Please excuse my excitement. A very simple project.

[GrayTech]

Hey Robo_pi, nice project! Looks very interesting, you mentioned arm's, are you aiming for semi-humanoid? What is its intended function?

I have something similar on the back burner, and was lucky enough to find an electric wheel chair in almost new condition which I'll use for the platform. I posted it for sale for $200 to any disabled person because I thought it serves best for what it was intended, but in 6 months no one wanted it. I then tried donating it to disabled homes etc. "no thanks., it's a liability issue". So it will be evolving soon.

I also lucked out with a $600 autonomous vacume cleaner someone threw out because the battery was done. Same 2 drivewheel system, and its A. I. and learns its environment. Not sure if I can hack it for my purposes but I'm sure gonna try.
I may struggle to tie all the functions together as I plan to add a lot of other functionality to it. I want it to be able to assist with heavy lifting and carrying, but my ultimate goal is to add facial and voice recognition and the ability to interact with humans in a meaningful way.

I also just wanted to mention why I think the chuck key thing is important. Beginners see the photos we post and follow our example. Secondly, if we don't develop a firm habit of never having key in the chuck without a hand attached we could easily make a mistake if distracted or concentrating on something else.

Keep us updated on your progress with the robot please.

 

[eugene13]

This is one of the most entertaining threads I've read in a long time. Keep us posted on the robot and don't sweat the small stuff.

 

[BGHansen]

No problem Dave.

People are right that it's probably not a good idea to post pictures that might give newbies bad ideas. I would have removed the key when taking the photo had I realized it was in there.

I was actually upset to discover it was in the photo after I came in to post the photo. But what could I do? I wasn't about to go back out and set everything back up again just to get a keyless shot. Although if I was writing an article for a machinist magazine that's precisely what I would have needed to do. Either that or get fired.

Congrats on surviving the onslaught . . . I left the chuck key in my Clausing once and started the lathe, threw the key about 10 feet. Happy to report no injuries. I'm a bit anal about where the key is now and am a proponent of "if you think it could be a problem, take action then".

Great job on your project. Wish I knew how to hook up a raspberry pi and some of the other modern technology.

Bruce

 

[Robo_Pi]

Hey Robo_pi, nice project! Looks very interesting, you mentioned arm's, are you aiming for semi-humanoid? What is its intended function?

Yes the intended purpose is "semi-humaniod" in a way. I was even thinking of building a bi-pedal walking robot. I have really good ideas on how to design one. But I'm limited in both time and budget so I figure I better go for a simple base. I was even thinking of going for tracks first, but then decided on these wheels. The way this is set up it should be able to turn around on a dime. In fact, that's one of the first thing I'll program it to do. This will allow the robot to turn around in restricted spaces.

I want the base to be fairly heavy to stabilize a potentially tall robot. I'm planning on using two car-sized batteries in the base, plus the motors. So the base should be quite heavy. These tires are made for dollies and two of them should easily be able to carry a big refrigerator. In fact I know they can because I have a two-wheel dolly with these same tires. Plus my robot will have four of these tires, so in theory it should be able to carry the weight of two large refrigerators. I don't expect to carry that much weight, but I always design things for overkill.

An electric wheel chair should also make a perfect base for a large robot. You've already got the motors and drive done for you. You can't beat that.

I have yet to build the drive train and I'm not even sure yet where I'm going to get the motors for it. I'm looking for something I can salvage from other equipment. The Budget for my robot is near non-existent. These four wheels and tires only cost $16. $3.99 each at Harbor Freight. This is one reason they were chosen.

I am hoping to build arm that have enough range of motion and strength to do most household tasks. So yes, I am hoping to build this thing to help out around the house eventually. If I live long enough to see it completed.

I also plan to give it a human face. I already bought the mask to use. I looked around for a human face to use for a robot and they wanted outrageous prices for them Ranging from like $500 to $5000. I found one for $30.



It's not perfect by far, but for $30 it will do. It's totally flexible like human skin and is complete. It even has the back of the head and the ears. The eyes are cut open as are the nose nostrils. For $30 I figured it's worth messing around with. This will be a purely cosmetic feature of course. And I'll need to build the entire skull to go with it. This is a project in its own right. A person could dedicate their life to trying to get this face to look real. Like I say, it's very flexible like real skin. So the idea is to build a skull filled with micro servos to manipulate the face and make it appear to be talking, etc.

I even found a place where I can buy extremely realistic eyeballs quite cheap. As well as a set of teeth. And a halloween "prank tongue" would actually work well as a tongue. Like I say, a person could dedicate full-time to just building this face. I wish has had some young students around who would be willing to build it for me.

I've actually had the idea of putting it out on a robotics forum as an offer to see if I can get other people to work on it collectively. I could provide the basic plans and maybe even manufacture some parts in bulk for everyone to get started building. They would of course need to buy their own mask and servos, etc.

Because, let's face it, in reality I just don't have enough time to do everything I'd like to do. Sadly.

I have tons of ideas and no way to make them become reality.

 

[Robo_Pi]

Great job on your project. Wish I knew how to hook up a raspberry pi and some of the other modern technology.

It's all pretty easy anymore. Everything is basically done for you. All you need to do is follow step-by-step instructions on how to get it up and running. And there are specific articles for just about anything you could ever want to do with one.

If you know next to nothing about programming computers and robotics the best place to start, IMHO, is with an Arduino micro-controller. You can get started with an Arduino pretty quickly.

In fact, I highly recommend the DroneBot Workshop , Bill has excellent videos that walk you through every step of every project.

Then after gaining some experience with the Arduino you could move up to a Raspberry Pi a lot easier. Although there is quite a bit you can do with just an Arduino.

 

[GrayTech]

Robo_pi, large windscreen wiper motors may work for drive motors with one on each wheel, but you won't be winning any races.

 

[Robo_Pi]

Robo_pi, large windscreen wiper motors may work for drive motors with one on each wheel, but you won't be winning any races.

This particular base is only going to be used indoors. So it won't need to be very fast. I've already started construction on a second base for this same robot. I probably should draw these things up in Sketchup, but that takes time so I tend to just build everything right from imagination.

But the idea I have is that this smaller base will be the indoor base. When the robot wants to go outside it keeps this base but drives up onto the larger base and locks onto it. The larger base has similar tires but they are also larger in diameter. I'm also thinking of making the outdoor base powered by propane and an internal combustion engine. So power for the outdoor unit won't be a problem. I think this arrangement will also be nice because when the robot comes to the door, the outdoor base will have dirty tires, But the smaller house-base will still have clean tires. So the robot then just drives off the outdoor base into the house.

The outdoor base can then actually go somewhere and park itself. Because it's easy enough to have it also controlled by the "Overseer" program and WiFi.

Like I say, I have big dreams.

That's not even the end of it. I'm also thinking of making a tree-climbing robot. Physically it will be a whole new robot, but electronically it will just be another copy of this robot. So it won't be any additional electron design, or programming.

The tree-climbing robot will be made from a small extension latter. I already have the latter. But that's all I have so far.

The idea is to have large grippers at each end of the ladder. And have it climb trees like an inch-worm. Grabbing on at the top, then pulling up the bottom. Then grabbing on at the bottom and extending the top, etc. The idea is to have a small chainsaw on it so that I can use it to selectively cut dead branches off tall trees.

So many ideas, so little time to create them all.

 

[dave_r_1]

When I first started using a lathe, I repeatedly would forget to remove the key from the chuck. Fortunately, the chuck and keys are pretty big, so when I would turn on the lathe, it would spin around to the far side of the lathe, and break off the key before it got up to speed. I'm on the last key I have, and I've been a lot better at removing it right after tightening/loosening the chuck...

 

[Robo_Pi]

When I first started using a lathe, I repeatedly would forget to remove the key from the chuck. Fortunately, the chuck and keys are pretty big, so when I would turn on the lathe, it would spin around to the far side of the lathe, and break off the key before it got up to speed. I'm on the last key I have, and I've been a lot better at removing it right after tightening/loosening the chuck...

They sell chuck keys that have a spring on them to make them pop out of the chuck if you aren't pushing in on the chuck key. That way you can't leave them in accidentally. I imagine it would also be a pretty simple modification to add a spring to an existing chuck key.

 

[mmcmdl]

They sell chuck keys that have a spring on them to make them pop out of the chuck if you aren't pushing in on the chuck key. That way you can't leave them in accidentally. I imagine it would also be a pretty simple modification to add a spring to an existing chuck key.

Yes , they do . I find them to be a nuisance , but they do accomplish the job .