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[DPRG] ProtoBot progress...
Subject: [DPRG] ProtoBot progress...
From: Kenneth Maxon
kmaxon at qwest.net
Date: Sun Jul 8 15:58:11 CDT 2007
Hello David & Group,
I thought to take a few minutes to share my personal robotics inspiration of
the week.
Status today:
I have a medium duty rolling chassis. The suspension (or lack there of) is
hard other than that afforded by the hard foam wheels. The main control
board and power system boards are stuffed and operational (running minimal
code & CPLD functions.) The recent push has been to design/build an
operational rolling chassis for outdoor use. Mechanically the Initial
design is complete with the exception of the chain drive the connects
gearbox output stages to the front and rear motors. (right side fore and
aft wheels rotate together on one gearbox, while the left side shares a
second giving differential steering operation.) To give you an idea for
scale, those are 10" tires...
http://nikita.argia.net/kmaxon/proto_bot_142.jpg
http://nikita.argia.net/kmaxon/proto_bot_controller_bd_02.jpg
Coming Status in the next couple weeks:
In the coming week, I'll mount the batteries (~10min with a hex wrench). I
also need to stuff and mount the RF remote control interface board, and to
stuff both motor driver boards (visible in the lower center foreground of
this image (mounted vertically, smaller plastic enclosure)) After this
there is a reasonably large wiring job ahead of me, however I have already
designed in cable disconnects for each enclosure to make them modular so
that I can pull them from the bot for repair or bench operation.
Future statuses, no time line set:
There are many planned future add-ons. The power supply board contains
several additional DC motor drivers as well as Stepper motor drivers &
configurable high power switches for later additions of a air powered ping
pong ball vortex launcher, a small arm for retrieving objects & expended
ammo (ping pong balls). If all progresses well, I will be layering in
several of the vision system components from my small robot project "Dohn
Joe" and some of the other structured light work I've been playing with over
the years. However the immediate tasks are to get this beastie up and
running in a short time frame now that the mechanicals are sound.
I hope the photos provide some form of inspiration to the group to get out
there and work on their own robots. If you care to check out some detailed
photos of the robot parts or other construction photos I've posted them in
the ProtoBot section of my web site...
http://www.users.qwest.net/~kmaxon/index.html
-Enjoy
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