Robot Fetches Ball

This robot uses an Acroname CMUcam2+ for its eye and an Acroname BrainStem GP 2.0 microcontroller for its brain. It chases down a bright pink ball (which I made with a styrofoam ball and neon pink acrylic paint), grabs it with its dual-servo pincher, and brinks it back to its home base by homing in on another bright pink target (conveniently mounted over the iSight camera on my Mac). He turned into the wall and got stuck on the first attempt in the video so I cut to the second successful attempt.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• robot
• brainstem
• fetch
• CMUcam2
• servo
• ball
• electronics
• gadget
• DIY
• computer

[mw0868]

@dekbannok007 Connect ground from I2C bus connector to ground on camera. Connect unregulated power output from I2C bus connector to power input on camera.

[dekbannok007]

@mw0868 ::: You mean I have to connect 4 AA batteries to BrainStem, then connect GND on I2C bus of BrainStem to Power pin of CMUcam?? By the way, I m using TTL to communicate to CMUcam.

[mw0868]

@dekbannok007 You can use the unregulated power connection (which comes straight from the battery) and the ground connection on the I2C bus to provide power to the camera. The camera has its own voltage regulator.

[dekbannok007]

@mw0868 :: I need some help. I just want to know how to connect the power supply that is shared by both Brainstem and CMUcam. I am using 4 AA batteries, I don't know how to make a connection between CMUcam and Brainstem to share 4 AA batteries power supply.

Thank you.

[mw0868]

@dekbannok007 The language is very similar to C. It uses function calls specific to the BrainStem. With a BrainStem, you can use any text editor you like to write the code but you need to use the BrainStem tools to compile it. I just used TextEdit on a Mac. Programmer's Notepad is a very nice freeware editor if you're using Windows.

[dekbannok007]

@mw0868 I have another question, what program did you use to write the code for instructing Brainstem?

The language is C ? with pre-defined for Brainstem??

Thank you

[dekbannok007]

@mw0868 : Thank you so much for sharing

[mw0868]

@dekbannok007 You'll also need wires, connectors, construction materials, and wheels. The Acroname CMUcam2+ is discontinued, but it looks like you can get a CMUcam2 ($179) or CMUcam1 ($109) from Seattle Robotics. A CMUcam1 can also track a ball. Parallax modified servos for the wheels are $13 each. Servos for head and arms may be $10 each. A controller may range from $30 (Arduino) to $80 (GP 2.0). So you might be able to build something similar for around $250.

[dekbannok007]

@mw0868 : So, all components are

1.CMUcam2+

2. Controller

3. two motors for the wheels

4. three servos for a head and arms

5.Batteries

Am i right??

So, how much does it cost???

[mw0868]

Thanks! The most important component is a CMUcam2. It can track a colored object with simple commands. Any controller with a serial port can talk to it. But you'll need a controller (or combination of controllers) that can do serial communication and perform tracking calculations while also sending pulses to drive several servos. I used a single Acroname BrainStem GP 2.0 as the brain for the robot since it can perform all of these tasks.