PicoCam
PicoCam was built as a proof of concept. Its purpose was simple, navigate an area using typical avoidance routines while capturing live wireless video/audio and transmitting it to a receiver. The was never really completed because I had other ideas The pictures shown here are of the final version, with working navigation, but I did not bother going the last step to get the live video to display (even though it will work). (more…)
TrackerBot
You would think I have a template for "room-navigating" TrackerBot evolved from the recent PicoCam robot I created. After I had finished PicoCam, I decided I wanted to try something with tracks. TrackerBot and PicoCam share similar intelligence, with TrackerBot having some slight improvements. The general idea is that it will navigate a room using a variety of sensory input for obstacle avoidance. There are 3 Cybermaster touch sensors, 1 DIRP light sensor and 1…
BigWheel
Big Wheel (BW) was an experiment at building a robot that uses the HailFire Driod (StarWars) large wheels. It's job is simple; build an autonomous robot that can navigate any area while avoiding obstacles by not hitting them in the first place. To do this, BW uses a DIRPD sensor to "see" left, right and center. This allows BW avoide obstacles from 3 views before actually hitting them. (more…)
TiltBot
Sept. 06: Pete @ Techno-Stuff has just sent me another new sensor from Techno-Stuff. This time it's a Accelleration / Tilt sensor. Instead of going into great detail on how it works, I will quote from his site: " The Accel Sensor lets your robot measure it's acceleration. The sensor can also be used to measure tilt. This is a two channel device that lets you measure acceleration or tilt along two perpendicular axis. Acceleration…
FireBot
One of my early projects was to build a fire extinguishing robot. I did this using the parts I had at the time. It was based on a walker platform and used a pneumatic circut to "blow" the fire out when detected. It worked reasonably well with the provided light sensor. Recently, I discovered the PIR (Passive Infrared Sensor) from TechnoStuff. This sensor was built to detect infrared heat and seemed to be a good…
Walker
I managed to re-work an old design. By using 2 motors and drive mechanisms, I was able to get the walker to steer. The key to steering is the syncro mechanism that I setup. It uses 2 touch sensors - 1 on each of the left and right center drive legs. Using NQC, the code will monitor the timing of the rotations. It goes something like this: When sensor #1 is triggered - is sensor…
Fire Extinguisher
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Johnny 5
Johnny5 was built more as a test to see how similar I could build him out of lego. Programming on Johnny5 was simply line following with object avoidance via touch sensors at the front. His hands and head would also move in a pre-defined pattern. The pneumatics are there for visual effects. They serve no function on this model. Rate This Post:
DTM
This is my LEGO ??dpi (25 I think) DTM scanner. The DTM works via a combination of RCX-based code done in NQC / RCXCC, and a program made in Visual Basic (5). RCX - The RCX is responsible for scanning a line, and populating its datalog with pixel values and then sending a signal for the PC to upload this data. The RCX then waits for the PC to send a signal back to continue.…
MarbleMiser I
Marble Miser was designed to meet the challenge of the 4th Annual Lego Robotics Competition / Get together at U of T in Toronto Ontario. Many thanks to Calum and the boys for putting this together. It was the first event that I was able to attend, and it was a great time. The turnout yielded many more entrants than initially expected. To find out more about the event, visit RTL Toronto Website. Now to…