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Building a robot requires many things but movement is something that is common in all robots. There are many motor options when building a robot but no matter what type of motor you select they can’t be powered directly from microcontroller pins since most pins can only provide 20 or 25mA of current. The solution is quite simple, the microcontroller simply needs to send a signal to a motor driver chip and you let the motor driver chip do the high current work that is needed when dealing with motors. Chris from PyroElectro written a great tutorial on how to control robot motors. ”The microcontroller that we will use for this part of the Building A Robot series is the PIC 18F252 8-bit microcontroller. It is manufactured by microchip, and most of my tutorials/projects on this website use the PIC. The motor controller IC that we will use is the same as some other tutorials, the SN754410NE Quadruple Half-H Driver.”
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Blair Kelly has designed a fun looking RC car. It has an Arduino mounted in the car, there are a number of sensors that allow Blair to drive the car around viewing the drive on a computer screen. There is even force feedback so when the car goes over a large bump or bangs into something he can feel it. With a head mounted display this thing would be very immersive. The camera is mounted so that it can be moved from right to left. I can just imagine what it would feel like if this right and left camera movement was linked to head movements when wearing a head mount display! Via: Make
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Randy Sarafan, the Technology Editor at Instructables built this programmable car platform by taking an off the shelf RC Car and swapped its brains with an Arduino. This allows the new car to have sensor capabilities and programmability. Randy installed a PING ultrasonic sensor in the front of the vehicle so that it can avoid running into objects but the possibilities are endless now that you can write code for new functionality. “Converting an RC car into a robot is a quick and easy way to get started with robotics. At the very least, when you get bored of playing with your remote control car after three days, you can turn it into a robot that will do all of your evil bidding. Well, maybe not all of it, but at least a sizable amount.”
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Check out this cool Self-Balancing Robot Build that Kerry Wong shared with us. He has used some very inexpensive parts to get this thing built. To read through the build process have a look at part 1, part 2 and part 3 of the build. “I used a LPY450AL for the gyroscope and anMMA8453Q for the accelerometer. These two devices are rather inexpensive and the IMU can be built for well under $10. The toy truck I used for this project has a single motor that drives both of the rear wheels. Since I only need the drive wheels, I cut off the unused front portion. The toy car’s plastic chassis is not rigid enough so I hot-glued a few pieces of plastic and metal support on the back. The extra support is important as excessive vibrations affect the accuracy of the sensor measurements. Here is the bill of material in my build: Platform: Toy truck (0 – $20)
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This mini sumo robot was developed without using a microcontroller. Using circuits as an alternative to a microcontroller makes its implementation cost efficient since there isn’t much to it. Watch the video to see the machine demonstrated against a stationary object (I guess actual robot testing is the next step). Best of all there is no programmer needed to make a change, just tweak the detection wings a bit and you are ready to test. If you are eager to find how it was made you can go through read about it here. “Bottom panel’s height can be adjusted. This allows the skirt to be moved close to the floor, preventing opponents from wedging under -Super sticky wheels are made using foam tape covered with exercise band material. The foam tape compresses to allow for more surface contact, and the band’s rubber sticks to the floor”.
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The video above demonstrates what Vijay Kumar and his team are building. We have seen some toy quadcopters that have some impressive capabilities but I can’t wait till a tiny and smart quadcopter as agile as these are available. If you don’t have the time to watch the entire video make sure you see the flight demonstrations at 10:05. Thanks for sending this in Matt. ”In his lab at Penn, Vijay Kumar and his team build flying quadrotors, small, agile robots that swarm, sense each other, and form ad hoc teams — for construction, surveying disasters and far more.” |
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Thanks to Andrew for sending in his DIY Remote Control Ping Pong Ball Machine Gun. The mechanism he used reminds me of the type that is normally used to launch baseballs and tennis balls. Even Nerf Gun Darts are fired using a similar method, I guess if the method works there is no need to make a better mouse trap. This system is controlled using an Arduino microcontroller and is fired by sending remote commands to it. “The electronics for this project are simple. They consist of an Arduino, a stepper motor, a ULN2003 driver chip and a couple of LEDs. I based the circuit off of my previous project “Easy CNC Controller“. I chose to use this method as it was very easy, and requires no additional parts. I got the motor from an old scanner.”
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