Autonomous

DualGrip-NXT Rover

Sometimes I build robots that attempt to solve real world challenges.  Other times, robots are built based on random ideas. This robot is a case of solving a LEGO challenge - specifically, with their Technic tracks/treads #575518.  At no fault of theirs, these plastic tracks are slippery on many surfaces.  Great for carpets, flat areas, dirt (if you dare) - and great for turning as well.  However, when you try to climb with them, they…
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WallFollower

Wall Follower was one of those "proof-of-concepts" robots.  The intent was to build something small and compact that was fast and versatile.  Wall Follower can navigate around a room, on a table, in a maze, whatever. It is built from one of the basic robot platforms in the Mindstorms Contructopedia. Motion is done by 2 motors, each of which can steer by removing power to one. The main sensor is the DIRPD sensor (grey) mounted…
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PicoCam

PicoCam was built as a proof of concept.  Its purpose was simple, navigate an area using typical avoidance routines while capturing live wireless video/audio and transmitting it to a receiver. The was never really completed because I had other ideas   The pictures shown here are of the final version, with working navigation, but I did not bother going the last step to get the live video to display (even though it will work). (more…)
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TrackerBot

You would think I have a template for "room-navigating" TrackerBot evolved from the recent PicoCam robot I created.  After I had finished PicoCam, I decided I wanted to try something with tracks.  TrackerBot and PicoCam share similar intelligence, with TrackerBot having some slight improvements.  The general idea is that it will navigate a room using a variety of sensory input for obstacle avoidance.  There are 3 Cybermaster touch sensors, 1 DIRP light sensor and 1…
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BigWheel

Big Wheel (BW) was an experiment at building a robot that uses the HailFire Driod (StarWars) large wheels. It's job is simple; build an autonomous robot that can navigate any area while avoiding obstacles by not hitting them in the first place. To do this, BW uses a DIRPD sensor to "see" left, right and center. This allows BW avoide obstacles from 3 views before actually hitting them. (more…)
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FireBot

One of my early projects was to build a fire extinguishing robot. I did this using the parts I had at the time. It was based on a walker platform and used a pneumatic circut to "blow" the fire out when detected. It worked reasonably well with the provided light sensor. Recently, I discovered the PIR (Passive Infrared Sensor) from TechnoStuff. This sensor was built to detect infrared heat and seemed to be a good…
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