Owner: thisismyrobot URL:thisismyrobot.blogspot.com Join Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 01:39:09 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A blog about the development of a linux-based x86 robot. There is also coverage of interesting robot-related news. Site statistics:Click here
MS Robotics Developer Studio 2008 preview available 2008-04-10 22:52:00 Microsoft has released a preview of the follow-up to their Robotics
Studio 2006 - Robotics Developer
Studio 2006.The preview version was announced at the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh and can be downloaded here.The 2008 version is quoted as having large performance improvements in inter-process communications, better handling of distributed-computing environments and improvements to their Visual Programming Language.Surprisingly enough, I am downloading it at the moment and, after having a bit of a play with it, will do a write-up on any applications it may have in small/hobby robotics development.news releasesource Read more:available
Robot Gallery from RobotBusiness, Pittsburgh 2008-04-09 20:06:00 Wired has a nice gallery of interesting robots from the RoboBusiness conference in Pittsburgh
.I especially like the robot snake from Carnegie Mellon University - it is composed from completely modular sections and, I imagine, could have applications from disaster recovery to covert operations.Click here and here for more information on the snake bot.source Read more:Robot
, Gallery
Layout updates 2008-04-08 18:42:00 That should do it. The masthead is finished, and the background centers now, despite IE6's best efforts. As before, if it looks a little wonky on your browser, let me know.Over time I intend to move the main color-scheme in line with the masthead, but until then, that is the last of the layout fiddling you should have to put up with :) Read more:updates
Pirkus' funky new robot 2008-04-08 08:29:00 Pirkus, Inc. has just released a very funky looking robot, the Chobi Pirkus R Type-02.The Type-02 is a small 8-DOF 17cm tall biped robot. It also has a slightly simpler little brother, the Type II-02.The size of the chassis, if it is as large as it looks, would almost make it a candidate for a PC/104 system strapped to the back.With those eyes though, it looks like you'd have to buy two - one for your girlfriend!source
Robot-walking distance record broken 2008-04-08 08:21:00 A robot from Cornell University has set a new distance
record for a walking robot. The three-legged Cornell Ranger travelled a little over 9 km (5.6 miles) around the Barton Hall running track.This was their second attempt to break the existing record, their previous attempt travelling a little over 1 km (0.62 miles).The robot's gait took inspiration from humans, using the powered ankles to provide push off and a combination of momentum and gravity to move the legs. This made the robot extremely power efficient, helping it go the distance.source Read more:Robot
Changes follow-up 2008-04-07 18:38:00 I have now put through the majority of the changes I wanted. The new layout should be visually identical under FF2 & 7/8b. If it looks wonky under your browser, let me know in the comments.Yes, I know IE6 looks a little strange, it is not centering the page background properly, will sort asap.
Changes 2008-04-07 02:53:00 I have just pushed through some minor design alterations - more to come.
Keyboard IO Detail 2008-04-05 21:17:00 Here is some further detail on the keyboard -> 4069 Inverter IC's. Within the grey border is a simulated circuit for a Caps/Num/Scroll lock LED circuit. The "switch" is controlled by the PC, using the Caps/Num/Scroll lock keys. When the switch is held LOW, the LED lights, and the inverter also switches on. When the switch is held HIGH, the LED turns off as their is no voltage difference between its (+) and (-) terminals and the inverter switches low.The 100 Ohm Resistor is a guess, and there to stop the LED blowing. As described above, the circuit is just a simulation of what would be read with a multimeter across the pins of the LED.In the final circuit (above), I removed the LED's, leaving their connection open-circuit, so essentially, the top of each of the diagrams can be ignored. This Read more:Detail
Should have read this first... 2008-04-05 20:52:00 I just found this article on GAL (Generic Array Logic) ICs. It would have been nice to have seen this before I started work on the Hex Inverter -> BCD-Decimal ICs in the motor controller system. I will have a go with these at some point and report on the results.source
Hexapod gets an upgrade 2008-04-05 20:15:00 The very cool Hexapod robot from Micromagic Systems has just received an upgrade
- its very own router!Hexapod's creator, Matt Denton has taken it to the next level with the design of a routing head attachment for the robot. Currently implemented as floating pen, the robot interprets DXF files into positional XYZ commands for the body of the robot. The body's position is controlled by 6 three-degrees-of-freedom legs, using an onboard processor - the p.Brain.Hexapod's fluiditiy of motion really has to be seen to believed!Hexapod videos:Being put through its pacesUsing the pen attachment.source
A lot of hot-glue and some metal drumsticks 2008-04-01 18:01:00 Let's make robots! has this incredibly funny robot amongst its robot projects. It is a little Picaxe-powered tracked rover that plays and samples a drum beat on whatever it finds. It will find an object ultrasonically and drum away at it using three drumsticks. It records this drumming, then replays the recording, adding its own fills on top.article and videos
Motor Controller Detail 2008-04-01 17:48:00 Here is a closser view of the Motor
Controller System.The H-Bridge is from the Cybot from Real Robots.The Battery is a Lithium Ion pack from my RC helicopter.It supplies approx 7 volts to the H-Bridge. There is a feed of 7v and Gnd from the H-Bridge (the top two heatshrinked wires heading of the H-Bridge) that powers the IC's on the Logic board.The keyboard controller has three wires going to the Logic board.The grey ribbon cable takes the Logic boards outputs and sends them to the H-Bridge.For anyone wondering why I have a PS2/USB board in there after my statement about saving USB ports, it is so I can test the robot on any laptop or PC without rebooting first. Read more:Detail
Motor Driver Logic 2008-04-01 02:16:00 Here is the basic circuit for the motor controller. As you can see, I have salvaged an old PS2 keyboard's IO board, connecting the negative pins of the LED's to the 4069's inverter inputs.This is because the LEDs turn on when their negative leg is pulled to ground by the keyboard controller. The output of inverters goes to the inputs of a BCD-Decimal IC. This converts the binary number held in the LED's states to a discrete high-pin on the 4028's output.This will give me the 6 discrete control states for the motor controller described before, as well as "all off" and an auxiliary.In my 75% complete application, the Caps Lock LED controls the left motor, and the Num Lock LED controls the right motor.The reason that I used the Caps/Num/Scroll Lock LED's is that the Robot will not need text i Read more:Motor
, Driver
, Logic
current state 2008-04-01 01:02:00 Here it is in its current state (click to enlarge).The height extension was courtesy of 450mm lengths of hollow aluminium tube, with 5mm bolts tapped into the ends.This is the 75% completed motor controller system. This will interface via the white (USB) lead to the mini PC. More info on the USB IO interface to follow (the purple plug should give it away).All that is needed for completion is creation of the "high-level" motor control - currently the PC can only turn on or off the left or right motor. The goal is to have the PC output one of six discrete commands-left-on-spot-left-around-right-wheel-forward-reverse-right-on-spot, -right-around-left-wheel.This will be accomplished with a mass of diodes heading into the H-Bridge :D
errata 2008-04-01 00:20:00 And, just so as I don't stand out from the crowd, I will post the odd bit of robot-related news that grabs my attention :)
No title 2008-03-31 23:28:00 An early version. The two similar cameras are webcams, the one on the servo is a CMU cam.
Welcome 2008-03-31 22:50:00 Welcome to my blog. I will be blogging about my robot.This is a "never-ending-project" kind of robot that will be used to prototype ideas throughout the completion of my degree and beyond.At its rawest, it is based on a Trossen Robotics Rogue Blue:-Rogue-Blue-ERS.aspxIt is running a Norhtec MicroClient Jr (200Mhz CPU, 128MB RAM, Damn Small Linux) for clevers. will follow. Read more:Welcome
Segway RMP creates a stir 2008-04-11 20:32:00 Segway's Robot Mobility Platform (RMP) has created quite a buzz since its unveiling at RoboBusiness, Pittsburgh.The rather unique platform has the ability to move in any direction due to some very cool wheel units (pictured).Its only drawback that I can see is the $50000 price tag!For more information, Robot Dreams links to a fantastic video and info off Make.
Robots with character 2008-04-21 00:38:00 I just came across this very cool little robot, the Swashbot by Crabfu. This robot demonstrates an awesome sense of character from such a simple design. Its mechanics are primarily from an RC Helicopter, using 4 micro-servos and the RC receiver.Crabfu's site has two fantastic videos of Swashbot in action, including the obligatory interaction-with-my-pet video. Although the walking pace is rather slow, the robot has a very smooth motion and as I said already, an amazing character.Crabfu's other creations include an amazing series of steam-powered walkers/crawlers/rollers (here) including the Steam Spider, Steam Beetle and Steam Horseshoe Crab.source
Sending you next robot to Antarctica? 2008-04-21 17:45:00 Well, maybe not Antarctica
, but somewhere with a 0-50°C (32-122°F) temperature range?Plat'Home from Japan has just announced the release (in North America) of their OpenMicroServer.The OpenMicroServer has an AMD 400MHz processor, three network ports, 8-bit DIO, RS232, 2xUSB2.0 and a CF slot. More specifications available here.Now, with the addition of a usb-attached IO board, this could form the basis for one hardy robot!Let's just hope they ship to Australia.source Read more:Sending
Haven't played with a microcontroller yet? 2008-04-21 03:29:00 For anyone who has have not played with a microcontroller yet, here is your chance to try one out for a very decent price.Popular Science has a article about the RBBB (Really Bare Bones Board) - the most minimal (to date) clone of the Arduino. This board fits the 16MHz Atmega168 and the most minimal of support components onto a PCB barely larger than the IC itself.Ladyada has had a slightly more feature-filled equivalent available for a while, the Boarduino.For more info on the Arduino, go here.Oh, and there WILL be one included in my robot. Read more:Haven
Hexapod follow-up 2008-04-28 18:38:00 Recently, I wrote about Hexapod, the fantastic robot by Matt Denton. Robots Dreams now has another article about Hexapod, this one primarily a video.If you have 1:33 free in your day, I would certainly watch the video as it has more fantastic vision of its fluid motion.source
MACS: is it a chair or can I sit on it? 2008-04-28 18:04:00 Gizmag has an interesting article covering research being undertaken by Dr Erich Rome. The Multi-sensory Autonomous Cognitive Systems (MACS) project is aimed at giving intelligent agents environmental awareness through appearance-based recognition, instead of the traditional feature-based recognition.As I confusingly noted in the heading, whilst a traditional recognition approach would search an environment for a chair, MACS would search that same environment for something to sit on - a chair, stool, couch etc. This approach is an affordances-based environmental understanding.Gizmag's article, and its source, are certainly worth a read, especially for those interested in robot-environment interaction - beyond just not hitting anything!source
SwashBot has a friend 2008-04-29 20:13:00 It seems to be the time for follow-ups at the moment. Previously, I wrote about an awesome little robot called SwashBot that was based on the swash plate of an RC Helicopter.Yesterday, I was looking at the pictures again and noticed an addition at the bottom. SwashBot's creator, Crabfu, has just built a larger version, SwashBot 2 (pictured besides the original).There is a video of SwashBot 2 on his site, it has the same style gait as the original, but is somewhat larger.Kudos goes out to Crabfu, both of these bots are fantastic examples interesting robots built on a budget. I just hope he puts a little automation into them now; there are plenty of Microcontrollers that could handle that many Servos directly and that gait coupled with a simple light-seeking, obstacle-avoiding behaviour woul Read more:friend
Copehill Down's Robot invasion 2008-05-01 06:22:00 This is an interesting article that was brought to my attention by one of my intrepid reporters, Nick.Copehill Down in England, a mock East German village used for urban warfare simulations, will be the focus of a Robot
invasion in August.The UK's Ministry of Defence (MoD) will be conducting a competition to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to Robotic Urban Warfare.11 Teams will compete to find a number of threats throughout out village, the winner possibly gaining a MoD contract for wartime deployment.The newscientist article briefly covers three of the teams, and a quick google search will fill in the rest. I will certainly be following this competition!
CeBIT 2008 Australia 2008-05-30 02:38:00 I've just returned from CeBIT
2008 in Darling Harbour, Sydney, Australia
(thanks to my work) where, in my free time, I did my best to soak up as much embedded-computing technology as I could. Here are some of my highlights.Backplane SystemsBackplane Systems had a number of exciting competitors to the Norhtec MicroClient Jr that I am using, although most were in a slightly higher price bracket (wit
7 gram robot can jump 1.4m every 3 seconds! 2008-05-30 02:14:00 (Yes, I'm back, after a study-necessitated break)Researchers from the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems at EPFL have demonstrated a 7 gram micro-robot that has the ability to jump more that 27 times its own body size. Using a tiny pager motor, the robot builds up a store of elastic energy that is released to propel the robot into the air. The researches envisage extending the technology with addit Read more:every
Progress (Finally!) 2008-06-10 05:06:00 Finally, (in the middle of my exams, of course) I have some proper progress to report on my robot.I have determined the first feature/ability benchmark for the robot, and I have made some significant progress towards that benchmark.Before the first benchmark, I had a number of goals, outlined below:Fabrication of basic frame, motors, camera hardware etc (90% complete)IO board for PC-based motor co Read more:Finally
It Moves! 2008-06-14 22:41:00 Finally, after months of mucking around, the robot moves under its "own" steam. Since my last post, I have made a small change to the code with the addition of a very simple "fuzzy" motor control algorithm. Specifically, the offset of the target in the camera's view directly influences the pause between switching the motor on and then off again. This allows for large corrections initially, foll
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