Obstacle Avoiding Robot Project

[shaquillec1]

can i ask the LED's you have on the front what did you use them for ?

[sk8rj10]

@shaquillec1 I mostly just used them for BLFNARs but I also used them to indicate which sensor was triggered, green for the front sharp sensors, red for side, and blue for the edge sensors.

[gmsemaan]

hey there great job on this robot, small question... im working on a robot but having a hard time finding a good strong SMOOTH ball caster, what ur using looks smooth and great can u plz tell me where did u get this one from thanks

[sk8rj10]

@gmsemaan thanks, yeah finding a good caster is definitely a struggle sometimes, The caster I used wasn't all that smooth but it was strong, i found it a hardware store, i forget which one. Anyway I would highly recommend the casters from Pololu, we sell them at Solarbotics -> just search for caster, we had had good luck with the 3/4" sized casters.

[ChiIdKiIIer]

@CNCidiot you don't know where to start? mmm better pay attention to class

[gameur86]

SOUNDTRACK ??????????

[circuitization]

can u please post the link for the schematic and the programs for the ic...

thanks...nice robot...

[8983056989]

its awesome

can i hav the ckt diag & programming for it ....?

[sk8rj10]

@CNCidiot Thanks! I'd recommend using the ATMEGA328P uC since they are very common and widely supported. Every ardunio/freeduino variant incorporates this chip these days. Personally I like the Freedunio SB by solarbotics. For this robot I used the PIC16F877 which is now obsolete so I would advise against using it, plus the software ain't cheap. The beautiful thing about arduino's is the the software is open source, it's free! If you don't know where to start I'd recommend this months SERVO mag.

[egn83b]

My hat off to you I have taken digital electronics and it's a blast to learn but very hard to understand concepts once you get deep into the theory of each componet. That's cool you managed to get that kind of robot together. That right their a good example of thinking to bring into a job interview because they see that your hired right on the spot.

[ranjankkk]

Hey can you give some more details onGP2D12 sensors and its alternatives.....

[sk8rj10]

Sorry I don't have a lot of room in this text box but you can check the specs for this sensor and other alternatives out at the Acroname site [under products-> sensors]. As an alternative I would recommend the Maxbotix MaxSonar EZ-1 Ultrasonic Sensor as a longer range sensor [6-254 inches] which also has a easy to use A/D output. I haven't used many other distance sensors so I can't recommend many more. I do have many salvaged Polaroid Ultrasonics but haven't had time to implement them yet.

[sk8rj10]

If you're interested you can grab the EZ-1 at HVWtech or Robotshop in Canada or many places in the States and abroad.

[dee1392]

dude thATs insane, can you change the range of the obstacle sensors?

[sk8rj10]

Yes, definitely, SHARP GP2D12's have a max range of 80 cm, but on this robot that was sometimes too far to be of practical use. I ended up programming the robot to trigger on a smaller Analog voltage returned from the sensors so the detection distance was shorter.

[RunnyInk]

Nice bot! Thanks for sharing it online.

[sk8rj10]

Thanks, you are most definitely right! There are 2 Sharp GP2D12's on the front and one on each side also (they are hard to see). I programmed the LEDs to indicate which sensor gets triggered, so when you see the green LEDs light up it's the front Sensors activating, red it's the one of the sides, and blue for the edge sensors.

[94thts]

Nice robot! 2 IR sharp range sensors on the front, am i right?

[sk8rj10]

Thanks! Yeah man, Robotics is challenging and fun, and by the way this bot was also programmed in BASIC....PicBASIC to be exact...its what i learned in tech. school. Although its not that advanced of a programming language it can do a lot :)

[bloodbro111]

this is an awsom bot nice one ive done robotics before i was using Pbasic to program i know thats not very advanced but im new kind of got fed up for a while but now i live alone givees me somthing to do and enjoyment at same time =]