Hey guys,

Newbie to the forums and I thought I'd ask around for a bit of help with a robot that I am starting out with. This should be kiddy stuff for some of you guys, but since this is my first project, I hope you bear with me. Basically the concept of the robot is that, can be used to detect objects, take pictures of the object using a camera, calculating the coordinates of the object and then transmit the images to a PC.

What do you think of this? I'd appreciate any suggestions to this and all help that I can get.

 

So you want a sort of triangulating system(could be made with 1 sharp ir sensor1 and 1 servo motor, and you will need to keep the location of the robot by some sort of optic encoders(without a microcontroller,you cant even think of it)) What will you use to propel the robot? H-bridges will enable you to go in all direction, wich you will need. I dont even know how you are going to send data to the pc...


You d'better reconsider your robot, you will be happy if you can get it to follow a *simple* line .

(Your robot is not kiddy stuff, and you better dont start with that. Start simpler and then go on.)

THIS is my first robot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idCNM...r_profilepage#

And yes i had some issues with propulsion.

 

You have to start "smaller". First make a "platform" - a moveable robot (3wheels or 4wheels or tracks or ..) that you can program to go forward, reverse, left, right.

Then learn how to add encoders in order to track your current location in relation to your origin.

Then make object/obstacle detection sensor. You can do that using IR light or ultrasound, or you can go step further and go with camera and image recognition (you will need powerful cpu for that).

when you do all that, then you can go about communicating the image from camera back to pc.

now, the "platform" is the most important piece. Are you going with some microcontroller or another processing board for the "brain". The "popular" way to handle it (with the high cpu power you require if you for e.g. wanna do object recognition from a camera view) is to mount some small format laptop - for e.g. asus eee, and use usb port to control a drive train powered by a usb enabled uC (for e.g. 18F2550 or 18F4550). You do all the processing on the laptop and just send movement signals / receive sensory data (encoders, distance sensors, temperature ... ) to/from uC. This will also allow easy "send picture to pc" as you can use any usb camera (if you do not have embedded one) and wifi connection to do so , even real time stream is possible

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Thanks for the suggestions. Its more of how arhi describes it. Basically I want to fit a plain USB camera to the robot along with a GPS. With the GPS we will be able to get the position of the robot and using IR light we will be able to determine the location of the object from the robot and hence we will have the correct position of the object. We aren't going in with any image processing as it looks and sounds pretty advanced for what we are doing now.

As for the movement stuff, I think I'll be going in with a MicroController. Looking forward to a few more ideas.

 

What are you going to connect the USB camera to?

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Bill
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I thought maybe we could connect it to a devboard and then use a trans receiver to send over the pics to the PC. If I sound a bit off the bend, feel free to correct me. :P

 

Your USB camera will require something like a PC with an OS and driver for that camera. You should really consider starting with a more basic robot like a line follower for your first project.

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Bill
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Ok, i will try to guide you on what to do.

If you have no experience at all, read a lot of stuff on electronic(there are a lot of stuff on google) and buy very simple components(leds, resistors, 5 v regulators and some logic gates in dip package with a breadboard(the breadboard is very important).

Then buy the microchip pickit2 starter kit or any other microcontroller starter kit( if you have done step one, you will have no problems).

And then you can think again of your robot, but if (as you look) avent made the previous steps, you will have extreme difficulties and might quit electronics,thats what i did for a little while ...

I took me 6 lazy months of electronic learning to make the robot, if you learn 1 hour per day you can do it in 2 months .


You can also buy an electronic book,
but you really need to know before you even think of robots(I will tell you, the first robot ideas that i had when i was not knowing about electronic where very strange for now, and would never had worked)



After that you will get to apreciate the joy of debugging...

 

You will need PC for this so that Asus EEE or some other laptop or microATX board are the only solution. You can run then your favorite OS on that computer and program everything in your favorite compiler (even VB if you like).

IR can help ya detect obstacles and that'a about it. If you have some beacons on the "field" that you can use those beacons to figure out your position but using IR you can only figure out "is there is isn't there an obstacle". You can also do it with ultrasound or with feelers.

Don't get me wrong, you already got 3 posts where people told you to start with bliking a led. Note that even with a PC attached to the robot you need a microcontroller board with some motor drivers and some sensors. If you do not know how to blink a led - you are minimum a month away from even beginning to set the foundations of the robot you want.

Of course, you can surf the net and find a ready made solution, only noone will google that for you, and you will learn ziltch, nothing, nada, nista by doing so.

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Man when you finish this robot i really need to see it!!

My estimate time that you will finish it 2years hope i am not mistaken.

It is an interesting project and I wish all the luck for you.

And the more we know about you the better we can help are you electrical or mechanical or computer background?

what kind of advantage you have starting this kind of project?

Best regards,
The Chosen One

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Hesham Ismail Mohammed Sharif
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Basically I am still in my third year doing my major in Electronics and Communications. And we were hoping to finish the project within the month. :P For calculating the distance, I am hoping to use an Ultrasonic rangefinder rather than the IR. It should be much faster and should cover a greater distance.

 

How do you figure sound will be faster than light?

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Bill
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I didn't mean it that way. I meant about getting the robot done much faster since the rangefinder is easily available with a friend. Sorry if I didn't put it in a clear manner. :P