Propeller

PropNIC - Add ethernet ability to your Propeller! PropJoy - Plug in a joystick and play some games!

SD card Adapter - mass storage for the masses Audio/Video adapter add composite video and sound to your Proto Board

lnielsen

Merlin,

I have not gotten too far on this because of work issues. I have found sever good examples of half duplex serial communications to base the tx/rx code on but I have gotten bogged down on the API.

I recently found an active thread on CrustCrawler where Mike Gebhard is working on an object. You may want to check this out.

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BioProp: Robotics - Powered by Bioloids and controlled by the Propeller

Mike Green

Also, BoeBotBasic was written for use with a Protoboard with the Accessory Kit, BoeBot chassis with a PING and the PING servo. It also supports IR distance sensing and an HM55B compass (if you add an I/O expander as described in the documentation).