Tim's Robot Diary

1/31/2008

Introducing the Brick-Rover Chassis.

Today we unveil the chassis for Brick-Rover, an all Lego, RC car inspired design. This beast measures over a foot in length. BR's first incarnation will be as a 'line follower' style robot. Like it sounds, a line follower follows a line of one color pained or taped to a floor of a contrasting color and typically goes in some sort of circular course. Clicking on the picture of the chassis will take you to a detailed tour of the design on my Lego page (yes I am that much of a dork!)

(Undated)

Exactly What is a 'Photovore' Robot Anyway?

Wikipedia tells us that: "A photovore robot is one that seeks light. Its name is taken from photo meaning "light", and vore meaning "to eat". The photovore robot is usually one which runs from its own solar power; it is therefore seeking its food (light)." Well, like most things Wikipedia, this is half correct. While many photovores are solar powered, there is nothing that prevents a photovore from being battery powered as is the case here. Indeed, the complex behavior required by light-seeking lends itself well as a problem for the beginning robot researcher.

1/28/2008

Photovore One Project Completed.

Well, all the targets of the Photovore one project have been met. The unit reliably seeks out light while practicing obstacle avoidance. I added a couple of additional behaviors to keep the unit interesting and to add some spice to P1's personality. In extreme darkness, the unit conserves energy by remaining motionless and chirping like a cricket at random intervals. Should the light suddenly get brighter, the unit skitters as if startled and emits a different chirp (to warn it's pack?). You can click on the montage below to enlarge it and a final video of P1 can be seen here. Next up, a project code-named Brick-Rover, a larger, more complex all-lego vehicle.

1/22/2008

Oooh... A shiny new toy!

Lookie what I bought. ROBOSWEEP! It's the poor man's Roomba. It shuffles around wiping the floor with the dust-cloth on it's belly while reversing direction when it bumps into something. Not really a "mod"-able device, more like a "break out the rusty ice-cream scoop and scrape out the innards. But it does look so kewl! I found it MIB for only $4 at North Country Neighbors. Booyah! I will review it here when time permits.

1/2/2008

The Birth of Photovore One

Well there, it's done (or just begun). After two years of waiting to have time for this little project, I was finally able to string together enough minutes to finish a simple, little light seeking 'bot. A short MPeg of P1's first "steps" can be seen here. Below is the current code. Right now, its only inputs are a pair of CdS photocells (that it uses to look for light). Currently, when it encounters an obstacle, it just tries to press on ahead. My next project will be the addition of feelers that will detect when it encounters an obstacle so it can choose a new path.