Robotics

I've been interested in robotics for as long as I can remember. I recall my facination when I first saw Robbie the Robot in the movie Forbidden Planet. Later I voraciously read the tales of Susan Calvin and others in Asimov's book I Robot, a novel consisting of interconnected short stories about the "future history" of the company U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men. I know that my interest in things robotic helped spur my goal to becoming an engineer as an adult.

The irony is that while being an engineer for over twenty years now, I have never actually built a robot. While I did spend several years working with embedded computers in the 1990's, it was never in conjunction with anything mechanical other than the design of box containing the electronics. This all changed in March, 2005.

For several years, I had been working on various Tcl projects. They are listed elsewhere on my website. I had reached a point that writing software, and especially documentation for that software, had become tiresome. I was writing a lot of documentation at work and doing more of the same at home was no longer fun for me. I needed something different to do in my spare time.

Being a bit of a packrat, I've been hauling around electronics components that I've collected over the years. While in the garage it hit me that it was time to put that old stuff to use on a project. How about a robot?

The sections below describe my robots that are currently in development and those that are only concepts at this time. I've also listed links to websites that I've found useful. Enjoy

Robots in Development

Ol' Blue

Ol' Blue is a tracked robot based on a small single-board computer. This robot has undergone several enhancements and modifications since it was created. The links belows lead to pages describing the original Ol' Blue, its "mods", and the software written for it.

	Original version of Ol' Blue.
	Ol' Blue Mod 1 - The first modification of Ol' Blue.
	Ol' Blue Mod 2 - The second modification of Ol' Blue.
	Ol' Blue's Mind - The software developed for Ol' Blue is described.

PDA-Based Robot

I have several PalmOS-based PDAs (Palm III, Palm IIIx, Palm IIIc) that can be used for robotic applications. This is inspired by the Palm Pilot Robot Kit and Palmbot. A PDA-based robot was actually my original concept when I started looking into building a robot. It would have the PDA act as the main robot brain and one of my RTXEBs would be a slave controller for all motors and sensors. At the time, the lack of a suitable chassis and my not having re-learned Forth yet caused me to set my sights lower. I developed a robot that eventually became known as Ol' Blue.

I have now obtained an R/C vehicle for use on this project. It is a New Bright Toys International CXT truck. It is 1:10 in scale and provides a rear bed large enough to comfortably hold a Palm III. The truck cab has a truly cavernous interior that is perfect for holding support electronics and sensors for the robot. I have disassembled the truck and studied the R/C reciever sufficiently to backward engineer a schematic of the electronics. I plan on tapping into the electronics to allow dual control of the truck via robotic command or the remote control. I will use either C, Java, or Dragon Forth as the programming language on the PDA. For motor and sensor control, I'll probably use a PIC16F628, running either PicForth or C.

Laptop-Based Robot

I have a couple of laptops that have potential for use in robots. That is, they are relatively underpowered (Pentium 150 MHz processors) and nobody wants them. I was successful in repairing one of them, so it can be used as the CPU of a mobile robot. I've installed Slackware 10.2 on the laptop and plan on programming the software in Forth, C, or Java.

I am slowly putting together the infrastructure to support the robot. I now have a WiFi access point (AP) on my network to support wireless communications to the robot. I'm also in the process of assembling the parts to built a panoramic scanning camera (PanoramaScanCam™) for wide-field computer vision and navigation. My robot won't be as fancy as the Evolution Robotics ER1 Personal Robot System, but it won't be anywhere near as expensive either!

RoboCruiser

A couple of years ago, I was given a Maisto 1:18 Scale PT Cruiser Diecast as a Christmas present. I was (and still am) quite enamored to the PT Cruiser. I decided that if I can't have a real one at this time, I can have a robot model to play with. I dubbed the robot RoboCruiser as a play on "robotic PT Cruiser" and Robocop. I already have a tongue-in-cheek slogan for the robot: Murphy's Law, Not Asimov's!. Fans of the Robocop movies will understand the double meaning here. If I could find a Robocop figurine to put into the driver seat, that would be icing on the cake!

This robot has turned into a major hack job. The robot is driven with a Tamiya Universal Gear Box. The spring suspension system is maintained on the rear axel. Proportional steering is provided by a bipolar stepper motor taken from a 3 1/2-inch floppy drive that is linked to the steering yoke of the car. A PIC 16F628 will control the robot, running either PicForth or C. Collisions sensors of a yet undetermined type will be installed.

The main concern with this robot is that the body is cast aluminium, which is quite heavy. Perhaps a plastic PT Cruiser body can be found or created. I have looked into suitable and inexpensive materials to make a mold from the metal body and casting a plastic body.

Robotics in Concept

Robotic Telepresence or "There's Waldo"

Telepresence is a topic related to robotics that I've also found interesting. The technology has come a long way since the novella Waldo. Telepresence has become commonplace; from microsurgeries performed on the unborn, to the wartime exploits of Predator and Global Hawk drones flying over Iraq and Afganistan.

Links

B.G. Micro My favorite place for parts.

Last updated Wednesday, January 3, 2007