Rein's Cyberspaceplace » Sensors http://www.velt.org PHP, electronics, embedded software, Mechanic Apes and more.... Thu, 28 Apr 2011 10:25:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 TMABot 1.0 released http://www.velt.org/archives/102 http://www.velt.org/archives/102#comments Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:09:39 +0000 Rein http://www.velt.org/?p=102 The TMABot is a small robot we have built to learn more about robotics, collision avoidance and detection, path planning, etc… This document describes how you can make your own copy of TMABot and how to modify it. 

The latest version of this document is available from http://mechanicape.com/tmabot

Table of contents
Introduction

The TMABot is our newest robot and is developed to learn more about different kind of sensors, collision avoidance and path-planning. We built the robot with parts we had available in our lab.

Functional requirements

We have a few functional demands:

  • The robot must be easy to build
  • It should be easy to modify to robot
  • The robot should be able to avoid obstacles and be friendly to the environment
  • The robot must be connected to other devices (microcontrollers, communication, etc) to extent the possibilities
Technical design

Below is a picture of all major components

Parts

Below is a list of the parts we used for the robot with supplier and estimated costs in euro’s

Part Manufacturer Type Supplier Estimated cost
Arduino duemilanove Arduino 2009 Sparfun.com euro 20
Ardumoto Sparkfun — Sparfun.com euro 15
DC motor (x2) various — conrad.nl euro 25
Battery 12V various — conrad.nl euro 50
Sonar (x2) Sparkfun SRF02 Sparfun.com euro 15
IR distance sensor Sharp — conrad.nl euro 15
Microswitch (x2) various — Sparfun.com euro 1
wires & connectors various — conrad.nl euro 5
Wheels (x2) various — conrad.nl euro 15
Wheelhub (x2) various — conrad.nl euro 10
Putting the parts together
  1. Find a piece of flat wood (triplex, multiplex, MDF) size: 25x25cm
  2. Connect the motors to the bottom side.
  3. Connect the wheels and wheelhub to the motor
  4. Attach the arduino to the upper side.
  5. Attach the battery
  6. Attach the Sonar sensors (front-left and front-right)
  7. Attach the Sharp sensor (front-center)
  8. Attach the Compass on top (as far from the motors as possible)
  9. Attach the Microswitches to the front-left and front-right side of the wood. They will be used as bumpers
  10. Connect all devices to the Arduino (see electronics diagram)
Electronics

Below is a picture of the Arduino Duemilanove microcontroller with the connected devices/sensors. Please consult the datasheet of your hardware to check the pins before you connect them to the Arduino.

Software
The latest version of the software is free available from http://mechanicape.com/tmabot
]]> http://www.velt.org/archives/102/feed 0 3D scanner prototype http://www.velt.org/archives/39 http://www.velt.org/archives/39#comments Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:18:50 +0000 Rein Afgelopen weekend ben ik bezig geweest om het prototype voor een 3d scanner te ontwerpen en te bouwen. Het principe achter de scanner is vrij simpel. Je neemt twee servo motortjes, een voor de x en een voor de y-as, en maakt hiermee een pan/tilt module.Daarna neem je een sharp afstandsensor en die bevestig je aan het pan/tiltding. Het volledige apparaat kost ongeveer 60 euro, inclusief servo’s, sensoren en microcontroller.


Read more

]]> http://www.velt.org/archives/39/feed 1