Nuntius the Garden Avenger robot vs. the weed!!!

A couple of years ago I first saw one of those self contained game systems that consist of just the joystick and the AV wires that you plug into your TV. I was simply amazed at the simplicity and brilliance of the concept. You just plug it in and play.

Nuntius is based on the same basic concept of those systems except it's a robot. The controller it a biomechanical input device that consists of a propeller proto board that measures the position of a 5 axis "mini arm" that you articulate with your hand just like you would if you were actually there. The propeller then send the data via a XBEE to the robot. The result is that the big arm on the robot mirrors the mini arm and you control the robot by looking through a wireless camera that's attached to the gripper. The movement of the robot is proportional to the direction and how far the arm is extended (or pulled back for reverse). The further the arm is extended, the faster it goes in that direction. The robot only moves while you're holding down a button on the proto board. This allows you to drive the robot around and then stop and examine something with just a button and the mini arm. You just plug it in and do whatever... weed the lawn, weed the garden, weed the driveway, take the dog for a walk... from the safety and comfort of your couch. :)

Dave


Major components:
2 Propeller chip proto boards (from last year's UPEC & UPENE)
1 Propeller proto board enclosure
2 XBees
1 Parallax Wheel Kit
2 Parallax HB-25 Motor Controllers
Servos and Servo Brackets from Lyxmotion
Wireless camera

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Propeller chip
• Parallax
• robot
• Lyxmotion
• garden
• weeding
• XBee
• HB-25

[aggrav8d]

Great, effective work! Very impressive. I can't help but notice that arm is only 5DOF, not 6.

[vanmunch36]

@aggrav8d

Opps, your right. I guess that's what happens when your head is in the code :) 6 positions, 6 servo 6,...

[ercost60]

XLNT video and blooper! Great job!

[vanmunch36]

@ercost60

Hey thanks, I got that as a gag gift for my birthday and I was looking at it and the robot and thought, "Here's something that you always wonder what would actually look like happening in real life."

[turtleD90]

very cool, i love the design of the robot controller, is it possible for the robot to record those postsions and replay them later? that would be so cool

[vanmunch36]

@turtleD90

I'm glad you liked it. It would be very easy for the controller to record the positions and replay them. It's essentially doing that right now only it erases them after about 1/100 of a second after it send the data to the robot.

[boydrh]

some weeds take a decent amount of force to pull out of the ground. From the bloopers section, it looks like the gripper lacks the power to pull effectively

[NGYT40]

Congratulations David! Great robot and great project!!!!

[gregorj1979]

you should probably attach a more wide angle lens on your camera.

Nice job. and keep up the good work