Anyone with robotics experience I can brain-pick?

[griffindodd]

Thinking of trying to build a small autonomous robot, mainly just for the experience and learning something new. Thought it would be cool to build a little mouse droid or something like that that would follow my baby girl around the house, react to her voice, chase the cat etc etc.

Anyone got much experience with this kind of thing? I'm not a programmer at all so I need something that is a bit more 'Joe-Public' friendly, perhaps an existing toy or kit that I can mod or learn the basics from.

Any advice gladly appreciated.

Joel

[TopJimmyCooks]

http://www.Pololu.com

[lilshawn]

http://www.pololu.com/

EDIT:

DAMMIT!

[griffindodd]

http:\www.Pololu.com

I should poke you in the eye for that terrible link formatting. yeah I got all of my rotating screen gear from Pololu, I guess I was looking for more input from someone who's into the hobby themselves.

[CoryBee]

Thinking of trying to build a small autonomous robot, mainly just for the experience and learning something new. Thought it would be cool to build a little mouse droid or something like that that would follow my baby girl around the house, react to her voice, chase the cat etc etc.

Anyone got much experience with this kind of thing? I'm not a programmer at all so I need something that is a bit more 'Joe-Public' friendly, perhaps an existing toy or kit that I can mod or learn the basics from.

Any advice gladly appreciated.

Joel

I have made a few line following bots and basic robotic things. I would recommend starting out with something simple like this. (or a brissle-bot if that is too difficult  )

Better yet, i would look for a hackerspace in your area. They are always willing to help out with projects like this. The one near me is quite small but they can't help but to share their knowledge of electronics.

[CoryBee]

Hackerspace Searcher

[lilshawn]

start simple...

turn an LED off and on with your chosen interface.

add if then input...

turn an LED off if this switched is pressed, turn it on when pressed again.

gradually build up to sexy bot.

once you get the basics down, motors, microphones and proximity sensors become a piece of cake.


source:
built a roverbot out of an apple IIe computer back in the early 90's.

[yotsuya]

A start?

[BadMouth]

I had a Tomy Verbot as a kid, does that count? 



There are non working ones of fleabay for around $30.
I'm tempted to pick one up for a "someday" project, but have too many of those already.
It would be a neat little base to build from.
It's driven by tiny little wheels on the sides, so it doesn't do well on anything but hard surface floors.

I'm currently working my way through the MAKE:Electronics book and it's pretty awesome IMO.
Learning a lot.  The final project is a simple robotic cart.

[lilshawn]

not sure what your level of experience is with BUILDING but i got this book as a kid

 http://www.amazon.com/Robot-Builders-Bonanza-Gordon-McComb/dp/0071750363

it has lots of useful information, but not everything. it sort of leads you in the direction you need to go but leaves the learning (and how to) up to you. Which is why i loved it. I like doing things for myself. it's where i started out.

[griffindodd]

Yeah I think the hardcore build-from-the-ground up is more than I want to take on.

I think this may be a great little toy to play with as it already does a lot of what I want and my little Girl will go nuts over it...



Maybe in the future I could retool it into a 1:1 replica

[Le Chuck]

http://r2d2-robot-electronics-motors-servos.blogspot.com/

This guy did a great automaton scratch build R2.  If you want to do following mouse droids I think there are a few over on therpf.com but you'll get awesome stuff at astromech.com.  Those dudes on astromech are teh hardcorez

[griffindodd]

Yeah I registered there but I'm still waiting to be 'approved'

[yotsuya]

http://r2d2-robot-electronics-motors-servos.blogspot.com/

This guy did a great automaton scratch build R2.  If you want to do following mouse droids I think there are a few over on therpf.com but you'll get awesome stuff at astromech.com.  Those dudes on astromech are teh hardcorez

Wow, and I thought the Chuckster was teh hardcorez!

[ark_ader]

Check this out:

Link

[Le Chuck]

http://r2d2-robot-electronics-motors-servos.blogspot.com/

This guy did a great automaton scratch build R2.  If you want to do following mouse droids I think there are a few over on therpf.com but you'll get awesome stuff at astromech.com.  Those dudes on astromech are teh hardcorez

Wow, and I thought the Chuckster was teh hardcorez!

My shell is hard by my center is gooey.  It's a curse really. 

[griffindodd]

Check this out:

Link

Yeah I was listening to the CES releases about Minstorms V3, pretty badass looking stuff, and the inclusion of sensors sure makes it an interesting thing to play around with

[harveybirdman]

we all know griffindodd is such a "novice" so as his first attempt at a mame cab turned out Revolution, his first attempt at robotics will probably end up like this...

[griffindodd]

we all know griffindodd is such a "novice" so as his first attempt at a mame cab turned out Revolution, his first attempt at robotics will probably end up like this...

Lol hey what can I say I like to jump in to things feet first.

Sent from my pocket ZX81

[yotsuya]

Did you get the house, my friend? A robot butler would make a nice housewarming gift.

[griffindodd]

No bud we backed out found a few moisture issues. Supposed to be closing in on another but the stress is making me want to crawl into a hole with a beer, spending $600k on anything is enough to turn your brain inside out

[Well Fed Games]

But when the robots start arming themselves with brain-picks, THEN we are in trouble.

[yotsuya]

No bud we backed out found a few moisture issues. Supposed to be closing in on another but the stress is making me want to crawl into a hole with a beer, spending $600k on anything is enough to turn your brain inside out

Good luck with that, man. 

[romshark]

I'm hoping to one day have time to get back into my robotics hobby. I've built some robots from kits some years back.
This one is one of my best ones: Ikariya.

It can be driven around by a PlayStation 2 controller, or walk around autonomously, using it's sonar to avoid obstacles (like in the first video.)

It's a kit from  http://www.lynxmotion.com, but modded with sonars and lights. I also wrote the code for autonomous navigation and added it in to the sample program (which was for PS2 controller use only). The processor chip is called a Basic Atom Pro.



Another video showing off the lights (this was under PS2 controller.)



You'd be surprised how many times I used spare parts from my robot stuff (all conveniently stored in a fishing tackle box I bought) when i built my arcade cabinet and other various projects.

[BobA]

Why is it that robots that move on legs like crabs always look a bit creepy and those that scoot around on wheels and look like mice or other furry mammals are cute?   Is it an aversion to spiders or something?

[griffindodd]

Yeah I think the more legs something has, the creepier it gets (no pun intended)

[BadMouth]

If only I had the time to learn how to program it.......

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Aldebaran-Robotics-NAO-Humanoid-Robot-Newest-Revision-with-Atom-Processor-/330852299996?pt=Electronic_Battery_Windup_Toys_US&hash=item4d085574dc

[CoryBee]

Link no worky...

[PL1]

Link no worky...

Click again, it's a little finnicky for some reason.

Didn't load on first click, but did with cut/paste and then again on second click.


Scott

[lilshawn]

looks a little to restrictive to me. Licencing? accounts?

looks cool, but i'd rather have something that's wide open.

[griffindodd]

Too complicated I just want a trash can that beeps and boops and serves cold beer


Sent from my pocket ZX81

[harveybirdman]

Too complicated I just want a trash can that beeps and boops and serves cold beer


Sent from my pocket ZX81

On the master's sail barge.