My Autonomous Robot



Here are some pics and a video of the autonomous robot I designed, built and programmed. Come to think of it, I also had to source and pay for the parts as well. If only my University had a military contract... But I digress. It was for a joint University of Guelph/University of Waterloo Masters Robotics course. So, what did this robot do you may ask? Well, if I had added a vacuum attachment - it would have basically been a Roomba. Albeit a slightly more sophisicated Roomba. In other words, compared to my robot, Roomba sucks. (Pauses for groans) OK, can we continue? Alright then. Like Roomba, my "Polite-Bot" (I'll explain why it's polite in a bit) was able to trundle around a room, avoid obstacles, and not fall down the stairs. Ditto for not falling off a table (as you can see in the video). But unlike a Roomba, it could also "see". And not only that, but it could do so in 3D. Well, as much as it needed to anyway. Basically what it could see was light and darkness - and through it's 2 "eyes" it was able to home in on a target light source. Why? Because that's what the instructor told us it had to do. And not only that, it also had to follow lines drawn on the floor. Talk about a slave driver! I'm kidding, it was a fun course. So anyway, it also had to be delicate with other robots and if it came upon one, it needed to change directions upon contact. And if it still had power by the end of the contest, didn't overheat and blow up (some did!), didn't lose too many sensors, followed the drawn lines AND was suficiently attracted to the light of the lamps that were moved around the contest area - then you passed! Whew! Oh yes, and the reason mine was dubbed "polite-bot" was that mine would say "Excuse Me" each time it made contact with another robot or obstacle. I found an electronic translator at one of the electronics surplus stores I was scrounging for pas in - and hey, it was only $4 so I figured I could make the robot say something. Going through the phrases - I thought "Could you direct me to the bus terminal" would be kind of funny, but would get old pretty fast. And as there was no "Out of my way!" in its repertoir, "Excuse Me" it was! Enjoy the movie...















Some technical notes: I used an Explore 32 from Blue Earth Research as its CPU and digital to analog controler. I programmed it using TBQComm V1.0 loaded on my HP200LX palmtop PC.


Click to View WMV Video