Photos with tag "robotics"

2008-10-06: Steve, The Disembodied Robot Arm

White teflon grease added, ready to close it up	That looks better	These should give it a stronger grip without breaking gears or skipping teeth	As long as I'm upgrading nylon gears to metal, I figure the gripper servo could use an upgrade too
This is the wrist rotate servo. It's hard to see, but the second gear from the right is missing half its teeth, the result of a rounding error in my code. Guess it's time for an upgrade to metal gears...	The controller connects to the Arduino's six analogue inputs, along with power, ground, and an I/O pin for the LED	Look at that, a fancy grommet and rubber feet and everything	The LED both indicates that power is on but can also be flashed to communicate things back to you
The 'remote control' I built -- originally meant to be a quick hack, I ended up spending two days making it way nicer than it needed to be	Seven servos consume a surprising amount of power. I had really flaky performance with the 4xAA battery pack, but this 2.5A AC adapter took care of that problem	Electronics mounted on custom adapter plate. Arduino Diecimila for primary control, and Pololu Micro Serial Servo Controller to handle the drudgery of communicating with all those servos	Gripper installed. Arm complete!
Forearm installed	Forearm assembled	Clever adhesive clips turn servos into hinges	Assembling the forearm -- even more servos
Assembling the main arm components -- more servos	Gripper mechanism complete		Assembling gripper mechanism
Gripper servo mounted			More assembly
Lots of small lexan parts to prepare	Wrist rotate servo mounted	More assembly
After	Before	More protective plastic removal	Next we move on to the gripper
Power jack and switch installed	Removing protective covering from lexan. Clearly these parts were cut with a laser	Baseplate installed	Servo installed in base
Lacking 3-in-1 oil, I figured my robots can use the same oil as my motorcycle (1c)	Bracket installed on baseplate	Open up the main arm parts bag because we need the mounting bracket	Smoothing out the bearings with sandpaper
Installing the bearings (just steel rods through nylon balls)	Starting with the rotating base	There's a lot of work to be done
My latest project arrives -- the parts to build a robot arm

2008-07-31: Little PIC

Circuit board bottom side

Circuit board top side

All he does is scurry around and run into stuff

A quick little palm-sized robot built from stuff I had lying around

2008-06-29: BullyBot

It's a forest of capacitors, but at least my motors finally work	Stick 'em up	All put together	IR detector prototype -- this will be attached to the gun on BullyBot
IR emitter circuit prototype -- this will go on each of the other robots (the digicam sees the IR light from the LED, though in real life it's invisible)	All his bits are working (my work table is a little messy)	Underside of board, showing all the wiring. Maybe it's about time I start investigating printed circuit boards	Top side of board with the Pololu Low Voltage Serial Motor Controller removed
The "Output Module" (circuitry for all motors, servos, etc)	Space between the platforms to mount the Arduino and other circuit boards	The assembled base	Preparing the upper base - leftover aluminum drumsticks from Little Drum Machine become DIY standoffs
Bottom of lower base	Lower base assembled	Lotsa holes	It might be a good idea to add another servo on the right side just to add support
View from the other side	Gun mounted on the second servo to aim it left and right	The base of the robot. Those axles will need some support	Mounting the servo to aim the gun up and down
Removed parts	Useless parts Dremelled off	Extending the axles

2008-04-07: Little Drum Machine

Which means I don't need that motor driver PCB I spent so much thought and effort soldering up. Ah well	I put his head on a servo because that zippy little pager motor just wasn't precise enough	Underside. I moved the microphone away from the "bass drum" motor because it was picking up the whining of the motor louder than the drumming itself	Rear view. Ahh, isn't that so much cleaner?
Sampling board on the left (hot glue makes it so easy to mount things)	The final robot. Motor driver on the right side	This helped a lot -- glued small plastic tabs to limit the rotation of the head	My sketched-out plan for the circuitry. Just like the motor driver PCB, it took some clever arrangement to lay everything out efficiently
Fits right onto the microcontroller board	Six hours of soldering, phew	The completed PCB. So much neater	That's a mess
Here's the final messy circuit, just before I recreate it on a PCB using a hard disk ribbon cable to keep things neater	Underside	Once the circuit is finalized, I'll probably solder it up on a PCB to eliminate that rat's nest	He's now almost completed, construction-wise
Reverse view	Bracket fabricated to mount the sonar "eyes" onto the motor	The solder side of the board (I need a finer tip for my soldering iron)	My first PCB -- a motor driver to turn the "head" back and forth
Now he can record his beats, play them back in a loop, and jam out along with them	I hacked a little sampling circuit board, removing the pushbuttons and soldering up wires so the robot can trigger the record and playback functions	Bass drum motor detail	"Bass drum" mounted
Rear view. All those long cables will be trimmed down once I know exactly where I'm actually mounting everything	Some revision of the circuitry mounting, and he's got a little drumstick to bash on things now	Rear view	Main body glued together
Clear as day, eh?	One of the tiny pager motors, geared down and hot-glued to a "drumstick"	The breadboarded circuit. The small blue board is a motor controller for the two tank tread motors, the three transistors to the right of it will each control one of the three "drumsticks", and the green wire towards the top is for the LCD	The underside
The base of the robot

2008-03-31: Harry the Discbot

Testing is made a lot easier with a speaker (ripped from an old 486 PC) to play beeps and boops, but with nowhere to mount it, I just have to carry it behind him like a wedding train	Harry disassembled. The 4 rechargeable AAs provide (4 x 1.2v) 4.8v for the motors, while the sonar and microprocessor are powered by the 9V battery on the top level	Front view	Rear view. CDs conveniently provide a hole in the middle for routing wires between levels
When all you have is a soldering iron, everything looks like a circuit	That's one way to attach a foam model airplane tire to a servo control horn	The majority of the breadboard is taken up by just the two H-bridges (4 transistors each) for controlling the two motors. Aside from that, pin 6 controls the servo to position the sonar, and pin 2 interfaces with the sonar itself	Fabricating the bracket for the sonar sensor was probably the most difficult part of the whole project
Harry the Discbot

2008-03-16: Igor The Photovore

Igor's simple circuitry -- two parallel Miller engines, powered alternately one at a time from the large blue capacitor. The choice of which motor to spin is influenced by both the 'eyes' and the whiskers

Igor is powered only by the sun, so he's entirely self-sufficient. He seeks out his food source (with his awkward shuffling gait) whether you're watching or not

2008-03-01: Building Robots

Herpe is kind of an idiot so his circuitry probably won't progress past the breadboarding stage	Feivel meets Herpe, the curious-yet-skittish-puppybot	I call him Feivel	Eyestalks etc wired up, all done
Goood, goood	Backup switch glued and soldered in	Soldering the "crap I bumped into something, let me back up" part of the circuit	Battery taped in and relay glued in
Starting to solder up the circuit for real	That little black chip in the middle is the simple brain	Prototyping the circuit for a phototropic robot built from the parts of an old mouse

2008-02-28: Microcontrollers

The logic behind it is protty simple

(See?)

First project: a simple lightmeter

Finally learning to program microcontrollers