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1. SERVO 10 2012 5 Mind Iron Platforms he pioneers in robotics faced and overcame numerous challenges For example if they wanted to develop say a new navigation algorithm they had to first build a hardware platform They couldn t simply go online and decide between dozens of off the shelf flying swimming crawling and walking robotics platforms Today the issues are affordability functionality popularity and support largely in that order Sometimes this isn t the best order of consideration however l ve gone through my share of commercial platforms including various forms of the Parallax BoeBot a six legged crawler and arm from CrustCrawler at least two roamers from a now defunct company arms from Trossen Robotics and Lynxmotion and flying platforms from Parallax DIYDrones and a few offshore companies Some have been great time savers and a few have been time sinks The two carpet roamers from a company I can t recall were time sinks because well the company is defunct That means no technical support no spare parts and no user community It s hard to avoid this sort of endgame unless you know something about the company The issues of affordability and functionality are easily quantified Twenty minutes on the Web will reveal the best price and user reviews are great for assessing functionality The Web is also a great tool for assessing the popularity of a platform Look for articles and postings o
2. strive for everyone to have as much fun as possible the builders the drivers and most of all the audience his vision is believe what has kept Robot Battles going strong into our third decade Because we never got bogged down by internal or external politics we never got into money conflicts and we have always worked together to keep everything as entertaining as possible we ve survived when so many other events and competitions have fallen by the wayside The first event had two robots entered One was from a team from Georgia Tech the other was built and driven by a student from the University of Georgia Needless to say there was a built in rivalry from the very start We were set up in the basement level of the Atlanta Hilton which at that time was bare concrete We didn t have a stage a PA system lighting video screens or any of the things we take for granted today What we did have was nearly 300 people surrounding the combat area which was marked out with duct tape cheering on the eventual winner the driver from UGA The second year we had seven competitors Within five years we had over 20 bots FIGURES 1 and 2 In these shots of the rumble at the end of Robot Battles at Dragon Con last year you can see the raised platform arena that is unique to Robot Battles D 36 SES 10 2012 entered had the use of a large ballroom to handle the SRO crowds lights sound sy
3. 1 5 inches from the top and bend it to 30 degrees The tip of the plate and the middle of the plate should be lined up and pointed in the same direction Flip the plate over and bend the back panel to 90 degrees Bend the two small side tabs up to 90 degrees Place the covering over the two motor mounts and check the fit You may need some additional tweaking to get the piece to sit flat against the two motor mounts and the front of the titanium sheet 48 SERVO 10 9019 FINISHING YOUR ROBOT Once the bottom plate sits flat on the robot use the fine tip Sharpie and mark the locations of the tapped holes on the motor mount Because the polycarbonate Is clear you can lay it on the robot and see where the tapped holes are Once you have marked them with a pen use the same punch hammer and drill technique described previously to drill out the marked holes Screw down the polycarbonate WHEELS ON THE GROUND TEST plate with four 440 screws Then If the robot s steering is incorrect try flipping the aileron and elevator place your robot face up on a block switches to different positions There should be four different combinations of wood make sure you can see the If none of the four combinations work you will have to open the robot and wood through the three titanium flip the two speed controller plugs to opposite ports However your first holes on the front of the robot Using power on should be correct your 1
4. pet caton nean mamma s bole with VE A and B Higi Dp IE aT i D hd bn LE fal Ke E ke PQ12 Linear Actuator Miniature Linear T FN aa Los ame It LAI Lh REET n OO LZ E SUN TIA 4A E Fe Fe n We du Mus lt E IinEn mr rer anl n niegrated position feedback o 1 F ip Siren Wal ealn Tifl ewig I Ul sili KE i E tarnal Tie eer in ieee a a tors KI p AJ Uu YGL i iil fa ul IB g JA z HE i hele CK zx Pj wd ody and4 A regum TS D Le MIL 1 JI LT rues P RR NE Ue WI YoUr COPI Fakir sm I mr p Ane S220 Im c L12 NXT Linear wise Desi pec ik EGO Min dlc ima NXT il j ili n WT Sri w LU vul LEE JI RAS J j E ETE ETTE Leno J X ns Available Now www firgelli com Got an MSP430 based product that you re ready to take into the wireless realm Based on proven Texas Instruments low power RF chips Anaren Integrated Radio AIR modules offer gt Industry s easiest most cost effective RF implementation gt Low power RF solution gt Deployment with virtually no RF engineering experience required gt Tiny common footprints gt Pre certification compliance to FCC IC amp EISI as applicable To learn more write AIR anaren com visit www anaren com air or scan the QR code with your smart phone X TEXAS INSTRUMENTS What ll we think of next 800 411 6596 www anaren com In Europe call 44 2392 232392 SERVO
5. A broken or loose wire anywhere especially ground related can cause all manner of problems If using solid conductor wire check with your meter while gently moving the wire side to side You ll get intermittent continuity if the wire is broken inside the insulation Wet or dirty contacts Water and dirt can cause intermittent connections Wipe clean dry and try again Lights On No Serial Debug Messages Suppose the Arduino s power LED is glowing but nothing seems to happen What s more you ve used debugging messages in your sketch and these messages are not appearing when you open the Serial Monitor window The USB cable is bad or the wrong serial port is selected This error can occur if you ve previously uploaded your sketch and have reconnected the Arduino to your computer Verify the integrity of the cable see Figure 2 check the ends themselves and make sure the proper serial port is selected If you have more than one Arduino each one may be associated with a different serial port Be sure you ve picked the right one 62 SERVO 10 9019 FIGURE 2 USB cable ends can get dirty and crushed during the normal course of events Visually inspect the Arduino s programming cable and replace as needed Wrong baud rate selected in the Serial Monitor window Be sure it matches the baud rate specified in your sketch e Serial communications out of sync Sometimes your Arduino and PC fall out of sync
6. However that won t stop us from serving up some ASCII with SERVO SERVER l ve always shown you data transfers with either HyperTerminal or Tera Term Pro There s a really good terminal emulator serial analyzer that comes with the CCS PIC C compiler It s called the Serial Input Output Monitor I ve set up a Winsock connection using the Serial Input Output Monitor in Screenshot 6 The PIC18F4620 connected serially to the NEMO10 is part of a PICDEM Z development board The PICDEM Z development board you see attached to the NEMO10 in Photo 5 is one of a pair of 802 15 4 capable development boards The NEMO10 to PICDEM Z direct serial port connection is possible because the NEMO10 is a DTE Data Terminal Equipment device Your PC is configured as a DTE device The PICDEM Z is wired for DCE Data Communications Equipment operation Modems are DCE devices A DTE device s transmit pin is positioned in the connector to directly connect to the DCE device s receive pin The same holds true for the DTE s receive pin and DCE s transmit pin Add a ground pin to this equation and you have what is termed the three wire serial interface Now that we have a device server to device serial connection let s write a simple piece of code to spin something out of the PIDEM Z s serial port unsigned int servo 0 do Printf YOU HAVE CONTACTED SERVO SERVER PrintDec servo Printf r DelayMs 1000 while 1 The Pr
7. Q er 08 cog COV o JOA Listing 1 include lt PS2X Mab loe ns for Sl S S Were motor driyer I O lineg conste int e d DAI qe dio 2 const int IDir2 sie const int PWML 5 righne motor ceiver I 00 lines Const int Diri 4s const int rDLr2 11 conse int PWMR 6 create PS2 Controller Class PS2X mess foe You must have the controller turned on A When thie program starts pid int error byte type 0 byte vibrate 0 0 75 2 Full Sion wear 0 cull reverse 255 byte leftSpeed rightSpeed 16 SERVO 10 2012 Yet Another Arduino Robot But wait I m driving it and firmly reject the idea that any remotely controlled vehicle is a robot Not to worry The acronym can still be Yet Another Arduino Remote vehicle So YAAR it is As with last month s PS2 project I m using a SparkFun Arduino Pro a 5V Arduino running at 16 MHz and the Arduino 1 01 IDE This script will work with any Arduino Uno board as well To make this project all need to add Is a vehicle chassis and a low voltage dual motor controller like to fly electric RC aircraft so have no shortage of two and three cell lithium ion battery packs lying around but didn t have any simple to use reversing low voltage motor controllers Time to hit the Web found the Pololu TB6612FNG motor controller for about US 9 It is a one amp continuous 3A peak controller for motors in the 4 5V to 13V range and it is TI
8. The deluxe kit 49 95 includes everything that the basic kit does in addition to a second alligator clip pack a jumper wires pack and a roll of copper tape for even more possibilities For further information please contact 22 SERVO 10 9019 PS 2 Keyboard to ASCII Converter Module HiPdesign announces the availability of the E1115 a compact PS 2 keyboard to ASCII converter module for embedded microcontroller applications It offloads the process intensive PS 2 scancode decoding while providing a fast single byte output response for both ASCII and non ASCII keys including multi media Requiring only 5V the easy to use module provides a pin selectable 57 6K 115 2K baud rate as well as a 100 kHz clocked serial data output The module also flashes an LED and generates an interrupt pulse The converter allows for the quick development of any keyboard based project The E1115B is available as a 10 pin DIP style 1 3 x 0 7 module with integrated PS 2 connector and also as a SOIC 14 chip An application note on the website describes how to parse the output into commands and data Pricing starts at 16 for the module and 8 for the chip For further information please contact Text To Speech IC he SP0 512 RoboVoice text to speech IC from Speech Chips is a pre programmed microcontroller that accepts English text from a serial connection converts that text to phoneme codes then generates audio It is ideal for
9. checking the results of a sensor make sure it s FIGURE 3 Loose or missing wiring especially the common ground connections where separate electronics and motor power supplies are joined can create intermittent errors in the operation of your bot Be sure all wires are firmly connected and properly seated especially when using a solderless breadboard as shown here 4 properly configured and programmed For example an ultrasonic range finder sensor may be programmed to return distance in inches or centimeters or raw microsecond delay of the echoes The data will appear wrong if you re expecting it in a different format Sensor or other data in the wrong format The Serial print statement can use an optional data formatting argument specifying if the data is to be shown in DECimal BlNary HEXadecimal or some other format Be sure to use the proper formatting argument based on the type of data value Programming error Though we try to avoid bugs in code sometimes they creep in and muddle the results This is what debugging is for catching those mistakes so they can be fixed Carefully analyze your programming code and look for math mistakes incorrect assumptions and other errors that can cause the invalid data For example did you really mean to add those two numbers together or multiply them Sketch Program Won t Compile The most annoying glitch when using the Arduino is some type of error that prevent
10. 8 inch drill penetrate through You have now finished a one pound version of my 150 gram robot the polycarbonate sheet and titanium Wadgie Wadgie has served me faithfully for five years now He has endured plate After drilling each hole add more hits than any of my other robots The design has worked well for me 440 screws to help hold the hope it will work well for you polycarbonate sheet in place READY FOR THE ROAR OF THE CROWD Learning how to construct an actual platform for a robot is an important first step Once you have mastered the basics with your durable wedge bot you can then put your imagination and your newly learned building techniques to work to construct a robot entirely of your own creation A further benefit is you will have a basic wedge robot to practice against never started winning matches until had two robots and practiced driving them at home Please remember to be safe and follow good safety procedures Wear safety glasses through the entire build process Do not use power tools you re unfamiliar with Stay tuned to SERVO Magazine for a future article where will show you how to add a lifter or a clamp onto your robot wish you good building and I hope to see you in BUILDER the ring D ee BELL m 1 1 You can make your wedge flush to the ground by filing the edge of it www servornagazine com dex php magazine article ctober _Lytle Discuss this article in the
11. Ardunio intermittent data or a single signal transmission from a sensor or input device Applications include simple two way robot control traffic management systems and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short range wireless transfer of data at relatively low rates The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other WPANs such as Bluetooth ZigBee operates in the industrial scientific and medical ISM radio bands of 915 MHz in the USA and Australia and 2 4 GHz in most other areas worldwide Data transmission rates vary from 20 to 900 kilobits second recently received some XBee S2B Pro modules Figure 8 and quickly hooked them up for a test was communicating with the XStick ZB AT USB dongle shown in Figure 9 on my laptop was hoping for a bit more range but the dongle is low power just a bit over 2 mW and had a bit of trouble with longer range due to the small internal antenna used an old spectrum analyzer to look at the 2 4 GHz signal but it was gone by the time brought the wireless test board with the XBee module attached down to my garage The dongle receiver does have a sensitivity of 90 dBm not too bad for such a small device The XBee module with a wire antenna has a 63 mW output and should be able to transmit a mile or more outdoors and several hundred feet indoors However to transmit in b
12. Modules Wireless Device Servers 85 237 OEM Modeler and 58 ZiaBee Stick Long range options low cost Mesh Networks n a F Q Precision Quartz Oscillators E Excellent Phase Noise Pertarmance OCXO TEKO VEXO aad PLL desigas JAH fo 2 4GHz and GPS timing modules RF Desin Services Prepared to work with pour in bourse engineers ar support pour RF project from initial design ro implementation adestrial Military Space Medical Smart Grid Metering SCADA Lighting Central F L EMOS v uiri Linie m i i IEEE EY D Ld F INTERNATIONAL EE a Making your RF ideas into profitable products SERVO 10 9019 57 TROUBLESHOOTING i t p li 0 i j Where nothing can possibly go wrong That was the catch phrase to the 1973 movie Westworld You remember what happens some programming glitch causes all the human like robots in the Westworld theme park to go haywire A particularly nasty gunslinger bot goes after the two heroes of the movie shooting one dead Josh Brolin s dad no less and then chasing after the other until its face gets burned off with acid 58 SERVO 10 9019 pri TIPS and HOW IO KEEP THINGS FROM GOING WORNG WRONG WITH YOUR ARDUINO BASED BOT by Gordon McComb WWW Servomagazine com index php magazine article october2012 McComb Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums at ttp forum servomagazine com never give my ro
13. SERVO Magazine forums at http forum servomagazine com SERVO 10 9019 49 j D 1 a T n j Take the pain out of putting your robots remote sensor to work by translating its RS 232 data stream into a TCP IP packet Gathering sensor data with a robotic device usually entails some sort of 802 15 4 network If you want to forward the collected data to a remote site then TCP IP is required The hardware and firmware to move those special little bits of sensor data can be very complicated to build and program However I ve devised a way to take the pain out of putting a remote sensor to work My method does not require one byte of user written TCP IP code and you don t have to scratch build any Ethernet devices 50 SERVO 10 2012 by Fred Eady www servomagazine com eX php 7 magazine articie october _Eady Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums at ttp forum servomagazine com The Big Picture Let s start at the sensor end It really doesn t matter what you are sensing or what you are using for a sensor as long as it can provide analog or digital data that can be represented in binary The sensor passes the binary data along to a resident microcontroller via the microcontroller s analog or digital inputs Once the microcontroller massages the data and assembles it into a data package the formatted data is passed to a short range low power 802 15 4 ba
14. X 32 0mm H 1 75in X 0 94in X 1 26in m Weight 45g DRS 0101 60g DRS 0201 1 590z DRS 0101 2 120z DRS 0201 Input Voltage 7 4V DC DRS 0101 7 12V DC Optimized 7 4V DRS 0201 Stall Torque 12kof cm 7 4V DRS 0101 24kgf cm 7 4V DRS 0201 166 8 ozf in DRS 0101 333 6 ozf in DRS 0201 Maximum Speed 0 166s 60 7 4V DRS 0101 0 147s 60 7 4V DRS 0201 m Operating Angle 320 Continuous Rotation Communication Ful Duplex Asynchronous Serial TTL Multi Drop 0 254 ID Maximum Baud Rate 0 6 Mbps Motor Metal Brush DC Cored DRS 0101 Coreless DC DRS 0201 m Gear Super Engineering Plastic DRS 0101 Reinforced Metal DRS 0201 m Feedback Position Speed Temperature Load Voltage etc m Features PID Feedforward Trapezoidal Velocity Profile Velocity Override Torque Saturator amp Offset Overload Protection Neutral Calibration Deadband 54 Selectable Setting Parameters Sold Separately HerkuleX Manager Kit HerkuleX Manager is a bundled software that uses the GUI to maximize the ease of operation in setting up more than 50 servo operating parameters and servo maintenance using such a tool as the real time trend graph Dongbu Robot Co Ltd www dongburobot com Headquarter 11th Floor Bucheon Techno Park 401 Yakdae dong Wonmi gu Bucheon city Gyunggi do 420 734 Korea TEL 82 32 329 5551 ext 311 FAX 82 32 329 5569 E MAIL robot
15. and they will not re sync unless you A reset the Arduino and or B reset the Arduino IDE close then reopen it Serial Window Displays Garbage When you open the Serial Monitor window to look at the debugging messages sent from the Arduino you get garbage text instead Wrong baud rate selected in the Serial Monitor window Be sure it matches the baud rate specified in your sketch The USB cable is bad Verify the integrity of the cable or try a different one Debugging Messages Repeat When They re Not Supposed To You ve added a debugging message to the setup function of your sketch It should display once in the Serial Monitor window but instead it keeps repeating Arduino is resetting by itself Look for causes of power brownout the voltage to the Arduino is falling below the minimum required When this occurs the sketch spontaneously restarts Arduino is resetting via the serial port On most versions of the Arduino plugging or unplugging the USB cable causes the serial port to reset which in turn causes the sketch to reload from the beginning Look for causes of spontaneous reset of the serial port which can occur for example if the cable or plug connection is bad or if the Arduino is drawing too much current from your PC s USB port Data Results Are Wrong Unexpected You re getting debugging messages plus the data shown is wrong or unexpected The sensor or other device is misconfigured If you re
16. corners A commercial infant seat is placed on top of the balance board and the robot can then be calibrated to move in whichever direction the baby leans To test the WeeBots researchers borrowed five infants ranging in age from six months to nine months Each infant was given five training sessions on the robot using a toy as bait and by the end of those sessions the babies were reliably able to control the WeeBot in goal directed movement during periods of free play You might think that a six month old baby wouldn t necessarily have the facility to control a robot like this but they catch on surprisingly quickly All of the babies in the study were developing typically for their age none of them had the ability to crawl so the robots were their only means of transportation This was just a pilot study to make sure that the WeeBot worked but recently published continuing research has also tried using WeeBots with infants with mobility disorders It s turning out to be difficult for some babies to sit up enough to control the WeeBot by leaning but in at least one case a 15 month old boy with cerebral palsy was able to learn to control a WeeBot after which he started to develop crawling skills on his own AlRarm YOURSELF Here s a fully controllable robot arm that can be inflated and deflated like a balloon The AlRarm is lightweight inexpensive and stows compactly It s inflated and deflated with an onboard pump and uses actuator
17. development board is very useful when you have to lash together a simple 802 15 4 network The serial port plug to plug works because the NEMO10 is i configured as a DTE and the SS PICDEM Z is wired as DCE g MUS ss fi ANE J e St 22 0 if Lee 6 ee 8 SERVO 10 2012 55 Bu eni be De tpt Pace Fia fb Cirhgat F A d ia eras MG Lama Taane Flees Gord H abs Fina Loninol Bone iim OTA Uns ATS lepse CTE ibus ME 77 NE Regar DSF RET i a Wi i aiy Sewe F32 TER 1 37 Fai kN EET OK X Carcel DSA DCD amp CTS d Mag dp Eia p Break p TXD p FD p ATS OTA OB itzak sive baint A bal also have an illuminated Ethernet link data Recall that we set the inactivity LED and a glowing System Ready LED timeout for five seconds If the PIC After establishing the connection in stops sending on its serial port for addition to the LEDs I just listed I more than five seconds the TCP see a blinking Ethernet Activity LED session will be terminated by the and Screenshot 7 NEMO10 To test this stopped the The TCP connection will stay up PIC and five seconds later the Serial as long as the PIC18F4620 is sending In Output Monitor DISCONNECT E umul hpi Tuot Honi M a eiua SAL A D AIE AE AAR EH DELA LIE aT EO aae 3 Xp AAT SD oe a dnod H RADHA 3 2033 43 32 38 4 52 20 04 Mb ED p 4 E Gg AH d 5EOSEL 30 41 G6 OD 0
18. forget that the current RoboGames heavyweight champion Original Sin is basically a gigantic wedge robot In this article will show you how to build a wedge platform from scratch using common household tools The boxes are locked the lights are up and the arena Is waiting for you so let s get started The tools and parts you ll need to construct E D pem TIP Always your wedge are listed on the next page The mE total cost of these parts should be around parts to see 320 Starting with the appropriate materials how much can save you a lot of trouble down the road poundage you have to Let s begin work with 49 SERVO 10 9019 The tools you ll need are Hand drill Soldering iron with solder Six inch caliper Lighter English Allen wrench set 1 8 drill Tin steps Wire stripper Sharpie pen Fine grained file e 2 x 3 inch clamps Bottle of CA glue Optional Dremel with cutoff wheel Drill press Five pound scale MAKING THE TOP PLATE This is the primary armor and structure for the entire robot All of your components will be mounted to this single piece of metal Some might call this putting all your eggs in one basket but I can tell you from experience this is the best approach By putting all your weight into a singular piece of metal it allows you to build the frame and armor on top of each other and this makes them inseparable Designs that make the armor a removable piece typicall
19. it in place They re lightweight and strong The translucent top shield shown in the lead photo is an important part of the overall design Don t neglect it to save a few grams If your copter lands head first in a field or if it starts to rain you ll wish you had the shield in place One of the worst things that can happen during flight is to lose the connection between the handheld R C transmitter and the onboard receiver PHOTO 1 Whether due to interference weak transmitter batteries or accidently dropping the transmitter onto hard asphalt without a transmitted signal your quadcopter is out of control To prevent this you need to define the failsafe control signals that the receiver should emit when the transmitter signal is lost Every R C manufacturer has a way of addressing the failsafe issue In the Spektrum Sx6i system A T TA TI failsafe options include throttle to Eum off throttle to idle and hold on last command that is if in a turn keep turning The best choice for you depends on your environment prefer throttle to idle which hopefully results in a controlled crash Throttle to off guarantees a hard crash but minimizes chances that the copter will drift out of the flight area d Liu PHOTO 2 Sky LiPo 4 400 mAh battery and iCharger with ParaBoard RTT ae Selah Se ee M ae ie IER p of selecting Sky Li Po over other comparable brands have Power t
20. it s definitely worth checking out You can read more about the ASABE Student Robotics Competition at http abe research illinois edu ASABERobotics You can find out more about the ASABE organization at www asabe org 64 SERVO 10 9019 Robot gets last minute tuneup See a full gallery of photos from the 2012 contest at http flickr com steevithak sets 72157631289859604 Judge weighing contestant s feed bags SERVO 10 2012 65 lt The SERVO Webstore Attention Subscribers ask about your discount on prices marked with an f ers ee are T rt u 8 CD ROMs amp Hat Special nly 169 95 or 24 95 each www seryomagazine com Robot Builder s Bonanza Fourth Edition by Gordon McComb Robot Builder s Robot Bonanza Fourth Edition includes step mi by step plans for a number of motorized platforms The book is described as a compendium of robotics topics containing more than 100 projects including 10 robot designs new to the fourth edition These modular robots are low cost and are made to be reproduced by readers with no training in mechanical construction 29 95 Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook 5th Edition by Neil Sclater Fully revised throughout this abundantly illustrated reference describes proven mechanisms and mechanical devices Each a illustration represents a NINE cope design concept that can ps easily be recycled for use in new
21. loser s bracket Defeating WhipperSnapper and Calamity Kid secured Gilbert a spot in the finals FIGURE 8 DDT vs Shaka Zulu FIGURE 11 Bot hockey draws a H i FIGURE 14 Capricant vs Poco Tambor Capricant stayed in the winner s bracket throughout the event sending Poco Tambor to the loser s bracket late in the competition to battle Gilbert in the semi finals In the final match Poco Tambor sent Capricant spinning in the air until Capricant lost power Poco Tambor ended the Antweight matches with a gyro victory dance for the crowd BEETLEWEIGHT CLASS Twelve 3 Ib competitors put on a great show for the crowd The first match paired Grande Tambor vs OpenRobotix s TomZax both with powerful vertical weapons Eight year old Thomas Parrish behind the controls of TomZax tried to use his saw blade wheels to outdrive Grande Tambor but Grand Tambor won the match after several big hits Two Florida teams took the stage next as Voodoo Magic s titanium vertical disc cut TH mas competes in the 2etleweight class with his dad FIGURE 12 Grande Tambor vs Survivor s Outlast FIGURE 15 Pissed Off Unicorn vs Thrash horizontal bar spinner Steve s power switch early in the match Jamison Go brought a powerful new drum bot to this event Dominant Mode which delivered some devastating hits against Ramvac and Weta God of Ugly Things last year s champion In the latter match Domi
22. my controller when something gets close Cool a haptic feedback device Listing 1 shows my code It is cribbed from the demo code that comes with the PS2X Arduino library and modified to drive the motors on YAAR l ve included the entire script here since this being an Arduino I don t need to explain how to set up PWM registers set timers mask I O bits and all the other stuff that an embedded program has to do before anything useful happens The Arduino API hides those details behind its battery then the pack is dead and not recoverable hardware abstraction layer so you can focus on just doing Now it s time to look at the program that you need to the Job v ddp z P S NORD S MOST VERSATILE CIRCUIT BOARD HOLDERS Our line of Circuit Board Holders add versatility amp precision to your DIY electronics project Solder nie assemble amp organize with ease s AP CIRCUITS PCB Fabrication Since 1984 As low as Two Boards Two Layers Two Masks each One Legend MONTHLY CONTEST Unmasked boards ship next day Visit us on Facebook to post a photo of your creative PanaVise project for a chance to wina PanaVise prize package PANAVISE Innovative Holding Solutions www apcircuits com 7540 Colbert Drive Reno e Nevada 89511 VISA Mastercate IPC ucuscn 1 800 759 7535 www PanaVise com 18 SERVO 10 2019 The first code block defines all of ou
23. off the new header RTS pin The use of RS 232 logic levels allows the circuit depicted in Schematic 1 to replace a more expensive RS 232 converter IC By the way the Tenma runs at 19200 7 O None 1 19200 bps seven data bits odd parity no flow control one stop bit According to Screenshot 8 it s 23 Celsius in the shop RS 232 is Far From Dead The only soldering we performed was to assemble the 12 pin headers The only code we wrote was for test purposes and didn t include any TCP IP stack elements Using the NEMO10 we managed to serve up some ASCII data from a PIC18F4620 and some temperature data from an off the shelf multimeter Now that you know what a serial device server is and how to use it apply what you have learned to that robotic device you re building FELT 000234400 MEELT 000234800 00 c34 0U 3b 3 X 1J 1124 349 30 X0 OE Custom Computer Services Serial Input Output Monitor CCS PIC C Compiler www ccsinfo com Sources Lemos International Noe i 0 Microchip www lemosint com PICDEM Z www microchip com SCREENSHOT 8 Ignore the 4800 as the meter is designed to interface with a factory supplied GUI It s 23 Celsius in the shop OSA OCD amp CTS Ping Ero feat a DO RDG HIS OM RE Modules From Port 15 to Par 9 Compliant Narrow Bard FM UNF Welt thann Data Loggers Stand Alone and Wireless Mesh Networking Lagger ve v Industrial Bluetooth ZigBee Pro DEM
24. researchers at help make robotic tools safer and more effective for MRI guided Georgia Tech s School of Mechanical Engineering PE surgery and robotic rehabilitation Photo courtesy of Joshua Schultz 8 SERVO 10 9019 Humanoid Swimbot Introduced Aquatic robots tend to be patterned after fish and other entities that are inherently good at swimming but researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology www titech ac jp have bucked the trend and built what they say is the first humanoid robot that can swim underwater using all four limbs Swumanoid is a 12 lb three ft tall half scale version of a former Japanese Olympic swimmer who apparently wants to remain anonymous The aquabot s mission is to figure out how to create the least amount of drag while swimming thus potentially teaching us how to do a better job of it For example the researchers will study how pulling its arms straight through the water compares with using a zig zag pattern Although powered by 20 motors Swumanoid plods along at a measly 0 64 m s 2 1 fps compared to Nathan Adrian s 2 1 m s 6 9 fps in the summer Olympics 100 m freestyle Its creator says that Swumanoid 2 0 due sometime next year will improve upon that Tokyo Tech s Swumanoid not ready for the Olympics Robotic Architectural Printer We had to view this item with a bit of skepticism especially given that the documentation includes some obvious Photoshop concoctions Ac
25. some shock absorption and allowing the hand to more firmly grasp objects This is all really cool stuff but the cost is where the hand really comes through In low volume production the Sandia Hand should only cost about 10 000 total Fingers included For the record Sandia s press information says that s about 90 less than other commercially available robot hands with similar independently actuated degrees of freedom The operator controls the robot with a glove and the lifelike design allows even first time users to manipulate the robot easily Using Sandia s robotic hand to disable IEDs improvised explosive devices might help lead investigators to the bomb makers themselves Often bombs are disarmed simply by blowing them up While effective that destroys evidence and presents a challenge to investigators trying to catch the bomb maker A robotic hand that can handle the delicate disarming operation while preserving the evidence could lead to more arrests and fewer bombs SERVO 10 2012 99 DOUBLE TROUBLE Doing robotic telepresence can be tricky It s one of those things that sounds good on paper but when it comes to getting people to plunk down a pile of cash for the hardware going commercial with the concept has proven to be more or less impossible outside of some very specific circumstances Double Robotics a startup out of Y Combinator is taking a shot at the telepresence space with a slick new iPad based platf
26. stopped ee leftSpeed 0 eak Leb GDA ud case 1 Serial printin DualShock Controller MENO S oM SNC ooRPcIM Hes EX c PWM o eid crus sd idee ex Da eeen S S case 4 REN digitalwrico IDI esti eso Serial println Gurtarnero Controller analogWrite PWML leftSpeed Found d l z l break Lu csssccd pe Analog Poss Verb das it rightSpeed gt 130 Le E OIN 130 woe EEO ups il E reverse j You must Read Gamepad to get new values you should Gall thus ar Teac once a mou eee eo M ney A See Cie E e Dakig v e Ore torward j EN eue 1 skio loop 1E no controller a ee e toune JT Eo Ky returns rigntDir 1s 1 f Read controllers and set large motor to Ar cm EI OI d rerum set the large motor vibrate digitalWrite rDir2 rightDir amp 0x01 i analogWrite PWMR rightSpeeg Speed based on Show hard you press the blue X sutton i ps2x read gamepad false vibrate yibrate p92x Analog PSABSBEUB T JS 3 Gein che stick X EDI 128 18 center leave Some debug output Serial print leftSpeed DEC Serial orinelm rightsoeed DECUS delay 50 SERVO 10 2012 17 Figure 3 handle this most basic of remote control operations am only looking at the Y axis joystick values so that can drive my vehicle like a tank Because thought it was cool I ve left in the rumble ability could put a collision detector sensor on the thing and have it rumble
27. t scratch PHOTO 3 The NEMO10 SK is a full blown NEMO10 support system that includes RS 232 and Ethernet interfaces build any Ethernet hardware The same goes for RS 232 hardware So instead of swinging a soldering iron we ll support the NEMO10 with a test bed called the NEMO10 SK The NEMO10 SK shown in Photo 3 incorporates a male nine pin RS 232 connector that feeds an RS 232 to TTL converter IC An XF1OBASE Ethernet magnetics filter combo module is providing a 10 Mbps Ethernet interface at the opposite end of the NEMO10 SK Power for the NEMO10 is produced by a switching power supply that is based on an LM2575 To take advantage of the NEMO10 s entire range of functionality the NEMO10 SK also includes a reset switch a factory reset switch a data console switch a power switch and a set of status LEDs The NEMO10 SK test bed interfaces to the NEMO10 module with a set of 0 1 inch pitch female headers The NEMO10 is shown attached to the test bed in Photo 4 If you don t have a network set up to support the NEMO10 using a serial connection is the easiest way to configure it The NEMO10 s serial interface defaults to 9600 bps eight data bits no parity and one stop bit Screenshot 1 was produced by flipping the data console switch to the console position and using HyperTerminal to serially log into the PHOTO 4 The NEMO10 SK s female headers supply power to the NEMOT10 and connect its module s internal ele
28. the museum s LED sign near the main road We were the first competitors to arrive at the event and the venue had a sort of calm before the storm feeling All the pit tables were perfectly organized with our competitor packets nicely laid out The arena sat in the dark ready for action Chuck Butler recalls Four years ago received a message from Christie at the Schiele Museum in Gastonia looking for someone that could do a robot presentation for a group of 100 Girl Scouts We took on the task and the girls were surprisingly very interested in the FIGURE 1 Schiele Museum FIGURE 4 Algos vs Saifu by Andrea Suarez destruction especially when it involved a Barbie doll vs a combat robot We had been looking for a suitable venue and when the museum decided they would like to try a robot day it was a perfect fit and Clash of the Bots was born with an average of over 500 visitors at each event As visitors entered the Schiele Museum you could instantly hear the sounds of battle coming from the competition area attracting crowds of spectators to the arena Ram Robotics drove from Florida to North Carolina to compete their fleet of robots across all the weight classes including two new robots iKid Flea and Calamity Kid Ant David Liaw flew from California for the event but his robots were lost at the airport The event started with a builders meeting where Chuck welcomed competitors and expl
29. tidbits herein provided by www botjunkie com www robotsnob com www plasticpals com http www robots dreams com and other places 28 SERVO 10 2012 Twins Geoffrey Howe left and Michael Howe flank their new invention a fire fighting robot known as the Thermite THERMITE TAKES THE HEAT Brothers Geoffrey and Michael Howe who build robots for the military decided there was a need for a bot that fights fires The Thermite weighs 1 400 pounds stands about four feet tall and moves on a track for now Running on diesel it has video and infrared cameras so it can be remotely operated Geoffrey calls it the Swiss Army knife of robotic responses since it can operate with various attachments like a hydraulic arm for saving humans After spending a couple of years testing the firebot the twins have already sold a few of them The Thermite has been described as a rugged powerhouse of a vehicle At 34 inches wide Michael says it s small enough to get into a burning room yet powerful and well equipped enough to extinguish fires when it gets there For example a hydraulic arm can be bolted on with the strength to pull a human out of a burning building among other things It can move a 55 gallon drum full of chemicals away from a fire Geoffrey comments It can do all sorts of things that you may need done in an emergency situation including turning valves cutting wires or cutting rope The Thermite has been
30. time and a workspace everything Is field replaceable With the Parallax Crash Kit you re covered for motor mounts motor parts and props You could even carry a spare aluminum tube pre drilled to accept the 4 40 mounting hardware Post flight you ll want to check the integrity of the top and bottom plates and verify that the bolts are secure If there s been a crash or one of the props grazed a bush or shrub then remove the prop and check it with your balancing jig Photo 5 shows my balancing station with an experimental 10 x 4 5 pitch prop The prop is heavy on the right meaning I ll have to sand off a bit of the training edge on that side of it A related part of maintenance is checking the integrity of the four motors As in Photo 6 make a habit of revving up your motors and looking at the collet at high speed As in this figure the outline is crisp with no evidence of wobbling When the image of the collet starts to blur it s time to rebalance the prop and or rebuild the motor As with a real copter you should have and use a pre flight checklist that includes battery check prop collet check transmitter battery check and failsafe setting check You ll also want to note the wind and weather forecast before you head out to the flight field The Fun Part Recommended inexpensive insurance against JST connector failure from unplugging the connector by the wires 72 SERVO 10 9019 Up to this point it might seem lik
31. 0 290 vi CAR 7 m MPT1100 SS Pan amp Tilt we zd Top Mount Pan Ideal for DSLR and s SPT100 m smaller bodied cameras DDT500 Pan amp Tilt Kit Tilt Kit ee Pan amp Tilt Kit DOP15S ah and precisel Mount directly q DDP155 to jib handie i g Pan Kit A SPT200 EE Pto nani DDT560 Cradle Tilt your BORA Worm Drive Gearbox m AR GoPro lt Ba PT 2100 Super Duty a ae Pan amp Tilt PT785 S Pan amp Tilt Li round ABS plate _ Great f r moiit Belt Drive Bottom Mount and shoot Pan S ES Pan system Adjustable Framework Aluminum Hollow Shafts Mua R 2200 MaarBakee o e 6061 16 Aluminum Construction increase the torque Roll Ultra Precision Gamhna 48 Pitch Gear Drive of a gearmotor Attachme 12 Volt Operat P Precision H5 TBBHB Serves ttachment ATR Ready to Run out of the box 4 8 6 0 Volt Operation For PT 2100 Fully Assembled LU VED i a TO Ser Watch our p roduct Wired Controllers Power Supplies Gears amp Sprockets Pulleys amp Belts Servos amp Access Jib Mounting Kits Gearmotors Wireless Controllers lt u Wat f uU videos on YouTube LIKE Dn Fapebook Xr www SERVOCITY COM ware S I EE L THE MASTERPIECE of ROBOT SERVO ng 24kgf cm 7 4V 333 6 oztf in Specification DRS 0101 DRS 0201 m Dimensions 44 5mm W X 24 0mm D
32. 10 2012 7 Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums by Jeff and Jenn Eckert at http forum servomagazine com Turning Minutes Into Hours It s no secret that one of the primary constraints in mobile robotics is the limited power available trom batteries A great deal of research is aimed at improving battery performance with progress reported in fields ranging from such novel approaches as lithium air batteries to century old technologies like nickel iron Edison devices Another way to tackle the problem is to improve the bot s output efficiency which is the idea behind the M3 Actuation project a subset of the Maximum Mobility and Manipulation M3 program at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA The goal is to achieve a 2 000 percent increase in overall efficiency More specifically it seems that the current Government Furnished Equipment GFE platform offers only 10 to 20 minutes of untethered operation and DARPA wants to extend that to 200 minutes If you think you have the know how to come up with a solution the reward could be as much as a cool 5 million Offering some hints as to how to proceed it was noted that DARPA expects that solutions will require input from a broad array of scientific and engineering specialties to understand develop and apply actuation mechanisms inspired in part by humans and animals Technical areas of interest include but are not limited to low loss power m
33. 3 4L 41 H4 45 22 D E3 4E EJ FAD 45 57 E X X220 34 15 ED DSA OCD e CTS Ring Ero amp ma e DO RG HITS b DIR 197108152 2080 R CD EIC 56 SERVO 10 9019 button returned to the CONNECT State and all of the status LEDs indicated a dormant interface then clicked on the Serial Input Output Monitor CONNECT button without restarting the PIC18F4620 Sure enough five seconds later the NEMO10 dropped the session Serve a Meter just happen to have a Tenma 72 7750 modern digital multimeter on the bench This little orange drop can do capacitance frequency and temperature measurements as well as the Standard voltage and amperage measurements However before we can tap into its features using the NEMO10 there s a little bit of work we have to do The first task is to understand the Tenma s serial interface which isn t really a regulation RS 232 serial interface at all l ve outlined the Tenma s RS 232 interface in Schematic 1 The opto isolator consists of a light transmitting element IR LED internal to the meter and a light receiving module IR transistor terminated with a female DB9 connector that plugs into the meter The circuit works by allowing the NEMO10 s DTR line to drive the collector of the opto isolator s transistor logically high 1 The NEMO10 s RTS line provides a virtual ground return which is really a logical low 0 perpetuated by driving the RTS line to a l
34. Design Build Program Learn Compete FOR THE ROBOT INNOVATOR MAGAZINE Give Yourself A Wedgie Step by Step Construction pm Details To Build Your First Combat Robot 12115 Paine Street Poway CA 92064 858 748 6948 www hitecrcd com NEEDED LAsep cur CHASSIS SHARP DISTANCE SENSORS ORANGUTAN CONTROLLER du ed uem SIMPLE MOTOR CONTROLLER COLTON 3 E AN TREX JR CONTROLLER cy USET deux Wh Sot WS ACCELEROMETER 7 Take your design from idea to reality kdiPololu Engage Your Brain www polol pololu com 10 2012 VOL 10 NO 10 MAGAZINE Columns 08 Robytes by Jeff Eckert Stimulating Robot Tidbits 10 GeerHead by David Geer Collaborating With Hubo 14 Ask Mr Roboto by Dennis Clark Your Problems Solved Here 14 Then and Now by Tom Carroll The Many Ways to Control a Robot 06 Mind Iron 20 Events The Combat Zone Calendar 21 Sh 32 BUILD REPORT Showcase Testing the Prototype Klazo New Products My 1 Ib Drumbot From 26 Bots in Brief Kitbots com 66 SERVO 34 Upcoming Events Webstore 80 Robo Links 80 Advertiser s 38 The History of Robot Combat Index Robot Battles at Dragon Con 39 Clash of the Bots 3 PAGE 26 SERVO Magazine ISSN 1546 0592 CDN Pub Agree 40702530 is published monthly for 24 95 per year by T amp L Publications Inc 430 Princel
35. E19 P i pi N y Wok Fu With our popular Servo Erector Set you can easily build and control the robot of your dreams Our interchangeable aluminum brackets hubs and tubing make the ultimate in precision mechanical assemblies possible New Botboarduino 34 95 Deumilanove AT328 compatible Lynx footprint with Arduino shield USB Programming port Speaker Buttons and LEDs Program in Arduino C servo and Logic power inputs Bot Board Il 24 95 Carrier for Atom Pra B52 etc 5vdc 250mA LOO Regulator Buffered Speaker 3 Push button LED interface Sony PS2 game controller port Servo and Logic power inputs 550 32 39 95 a2 Channel Serva Controller Speed Timed or Group moves Svde 250m LDO Regulator TTL or RS 232 Serial Comms Servo and Logic power inputs No better SSC value anywhere We also carry motors wheels hubs batteries chargers Servos Sensors AC radios pillow blocks hardware etc i xv S 9 Visit our our E website to see our complete line of robots electronics and mechanical components Images represent a fraction of what can be made Wiynxm SUORA The SES now has over 200 unique components SERVOCITY A DIVISION OF ROBOTZONE LLC F at d LL micro We Nave the perfect pan amp tiit To a 7 v SPT400 Tilt ght gt SPT50 Micro ee hands ahon L Pan amp Tilt Kit D Just
36. LAN interfaces to perform functions such as serial to Wi Fi serial to Ethernet and Ethernet to Wi Fi Users can connect to WizFi630 s internal web server and use simple serial commands to change Wi Fi settings In addition to serial devices 8 16 32 bit microcontrollers can use WizFi630 s SERVO 10 2012 93 INC eal WizFi630 LI E En i F T EI TRE CENTI rmn 2 a ET pu aT ipio ax CN cri UART interface for Wi Fi functions WizFi630 can operate in Gateway AP AP Client Client and AD HOC modes and offers 2x UART and 3x Ethernet interfaces WizFi630 can simplify wireless module tasks like design testing and certification and offers a fast solution for users who lack wireless network experience WizFi630 follows the 802 11b g n standard and supports wireless interface transfer speeds of up to 150 Mbps Configuration as a built in web server is easy via serial commands from the Windows utility software provided WizFi630 is CE and FCC certified A WizFi630 evaluation board with ready made interface connectors is available providing a complete test set up with PC software and documentation enabling anyone to quickly develop a wireless solution Applications for WizFi630 are wide ranging For a 4G LTE repeater WizFi630 can function as a serial to Wi Fi access point for routine management and upgrade of the repeater WizFi630 provides serial to Wi Fi gateway function but can also enable a laptop or smartpho
37. NY Figure 2 shows the board with some connectors attached This comes semi assembled you have to install whatever connectors or wires you want to use simply used the included Berg headers for this project since knew that was going to be using a solderless breadboard to simplify my wiring needs The pins are very clearly labeled on the bottom of the board again see Figure 2 To make my little demonstration vehicle needed to use four I O lines for the PS2 controller and six I O lines for the motor driver board That leaves just two digital I O lines the serial port and the analog lines Not much left to make a robot with But as said this is a proof of concept design so I ll leave the I O line optimization byte lefctDir E byte aeu pus 0 void setup pinMoce lDiri OUTPUT pinMocle 1Dir2 OQUTPUT pinMoce rDiri QUTPUT pinMoce rDir2 OUTPUT pinMode PWML OUTPUT pinMode PWMR OUTPUT analogWrite PWML 0 analogWrite PWMR 0 Serial begin 57600 GamePaclelock command attencion data Pressures Rumble error ps2x config_geamepad 7 9 8 10 true true jar e ee Up Serial Orineling Pound Controller coniiguredl SuccessmUd s else 1flerror 1 Arduino Pin Number Function as an exercise for the student smile Figure 3 shows the literal rats nest of wiring needed to make my remote vehicle People ask why it is so hard to make a robot all the wires ma
38. O 10 2012 3D LED Cube Kit From the article Build the 3D LED Matrix Cube as seen in the August 201 issue of Nuts amp Volts Magazine This kit shows you how to build a really cool 3D cube with a 4 x 4 x 4 monochromatic LED matrix which has a total of 64 LEDs The preprogrammed microcontroller that includes 29 patterns that will automatically play with a runtime of approximately 6 1 2 minutes Colors available Green Red Yellow amp Blue Jig and plastic cases also available Subscriber s Price 57 95 Non Subscriber s Price 59 95 Forbidden LEGO oy Ulrik Pilegaard Mike Dooley Forbidden LEGO introduces you to the type of free style building that LEGO s master builders do UE for fun in the back Gaeh EE room Using ppm LEGO bricks in combination with common house hold materials from rubber bands and glue to plastic spoons and ping pong balls along with some very OOA building techniques you ll learn to create working models that LEGO would never endorse Reg 24 95 Sale Price 19 95 THE PHANTOM DRAW The KILL A WATT meter is the best way fo help you determine your actual energy drain ON and OFF home appliances To order call Bull Kk UL oF online www servamagarine co mi PS2 Servomotor Controller Kit This kit accompanied with your own PlayStation controller will allow you to control up to six servomotors Includes all components and instruction manual ERV
39. O For more information please see the February 201 fy edition of SERVO Magazine Assembled units available Subscriber s Price 79 95 Non Subscriber s Price 84 95 www servomagazine com index php magazine article october2012 Bergeron Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums at http forum servomagazine com This is Part 2 of a review on the Elev 8 Quadcopter robotics platform from Parallax Whereas Part 1 focused on the physical build this part walks you through the testing and setup including integration with an R C transmitter and receiver selection and care of Li Po batteries and the never ending task of maintenance SERVO 10 2012 69 S If you ve successfully completed the tasks outlined in Part 1 you ve built and prepared the basic platform meaning you ve balanced the props tested and programmed the ESCs checked the direction of motor rotation installed the power harness and verified that every nut and bolt is in its proper place Now it s time to hook up and verify the operation of the onboard computer and the R C receiver The HoverFly Open Board onboard computer is what allows you to manipulate the motors with your R C transmitter For example if you move the left lever of your R C transmitter forward to increase throttle the transmitter sends a signal to the Open Board which sends control signals to each ESC to increase the speed of rotation of each motor You coul
40. O is taller and lighter For this version KAIST made improvements in the mechatronics for greater reliability www servomagazine com index php magazine article october2012_GeerHead GEERHEAD mom Li hy ik i Tes a e NA TM Nn LEER A i 1 ios alg x Et kar E The new HUBO is enabled with much more human like motor skills including faster more realistic arm movement and stretching legs that mimic human bi pedal movement more closely Natural human walking requires less energy than typical robot walking so there is an energy savings This is calculated using the Zero Moment Point trajectory calculation The HUBO robot now has an increased walking speed of 1 4 km per hour and can now run at up to 3 6 km per hour The new HUBO platform leverages the following technologies a smart power distributor and lithium polymer battery that is 48V 8A a shape adaptive hand that is tendon driven with five fingers one degree of freedom per finger and an F T sensor at the three degree of freedom wrist an IMU two axis with Kalman filtering and a rate gyro and accelerometer a two channel BLDC controller that is 90 mm x 65 mm with a 16 bit microprocessor a CAN interface an A D converter over current protection automatic return to initial position a BLDC motor amplifier that is 90 mm x 90 mm 200W and 48V and a full bridge MOSFET Drexel received one HUBO initially and six HUBO 2s later on The last six
41. UO ere PASTE MARIAE RN T T ey brihtled E a E ORERE a 13 80 Superorightlecs Com sess Dongbu Robot Co Back Cover Pololu Robotics amp Electronics 3 80 Vantec weenie al wlfeiz nce JLUROOOUS Cerea LM ME A1 Weirdstuff Warehouse wall 80 SERVO 10 2012 En e THE S iaa ROBOTIC S CLOUD r MY 3 O B OTS E n A o What s up MYROBOTS CONNECT Serial to Ethernet Gateway 2 4GHz RF Connect your robots Reap the benefits MyRobots com strives to make cloud robotics a reality accessible to everyone and everything by enabling all robots and smart devices to connect to the Internet You can think of MyRobots com as a social network for robots and smart devices In the same way humans benefit from socializing collaborating and sharing robots can benefit from interacting and sharing their sensors information which provides insight on their current state and allows them to be controlled and monitored re motely Through the MyRobots App Store robots augment their capabilities so they can transcend their limitations allowing them to do more than what they were originally designed for This means robot owners can reap the full benefits of their robots j i auoe Ke Dura aT J JL z Brought to you by Pa io gt E SEM m jfiXmotion i The A Pod is here Featu ed Ro bo ot Youtube videos l Get yours now d n User Robots7 Biped Nick
42. a n x E FIGURE 20 Grande Tambor vs The Liberator Photo by Yong Ye Antweight Poco Tambor Team Pneusance Capricant Ram Robotics Gilbert MH Robotics Team Scotch Pies Beetleweight Shame Spiral MH Robotics DY Al erero oro re Busted Nuts Robotics Grande Tambor Team Pneusance Team Pneusance Chobham 2 0 OpenRobotix FIGURE 21 Shame Spiral vs DeJa Voodoo Photo by Yong Ye each team of three robots tried to get the puck into the opponent s goal First place went to Team Meatheads which consisted of Thomas Kenny from Team Meatheads David Liaw of Team Ice and Mike Jeffries of Team Near Chaos Team Scotch Pies came in second place and Team Pneusance took third place The Coolest Robot winner was OpenRobotix s Beetleweight Chobham 2 0 who received a Kitbots kit for its unique look The other winners received prizes from the event sponsors Kitbots FingerTech Robotics and SERVO Magazine Chuck Butler would like to extend a thank you to the Schiele Museum for hosting the event and providing lunch to all the competitors to all the event sponsors and volunteers that made the event a success and to Robert Woodhead for recording the event in high speed It was a great event with high quality robots and am already looking forward to Clash of the Bots 4 SV FIGURE 19 Algos vs Calamity Kid both new bots to this event Photo by Yong Ye FIGURE 22 Poco Tambo
43. adding a robot voice to embedded designs Features include Single chip text to speech IC Low power e Communicates using a simple serial port 9600 N81 800 rules that convert English text into phoneme codes Built in 16 bit at 16 kHz DAC No external filter required The RoboVoice is based on the Microchip dsPIC33FJ64GP802 microcontroller A datasheet is available at ww1 microchip com downloads en DeviceDoc 70292F pdf User s should refer to this document for greater detail about the chip itself Source code licenses are available The complete text to speech system fits in about 32K and is written in ANSI C so it can be ported to almost any embedded processor Price is 24 99 each For further information please contact Servo Hub and Precision Disk Wheels ervoCity introduces their new 770 aluminum servo hubs These new hubs are machined from 7075 T6 aluminum and have eight 6 32 tapped orbital holes that allow users to attach any of ServoCity s components that have the 770 pattern They mate up perfectly with ServoCity s line of gears sprockets pulleys and wheels which utilize the same 770 hub pattern The aluminum servo hubs have broached splines to allow for a solid connection to any standard size Hitec or Futaba spline The 1 2 diameter protrusion in the center of the hubs ensures that the attachment is perfectly centered In order to complement the new aluminum servo hubs ServoCity h
44. ained the rules for the day Even without arena hazards every two minute match provided a does some last minute to his new Fleaweight bot iKid E watches as teammate Cale D tom bot Shaka Zulu Photo b y Yong a show of sparks and flying robots It was all captured in high speed at 300 frames per second by Robert Woodhead and provided to the competitors free of charge Robert also provided free DVDs of past events to the competitors and Spectators FLEAWEIGHT CLASS Seven robots made up the Fleaweight bracket Caterpiller last year s winner returned with its massive servo powered lifting plow that was sliced up by Paul Grata s Pissed Off Unicorn as both robots went spinning across the arena in a first round match up Busted Nuts Robotics brought five of the Fleaweight bots which provided for plenty of competition among the teammates Dirty Sanchez s two vertical discs met seemingly weightless one wheeled melty brain Berzerker for some big air time almost every hit Dirty Sanchez even did four and a half flips through the air on a single FIGURE 3 The Clash of the Bots staff Photo by Yong Ye FIGURE 6 Caterpillar vs Pissed Off Unicorn SERVO 10 2012 35 blow Duke Robotics Trash used its vertical oversized beater to take the horizontal disc off Invertigo in the first round In the semi finals Pissed Off Unicorn easily took out both of Invertigo s wheels advancin
45. alRead 10 0 Seridl prinkeln Whale loop ended Whenever you need to preview a value such as the result of a sensor Imagine you have an ultrasonic range finding sensor but aren t sure if you re experiencing problems because the value from the sensor isn t what you re expecting it to be You can visually check any numeric or boolean value from within the and PC will not sync up with one another and the Serial Monitor window will display either nothing or gibberish characters Use Serial Monitor debugging whenever you want to verify a part of your code is working as it should Listing 2 provides a short working example sketch simply by sending that value to the Serial Monitor window For instance ute osuge egerbsmg 7 Scere print Dist amee wl Fee Sem ode on diate db es ob c DEC ie MATOS TOT Oe ibghe o o eea a ode nro re Ol auler LS OU e ve EU S OE In this abbreviated example the code that does the actual reading from the ultrasonic sensor is contained in a user defined function named getPing You call that function with the line ite Oba e eres Pm The numeric value that represents the reading from the sensor is contained in the ping variable which you can use in a debugging statement Note the DEC qualifier it ensures that the number held in the ping variable is expressed as a decimal value The Arduino supports other qualifiers as well such as HEX and BIN which display the value as a he
46. an amazing 264A These are theoretical ratings your mileage will vary Still you can see the need for short low resistance connections between the battery and ESCs Even a few tenths of an ohm can result in significant power loss As a consequence PHOTO 3 Battery monitor with alarm showing OK status of a three cell Li Po battery The two black objects on the left are ear piercing alarms SERVO 10 9019 71 oS batteries in about an hour instead of half a day of connecting and disconnecting batteries from a single cell charger Another issue related to power is knowing when you re empty Check out HobbyKing or Tower Hobbies for low voltage fingernail sized alarm modules that sound off when battery voltage falls below a preset value The best systems monitor the individual cells in the battery and sound an alarm when any of the three cells fall below critical voltage Photo 3 shows one such system available from HobbyKing 3 Finally although it might seem like a trivial matter install plastic extenders on the Li Po battery JST connectors as in Photo 4 The extenders which sell for about five cents each will save your batteries from premature failure Whenever you charge a Li Po in a smart charger you have to plug in the JST connector Tugging on the wires to remove the plug is inevitable and this will inevitably ruin the plug Take Pictures At this point take some pictures If you ve ever built and flown m
47. and Court Corona CA 92879 PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA CA AND AT ADDITIONAL ENTRY MAILING OFFICES POSTMASTER Send address changes to SERVO Magazine P O Box 15277 North Hollywood CA 9161 5 or Station A P O Box 54 Windsor ON N9A 6 5 cpcreturns servomagazine com A SERVO 10 9019 AZ Give Yourself q Wedgie A odde Aky is a simple and durable design and is the perfect platform for your first bot Follow these construction details to build one for yourself JU Finding NEMO10 Every microcontreller that exists can be instructed to produce an RS 232 data stream However a microcontroller may not be robust enough to handle a TCP IP stack If your robotic device can speak RS 232 the NEMO10 can be used to translate the resultant RS 232 data stream into a TCP IP packet JO Troubleshooting n Not sure where to start when you need to diagnose a problem This guide will help GA The ASABE Student Robotics Competition Each year the Amran Society of Agricultural amp Biological Engineers hosts a student contest which has a different agricultural theme This year participants had to navigate a scale model of a feedlot Parallax Elev 8 Quadcopter Part 2 The Electronics Setup Take a tock at ane P and setup of this flying robotics platform including integration with an R C transmitter and receiver the selection and care of Li Po batteries plus the never ending task of maintenance
48. are identical but they each have individual quirks One has an ankle motor that is a little off another has a different computer inside but the platform is otherwise the same says Dr Kim Drexel has given each one a number to tell them apart The first of the two HUBOS introduced in 2004 did not have the power efficiency custom hardware and circuit Prepping the four HUBO robots for the photo shoot gt L a se eel Es Y boards available on the newer HUBO 2 The HUBO 2 operates on battery power for nearly an hour KAIST has lowered the center of gravity on this robot so that it will not fall over so easily HUBO 2 has increased motor efficiency and faster processors in its internal computer One of those processors is a standard PC 104 platform base There is room for two processors in the robot one for command control and movement and the other for sensing cognition and higher level tasks The challenge is in having the two processors communicate with each other comments Dr Kim Dr Kim has developed algorithms for tracking the beat in music based on the audio This is a hard problem to solve It is difficult to teach a computerized robot to do that in a robust way We are working on having the HUBO robots play simple percussion instruments that we have built out of PVC pipe We are working on having them play the notes and listen to the notes to see whether a note was a good note This involve
49. as fully analog pressure sensing except for the Select and Start buttons The harder you pressed the bigger the number that was returned If you are looking for a controller that responds to the emotional pressure of its holder this would be the unit All of the buttons also gave their digital values to the button registers so you could use this controller any way you wanted It even has the rumble motors in it so you could have your robot give haptic feedback when it hits something or wants your attention Hmm that sounds like a neat idea This month I m going to modify the Arduino PS2 library demo test code to read the joysticks and drive a small tracked vehicle around The final use for this device will be to drive one of my humanoid bipeds I ll publish details about that when get it done For the sake of this column I ll be driving a hacked toy chassis around don t remember what toy this was or even when in my evil hacking days stripped away all but the drive train but it was on top of my junk box and had two motors so used it It even has tank treads which think are cool so that sealed the deal Since I m using an Arduino my first thought was to call this project the YAAR for SERVO 10 2012 15 Discuss this article in the SERVO Magazine forums at http forum servomagazine com C ob bP ee m m mI NM E l GNI ECT c Q c o t2 c c gt oa Polo om O
50. as updated its entire line of precision disk wheels to incorporate the new 770 hub pattern The precision disk wheels are offered in a wide variety of colors and diameters The wheels provide excellent traction due to the rubber ring which surrounds the wheel Each wheel is capable of holding up to 15 lbs without flexing 0 770 Gears and Sprockets S has also updated their line of plastic gears and sprockets The gears and sprockets now utilize the 770 hub pattern with 6 32 holes and a 1 2 center bore which is used throughout their entire line of products The gears are constructed of acetyl and are offered in 1 8 as well as 3 16 face width 32 and 48 pitch and a vast range of sizes in order to fit almost any application Like the hub gears the new hub sprockets are constructed of acetyl for superior strength and durability The sprockets are 100 thick and accept standard 250 1 4 chain For further information please contact Wi Fi Gateway Module Connects Devices to the Internet yr is a high performance embedded Wi Fi gateway module available from Saelig Co that transforms RS 232 and TCP IP protocols into the IEEE802 11 b g n wireless LAN protocol WizFi630 enables a device with an RS 232 serial interface to connect to LAN or WLAN for remote control measurement and administration WizFi630 can also operate as an IP router due to its internally embedded switch WizFi630 uses serial UART LAN and Wi Fi W
51. at is similar in complexity to the motion planning for having robots work with tools or operate doors and latches The long term goal of Dr Kim s research is to have the robots play musical instruments alongside human musicians in an ensemble We eventually want robots to be autonomous enough to be personal assistants help people get around do dishes clean up and fold laundry We are taking steps in that direction as well comments Dr Kim The HUBO robot is physically capable of these things It can deal with curbs and stairs walking and can use its fully actuated hands to pick up light objects including tools These are all individual capabilities Linking them together takes baby steps expressed Dr Kim Most recently Dr Kim and colleagues have made a lot of strides in the listening capabilities of the HUBO 2 robot As the robots move they make a certain amount of noise so while they are trying to do something such as move or interact with other musicians if someone is talking in the background as well the motor noise makes it difficult for the robot to discern one sound from another We have worked out a couple of different algorithms to rid the noise explains Dr Kim He is also using better microphones that are directional and filter out unwanted noise while filtering in the desired sounds We are working on a microphone array for HUBO for this affirmed Dr Kim He is also employing a two lense bin
52. bots six shooters for this very reason know sooner or later something won t work the way it should It s bad enough to have to troubleshoot problems with batteries let alone worry if my robot will shoot me in the back one dark night Troubleshooting is the step by step process of determining the root cause of a particular problem whether it s electronic or mechanical It s one of the core arts and sciences of robot building In this article I ll provide some basic advice on how to troubleshoot your Arduino based bots gun fighter or otherwise Systematic Approach to Development and Troubleshooting Simple bots only need simple troubleshooting They only have one or two features and when something s wrong the reason is usually obvious Add complexity to the design even something as innocuous as a separate set of batteries for the servo motors and you re left wondering where to start in troubleshooting any problems Layer upon layer of features and functionality create ever increasing combinations of trouble hot spots As a system gets larger working out the kinks becomes much more difficult One of the best ways to test these kinds of systems is to break them down into smaller and more manageable units Avoid the shock of a non functional robot by building it in smaller pieces Begin with the basic drivetrain connect just the motors and battery to the Arduino through a Suitable H bridge o
53. ce can have up to 15 poses Sequence and pose can be reused for other motions to save Flash memories e One motion routine can have up to 450 pose transitions e RS 232 serial connection to PC for motion programming and execution IR handheld remote to execute user created program motions Powered by five AA batteries Spare ports available for installation of sensors for autonomous operation For further information please contact Canakit Electronic Kits Modules Parts Save 10 using Coupon Code SM2012 when ordering online at www canakit com Motor Controllers Arduino Arduino Kits Arduino Shields Robot Platforms A Parts Arduino Uno ARDUINO UNO Latest R3 Version SX09402 7A Bi Directional Motor Speed Controller PWM UK1125 1 888 540 KITS 5487 Limit one per customer Can not be combined with other coupons or volume discounts Tibe T ODE UELL Te TOO Inventor s Kit for Arduino ARDUINO PRK SX09238 USB PIC Programmer MPLAB Compatible WK 1300 Does not apply to products already on sale Prices subject to change without notice 50A Motor Speed Controller PWM UR 1133 Xbee Wireless Kit tice rime rae EP XBEE KIT www canakit com KINECT WITH ADAM Malte Ahlers a student of neurobiology in Germany has built a humanoid robot torso called Adam Advanced Dual Arm Manipulator or Al for short Although the proje
54. contest each year For the 2012 contest teams of students designed and built autonomous robots that were required to navigate a scale model of a cattle feedlot The robots had to move along rows of cattle pens divided by fences Each pen had a feed container Feed was represented by a cargo of 6 mm Airsoft pellets which was carried by the robots At the start of each run a judge provided the contestant with an SD card containing the required weight of feed to be dropped into each pen s feed container by the robot Each run was timed When a run was completed the feed containers from each pen were weighed Teams were awarded points based on objective measures such as the speed and accuracy of their robot and for subjective qualities such as the elegance of design Teams lost points when their robot struck fences surrounding Robot moving down L3 Secu the pens required human assistance to feedlot row UE complete a run or dropped feed outside of a feed container At first glance this contest looks similar to a lot of other student robot contests but the addition of the feed pellets added some interesting and fun dynamics When a robot missed the feed container and dumped a load of pellets onto the ground it didn t just lose points it created an obstacle for itself as it had to navigate through the rolling bouncing flood of pellets to get to the next pen The contest is held every year at the ASABE International Meeting If you get a chance
55. cording to the website of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia www iaac net it s for real Building on the concept of 3D printing some students came up with the idea of building architectural structures by spraying a mixture of dirt and a liquid binder to create a variety of solid forms and shapes Moreover the Stone Spray process is carried out by robots can be powered entirely with solar energy and employs nontoxic PolyPavement www polypavement com as the binder It s a little early to think about spraying yourself a new beach bungalow though as the process seems to still have a few bugs in it perhaps literally For example the stool shown in the photo required an internal wire skeleton and it took four hours to create and solidify it even though it measures only 200 mm in all dimensions Such a structure Is said to be structurally strong and can support not only itself but even bear a load but how much of a load is still Stool created from beach sand and wire using the gor i Stone Spray process in question Still it s an interesting concept Art Imitates Imitation Life Finally as we have observed upon occasion whenever you mix art robotics and public funding strange things can happen In this case it is a sculpture by Czech artist David Cerny consisting of a six ton 1957 double decker bus that does push ups Also featured are video projections in the windows and recorded groaning sounds The wo
56. could translate as they were spinning the entire robot frame by varying motor speed periodically You get robots made from materials that don t get used normally in arena combat like hardware store plastic window glazing and aluminum tubes because they re just not durable enough or hard enough Guan said STEM Education is one of the most important issues in the technology world today The folks at Robot Battles are doing their part to get the younger generation involved Our audiences range in age from very young under 10 to folks that were around in the day when even the concept of robots was pure science fiction And it s been that way from the very beginning Lockhart says From the very first years we have always encouraged young people to get involved Our youngest tournament winner was eight years old and he wasn t the only single digit age winner over the years Some of our most popular and successful builders started when they were in their early teens some even younger the other builders have always gone out of their way to teach and encourage the new builders Long time competitor Guan echoed Lockhart s sentiment The most well known story of new builder triumph is an eight year old boy who built a plywood wedge shell around an otherwise unmodified R C monster truck and went on to defeat an entry from Georgia Tech Guan is himself an example of the youth presence at Robot Battles this
57. ct is still somewhat early in development the hardware side of things has been in the works for around two years Adam s arms have five degrees of freedom actuated by robolink joints from lgus a German robotics company The robolink joints have both pivot and rotation ideal for building robot arms but they use external cables for their rotation much like a pulley one for clockwise and another for counterclockwise rotation The resulting bundle of cables had to be routed to planetary gear motors inside the torso and Ahlers had to build a motor controller to read out the position encoders in the joints in order to drive the motors with position control For the hands he went with FESTO s flexible FinGrippers which use a simple yet surprisingly effective design FESTO is also a German company famous for its biologically inspired robots and the FinGrippers are no exception Using just one motor three fingers pinch together in unison and will naturally conform to roundish objects of varying size Finally Adam s head sitting on a two DOF neck has a Microsoft Kinect sensor and two Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 cameras A speaker provides for speech synthesis and an LCD panel features animated lips For now Adam remains an impressive work in progress NOW THEY RE NOODLE COOKIN Little by little robotic chefs are taking over China One of the latest HP is Chef Cui who specializes in noodle cutting Designe
58. ctronics to the RS 232 and Ethernet interfaces NEMO10 requested the NEMO10 s current IP and serial port settings using its get ip and get serial commands As you can see the NEMO10 comes up with DHCP mode enabled Since there is no network DHCP is useless and there is no IP address at this point If we left the NEMO10 in DHCP mode we may never be able to contact it remotely Normally DHCP IP address leases are set to expire and force the node to request a new and different IP address We must always depend on the NEMO10 to be identified by one particular IP address So our first command will be to assure the NEMO10 can always be located via its IP address set ip Static 192 168 1 97 255 255 255 0 192 168 1 1 With the NEMO10 set ip command we assigned a static IP address of 192 168 1 97 regulated by a subnet mask of 255 255 255 0 The network router s gateway s IP address is 192 168 1 1 Since we didn t specify and filter parameters the IP address and subnet mask filtering remain disabled by default We must use the NEMO10 save command to retain our configuration changes and the reboot command to bring them into effect Now that we can operate on a DHCP enabled network with a static IP address just for grins let s throw the data console switch back to data mode and do the rest of the NEMO10 configuration with a Telnet session Using HyperTerminal in Winsock mode logged into the NEMO 10 s Telnet console
59. d by Cui Runquan this chefbot is being mass produced with a reasonable price tag of 1 500 We call that reasonable since hiring a chef could cost 4 700 yearly Runquan says that the upcoming human generation isn t really into a career as a cook so with about 3 000 already sold he expects these robotic counterparts will pick up the slack The Chefbots can hand slice noodles into a pot of boiling water According to one human The robot chef can slice noodles better than human chefs 26 SERVO 10 9019 WEEBOT FOR WEE ONES This is a WeeBot and it s one of the very rare times it s okay to combine robots with babies That s because a WeeBot is basically a way of turning a real baby into an unstoppable fusion of biology and engineering Babies as you may have noticed if you own one like to get into all sorts of mischief and studies show that exploring and interacting with the world is important for cognitive development Babies who can t move around as well may not develop at the same rate as babies who can which is why researchers from Ithaca College in New York are working on a way to fuse babies with robots to give mobility to all babies even those with conditions that may delay independent mobility like Down syndrome spina bifida or cerebral palsy WeeBots are built with Adept MobileRobots Pioneer P3 DX bases On top of the bases are Nintendo Wii balance boards which are rectangular platforms with load sensors at the
60. d simply assign one channel to each motor and given enough practice increase or decrease the speed of each motor simultaneously as needed However there s more to the onboard computer than allowing you to control four motors with a single control stick Separate manual control of each motor is virtually impossible when it comes to pitch tilting and moving to the left or right roll tilting and moving front or back and yaw rotating clockwise or counterclockwise i 1 Ee oo at 3 8 NF Am T3 ru E B a mrin unii iiam A m 4 Lal z f D T il allia kp E LI i EE m um E E me COTO 13 tud i T a F p i a RIS 1 F 35 5 525 dE m T e ET 70 SERVO 10 2012 HoverFly Open Board wired for testing 9 7 especially when executed simultaneously in a modest wind While it might be possible for someone to manually control all four motors while the craft performs a figure 8 in variable wind it would probably take years of practice They d have no time to experiment with the robotics specific aspects of the platform The Open Board takes over the details of differential motor speeds enabling you to control the craft with a set of Joysticks built into the transmitter even in a modest breeze It accomplishes the feat with the help of a three axis gyroscope Moreover if you purchase the optional ultrasonic range finder within the operational range of the craft you ca
61. despite the 10 to 15 minute signal delays These rovers require a lot of autonomy because of these signal delays but remote control capability of some functions is also a must As designers and builders of our robotic creations we still want some sort of control over our machines even if the basic control is through autonomous sensor interaction with the outside world Quite frankly there are many ways that allow a human to control a robot outside of programming an autonomous bot won t be discussing internal robot control methods such as a sensor controlling movements am going to concentrate on strictly hands on human control methods and steer away from total autonomy obots have fascinated me since but the heavy beast fell over once and was a kid and first read Robot by shook our whole house Tall robots Isaac Asimov In June 1956 the Boy don t stand for long when the builder Scout magazine Boys Life had an uses single speed motors for the drive article entitled Gismo and I by wheels After that just kept it Sherwood Fuehrer Gismo the Great stationary with a recorded voice and shown in Figure 1 was human flashing lights The controls for all the sized and was so neat in my young lights motors relays and tape mind Fuehrer had used parts that he recorder were what interested me the got from his dad an engineer and most It was nowhere as cool as other scrounged parts He used an old Gismo in Boys Life but
62. dically integrate them with the rest of your system Start with those that are critical to the design of your robot plus have the most impact on the operation of the Arduino This allows you to more readily isolate problem areas up front For example music and sound playing can consume considerable processing time Integrate it early with your robot s basic motor function Add the other features one at a time like the ultrasonic and infrared sensors By introducing the most demanding functions first you can readily determine which additional function breaks the camel s back so to speak You can then decide if another programming approach is preferred or which features to keep The same systematic techniques may be used to troubleshoot a fractious bot Test each subsystem separately ideally electrically isolated from the rest of the components That may mean partially disassembling your robot and disconnecting parts you don t need Circuitry on the music playing shield may be interfering with some other piece on your robot remove the shield completely don t just rely on commenting out the music Tip Apart from easily resolvable problems like loose wiring or worn out batteries the interaction of the specific combination of circuitry on your robot is the main cause behind technical glitches Some hardware may not be widely compatible with others for example playing code Similarly sensors and other components
63. dware is suspect I m a fan of both am suggesting that you take a look at who or what is behind the product Parallax for example sells an open source quadcopter and both the hardware and Propeller software are amply documented and professionally supported It s the same with the 6 SERVO 10 2019 FOR THE ROBOT INNOVATOR Published Monthly By T amp L Publications Inc 430 Princeland Ct Corona CA 92879 1300 951 371 8497 FAX 951 371 3052 Webstore Only 1 800 783 4624 WWW Servomagazine com Subscriptions Toll Free 1 877 525 2539 Outside US 1 818 487 4545 FO Box 15277 N islollywood CA 76 5 PUBLISHER Larry Lemieux publisher servomagazine com ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER VP OF SALES MARKETING Robin Lemieux display servomagazine com EDITOR Bryan Bergeron techedit servo yahoo com CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Jeff Eckert Jenn Eckert Tom Carroll David Geer Dennis Clark R Steven Rainwater Kevin Berry Michael Jeffries Morgan Berry Gordon McComb Andrea Suarez Fred Eady Zachary Lytle CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT subscribe servomagazine com MARKETING COORDINATOR WEBSTORE Brian Kirkpatrick sales servomagazine com WEB CONTENT Michael Kaudze website servomagazine com ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Debbie Stauffacher PRODUCTION GRAPHICS Sean Lemieux Copyright 2012 by T amp L Publications Inc All Rights Reserved All advertising is subject to publisher s approval We are not responsible for mistake
64. e MaKey MaKey a new product that invites everyone to be an inventor Makey MaKey was designed by MIT graduate students Jay Silver and Jay Rosenbaum and is an invention kit that encourages builders to discover creative new ways to interact with computers It allows users to create inventions using almost any everyday object such as a keyboard key or mouse For example you could replace your space key with a banana use Play Doh to move and click your mouse or high five your best friend to advance PowerPoint slides The MaKey MaKey is an amazing kit because it really lowers the point of entry for beginning electronics enthusiasts said AnnDrea Boe SparkFun Director of Marketing Communications This kit allows users to start inventing immediately right out of the box It s a fantastic way to start exploring DIY electronics The MaKey MakKey uses very high resistance switching to detect when any of its 18 inputs are activated even through materials that aren t very conductive like leaves pasta or people The MaKey MaKey communicates with your computer using the USB Human Interface Device HID specification which means that it can act just like a USB keyboard or mouse In addition the MaKey MaKey is also an Arduino compatible platform so users can easily re map any of the keys or further customize it to their needs The regular kit is 39 95 and comes with the MaKey Makey HID board an alligator clip pack and a mini USB cable
65. e out one side of the tube to fit the weapon motor then turned down the surface of the tube to reduce some weight and minimize the imbalance of the drum that would come from the lack of precision my lathe allows After turning the drum to size drilled holes through both walls of the drum that were sized for a 10 24 tap The holes were quickly tapped and the screw based teeth were attached to EVENTS Upcoming Events ERC Franklin Institute 2012 will be presented by the North East Robotics Club in Philadelphia PA on October 6th WWNW nherc us echa Mayhem 2012 will be presented by the Chicago Robotic Combat Association in Cleveland OH SERVO 10 9019 x October 13th and 14th www theCRCA org the drum Once this was completed the motor was glued into the drum with Goop a silicone based adhesive In preparation for the initial test spin mounted the power switch to the bottom armor plate to allow operation of the robot without exposed electronics In testing the drum wasn t perfectly balanced but was close enough that the robot could drive reasonably well with the weapon at full speed The final step before its debut at Clash of the Bots 3 was the addition of two 1 16 titanium weagelets that would increase the chances of it getting under an opponent prior to impact Klazo went 2 2 at Clash of the Bots 3 and survived a great deal of abuse across al
66. e owning and maintaining a quadcopter is like owning a sailboat or an old house You re always fixing something However that can be enjoyable Of course the real fun is experimenting with the craft For example on my to do list is to work with the optional ultrasonic range finder and modify the flight computer so that instead of simply hovering at a given distance from the ground the quadcopter takes off and lands automatically l m also thinking of implementing a failsafe mode where the craft powers down to idle and then as soon as the range finder registers an echo hit the throttle to bring the craft down as softly as possible With multiple channels lots of space and an onboard carrying capacity of two pounds you re limited by your budget and imagination The GoPro HD Hero2 video camera 300 is especially popular among quadcopter enthusiasts as are the inexpensive 40 dice mini cameras with night vision have my eye on a remote telemetry system that lets me monitor battery and motor conditions in real time For now I m using an iPod with iChat for Wi Fi based real time video Part of the fun of working with the Elev 8 is discovering what s possible Spend some time on the R C supply sites including HobbyKing Tower Hobbies and Xheli and you ll no doubt discover technologies that you didn t know existed If you have the patience to wait for overseas delivery HobbyKing offers amazing discounts and a hug
67. e selection If you need supplies tomorrow then Tower Hobbies is worth considering Of course Parallax stocks spare motors and parts for the Elev 8 Closing Thoughts This fun and in my opinion easy to build kit probably shouldn t be your introduction to robotic R C flight Think about it As a robotics enthusiast you already need to know electronics computers and at least rudimentary mechanical engineering Now you ve added another dimension it s like having the scientists that developed the space shuttle suit up and take over the role of astronaut It s possible but not overnight You ll need to find a local R C enthusiast to show you the ropes from where it s safe to fly to how to judge wind speed and direction there s an app for that You might consider a short training tether of 1 diameter rope with one end affixed to the bottom plate of the Elev 8 and the other free Because the load increases as the craft rises the craft can t shoot up and crash on to a rooftop before you manage to hit the power switch on your transmitter Make sure the rope is dense enough to stay put with the full force of the motors pushing the Elev 8 upward If you haven t touched an R C transmitter in years then go to Amazon and buy a Syma S107 R C helicopter in the color of your choice for 20 Fly figure 8s motor PHOTO 6 Side shot of a motor operating at high speed Blur of the collet ge would indicate imbalance in the prop a
68. e set host command to alter the Host configuration set host tcps 9000 10 Our TCP server now times out in 10 seconds instead of 300 SCREENSHOT 2 The NEMO10 is doing everything we told it to do Now we are able to access its configuration console by way of a LAN or the Internet SERVO 10 2012 53 i NEMOLD SERVO Hyper Termins File Edit iw Cal Transfer Hep D a 5 nsi Username amin Password a e ded NEMO10 Device de stat ip SH aos 135 168 1 97 Subnet mask 255 255 255 0 Dateway 192 168 1 1 Allowed IP address d 8 i B Allowed Subnet mask 0 8 Host Host mode tcps Local port 6881 Inactivity timeout sec 388 Serial Stop bits 1 bit Flow control Hone DTR option Always_high option Hone Interchar kimeoutins 5 Connected tdi ANSIW TCP seconds and the TCP server s local listening port is 9000 The NEMO10 serial console is hard coded to run at 9600 8 N 1 However we can specify differing baud rates bit lengths parity and stop bits that comply with the serial configuration of the device With that let s serve the remote PIC18F4620 at 19200 bps eight data bits no Fie Edi View Call Transfer Help D a omis Username pian Password adm USD EORNM SERVO SENSOR IP mode static IP address 192 168 1 97 Subnet mask 255 255 255 B Dateway 192 168 1 1 Allowed IP address 8 8 8 8 Allowed Subnet_mask 8 8 8 8 Host Host mode tcps Local p
69. e to drop in your ear is the Roving Networks Wi Fi module This is an entire Wi Fi Internet stack on a tiny board that you talk to over a digital UART or SPI connection at up to 2 MB s Imagine giving your robot a Wi Fi connection to your laptop or other devices by adding a board by simply plugging in a motor controller l ve GOT to get me a couple of these To get one for yourself to play with order the developer s kit part number RN 174K from www microchip direct com or from the Roving Networks site at www roving networks com That was all fun but I m going to go back to last month s topic for a moment and the wireless PS2 controller quest I ll write about these and other devices that are really handy and easy to use for our robot projects in later columns so stay tuned The Continuing Saga of the Quest for the Perfect PS2 Wireless Controller When last we met had found my first working wireless PS2 controller by buying a new GameStop Predator S Type unit that was all digital except for the joysticks At that time had bought but not yet received a Lynxmotion wireless PS2 controller for US 19 99 the same price as the GameStop unit The Lynxmotion PS2 controller was larger meatier and was sigh the proper Darth Vader black color see Figure 1 The one down side to the Lynxmotion unit is that its wireless module was the largest of all of the units l ve tested However every single button w
70. ent occurs A good example is making the robot stop back up turn and head off in a new direction whenever one of its touch sensor switches is activated You can verify that the Arduino is reaching the user defined function simply by adding a debugging statement as the first program line within it more Serial print statements like this Serial print ok which sends a simple ok to the PC This statement sends just the text and no new line character So when you view the debugging information in the Serial Monitor window all the text will appear on the same line If you d like it to show up on different lines use the variation Serial println ok 3 To actually see the debugging messages on your PC you need to or open the Serial Monitor window which is a feature that s built into the Arduino IDE software After a sketch download is complete just click on the Serial Monitor icon and the Serial Serial print Serial print Serial print Sensor 1 is Serial print Sensor1 DEC CU Sensor 2 is Serial printIn Sensor2 DEC Arduino Serial Monitor Control Characters The Arduino s Serial Monitor supports a couple of control characters also called escape sequences that can come in handy when you want to display several debugging values at once All control characters begin with a backslash Probably the most useful control character is Nt which inserts a tab in the print statement
71. example sketch or load up something like the one in Listing 1 Upload it to the Arduino then watch for the tell tale flashing of the LED on pin 13 of the Arduino Naturally you can t use this method if your Arduino has something plugged into pin 13 that otherwise might alter the behavior of the LED An example is a switch input where you ve added your own pull up or pull down resistor These external components will override the operation of the Arduino s built in LED causing it to either stay on all the time or not flash at all If you have a shield plugged into your Arduino you may wish to temporarily disconnect it before running any signs of life sketches Removing the shield disconnects any electrical components that might be interfering with the operation of the Arduino Parts on a shield can go bad or short out interruptions in the power supply Listing 1 Blinker ino boolean ledState false void Setup 4 pinMode 13 OUTPUT void loop digitalWrite 13 ledState ledState ledState delay 500 and those faults can prevent the Arduino from powering up or working correctly just one feature or capability at a time Avoid the temptation to implement ultrasonic range finding infrared detection and music playing all at the same time Each of these is a discrete unit test each one to determine if that function is working properly After building and testing the core blocks of your robot metho
72. ext step If the titanium proves too hard to penetrate with a hand drill use a drill press Attach the two motor mounts to the motors Slide the motor mount over the motor shaft and place it on the front of the gear box Rotate the motor mount until the two tapped holes are visible through the guide holes on the motor mount Using the 256 screws and the 05 inch Allen wrench screw in two of the screws through the guide holes into the tapped holes on the motor After mounting both motors to 44 SERVO 10 9019 the motor mounts you will notice the motor mounts have tapped holes on all sides Pick one of the two long sides and line up the tapped holes with the 1 16 inch holes on the titanium plate Using the 1 16 Allen wrench and two 440 screws screw them through the guide holes on the titanium plate into the tapped holes on the motor mount Repeat this process on the other side of the robot so both motors are mounted to the titanium plate STEP 6 MOUNTING THE WHEELS Take the FingerTech hubs and glue them to the lite flite tires Start by running a line of glue down the length of the Fingertech hub and slide a lite flite wheel over the shaft of the hub Repeat this process on both wheels Slide both assembled wheels over the drive shafts of your robot Line the set screw of the hub to the flat on the drive shaft Warning If this step is skipped your wheels will fal
73. fic Island natives in WWII who built dummy replicas of radios antennas and microphones to call for 14 SERVO 10 2019 planes to land with their desired cargo just like they saw the military forces doing The natives didn t understand what was behind the technology they saw being used they Just saw things happen when it was used Does that sound familiar to you with respect to our smartphone carrying society As more and more high technology is created by a shrinking pool of those who understand how to create and maintain these nearly magical marvels are we allowing ourselves to simply go through the motions of understanding how our society s underpinnings work That is a kind of scary thought isn t it There are plenty of Orwellian scenarios to play out in my mind dealing with that concept How about yours Now that I have ruined your night s sleep let me try to allay your fears In the last few years I ve seen a reversal of that trend forming am referring to of course the maker renaissance that has been born in many places The first oun intended origin believe is Dean Kamen s FIRST organization which spawned the First LEGO League FLL hopes to create the next generation of our society s engineers and rely an email away ervomagazine com Tap into the sum nf a human knowledge am get your questions answered here From software algorithms to material selection Mr Roboto str
74. g methodology that develops logical thinking skills while making learning fun RObotBASIC is an easy to use computer language available for any Windows based PC and is used throughout the text Price 14 95 The Learning Lab 1 59 95 Any bot builders ne out there Get cool robotics stuff from my store Call me atm order desk Visit my online store gt pw Li iw Fr he wy M www servomagazine com A Linux Robotics oy D Jay Newman If you want your robot to have more brains than microcontrollers can deliver if you want a truly intelligent high capability robot everything you need Is right here Linux d Robotics gives you step iKa ie 1 oy step directions for d the DL m Zeppo a super smart single ooard powered robot that can be built oy any hobbyist You also get complete instructions for incorporating Linux single boards into your own unique robotic designs No programming experience is required This book includes access to all the downloadable programs you need 34 95 The Learning Lab 2 Basic Digital Concepts and Op Amps 49 95 CNC Machining Handbook Building Programming and Implementation by Alan Overby The CNC Machining Handbook describes the steps involved in building ff a CNC machine and Handkgh successfully implementing k H 1 _ it in a real world a application Helpful photos and illustrations are featured through
75. g to the finals to fight an undefeated Thrash Pissed Off Unicorn used its eight inch spinning weapon to defeat Thrash twice for the Fleaweight title ANTWEIGHT CLASS Thirteen robots battled it out in the Antweight division Early in the bracket Poco Tambor sent Klazo high in the air hit after hit almost getting Klazo stuck between the arena barrier and the wall as it bounced off the arena Caleb Boothe from Duke Robotics competed with his first robot a nicely machined full body spinner Shaka Zulu and received a tough first match up against Jamison Go s well known DDT Both robots took big hits until FIGURE 7 Berzerker vs Dirty Sanchez FIGURE 10 OpenRobotix s Chobham 2 0 winner of Coolest Robot SERVO 10 2019 Shaka Zulu flipped upside down and danced circles around DDT while it tried to self right DDT s luck was running short however as he lost his next match against Poco Tambor and then lost to Algos Saifu built by Pete Smith of Kitbots did well in the first round with its reversible direct drive brushless drum weapon After winning its match against Algos Saifu was sent to the loser s bracket by Capricant and was then eliminated by Klazo which is based off the same kit as Saifu Last year s winner Gilbert from Team MH Robotics returned to reclaim his title at Clash of the Bots 3 After beating Ting Tang and Blue Devil Gilbert lost its match against Poco Tambor and fought its way through the
76. gramming guide for today s robot hobbyist Get ready to reach into your programming toolbox and control a robot like r never before Robot Programmer s Bonanza is the one stop guide for everyone from robot novices to advanced hobbyists who are ready to go oeyond just building robots and start programming them to perform useful tasks 99 95 Robotics Demystified oy Edwin Wise YOU DON T NEED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO LEARN ROBOTICS Now anyone with an interest in robotics can gain a deeper understanding without formal training unlimited time or a genius IQ In Robotics Demystified expert robot builder and author Edwin Wise provides an effective and totally painless way to learn about the technologies used to build robots 19 95 robotics DeMYS TifieD We accept VISA MC AMEX and DISCOVER Prices do not include shipping and may be subject to change 1 800 783 4624 SERVO Magazine Bundles Now you can get one year s worth of all your favorite articles from SERVO Magazine in a convenient bundle of print copies Available for years 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 and 2011 RobotBASIC Projects For Beginners by John Blankenship Samuel Mishal If you want to learn how to program this is the book for you Most texts on programming offer dry boring examples that are difficult to follow In this book a wide variety of interesting and relevant subjects are explored using a problem solvin
77. individually plugged into your robot s Arduino should all be removed then replaced one at a time for testing Or circuits like cellular phone boards may consume copious amounts of current which can cause constant or intermittent errors In the case of a cell phone SMS shield for example the circuit may draw an amp or two when transmitting If your robot s power supply can t handle the peak load the sudden draw can cause the Arduino to momentarily shut down These so called brownout events can be hard to track down because the problem may only rear its ugly head when other current consuming circuits are added to the mix Remove any single circuit and your bot functions again Add it back in and the problem returns On the surface this kind of mayhem SERVO 10 2012 59 can look like a fault in the individual circuits when it s really just a matter of overtaxing the battery In cases like these using a bigger battery or completely eliminating circuits that draw excessive currents usually solves this problem Using the Serial Monitor to Debug Problems Get into the habit of validating the operation of your robot and its Arduino processor by using the Serial Monitor window This tool allows you to send messages from the Arduino back to your PC These messages serve as a way to quickly and efficiently debug many aspects of your robot Arduino all at the same time While you must take a few moments to set the debuggi
78. indoors in subdued lighting Because of these types of factors and limitations most remote control of a robot is accomplished via an RF radio link which has a much longer range no problems with the sun or walls and large bandwidth Early Model Radio Control Let s face it The first real radio control for hobbyists was for model airplanes and boats When airplane modelers got tired of spinning in a circle while holding onto a pair of control lines that led to the speeding model they began to think about radio control The same went for model power boat builders who watched their boats heading for the opposite shore of a lake There had to be a better way There was Radio control Before World War Il there was little available to construct small and affordable radio systems that included the transmitter and receiver Radio tubes were large and drew a lot of power for the filament and the high voltages required After the war surplus electronic equipment became available to civilians and some good but still bulky radio control equipment was being built for model control One of the more successful commercially available systems was the tuned reed receiver It was essentially an electromechanical device consisting of a series of resonate reeds that would respond to a transmitted signal of the particular audible frequency The resonating reed would vibrate a set of contacts enough to allow a current to pass through and c
79. intf statements are not your normal printf statements The Printf and PrintDec are user written routines that do not accept any of the normal printf formatting Basically the code snippet runs forever sending the incrementing servo variable message to the NEMO 0 s serial port Everything is now in place and we can perform a preliminary test Clicking on the Serial Input Output Monitor CONNECT button should establish a TCP session with the NEMO10 If our little test program is running we should see the message from the PIC18F4620 l ve started the PIC and can see that the NEMO10 s serial RX LED is blinking Bem brein eF iar mun m eain neren i broren oa br prera pur um m rra wen rum amm E Pere Pel UTi i aem eee Perm rer Lirit dm rh bb ee ee h anu i ram jd phhd T E i im PO HL piii T noon i SCREENSHOT 5 This particular router calls the NEMO 10 a virtual server You should recognize the IP address and port numbers mu considering we assigned them B il drm re ie LES HHL 4 ii i ii dp d d d dduwgddwduWg Li imi pub t IE i kliiii i 4 1n i n UB omi i J TD i LE imi mhii d didi dw d 4 t i T j amp l ibi OPTO ISOLATOR INTERNAL TO METER CC Fh INTERNAL TO METER lt lt SCHEMATIC 1 This is very clever and cheap This circuit eliminates the need for a more costly RS 232 to TTL converter PHOTO 5 The PICDEM Z
80. it kept me tool box as the control panel It had busy no autonomy other than what switch Years later in 1986 as a scout its young inventor pushed or flipped master and robotics engineer at You can see his control box sitting Rockwell was asked by Boys Life to on a Stool design and write about a simple but collected a pile of parts to build more modern robot that scouts could my own Cosmo that was mostly build on their own and to keep the heavy plywood furnace ducting juke total cost below 50 The editor at box parts and motors a heavy tape Boys Life decided to name it recorder and assorted light bulbs FIGURE 1 Original Gismo the Great Gismo2BL as the son of Gismo tried to make it move on some toy from 1956 Boys Life from the earlier article used a typical rubber tires and two juke box motors plastic waste basket as the body 74 SERVO 10 2012 plastic pipe for the arms and two dual 6 VDC motors to power the arms and wheels Figure 2 shows the basic layout of the robot and a simple schematic from the February 1987 article had to avoid the use of a 68HC11 microcontroller or similar microcontroller of that era to keep the cost down and for simplicity Control was by two sets of momentary DPDT switches from RadioShack for the two arms and the two wheels felt should use flattened tin can metal for the wheel mounts since few kids had the machine shop shears and metal stoc
81. ives to meet you where you are and entrepreneurs Later came the rise of the maker folks from Make Magazine and the Maker events that happen all around the world The maker movement is all about creating new things of beauty and usefulness without needing huge corporate backing place the Arduino cult firmly in the midst of the maker movement for bringing together ideas from many places to create the Arduino platform that help those who didn t start out as embedded engineers to make tools and art that use embedded engineering tools of the trade Bravo Now we have lots of spinoffs of the Arduino scene for hardware and creative aids like the on line site Instructables to boost that maker spirit out there This movement has given me back hope that our society can still improve and move forward from many creative origins and has not given up our future to the faceless mega corporations of the world Okay so maybe that was a bit strong but still the small operations out there catering to the maker movement have been embraced and are successful because our culture has NOT become a cargo cult We still seek to create and to understand tell my children that not all magic comes from fantasy books The technological creations of our age are just as wondrous as any spell from a magic wand in a book Nuff said www servomagazine com index php magazine article october2012_MrRoboto New and Cool Fr
82. ixing 2 units req Analog pot input Supports 8 AWG wires Optional enclosure 2 85 x225 x 1 75 Phone 253 843 2504 sales probotpower com SERVO 10 2012 13 E i r M s write this have just returned from the Microchip Master s Conference 2012 nd boy was that a blast should qualify that statement It was a blast for a seriously geek crowd of hardware and firmware engineers that really love their work of making things that do stuff The chipKIT folks at Digilent had some very fun classes and discovered a seriously cool product series by Roving Networks that puts an entire Wi Fi stack on a very affordable module l Il be writing about that in a little bit but first have some observations to make The crowd going to these events is looking grayer We need more younger engineers coming into the club which leads me to my next set of MUSINGS For many years now have been lamenting to anyone who would listen a shrinking crowd that today s kids aren t interested in how things work and how to make them They are only interested in using the cool new gadgets that our technology wizards are creating for the consumer market My concern was further fueled by an article in EETimes by Bill Schweber in 2008 which asked the question Are we becoming a Cargo Cult Schweber goes on to describe a cargo cult which originated with a story about Paci
83. k that had available in my garage My twin sons Jimmy and Tommy who were scouts at the time were my test Subjects to verify that a kid could make the robot from scratch Herbach and Rademan the surplus house in Philadelphia was the source for the 4 95 dual motors They had to temporarily add more staff and actually manufacture more of the motors as 27 000 kids built or tried to build the robot Switches the Most Basic Control System Simple switch control is used in many toys and toy robots as well as in most power tools industrial machines and appliances remember one toy Jeep that had that used a two button wired remote control one button each for forward and reverse with the front wheels mechanically steering to the right in reverse To change direction you had to back up as far as it took to face the new direction that you wanted to go the wheels were straight for forward Crude but it worked It was just a simple on off type of control Add in polarity reversal for battery powered tools and variable speed control and you still have on off switch control To manipulate something in this manner from a remote location one usually has to use wires from two to as many as hundreds depending on the number of controlled functions FIGURE 2 Simple control schematic for Boys Life 1987 Gismo2BL robot TUM I kv p T i Robots with many functions can operate remarkably well wi
84. l of the matches During the event Klazo faced Saifu the prototype kit built by Pete Smith The match lasted a full two minutes and went in favor of Klazo The deciding factor in the match appeared to be a gearbox failure on Saifu The relevant differences between the two robots were the change in gearboxes to the FingerTech Silver Sparks and the use of lite flite wheels on Klazo instead of the hard plastic wheels that Saifu used After the event decided to make a more balanced and heavier drum since Klazo was well below the weight limit The new drum has eight 10 24 flat head screws for teeth instead of the four used on the initial drum and has a slightly larger diameter Outside of that modification Klazo is ready for the next event which was the Robot Micro Battles in Atlanta GA during Dragon Con Overall am happy with the durability of the kit and relative ease of construction The most difficult portion of the build was making the drum However suspect there will be at least one stock option available upon the release of the kit Clash of the BOts 3 otorama Carolina Combat Robotics hosted its third Clash of the Bots on July 14 at the Schiele Museum of Natural History Builders traveled to Gastonia NC from across the country with almost 40 robots in three combat weight classes Flea Ant and Beetle As we approached the venue the first thing that caught my eye was the Clash of the Bots TODAY on
85. l off Use the 05 inch Allen wrench to tighten the set screw in the hub SOLDERING THE ELECTRONICS TOGETHER STEP 7 STRIPPING THE WIRES We are going to start by stripping the wires on both FingerTech controllers Also strip the red and black wires on the female JST plug Tin all six leads To tin each lead get the soldering iron to full temperature It usually takes about 10 minutes on most irons Heat the wire with the iron while placing the solder on the other side of the wire If the wires are not taking the solder apply a little bit of solder to the iron After tinning all six leads we will now join the three black leads together Slip a piece of heat shrink over the two black speed controller leads Solder the JST connector to one of the speed controller leads recommend putting the speed controller lead in a vice or pair of pliers then holding the soldering iron in your dominant hand and the JST connector in the other hand Place them together so they are horizontally touching Heat both wires with the iron until the tinned leads melt together Once all three wires are soldered together slip the heat shrink over the solder joint make sure to cover all exposed wire Use a lighter or other small flame to compress the heat shrink around the solder joint make sure the flame does not touch the heat shrink After joining the black leads together repeat the process and join the red wires together using the same
86. lable in high end transmitters Most are applicable to model airplane and helicopter flying but are also programmable to help make combat robots easier to control Radio Control Transmitter Configurations Commercial radio control manufacturers designed two very different transmitter configurations for aircraft and for ground based cars The rectangular two joystick configuration shown back in Figure 4 has become the favorite for remote robot control due to the availability for more control channels Combat robots have more functions needed other than just two differentially driven wheels Combatants need to control various weapons with possible requirements for unique movements Some robots need to reverse wheel driving direction if they get flipped over in a bout The gun style transmitter shown in Figure 7 is a favorite with model race car drivers since it allows easy and quick direction control of the car s two front wheels in a race with a FIGURE 8 ZigBee PRO S2B 63 mW wire antenna trigger controlling the car s speed The thumb can be used to fire trigger a weapon for a combat robot However most robots do not use the Ackermann style steering that is used in race cars but instead use differential steering Differential steering guides the robot by controlling the speed and direction of the right and left drive wheels The gun style transmitters don t have as many channels as the dual joystick transmitte
87. line Serial print Some text here Serial print At Serial println Some more text You don t need to emplace the t control character in its own Serial print statement when using just literal strings like that shown above You will need to if you want to mix literal strings plus numeric values from variables Serial print Sensors reading Nt Explanatory text plus tab Serial println mySensor DEC Value from mySensor variable Explanatory text Value in sensor1 variable Tab Repeat for sensor 2 Monitor window will appear Verify that the baud rate setting in the lower corner of the window is the same as the Serial begin statement used in your sketch Otherwise the Arduino VOLO Giga EUMD es Pep MT Serial ove inane bias kale i DUMDEr activated ue rest of code j At parts of the sketch that use loops where you want to be sure that program execution eventually continues beyond the loop Suppose your robot stops and waits for a bumper switch to activate The code is part of a loop like so while digitalRead 10 0 which means check the value of digital pin 10 and keep looping as long as the pin is low 0 All fine and good but sometimes programming errors wiring mistakes and other gremlins can cause your program to simply stop at this loop and never continue You can check that the loop eventually exits just by placing a debugging statement immediately after while digit
88. lose an appropriate relay and thus control a specific function These systems were used from the 1950s to the early 1970s when transistorized equipment became readily available to all Another system used a single button transmitter and what was Tom Carroll can be reached at TWCarroll aol com known as an escapement relay connected to a receiver in a model plane When the button on the transmitter was depressed the signal caused the escapement to move say 90 degrees to the right and move the plane s rudder fully to the right Another push of the button would cause the escapement to move the rudder back to center Another push moved the left rudder and another push brought it back to center The escapement motion was powered by a wound up rubber band the length of the fuselage s interior Figure 4 is a display of four early 1960 s rubber band powered escapement control systems from www mcecrash racing co uk Radio Control Systems Incorporate Servos Jumping ahead several decades it Is quite clear that radio control systems have dramatically improved The main improvement has been proportional control Instead of the bang bang one way or via another type of control movements can be slight and at any speed or direction that the operator desires This is the same type of physical movement that you would find in a real airplane car or robot This proportional movement is accomplished by servos small gear moto
89. lug the long will wait to see the receiver leads coming off the speed blinking light on controllers into the receiver in the the receiver and alleron and elevator slots the transmitter go solid This indicates the transmitter has bound to the receiver Todb r DHARATUTRPENEJUD TERCTEniRA TESIPERRH oe yy TET TEN LDILPE LITIET x MAKING THE BOTTOM PLATE When originally designed the bottom plate for this wedge used a piece of cardboard or cardboard aided design have provided a cut out for you at the article link to trace onto polycarbonate With polycarbonate this thin you can cut it with hand shears and bend it in a vice Carefully lay the pattern out and with either a pencil or fine tip Sharpie trace the pattern onto the polycarbonate Then using the hand shears cut out the bottom plate The dotted lines on the pattern represent where it will be bent in the vice Put the double stick tape on the label side of the speed controllers Although this will cover the label it will make the LED visible SERVO 10 9019 47 One special note don t drill the holes until after the material is bent This goes against many shop practices however for garage and hand tools I believe this is a better approach Start by bending the front of the plate to a 30 degree angle With polycarbonate you will need to bend it past the point and see where it returns Move to the dotted line
90. n All the wires The last little bit of hardware used to complete my design is a Hobby People two cell 25C 850 mAh Li Po battery pack At full charge this pack is about 8 4V which is plenty of voltage for my vehicle motors and still well below the 13V maximum for the motor driver chip I m using Since most motor controllers don t sense the voltage and shut down before damaging the pack remember you need to watch your lithium ion pack s voltage If the battery is drained below about 2 5V depends on the Serial printim Ne controller found check wiring see readme txt to enable debug Visit www OO bec into for troubleshooting ELS g else 1f error 2 Serial printin Controller found bur not accepting commands see readme txt to enable mum uM EN NEN L Dir2B for the right motor PWMB for the right motor Table 1 Arduino I O pin assignments some dead band around the center and adjust the values to send to the PWM around 0 126 NOt COD Dicis ge lereSpeed ps2 xAnalogUPsscuY s debug Visit www billporter info for s a ee SO ed roues oS SN Su leftSpeed 128 else TL error 3 Serial println Controller refusing to enter Pressures mode may not support it i type ps2x readType switch type leftDir 1 reverse else if leftSpeed lt 126 leftSpeed 126 leftSpeed lettDir Q0 EOS case O0 else Serial println Unknown Controller call it
91. n YouTube to give you an indication of whether you re considering a dinosaur or a hot platform The one area in which I ve stumbled lately is support In these cost cutting times it s common to offload support to a user forum Sometimes these are fantastic responsive resources Other times it s a pool of questions with no answers Plus it s difficult to determine the level of support until you have a specific problem I ve found this most commonly associated with open source software For example I m working on a robotics book and needed a platform to illustrate some robotics principles identified two vendors of popular platforms and purchased the platform with the best specifications and apparently the greatest popularity among experimenters Unfortunately the software was open source and not supported by the hardware vendor wasted days trolling through the forums looking for an answer to an interface question without luck The forum leader was away on vacation or grad school or both apparently In the end ordered the somewhat dated hardware platform with a commercial software library and was up and running in minutes There was a professionally edited and indexed user manual online and other support that you d expect for a commercial product had to give up the bleeding edge hardware but it wouldn t have been fair to readers to feature a cool looking but inoperative robot I m not suggesting that all open source software and har
92. n set and forget the hover height Photo 1 shows the HoverFly Board atop the Elev 8 wired for testing The front of the board which faces up in the photo holds the ESC motor connector On the left of the board are the connections to the receiver in my case the receiver that accompanies the Spektrum Dx6i transmitter The USB connector prop chip buzzer and LED status light are also visible in the photo In this example the purple light signifies there s a problem havent finished connecting the ESCs to the board Setup involves first downloading the latest firmware from the HoverFly site You ll need a PC running Windows to operate the program Then run the HoverFly utility to verify that your transmitter and receiver are properly configured In all software setup and verification is a 20 minute painless operation The most difficult part is determining where to plug in which cable The color coded diagram on the HoverFly site indicating which channel from the Spektrum receiver plugged into the ports on the board wasn t immediately intuitive but it eventually made sense As noted in Part 1 inserting and removing the various cables from the ESCs and receiver stresses the four metal on plastic anchors of the board managed to strip two of the connections during this part of the testing Use tie wraps to secure the board until you re ready to fly If you happen to strip the board use 4 40 plastic bolts and nuts to lightly secure
93. nal controls adjust your height remotely park yourself with the kickstands and more You can drive Double from an iPad iPhone iPod touch or desktop web browser KICKSTAN 30 SERVO 10 2012 Build robots that norem stand the test of time W EI a i I d 4h V E me E KENTEEN Robot motor controllers starting at 20 Solutions Cubed hardware made easy f t c om bed com for ndditional 5X peso 530 891 8045 valid through Jan 1st 2013 BUILD REPORT Testing the Prototype Klazo My 1 Ib Drumbot From Kitbots com by Michael Jeffries O DC 10 recently built and tested one of formed the basis of this build by Michael Jeffries the prototype 1 lb drumbot kits The chassis is a combination of trom Kitbots com as part of the UHMW plastic aluminum and development process prior to the the Kitbots product Nutstrip kit moving to production At the much like the Weta and Trilobite beginning of the build received kits The design of the chassis the fully assembled chassis along closely resembles Weta however At daa estre with four kit gearmotors that there is an important difference in by Andrea Suarez by Morgan Berry FIGURE 1 The assembled chassis of the kit as it arrived for testing a FIGURE 3 Partially manufactured drum showing FIGURE 2 View of the internal layout of the chassis showing drive motors and TinyESCs the weap
94. nano Sumo Micromouse line following and freestyle www roboticarena org sE nA 10 510 f HE ITE if I pokstorel has 3 morenthanaOtities aniralotics ROBOTICS EXPERIMENTS TJustitoiname aitew 8 001 873 4 021 Uc Robotics Showcase Wi Recycling amp Remarketing High Technology rA Pes md m ul O U S E 384 W Caribbean Dr Sunnyvale CA 94089 Mon Sat 9 30 6 00 Sun 11 00 5 00 408 743 5650 Store x324 We recycle computers monitors and electronic equipment Hi tech items electronics test equipment and more 10 000 sq ft of computers electronics Sitas a software doo hickies cables and more wae stores ebay com WeirdStuff Inc THOUSANDS OF ELECTRONIC PARTS AND SUPPLIES VISIT OUR ONLINE STORE AT www allelectronics com WALL TRANSFORMERS ALARMS FUSES CABLE TIES RELAYS OPTO ELECTRONICS KNOBS VIDEO ACCESSORIES SIRENS SOLDER ACCESSORIES MOTORS DIODES HEAT SINKS CAPACITORS CHOKES TOOLS FASTENERS TERMINAL STRIPS CRIMP CONNECTORS L E D S DISPLAYS FANS BREAD BOARDS RESISTORS SOLAR CELLS BUZZERS BATTERIES MAGNETS CAMERAS DC DC CONVERTERS HEADPHONES LAMPS PANEL METERS SWITCHES SPEAKERS PELTIER DEVICES and much more 1 800 826 5432 Ask for our FREE 96 page catalog go 12 issues for 24 95 po Call 1 877 525 2539 oe S ot go or go online at ea www servomagazine com SERVO 10 2012 21 parkFun Electronics is now shipping th
95. nant Mode was flipped upside down allowing Weta to get some good hits against Dominant Mode s titanium armor All the kids took a step back from the arena as the shower of bright sparks hit the arena wall Dominant Mode was eventually able to self right and after two minutes of constant contact between the bots the judges deemed Dominant Mode the winner DeJa Voodoo and Grande Tambor took the stage next for a forceful match between these two drum bots that ended with DeJa Voodoo sending Grande Tambor into the ceiling In the rematch between these two bots later in the bracket Grande Tambor landed on the floor with so much force that both drive shafts sheared off rendering Grande Tambor immobile Shame Spiral worked its way through the winner s bracket undefeated to meet DeJa Voodoo in the finals After a serious driving skill show from both competitors DeJa Voodoo s drum couldn t penetrate Shame Spiral s wedge The match ended with DeJa Voodoo wedged between the arena barrier and the outside wall and the judges named Shame Spiral the Beetleweight champion BOT HOCKEY The bot hockey division drew a lot of attention as TABLE 1 CLASH OF THE BOTS 3 WINNERS Fleaweight Pissed Off Unicorn Busted Nuts Robotics 1st Thrash Busted Nuts Robotics Invertigo Busted Nuts Robotics Bot Hockey Team Meatheads Coolest Robot FIGURE 17 DeJa Voodoo gets wedged in the arena vs Shame Spiral r
96. nd or in front of you overhead in front of active air conditioners and at night with the lights out Don t even think about powering up the Elev 8 until you can take off fly and land the Syma flawlessly Then consider a simulator add on for your R C transmitter such as the RealFlight R C flight simulator These simulator packages contain a standard cable for your R C transmitter and software for your PC Select the simplest single engine helicopter model and start flying The advantage of this system is that you get used to the same transmitter interface you ll be using on the Elev 8 The disadvantage is that there are no Elev 8 models to fly you ll have to make do with a helicopter Still you ll get a feel for the transmitter controls and this newfound dexterity will apply directly to your control of the Elev 8 Happy flying SV PHOTO 5 Balancing props after a crash is mandatory This balancing tool uses miniature bearings More sensitive tools use magnetic suspension SERVO 10 2012 73 had an interesting conversation with a friend about some of my recent columns in particular we talked about ways to control robots other than visual sensors such as the Kinect and verbal control via speech recognition We discussed early robots that used crude wireless or wired control as well as more modern concepts such as NASA s one ton Curiosity that is being controlled from Earth all the way to Mars
97. ne to access the repeater without using an additional access point As a hotel room controller WizFi630 can be used as an Ethernet to Wi Fi AP Client in hotel room control WizFi630 provides a multi networking environment by combining Wi Fi and Ethernet connections Users can control lighting TVs or any electric devices in the room via Wi Fi and have Internet connection as well WizFi630 Wi Fi modules are available now starting at 35 with evaluation boards priced at 98 For further information please contact Grippers Foot Weights and Crawler Kits RES Inc has three new products available for robot builders The Philo Gripper is an easy drop in replacement for a forearm with two servos for grip and wrist turning It also includes a torque limiter to protect the gripping servo and a silicon tip for better gripping force Pre assembled versions and kits are available Q4 SERVO 10 9019 Also new are their RoboPhilo foot weights The kit includes two sets of weights and double sided tape This product adds weight to the foot areas so provides more stable motion The RoboCrawler is a simplified robotic crawler which offers an affordable option to hobbyists interested in multi legged walkers ii x n dihitt m ey MN uu 998 c5 iE ia a iiti EP 4 Features include Eight servos for eight degrees of freedom for the legs Each motion routine can have up to 30 sequences and each sequen
98. ng environment it can save considerable boolean ledState false void setup Serial begin 9600 delay 250 Listing 2 Debugger ino Match in Serial Monitor Serial println Setup complete void loop 1 digitalWrite 13 ledState Serial orint LED on J Serial printin ledState ledState ledState delay 500 Serial Monitor to display messages trom the Arduino so you already know the basic concepts Just in case the idea is new to you here s what s involved 1 The hardware serial port is configured in the setup function Merely add Serial begin 9600 LED om or off LED state n Serial Monitor Shows 0 or 1 Toggle LED state Wait 1 2 second near the beginning The 9600 value is the baud rate the data rate that the Arduino and PC will communicate with one another This value is actually rather low and both your computer and Arduino are capable of talking to one another at much faster speeds However 9600 baud is the most common rate used in the various Arduino examples time in the long run No doubt you ve already used the Good places to insert a Serial print statement include Inside the setup function to verify that the Arduino is progressing to at least that point in its program The Serial print statement must appear after Serial begin If printing text immediately after Serial begin consider adding a quarter to half second delay Seren ell Toxe
99. nous areas to rubble piles to water up to seven or eight feet deep everywhere existing ground vehicles can t go Not only that while navigating such terrain Stompy could carry 1 000 pounds at 2 3 mph and up to 4 000 pounds at mph This is important in disaster areas because Stompy and the technology it represents could easily reach people who can t be reached by other means So how big is big Check out the photo Yep That s a person A really tall person named Matt LEAPS OF FAITH Roboticists at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have managed to make a robotic insect that in addition to walking on water can also jump Modeled after a water strider the legs of this robot are made of a a porous water repellent nickel foam The concept is that if you spread the weight of the robot out enough the surface tension of the water can support it This is a tall order for a robot this large Weighing in at grams this porker is over a thousand times the mass of its biological inspiration To get the robot to jump a separate set of legs was added bringing the total to five By using these actuating legs to push against the surface of the water the robot was able to make leaps 4 centimeters high and 35 centimeters long taking off at nearly 65 kph which is impressive for such a little guy Robots like these could skim across lakes and other bodies of water to monitor water quality or act as tiny spies Cool
100. ns that saw in the 70s and 80s Many robot experimenters have used surplus handheld IR TV remote controls for their robots Simple IR receivers such as the Panasonic module from Parallax shown in Figure 3 are available for just a few dollars The coded signals can be received decoded by a microcontroller and used to control many functions on a robot Most use a 38 kHz carrier frequency and are easily converted to small robot controllers For example the volume or DVD player arrows on a controller can be used for forward and reverse on a robot and the remaining buttons can be used for controlling other functions An experimenter can view the output of the remote on an inexpensive IR receiver module and view it on an oscilloscope or computer They copy and reproduce the code pulses and then program their microcontroller to recognize each signal as a particular robot command know of several experimenters who gutted a TV remote control and hardwired wires from the copper traces beneath the rubber buttons then ran them to a more conventional keypad They didn t like the TV specific wording on the remote and fashioned a keypad more to their liking while still using the remote s electronics IR control is cheap and reliable but it does have drawbacks Outdoors IR is subject to interference by sunlight Basically the IR signal is lost due to being overpowered by the sun though a lot of experimental robots are used
101. o work with 4 mm bullet connectors The next issue related to power is care and feeding of For setup and testing used a laboratory grade your Li Po batteries You need a good charger and power switching power supply rated at 40V at 30A instead of a supply I ve had good luck with the iCharger 306B and battery The power supply enables me to monitor and matching ParaBoard refer again to Photo 2 The charger precisely limit current during testing also dont like the Is on the expensive side 160 but with the ParaBoard idea of providing an untested quad with a self contained parallel charging board can charge four Li Po batteries power supply have the power supply cable tethered simultaneously In other words can have a new set of so that if the quad manages to move more than an inch above the testing table the cable automatically disconnects and the quad comes to rest For battery power based on recommendations from Parallax support selected a three cell 11 1V 4 400 mAh Li Po see Photo 2 The battery is rated at 30C continuous and 60C burst The C rate is the rate at which a battery is discharged relative to its maximum capacity A 1C rate is equivalent to discharging the entire battery capacity 4 400 mAh in one hour 30C means that the battery can discharge at a rate of 30 x 4 400 mAh or 132A Of course the battery will be depleted in only two minutes At the 60C burst level the battery will deliver
102. ocular camera with a high frame rate of 45 60 fpc to enable the high tracking rate that is necessary for some of these tasks Dr Oh is working on mobility tasks for HUBO such as climbing stairs and dealing with uneven terrain though the robot is not very good at the latter task just yet Dr Oh is also developing the HUBO platform for skills like human robot teaming such as helping a human carry a table The robot will need to walk together with the human to move objects from one spot to another Dr Oh is brainstorming on a lot of different strategies for that and is also working on the challenge of having two robots move a table together without the aid of a human In addition the researchers are working on speech recognition for HUBO using a standard speech recognition tool though there are issues around acoustics and again noise USC is working on adding touch based sensing together with a company called SynTouch According to Dr Kim it will take about five to 10 years to get the HUBOs to play musical instruments together with Resources Dr Youngmoo Kim http music ece drexel edu people ykim Dr Paul Oh http dasl mem drexel edu people ph YouTube video including HUBO 2 and related work www youtube com watch v dJRzJt Dwic Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab http dasl mem drexel edu HUBO 1 accompanying music www youtube com watch feature endscreen amp NR 1 amp v L21_YZvd6Ck HUBO 2 robo
103. odel rockets planes or copters you know that the Elev 8 is going to show wear and tear even if you manage to avoid an outright crash Of course your pictures should include more than simple camera shots Include a snapshot of exactly where you re starting from in terms of motor efficiency battery output and overall mechanical integrity Create a logbook and catalog the actual KV maximum rpm and power draw from each of the four ESC motor circuits You can expect these values to decay with normal wear and tear and the inevitable crashes Fortunately there is a variety of affordable meters on the market starting with dedicated KV and rpm meters 20 HobbyKing For about twice that price you can get a meter that also measures watts battery internal resistance and temperature and that doubles as a servo tester As you might expect the 1 000 KV motors dont PHOTO 4 JST connector without left and with right protective sleeve provide anywhere near the theoretical 1 000 x 11 1 or 11 100 rpm at full throttle Plus the KV value will decrease as wear accumulates from improperly balanced propellers impact and the accumulation of dust and grit Li Po batteries also deteriorate with time and use Track the internal resistance and pull a battery from service as soon as you notice a significant deviation from normal You don t want a cell to fail in flight One of the best features of the Elev 8 is ease of maintenance Given
104. odulation variable recruitment of parallel transducer elements high bandwidth variable impedance matching adaptive inertial and gravitational load cancellation and high efficiency power transmission between joints The formal deadline for submitting a proposal was August 21st but there is a six month grace period so it s not too late to put your iron in the fire Contingent on the availability of funds yours may still be selected Details are available at www darpa mil but you can just search DARPA BAA 12 52 1 pdf to locate the pertinent document Here s Looking at You Another area in which bot technology is always subject to improvement is vision and some folks at Georgia Tech s Woodruft School of Mechanical Engineering www me gatech edu have harnessed the piezoelectric effect to replicate the muscle motion of the human eye For a robot to be truly bio inspired it should possess actuation or motion generators with properties in common with the musculature of biological organisms observed Ph D candidate Joshua Schultz The actuators developed in our lab embody many properties in common with biological muscle especially a cellular structure Essentially in the human eye muscles are controlled by neural impulses Eventually the actuators we are developing will be used to capture the kinematics and performance of the human eye According to the developers the new muscle like action could Camera positioning system used by
105. ogically low level When the modulated IR light source is illuminated the opto isolator s transistor conducts and a logical high is presented to the NEMO 10 s RXD pin Conversely when the IR LED is extinguished a logical low is presented to the NEMO10 s RXD pin The resistor between the opto isolator s emitter and virtual ground makes the logic shifts possible z n hpi upt Mondor 1221 8 m d TIT m a E um hs Recall that we can configure EERE ororen RST EME ae FI v the NEMO10 s DTR line to remain I za m o 2 a Optica Opin Carra Dapw beret eet Vac Eg Optisan ESHE logically high at all times The problem is that we can t programmatically control the NEMO10 s RTS line Being a DTE device the NEMO10 will drive the RTS line logically high by default So to get the right logic level at its RTS pin we simply isolate the electrical connection between the NEMO10 and the RS 232 converter input Removing the electrical connection forces the RTS input pin oe ES to float The pin really isn t floating since there is an internal pull up resistor on the RTS input Since the translator gates are all inverters a 192 198 182 4000 ROCO RIC logical high on the RS 232 to TTL i converter s RTS input pin produces a logical low at its output pin performed the isolation by building up a couple of 12 pin male to female headers plugging the NEMO10 into the new set of headers and clipping
106. ol Used in many successful competitive robots Single joystick operation up goes straight ahead down is reverse Pure right or left twirls vehicle as motors turn opposite directions In between stick positions completely proportional Plugs in like a servo to your Futaba JR Hitec or similar radio Compatible with gyro steering stabilization Various volt and amp sizes available The RDFR47E 55V 75A per motor unit pictured above www vantec com SERVO 10 2012 19 a Cl Cc ro ROBOTS NET Send updates new listings corrections complaints and suggestions to steve ncc com or FAX 972 404 0269 Know of any robot competitions l ve missed Is your local school or robot group planning a contest Send an email to steve ncc com and tell me about it Be sure to include the date and location of your contest If you have a website with contest info send along the URL as well so we can tell everyone else about it For last minute updates and changes you can always find the most recent version of the Robot Competition FAQ at Robots net http robots net rcfag html R Steven Rainwater UAV Outback Challenge Kingaroy Australia Search and Rescue Challenge Airborne Delivery Challenge and Autonomous www uavoutbackchallenge com au MindSpark Pune India Events include Micromouse robot dog fights and robot search and destroy www mind spark org The Franklin Cup Philadelphia PA Remote control vehicle comba
107. om the Conference Now on with the nifty new things that saw at my Geekfest er conference that is The Digilent people who created the UNO32 and MAX32 Arduino compatible boards along with the Rutgers gentlemen who helped create the MPIDE extension to the Arduino IDE have been busy making the chipKIT boards even more compatible with Arduino scripts and hardware Digilent has come up with both Internet client side and server side APIs for their chipKIT boards This library works with a variety of their Pmod Internet boards and their UNO32 Wi Fi shield as well It is my understanding that they have kept that library true to the original network library created for Arduino and corrected and extended it for the faster UNO32 and MAX32 boards I was drinking from the fire hydrant there so I ll do some articles in the future that go into more detail with examples and code in coming months The Digilent folks have also extended their Arduino like chipKIT boards the Cerebot to use more of the Arduino libraries In general if you create Arduino scripts using the standard hardware abstraction layer and don t optimize for the AVR hardware your scripts will work on both Arduino and chipKIT hardware like that was seeing a lot of things related to networking and especially wireless networking Go to www digilentinc com to get more information about this and other fun things these guys are doing The other bug l d lik
108. on system Unlike with Weta the brushless motor that powers the weapon is contained within the drum The first priority of the build was to get the electrical system working to allow for testing of the prototype gearboxes started with the drive portion of the electrical system FIGURE 4 The power switch is mounted to the underside of the robot and allows for easy access with a small wrench or screwdriver which meant the installation of FingerTech Robotics TinyESCs a Rhino 460 7 4V Li Po battery Hobbyking R410 OrangeRX and a small power switch For this portion of the build the power switch was left floating Once the initial portion of the wiring was completed soent some motor positioning time testing the drive system After stalling one of the gearboxes noticed that the side of the drive system was not functioning at full capability dismantled the gearbox and found that some of the gearteeth were damaged As part of this process noticed that the gearboxes were visually identical to SERVO 10 2012 33 FIGURE 5 Titanium wedgelets on the completed robot the FingerTech 22 1 Silver Spark gearboxes though they were of lower quality swapped out the prototype gearboxes for the Silver Spark versions and have yet to have an Issue with them then moved on to the creation of the drum for Klazo The drum is made from a 1 ID 1 5 OD 6061 aluminum tube used my small lathe to bor
109. or a concealed transmitter for his promotional bot built the transmitter into a gutted 35 mm camera with a joystick and control buttons on the back of the camera out of sight The actual transmitter was in a small camera bag with multiple wires from the joystick and slide pots running into the camera bag transmitter A wireless microphone was also in the back of the camera could stand off to the side with the camera at my waist and easily control the robot When the bot needed to speak would raise the camera to my face pretending to take a photo and speak through the mic The attached flash worked to assist in the illusion The new transmitters and receivers for today s radio control have features too numerous to list The Hitec 7 Eclipse Pro shown in Figure 5 SERVO 10 9019 77 FIGURE 6 Hitec Optic 6 Sport is one of this latest breed of R C transmitters The 72 75 MHz bands have lost favor to the new 2 4 GHz spread spectrum systems The more affordable Hitec Optic 6 Sport shown in Figure 6 is a six channel spread Spectrum system that has been used on many combat robots The extra channels provide control through two joysticks for the wheel drives and a weapon system with spares for Tiring the weapon With microprocessor FIGURE 7 Futaba 4PKS 2 4 GHz spread spectrum transmitter 78 SERVO 10 2012 control and informative LCD displays there are so many functions and capabilities avai
110. or modified mechanical electromechanical or mechatronic products Tutorials on the basics of mechanisms and motion control systems introduce you to those subjects or act as a refresher Reg 89 95 SDOUECEBDONE 66 SERVO 10 2019 ROBOTICS Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors Hobbyists and Artists by Dustyn Roberts In Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors Hobbyists and Artists you ll learn tiine Move how to successfully build 1 on moving mechanisms MA through non technical z 5 explanations examples T and do it yourself y projects from kinetic art installations to creative toys to energy harvesting devices Photographs illustrations screenshots and images of 3D models are included for each project 29 95 Build Your Own Humanoid Robots oy Karl Williams GREAT DROIDS INDEED This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist Written by a well known figure in the robotics community Build Your Own Humanoid Robots pro vides step by step directions for six exciting projects each costing less than 300 Together they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot 24 95 puhi Your Own HUMANOID ROBO ad IIT 28 ELECTRONIC DESIGNS FOR ARTISTS HOBBYISTS AND EXPERIMENTERS NICK DOSSIS by John Blankenship Samuel Mishal The first hands on pro
111. orm called Double When we say it s iPad based it s literal Double is pretty much a mobile base for an iPad You can log into the iPad from any computer or iOS device and drive the robot around while streaming two way audio and video Double lets you talk to people go sightseeing or do whatever else you want while remotely inhabiting the body of a robot The iPad can be extended vertically from three and a half to five feet to maintain eye level with people sitting or standing and the Segway style base uses high efficiency motors to zip around for up to eight hours on a charge It has a futuristic minimalist design and it has a low preorder price of 2 000 iPad sold separately 47 60 119 152 cm MOTORIZED HEIGHT Double arrives fully functional as soon as you open the box just insert your iPad Touch the power switch to activate Double s self balancing sensors keeping itself upright At only 15 pounds 7 kg it s easy to move by hand and won t damage furniture Setting up Double on your iPad is as easy as downloading an app The same app is used for the driver s iPad and the robot s iPad Once you create an account your driver s iPad will display all of your Doubles anywhere in the world from one screen Connect to Double by tapping its icon which will initiate an interactive video call During the call touch the screen anywhere to engage the driving DUAL controls Slide your thumb to drive and turn i Additio
112. ort 9080 Inactivitu timeout sec 5 Serial Baudrate 19200 Data bits 8 bits Parity Hone Stop bits 1 bit Flow control Hone DTR option Always_high DSR option None Interchar Heacitlas 50 gt Connected nE Fm 54 SERVO 10 9019 parity and one stop set serial 19200 8 n Ll n h n 50 The set serial command we just Issued sets our new device baud rate at 19200 bps with eight data bits no parity one stop bit no flow control DTR always high DSR don t care with an inter character timeout of 50 ms While we re at it let s identify the sensor node as SERVO SENSOR set admin SERVO SENSOR The asterisks retain the previous values of the set admin command s Username and Password parameters Only the Devicename parameter is changed as verified by Screenshot 4 Note also that the device serial port now has a baud rate of 19200 and the Devicename has changed At this point another save and reboot Is in order We have one more configuration task to complete It s not a physical NEMO10 task but it affects the NEMO10 directly We ve got to punch a hole in our gateway router to allow the outside world to access the NEMO10 s server functionality All we have to do is tell the gateway to accept and allow passage of incoming TCP traffic addressed to 192 168 1 97 port 9000 l ve done this in Screenshot 5 NEMO10 at Your Service We don t have an 802 15 4 network running yet
113. oth directions with the greater range both ends must have the higher 63 mW output Not just one When mounting the module be sure to have the antenna pointing straight up and not blocked by any conductive covering The XBee module has a baud rate of up to 1 Mbps and the dongle has 250 Kbps Figure 10 shows an XBee Arduino setup with an interconnecting logic FIGURE 11 GT3D device can control a computer or robot through eye commands FIGURE 9 XStick ZB AT AT command mode ready level converter from the Bildr org blog site have seen these used on RoboMagellan entries and many other types where experimenters needed data exchange for their operations Final Thoughts There are many more varieties of RF and control links that have been used by robot experimenters Wi Fi that uses the IEEE 802 11 standard has been used for robot control though we mostly use this RF technology for a close proximity PC network It has its security problems but is fine for robot use Bluetooth operating in the 2 4 to 2 48 GHz band is another control link technology that has been used for robot control Bluetooth is a packet based protocol with a master slave structure using frequency hopping spread spectrum technology There really is no limit to the methods that can be used to control a computer or even a robot Figure 11 shows a computer application that can easily be converted to robot control These glasses de
114. out Whether you re a student hobbyist or business owner looking to move from a manual manufacturing process to the accuracy and repeatability of what CNC has to offer you ll oenefit from the in depth information in this comprehensive resource 34 95 The ne Lab 3 Basic Electronics Oscillators and Amplifiers 39 95 The labs in this series from GSS Tech Ed show simple and interesting experiments and lessons all done on a solderless circuit board As you do each experiment you learn how basic components work in a circuit and continue to build your arsenal of knowledge with each successive experiment For more info and a promotional video please visit our webstore SERVO 10 2012 67 Or order online WWW Servomagazine com Puzzjec oy tns NGO inc Based on Nuts amp Volts Smileys Workshop this set gives you all the pieces you need b For more info on this and other great combos Please visit http HN AXI 387 n I store nutsvolts com a Combo Price 139 95 For complete details visit our webstore t Wwws servomaqgazine com PROJECTS The SERVO Buddy Kit An inexpensive circuit you can build to control a servo without a microcontroller For more information please check out the May 2008 issue or go to the SERVO webstore Includes an article reprint Subscriber s Price 39 55 Non Subscriber s Price 43 95 68 SERV
115. port 23 using its newly assigned static IP address 192 168 1 97 As you can see in Screenshot 2 the NEMO10 Is now in static IP mode and all of the IP configuration data we E NEMCITD SERVO HyperTerminal a i Stop bi Connected MIL 440 l EE Edi View Cal Tuner Hep a3 0g d login password Type help get ip IIP mode dhcp Allowed IP address 0 0 0 0 Allowed Subnet mask 0 0 0 0 gt get serial Baudrate 9688 Data bits 8 bits one to gel command usages DSR option M Interchar timeout mz Aun detect 9800 E N 1 entered is in place issued a get command to retrieve the NEMO10 s Admin IP Host and Serial status you see in Screenshot 3 The IP configuration is just like we want it However we need to do a little bit of twiddling in the Host area The Host mode defaults to TCP Server tcps that s fine since we want to serve our sensor ne Edit View Cal Trangler Herr login admin assword ype help to get command usages 1 97 Subnet mas 255 os les Gateway 195 168 1 1 Hllowed IP address 8 8 8 8 LING Subnet mask 8 8 8 8 Hato detect TCP IP SCREENSHOT 1 The NEMO10 s serial console can be used to initially configure the serial and network parameters Here ve logged in as admin using the default password admin data don t like the Local port assignment and the nactivity timeout Is a bit much So let s use th
116. r I O lines and the PS2 controller object The Setup block configures the I O lines and discovers which PS2 controller you are using Finally the Loop block is the code that controls everything in real time Notice at the top of the loop I left in a way to make the controller rumble if you push the blue X button on the right of the PS2 controller Push it a little and it rumbles a little push it a lot and well you get the idea I left that in so you could experiment with having a sensor give some user feedback To get everything to work properly turn on the PS2 controller then power up the YAAR after you connect the battery The blinking red LED on the wireless module will stop blinking and turn solid when the remote and the module have connected Now go drive Figure 4 is a picture of my monster It isn t pretty but it works great have any questions for Mr Roboto feel free to email me at Well that s it for another month Keep building robots roboto servomagazine com and I ll be happy to try to and if you get stumped drop me an email As usual if you answer it SV Specialising in a persia Wheels Gearboxes Aluminum Sprockets and Drive Bases c Rio Ready Full Chassis Kita i hme e me pee proportional speed direction and steering with only two Radio Control channels for vehicles using two separate brush type electric motors mounted right and left with our mixing RDFR dual speed contr
117. r other suitable circuit as needed e If this part works you re ready to move on by building and testing each new capability separately Add Start With a Preflight Check Ever heard the phrase kicking the tires In the early days of the automobile tires were made of a much thinner rubber than they are now Kicking them before setting off on a trip would help a motorist know if the tires were ready for the road Better to catch problems early You can kick the tires of your Arduino robot by going through a kind of preflight check list that demonstrates all systems are ready Start with a visual inspection of the Arduino itself its battery or other power connection like the type in Figure 1 FIGURE 1 The first order of business is to always and all wiring Note if anything s become disconnected or loose If you re programming the Arduino or powering it from your PC s USB port be sure the cable is snugly inserted on both ends USB cables and their jacks can become damaged during verify that the Arduino s battery connection is solid Both ends of the cable are potential weak points where wires can break off and cause normal use wires kink and plug contacts get bent or broken off If you suspect a problem has developed but aren t sure of the cause or how extensive it is then upload a signs of ife sketch to the Arduino to test basic operation A good signs of life demonstration is the LED blink
118. r vs Gilbert Photo by Yong Ye SERVO 10 2012 37 obot Battles at Dragon Con in Atlanta GA is one of the oldest robot combat events In 1991 for perspective that s the same year that the World Wide Web was launched a few years after the Denver Mad Scientists Society created Critter Crunch at MileHiCon in Denver as discussed in the first History of Robot Combat article in the January 2012 issue Kelly Lockhart was inspired to create a combat competition of his own He used Critter Crunch as his model and hosted a simple event which soon became a mainstay of the robot combat world Lockhart was kind enough to tell the story of the early Robot Battle events The genesis of Robot Battles started in Denver CO back in 1987 when a group of engineering types created the Denver Mad Scientists Society and staged a small robotics oriented competition at a local e by Morgan Berry science fiction convention The Critter Crunch event caught on and is still going strong to this day and word spread of the cool new idea Come 1991 the organizers of the Dragon Con convention in Atlanta approached me about staging something similar So got a copy of the Critter Crunch rules from the Mad Scientists of which later became a member and figured out how to stage it simply and with as little fuss and muss as possible My original vision is the one I still follow to this day Have fun
119. rk of art was created as a tribute to the London Olympic games and is located outside of the Czech Olympic House which usually havens the Business Design Center in London Explaining the point of the artwork the artist noted that the push up is training for sport activities but at the same time it is also punishment in armies and prisons So the push ups are a very universal physical activity It is in a way very ironic Now dont you feel enlightened Previous Cerny creations include an object depicting Bulgaria as a squat toilet a statue of Saddam Hussein floating in formaldehyde and a display encouraging people to kill each other to control population growth SV SERVO 10 2012 9 by David Cerny Contact the author at geercom windstream net Collaborating With HUBO The first HUBO was part of a previous project that Dr Oh kicked off It was a multi million dollar project to bring HUBO from KAIST to Drexel and to trade students between KAIST and Drexel to share knowledge and training on HUBO The HUBO robot platform is a four foot three inch tall 10 SERVO 10 9019 fully actuated humanoid robot with similar joint movement to that of humans HUBO s legs arms hands fingers and thumbs work about the same as human s do as well HUBO and HUBO 2 are among the latest robots in the HUBO series showcasing a slighter design consisting of a polycarbonate frame and an aluminum endoskeleton The new HUB
120. rosshairs SERVO 10 2012 43 STEP 2 MARKING THE HOLES Be sure to take your time on this step After making the seven scribed crosshairs take the punch and the hammer and create a small divot over each cross hair These small divots will guide the drill through the material Hard metals like grade 5 titanium typically cause drills to walk off the desired location By scribing and marking holes with the punch you will gain a much higher level of accuracy with the drill ASSEMBLING THE DRIVETRAIN STEP 3 DRILLING THE HOLES The last step for the titanium is to drill it Put your hand drill on a low speed at approximately 500 rpm and make sure the 1 8 inch bit is securely locked in the chuck Place a block of wood underneath the titanium plate Take your spray can of WD 40 and spray the drill and sheet before you start drilling Place the drill in the divot and get lined up straight up and down Apply moderate pressure while drilling i l 1 L STEP 5 MOUNTING THE MOTOR MOUNTS STEP 4 CHECKING YOUR HOLES Hold the motor mount up to the titanium plate and visually check to be Sure you can see both tapped holes of the motor mount through the 1 8 inch holes in the titanium plate If the holes are not visible drill the holes out with a larger sized bit Or use a Dremel tool with an end mill ball attachment to turn the holes into slots Make sure the motor mount will fit before moving to the n
121. rs have Many non combat robots require even more channels than their battling cousins especially those that might have a complex arm and or claw attached Model R C control systems will continue to dominate combat robots as well as many other experimental robots that are not under total autonomous control ZigBee and XBee for Robots XBee has become a popular robot communications and control system used by many robot builders Many confuse ZigBee and XBee ZigBee is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using small low power digital radios based on an IEEE 802 14 4 standard for personal area networks XBee is the name of a product made by the Digi Corporation Digi manufactures over 70 different varieties of XBee modules with different antennas power levels and capabilities ZigBee remote control has found favor with some robot experimenters mainly because of its low power consumption ZigBee devices are often used in mesh network form to transmit data over long distances passing data through intermediate devices to reach more distant ones This allows ZigBee networks to be formed ad hoc with no centralized control or high power transmitter receiver able to reach all of the devices ZigBee is targeted at applications that require a low data rate 250 kbit s long battery life and secure networking ZigBee is suited for periodic or FIGURE 10 XBee serial communication with an
122. rs with an attached potentiometer that feed positions back to an internal circuit board that responds to a received series of pulses It was servos that not only allowed remote control of many movements but these small and inexpensive devices became the main method to provide numerous motions to experimenter s robots When first started to use radio control for robot movie props such as for the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds used Futaba radios operating at 75 MHz since the 72 MHz band was limited to airborne use only Movie prop and promotional robots really had size requirements FIGURE 4 Early super regen receiver rubber band escapement demos just the opposite of flying models Airplanes needed the lightest and therefore the smallest receivers possible Large robots especially promotional ones could get by with any size receiver however the very smallest transmitters were used so that the operation of the robot could be hidden Vantec supplied virtually all of the modified systems that used FIGURE 5 Hitec 7 Eclipse Pro for the props Larger robots such as action props required large motors and proportionally higher current speed controllers Feedback was achieved by human vision The operator controlled speed direction and arm motions by looking at the robot as it moved around a movie set or amongst a crowd of people at a convention To satisfy one of my customer s needs f
123. s misprints or typographical errors SERVO Magazine assumes no responsibility for the availability or condition of advertised items or for the honesty of the advertiser The publisher makes no claims for the legality of any item advertised in SERVO This is the sole responsibility of the advertiser Advertisers and their agencies agree to indemnify and protect the publisher from any and all claims action or expense arising from advertising placed in SERVO Please send all editorial correspondence UPS overnight mail and artwork to 430 Princeland Court Corona CA 92879 Printed in the USA on SFI amp FSC stock Qus FSC open source hardware and Arduino software from DIYDrones Bottom line is that you have to do your homework on the quality of support available when you re considering a commercial robotics platform If you have lots of free time and enjoy debugging hardware and software then support may not be an issue You ll probably become a super user providing much needed advice on the user forums However if you re looking for a platform as a means to your real interest in robotics then make certain support is right up there with the technical specifications when you re making a purchase decision SV firgelli www firgelli com LINEAR SERVOS d L12 R Linear des Direct renacement for regular rotary servos Nl necios WT f mgs H n E Bun MTL SKTA Gh 4 strokes force rani amp i
124. s and strings to move its joints without embedded motors While regular PackBot three link arms are between 15 and 20 pounds the AlRarm system only weighs about a tenth of that a fact that would be appreciated by the soldiers that have to carry these robots around Despite its light weight AlRarm is no slouch and can lift up to five pounds or possibly more depending on how much it s inflated By varying the level of inflation it s also possible to vary the level of compliance of the arm this makes the arm a little bit flexible when you need it to be which in turn makes it safer and more durable Since it s mostly made of fabric and string it s wicked cheap at least compared to a conventional arm SERVO 10 9019 97 GET STOMPY This is Stompy a giant hexapod that you can ride in How awesome is that Stompy is the brainrobot of Artisian s Asylum a hackerspace out in Boston This is actually a serious undertaking The guys behind it are experienced roboticists from places like Boston Dynamics Barrett and DEKA The robot will be powered by a 135 horsepower engine driving a whole bunch of hydraulics and while it s largely designed to stomp around in an exhibitory manner the team has big plans fot it The robot isn t just being built for fun It has practical purposes as well With six force sensitive legs and a ground clearance of six feet the robot will be able to walk over broken terrain that varies from mountai
125. s audio and force feedback capabilities explains Dr Kim Dr Kim is using machine learning and as HUBO makes lots of differing strikes on the instruments Dr Kim presents some to the robot and tells it that these were good or bad notes The force feedback sensing from the robot s hand and wrist together with the sound of the note tell the characteristics of the different notes SERVO 10 2012 11 a te d ae Photo from the day that Drexel i University set up 4 four of the HUBO 1 robots to pose as if crossing the street like the Beatles 4 from their Abbey Road album ord V ee 3 LT d il a ee ru E Li 2 Ra i d qu nir 1 Lif 12 SERVO 10 2019 Some videos of HUBO on YouTube include the robots playing Come Together from the Abbey Road album by the Beatles Dr Kim and colleagues took a photo of the HUBO robots crossing the street so that it looked like the Abbey Road album cover The photo appeared on the cover of the Drexel online magazine last spring While Dr Kim has developed the beat tracking capabilities for HUBO he has not perfected the robot s dancing capabilities The HUBOs cannot dance in a good realistic way yet They can perform programmed gestures at the right time The goal is to have them perform the right dancing gestures linked together in the right way with some creativity says Dr Kim The gesture and motion planning for dancing is a very complicated problem th
126. s filter combo module which is under the lens in Photo 2 COMBO 25 Like many of today s modern PHOTO 2 You ll need this baby on the other side of the NEMO10 which is microcontrollers the NEMO10 s UART designed to interface to Ethernet devices using this XFMRS Inc Ethernet is indigenous to the microcontroller s magnetics module There s also a pair of homemade headers in this shot silicon In addition to the Ethernet and You ll find out why one is missing a pin later on SERVO 10 9019 51 XFMRS A XF10BASE C CMBOT 48 T T 8 4 um a E Cina cH locally or remotely There s also a PC application called HelloDevice Manager that can be used to manage the NEMO10 NEM0O10 Setup We can choose to configure the NEMO10 via its serial port or by using a Telnet session At this point our NEMO10 network consists only of what you see in Photo 1 To XFMRS AL XF10BASE 401 45 04408 59 SERVO 10 9019 Serial Ethernet Converter configure the NEMO10 by Telnet we ll need to attach the XF1OBASE Ethernet magnetics filter combo module to it If we decide to configure the NEMO10 using RS 232 we ll need an RS 232 to TTL converter and a console data toggle switch to allow us to force the NEMO10 to enter console mode In either case we ll also need to power the NEMO10 with a power supply that can provide a minimum of 5 volts at 60 mA promised we wouldn
127. s the sketch from compiling and uploading Though there are many reasons this can occur including an improperly installed IDE software package following are some of the most common reasons e Syntax error in code Check for proper spelling and capitalization of all Arduino keywords remember it s digitalWrite not DigitalWrite digitalwrite digitalRight or some other variation Also check for missing semi colons parentheses braces and other typical errors Incompatible version of IDE software The Arduino IDE software has gone through many changes over the years where some changes have broken existing sketch code Be sure you re using the correct IDE version for your sketch Unless there is a specific reason otherwise it s best to keep your Arduino IDE up to date with the latest stable release However annsa anag ig mm 8885 AENA et e Rx i m Em a AR RI ix TNI HARB i ys at wu you may keep previous iterations installed on your computer should you need to compile your sketch with an earlier version Missing or incorrect library Sketches that must be compiled with one or more libraries require those libraries in specific locations either the main libraries folder in the Arduino IDE program directory or the ibraries folder within your sketchbook directory If installing a new library be sure to exit and restart the IDE before attempting to use i
128. sales dongburobot com Factory 27 6 Gil 4 Sandan Jiksan eup Seobuk gu Cheonan city Chungcheongnam do 331 814 Korea TEL 82 41 590 1 700 FAX 82 41 590 1701
129. sed radio Radios need each other So there s probably another 802 15 4 radio within ear shot of the sensor radio The data stops here unless you have equipment installed that will take those sensor bits on a ride to somewhere else Il leave the nature of the sensor to you However I m going to put a PIC18F4620 between your sensor and a Microchip MRF24J40MA 802 15 4 data radio On the remote end I ll place another PIC18F4620 behind yet another MRF24J40MA data radio To keep the sensor generated bits from piling up in the bit bucket l Il attach the remote PIC18F4620 to a device server Device Des m server Lu That s what said A device iT server is an electronic module that Ww Ang 14 4 354 B ANM E BPP accepts a non IP based protocol and Em alad Copyright 2006 Sena Technologi TUN formats the data represented by the protocol into an addressable IP based z protocol that can travel on a LAN a PHOTO 1 The NEMO10 is a compact serial to Ethernet converter module WAN or the Internet In our design designed to interface any RS 232 based device to a LAN or the Internet the non IP protocol will begin with a START bit followed by eight data bits r THe n aja m r b m m ar m and a STOP bit If you added NO serial interfaces the NEMO10 provides via Telnet NEMO10 can request an IP PARITY to the aforementioned data all of the necessary I O drive for address which infers that it may be s
130. stem the whole nine yards It was obvious that we had hit on something As we went along we ve changed weight classes adapted to changing technology moved to ever large venues and spread out to other conventions around the country including back in Denver for several years Currently we hold events in Chattanooga Nashville as well as Atlanta and may be returning to Orlando after a two year absence But even with all the changes and growth we ve stayed as true to the spirit of the original rules and vision as possible Aside from its long history Robot Battles at Dragon Con is unique in other ways Unlike most robot combat events that take place in an enclosed arena the bots at Robot Battles compete in an open air arena As a result the competition is less about the high energy whirrrrr bang aspects of conventional tournaments and more about Strategy driving and at times straight up weirdness competitor Charles Guan said This all makes for a very good spectator sport a fact that the competitors happily embrace People regularly come up on stage in costume or the robots look ludicrous themselves My favorite in recent years was a very well driven and solid wedge robot that was coated in brown fur and made to look like a beaver The unique setup also leads to technological creativity There have been robots in the past which have automatic opponent seeking sensors as well as ones which
131. steps you did on the three black wires 46 SERVO 10 2019 Now let s solder the speed controllers to the motors Tin the red and brown leads on both speed controllers then tin both motor leads When looking at the back of the motor you will notice one lead has a red dot next to It This indicates it is the positive lead You will then solder the red wire to the positive lead on the motor On the second motor lead which is not marked you will solder the brown wire Repeat this process on both motors and speed controllers Once you ve soldered the last brown lead you will have officially soldered together your first combat robot MOUNTING THE CONNECTING THE RADIO TO THE RECEIVER COMPONENTS Plug the bind plug into the receiver on the battery port Then power on Cut out pieces of double stick the robot by plugging the 7 4 volt tape and stick one piece to the back battery into the JST lead The receiver of the receiver and a second piece to should start showing a blinking the back of the Li Poly battery Stick orange light Now on your radio flip the receiver just below the right the mix channel to the upright motor and stick the battery just position Flip below the left the elevator and mix switches to the Now cut two more small pieces upright position as well of double stick tape and attach them Hold the train switch and turn to the speed controllers down the radio on You between the motors P
132. student has participated in the event for many years Robot Battles has become one of the more popular events at SERVO 10 2012 39 Dragon Con We have to hold the event over two days to accommodate the number of entries in the four weight classes one three 12 and 30 pounds in fact There are on average 10 20 robots entered in each weight class And crowds range from 500 tor the Microbattles which could easily double in size given a larger ballroom to over 2 500 for the main event on Monday in the LI ad second largest ballroom available at the Hyatt Regency Lockhart commented When asked what the future held for Robot Battles Lockhart had this to say My vision of the future of Robot Battles is the same as it has always been Keep having fun There are always small changes to venues adaptation of new technologies changes in marketing and publicity and over time some builders move on while new faces appear But as long as we stick to the core philosophy to have fun for everyone think we ll keep being successful started Robot Battles when was 22 years old Twenty two years later it s still one of the most fun things I get to do every year and see no reason why can t keep doing this for another two decades or more Two bots enter one bot leaves often in pieces That is what call Teles FIGURES 3 and 4 These bots are an example of the kind of crea
133. t Everything Works Except The Motors Your Arduino appears to be functioning normally but your robot s motors aren t turning Not enough current to power the motors Motors can draw a lot of current from your robot s batteries If the batteries don t deliver enough current the motors may not turn or they may only turn slowly Beef up the batteries to ensure proper motor current levels Separate motor power disconnected discharged f your robot uses a separate power source for the Arduino and its motors the motor power may have become disconnected or the motor batteries may be discharged Shared ground disconnected Robots that use separate battery supplies for the motors need to have the ground of the two power sources connected There are exceptions to this such as when the control board for the motor is interfaced to the Arduino using an opto solator Otherwise the robot may not operate reliably or at all So double check the common ground connection refer to Figure 3 between the two power sources SV SERVO 10 2012 63 he American Society of Agricultural amp Biological Engineers ASABE is an educational and scientific organization that promotes the advancement of engineering and science Among many other activities ASABE sponsors an annual robotics competition for graduate and undergraduate university students The ASABE Student Robotics Competition presents students with a different agriculturally themed
134. t WWNW nerc us Latin American Robotics Competition Fortaleza Brazil Events include the Brazilian Robotics Competition Robocup Latin American Open and Brazilian Robotics Fair www cbrobotica org Critter Crunch Hyatt Regency Tech Center Denver CO The original remote control vehicle combat event www milehicon org 20 SERVO 10 2019 Atlanta Hobby Robot Club AHRC Robot Rally Pinckneyville Community Center Norcross GA Events include line maze solving mini Sumo and the Robot Polyathlon The polyathlon is made up of six individual contests Advanced Line Follower Beacon Killer Beacon Killer with Obstacles Navigation by Dead Reckoning and Bulldozer www botlanta org robot rally All Japan Micromouse Contest Toyosu Koto ku Japan Events for autonomous robots including classic Micromouse half size Micromouse and robot race www ntf or jp mouse Robotex Tallinn Estonia This is the largest autonomous robot competition in Estonia This year s events include robot football line following mini Sumo and LEGO Sumo www robotex ee Robocon Tokyo Japan Student teams from all over Japan come together at Robocon where the robots they ve designed compete in the Robo Bowl www official robocon com South s BEST Competition Auburn University Auburn AL Regional for the BEST student competition www southsbest org site Robotic Arena Wroclaw Poland Lots of events including mini Sumo micro Sumo
135. tested in a number of situations including a scenario known as a bleve which is a boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion Michael says This happens when a tanker truck rolls over and you can see on the news a big fire shooting out of a tanker and eventually it explodes A lot of firefighters lose their lives trying to get in there and extinguish that This can go in there Also fuel farms where they keep all the fuel they catch on fire and it s just too hot to get in there Send a robot in believe this technology in five to O years will be standard operating procedure for every fire department to have some sort of robotic solution NICE PRICED MITT As part of DARPA s ARM program Sandia has partnered with Stanford University to create a dexterous robot hand on the cheap As Sandia puts it The Sandia Hand addresses challenges that have prevented widespread adoption of other robotic hands such as cost durability dexterity and modularity You can attach tools like screwdrivers or flashlights or laser cannons and the modular design also makes the hand durable since the fingers will just fall off if something smacks into them As principal investigator Curt Salisbury explains If a finger pops off the robot can actually pick it up with the remaining fingers move it into position and resocket the finger by itself Also the skin of the hand is designed to mimic the flexibility of human tissue providing
136. th switch control Add in variable speed and polarity reversal and you can control almost anything Pilots of small underwater ROVs remotely operated vehicles using a cable to the surface can not only control various thrusters lights and robotic arms but they literally control all parts and subsystems of the vessel A variable speed multi axis joystick works the best for a robotic arm though With TV feedback pilots can literally feel as if they are right there in the water This is just one example of how the simplest of control systems can apply to the most complex machine Certainly the more complex of these research robots have many computers and microcontroller systems but switched controls are prevalent in everything from police and military robots boats cars and even aircraft and spacecraft Cutting the Cord With Remote Control Many of us eventually want to have our robots autonomously find their way around a shop or house but autonomy is not necessarily a function of all robots despite what purists may say When it comes to a human controlling a robot the first thing any experimenter wants to do with a machine that has a cord for control and or power is to sever that cord have seen other people s robot projects and have tried many methods myself of cutting the cord in robot control One of the most popular methods for any type of technical experimenter is to use methods and parts from to
137. tive and lighthearted approach the builders at Dragon Con take to Robot Battles Melty Brains by Kevin Berry This month on Antique Botshow Name that artifact O 10 2012 pay 4ubiaMjup UAII OASIS j The Solution for Full Scaled Robots High Power High Precision Sophisticated Control Algorithms Up to 200W BLDC motor and up to 500 000 Position and speed input commands pulse per turn 4096 absolute resolution with dual loop current control Full Modular Solution Novel Gear Reduction System Ease of implementation no additional design for parts needed High torque output light weight Ease of maintenance simple part swapping with high impact resistance USA E mail america robotis com Tel 1 949 333 3635 ROBOTS JAPAN E mail japan robotis com Tel 81 3 4330 3660 i Etc E mail contactus2 robotis com Tel 82 70 8671 2609 www robotiS cOM OLLO BIOLOID and DYNAMIXEL are registered trademarks of ROBOTIS Co Ltd a i b EE mn i 4 1 T r Dow T V n x Mec ia A ow 1 hs s j d t r H f 4 il Sa r Es x j m H L r n by Zachary Lytle As a four time RoboGames champion am fraiiantis asked how to get started in combat robotics Personally always recommend building a wedge for your first robot because you don t want to start off with anything too complicated Wedges are durable and easy to repair which are the two most important qualities in your first robot Plus let s not
138. tream you correctly identified our indicator LEDs able to perform other IP based client mystery protocol as RS 232 Thanks to Using ARP NEMO10 can resolve and server functions using IP s best the PIC front end our device server hardware MAC addresses using buddy TCP In fact the NEMO10 can can accept any serial protocol that can known IP addresses The NEMO10 s be configured as a TCP client a TCP be represented in byte format The ability to act as an ICMP client allows server or a combination of both device server of choice is offered by it to respond to a network ping If the NEMO10 s serial port is not the SENA Corporation and is called NEMO10 can request an IP address available as a console port a Telnet the NEMO10 from a DHCP server and communicate session can be used to manage it NEMO10 is billed as a single chip network enabler module A glance at Photo 1 seems to prove that out Actually NEMO10 is a multi chip serial to Ethernet converter housed in a compact DIL configuration E lt NEMO10 is composed of an 8032 ferus 22 988 microcontroller 256 KB of static RAM XF 1OBASE program Flash 64 KB of EEPROM and a NIC Network Interface Controller The NEMO10 is network ready because it is shipped with a unique burned in MAC address The only networking hardware component missing is the Ethernet magnetics module The NEMO10 is designed to interface with the XFMRS Inc XF10BASE COMBO 1 25 Ethernet magnetic
139. ts dancing www youtube com watch v PLn_BGfD84g human musicians The more general problems like autonomous robot assistance such as HUBO moving around in someone s home that is a 10 20 year range problem And everyone having a complex commoditized humanoid robot in their home to help with multiple complex tasks well that is a 20 40 year range problem before we solve it Dr Kim concluded uU THE ORIGINAL SINCE PCB PANL Beta LAYOUT FREE Stencil dn with every prototype order EAGLE mm button iva T l d pcb pool com download button r SINA on your first order Sa i C pcp pnn i ib ind ES l ills ayaa ty Vna i 5 ai NM EP iy a Yih Ts T ale PCB POOL is a registered trademark of I Be ta www pcb pool com Call Tyler 1 707 447 7744n s kg hi b sales pcb pool us TE TEM Www robotpower com High Current motor control for Arduino Software and plug compatible d with our 5 lt a MegaMoto shield pi MEGAMOTO Plus Shield 30A Continuous with fan Current sensor outputs can be sent to any analog pin Stack up to three units on one Uno or compatible Independent half bridges can control brushless steppers too Scorpion XXL e 7V 28V Dual 40A Peak H Bridges Current Temp limiting R C inputs w mixing Optional enclosure 3 25 X 2 20 X25 Single 120A H Bridge 8V 42V R C inputs w m
140. veloped at the Imperial College in England allow a disabled person to control a computer with just their eyes Just think of the possibilities SV SERVO 10 2012 79 sae t The HRLV MaxSonar Sensors m e Amazing 1mm Resolution Simultaneous Multi Sensor Operation Superior Noise Rejection Target Size Compensation 3495 MSRP www MaxBotix com PS 2 Keyboard to ASCII Converters 16 Module More neat stuff coming 8 CHiP panyari irzspenmg Mobily Electronic Parts amp Supplies Since 1967 mw nark com 1 For the finest in robots parts and services go to www servomagazine com and click on Robo Links Robotics amp Electronics WWW POLOLU COM E WwW ServoCity com Over 200 Kits amp Modules to choose from Easy Worldwide Online Ordering Fast Delivery amp Same Day Shipping THE ORIGINAL SINCE Low Cost PCB prototypes PCB Pnnr Beta LAYOUT WWW _PCB POOL COM Free laser SMT stencil with all Proto orders st TT hw 77 T 12115 Paine Street Poway CA 92064 858 748 6948 www hitecrcd com TEC ADVERTISER INDEX el eemO les COT Ox aeos costos ZOON E cet ere NE 22 AA INCOOUSINO L IMG eee och e 90 81 AITOA a a ros Oh eno URL e He Re Coe IAC cull Pelayo Cowie SORS oe AL lymxmotion Inc esses 97 Servo City Robot Zone 80 83 FAP CUCUIS Rec E dh OL cres e T o SOWON Coc M A 31 GO e O
141. xadecimal base 16 or binary number respectively Check the Arduino reference at the arduino cc website for additional options By far you ll use the DEC qualifier the most SERVO 10 9019 61 Here are some of the most common problems that beset Arduino powered bots and the most common ways to fix things No Power No Lights It s As Primitive As Can Be A completely non functional robot strongly suggests a problem with the power supply If you re having these kinds of problems start first with your robot s brain the Arduino If the Arduino s power light is not on the most likely reason is that it s not getting power Start with these checks Weak or dead batteries Recharge or replace Possible bad USB connection if powered from your PC Check the connection to see if the cable is merely loose Try a different cable if one is available Faulty power switch or wiring Small switches can go bad especially if struck hard during a collision Inspect and replace as needed While looking see if the wires from the battery have come loose Check the power connection barrel plug as it goes to the Arduino Erratic Behavior Your robot is working it just doesn t work all the time or it occasionally behaves in bizarre ways The most common reasons are The battery charge is running low Replace recharge or increase the battery capacity larger battery and or higher voltage as needed Bad wiring connection
142. xeriqu S600 delay 500 Wait half a second Serial og dmm Scip Inserting a debug statement inside setup also helps you to verify that the Arduino runs the setup code just once If you see the Setup message repeat it could mean your Arduino is being reset over and over again This can occur for instance if the Arduino is not getting enough voltage to operate reliably At the start and or end of the loop function to check that the Arduino is properly completing each loop You can use static text as in Sese uie ron abe bb OI ei or set up a more elaborate system where you indicate the number of loops that have elapsed so far 60 SERVO 10 9019 some place within setup preferably 2 Debug messages are sent from the Arduino to the PC by using one or dec eS T E o Siete E ccu su 9159199 j WO slhoore at Segue deo rs Serial println counter rest of code j Be careful when using debug statements in the loop to prevent over running the communications between the Arduino and your PC If the loop doesn t contain programming statements that require at least half a second to execute temporarily slow things by inserting a delay at the bottom of the loop Wait half a second before proceeding Cle llany 9 0 D c Inside a user defined function to verify that the function is being called User defined your own functions are a handy way to execute the same code whenever a certain ev
143. y get it ripped off and destroyed The parts you ll need are 6 x 6 titanium sheet 2x FingerTech Robotics 22 1 Silver Spark motors 2x FingerTech tinyESC v2 motor controllers 2x Lite Flite wheels two inches in diameter 2x FingerTech Lite Hubs JST connector female DX 5E radio system Rhino 460 mAh 2S 7 4V Li Poly pack and charger 6 x 6 polycarbonate sheet 040 inches thick 25x 4 40 button head screws 1 4 inch in length 2x BaneBots motor mounts Most of the parts can be found at FingerTechRobotics com the metal and screws can be found at www mcmaster com and the motor mounts are from Banebots com STEP 1 LAYING THE HOLE PATTERNS Lay out the bolt hole patterns with the caliper By locking the caliper at the desired dimension you can use the caliper as a ruler to scribe lines Set the caliper at 1 8 inch and scribe a line down each side of the titanium sheet Set the caliper at 1 4 inch and scribe two additional lines measuring from the top and intersecting your first two 1 8 inch lines This will make a cross hair you will use to line up the drill Scribe a second set of small lines 3 4 inches down from the top Next scribe a line two inches off the bottom edge all the way across Then scribe a line directly in the middle and scribe two additional lines 1 1 4 inches from the left and right hand side This will create three cross hairs along the horizontal line When you are done you will have seven c
144. ys SERVO 10 2012 75 FIGURE 3 Panasonic 38 kHz infrared receiver w especially low cost walkie talkies They are cheap sometimes too cheap easily obtainable and easily hackable Refining RF and IR Remote Control Methods Cordless remote control can be accomplished via an RF radio frequency link an IR infrared beam or by an ultrasonic signal The latter was used for remote control of TVs several decades ago but lost out to today s IR remote controls IR control works well for television and various audio systems that require only a single control function at a time have seen so many ways that people have used to get controlling signals from a handheld device to their robot Experimenters have used DTMF telephone key pads to send 10 or 12 different dual tone codes via a walkie talkie to a walkie talkie placed within the robot with a DTMF decoder attached Unfortunately most of these ended up as on off control only One could have a button depressed that closed a circuit in the robot as long as the button remained depressed Or it could be a toggle on toggle off proposition with the button depressed once to start and then again to stop Surplus houses had IR decoders for TVs not just the little receiver cubes that were 76 SERVO 10 2019 hacked to receive an RF signal sent via a TV remote control that was also hacked to send an RF signal There were so many versio

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