JohnMoses....The Presentation Robot

I decided that for my presentation that I wanted a moving Robot, so I took apart LucyLeia and built up another "bumper bug". Once again a different model.

JohnMoses once again has a different way of making the bumpers that he uses to figure out if he has bumped into something. He also has a program in NQC that is different from the past ones used. But I was also able to use the program from Bumper Bug, which he was able to run fine with. So right now, he is sitting with 3 different programs in his brain....waiting to be able to show off...Let's hope that he obeys correctly ;-)



Here is the base of JohnMoses.


Note: The Lego bricks with the wires were later connected to the RCX and his antennas were made longer.

To see the final product and him running about you will need to come to the presentation....Unless I end up feeling generous and posting it afterwards... ;-)

Time Spent Since Last Post: 3 hours 45 minutes
Overall: 43 hours 40 minutes

Introducing the one that I shall call Luke

Added an update about him going in circles underneath the first video.
Yesterday after the last post, I began work on a new model of Robot. The purpose behind this robot is pretty similar to the Bumper Bug, he bumps into something, he changes direction. The reason though that I wanted to build this Robot from Baum's book is because to turn the wheels it only takes one motor, unlike the previous ones which would take two. The problem with the robot taking two motors to move is that it takes up all of my motors so then I can't have another one to be able to do other neat features with.

This Robot once again goes with a "three" wheel approach.

The structure on the left is what the back wheels are attached to. By looking inside you can see the gear structure that turns the back wheels.

This is the ratchet, which locks the left wheel up, when going backwards or turning. This allows the robot to be able to turn with only one motor. In the earlier models of the robots, one of the motors would be turned off, when the robot needed to turn.



The finished project.



Videos of him running around...


He seems to enjoy running around in circles.... I think that he might enjoy going around in circles in this video because his front wheel is not pointed straight a head.....


Here he ran himself up the table foot and ended up sitting on his rear.

Time Since last post: 2 hours 10 minutes
Overall: 23 hours 50 minutes

Second Robot: Tricycle built for Line Followin'

So after Success with the Bumper bug...I read some more in the books and saw what they had to say. I like the Knudsen book best, I think, because it does a good job of getting you active and then explaining higher concepts, behind design and mechanics of building good robots. So in reading some more from it in after building bumper bug, I found that it was repeating some of what I had already read in the introduction of the Baum book. I also looked at the Baum book on what they had to say on building a bumper robot (one that knows to back up and try a different direction). The concepts were pretty close to the same although they had taken a slightly different route making the bumper and also had example code in another programming environment, which I am planning on coming back to for my final project.


I then moved on to building a new robot....which meant that there was some slight sadness as bumper bug had to be dismantled, in order to get the RCX and other parts that I had used on it. I am once again in the Knudsen book, following their building and programming guide

Here is the what I am calling the Tricycle at one of his beginning stages:

He has gotten his free movin' leg attached, but no motors. The white wheel object is part of what was left at the time of bumper bug, it is connected to part of the base that I had taken the RCX unit off of and hadn't need to fully get into other of its parts.

What Tricycle looked like most of the time while being built, flat on his back. Or on the face of the RCX unit. I believe that he is in the same state as the above picture, only in a different angle. On a side note: I would like to bring your attention to the grey tool on the bottom right corner of picture, it is a tool that helps you take a part the lego bricks...Saving my fingers from great pain in the taking a part of creations.

He has now been given his "nose", where the light sensor will go and the motors that will provide the energy/turning motion for his wheels. The light sensor part is how Tricycle will be able to tell if he is on a black line or not.

Here is the finished product of building the Robot. The big wheels are in front of the motors (there is one directly across for the one in the picture). The light sensor is the blue brick. The black bricks on the RCX unit that have wires coming out of them is how the RCX communicates with the Light Sensor and the Motors.

I have started the programming processes for Tricycle in the computer and believe that I am almost done. With this program, Knudsen is directing me through using subroute in the programming in the Lego Environment. He also brought up a point in the programming section on this robot that I would like to mention and that was: you need to prepare for the worst. I think that I already knew this, because part of robotics is the need for the robot to be able to communicate with the world and the world is not a science labitory. So in programming this robot to follow a black line, we can't just assume that if he doesn't sense the line that he needs to turn the opsite way that he did before to find it because the line could be curved. Therefore in this program, we will use a timer in order for the robot to know when he needs to turn the other way to try and find the line again.

Time spent after last time logged: 3 hours
Total for Today: 4 hours 40 minutes
Overall: 14 hours 10 minutes

"Running Robot"

So for those of you who hear my voice very softly....I am simply talking to myself in the excitement of seeing the Robot move around or wondering at what it is doing.

The first object that he bumps into is my lunch bag, then he starts to go over to a wall but doesn't bump into it...turns and starts going underneath the table, which I was impressed that it got the right angle to be able to go between the feet. I then stopped the recording because it was headed to feet that it was going to run into and it was going backwards. What you don't get to see before I turned the robot off, was that after trying to push himself backwards, he then changed his direction and tried to go a different way.

I have now worked another 40 minutes for today, bring today's total to 1 hour and 40 minutes.
Overall: 11 hours 10 minutes

Excitement Abounds!!!!!

Great news....the program downloaded...at least everything showed that it downloaded....now to snap the robot's 2 large pieces together and test it out. :-D

What I call the "Bumper Bug"

The continued building of the Lego Robot of Yesterday.

After the adding of the RCX unit and the trends for the Robot to be able to move.
Side view of up above.
The motors have been added, which allow the Robot to move.
This is the final product of several hours of searching for pieces and building the Robot.
The touch sensors are behind the yellow bars that are wrapping around the Robot. This allows the touch sensor to have a wider ability of sensing, since on the Lego block (underneath the black blocks with wires) have less than an inch for what gets pushed back into the block.


With following the Knudsen as a guide for how to build a robot, I have been impressed with the design of the Robot, since it is not how I would have gone about it. In the book, he brought me through building the robot and then programming it in the environment. Most likely I would have programmed the robot on how I wanted it to move and then built it to go with the program. It was also interesting to see how he had me reinforce the build of the robot to make it more sturdy.

Programming in the Lego Environment. I found that beginning to do the programming was a little bit difficult as I had to figure out how to put the commands together. The ability to drag and click allowed me to write the program quickly by following the example in the Knudsen's book.

While the Robot is built and the program has been written and saved, I have run into an error that I will have to go figure out what is going on. The problem: The IR transmitter can't be found. Which means that I can't get the program right now from the computer to the RCX. I will be researching it so I can continue and see the Robot Work. In trying to diagnose the problem, I have googled the error message and found some help, but the suggestions tried haven't made a difference yet.

Hours Worked So far today: 5 hours
Hours overall: 9 hours 30 minutes