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OdinScout
This model is based on Philo's "Odin- A Robot for Odometry." I have modified it to include an ultrasonic sensor and sound sensor along with carrying a camera on-board. I started with constructing Odin as outlined as illustrated by Philos building instructions. There are some modifications I made to its design that may help those who build Odin: First was with the central pivot. From the way its placed the CG (Center-of-Gravity) is too far forward, thus the rear wheels tend to still be or very close to the ground. To fix that I added a castor wheel assembly to the pivot that corrects the problem. There was also an issue where the motor that operates the turntable gets pressed against the axle that connects the two front wheels. I merely removed the axle and kept both wheels on separate axles. Lastly, the way it is set-up to use the touch sensor (the touch sensor indicates when the central pivot is fully retracted) the central pivot isnt fully retracted and sometimes the beam that triggers the sensor goes under the axle. Instead I used a shorter axle with an angled connector which keeps the pivot fully retracted. I also changed the light sensor from being at an angle to straight up-and-down. Added a manual crank to the turntable motor to manually adjust it, and I put 3 hole beams over the ends of the connectors that hold the wheels. After all the modifications and sensor additions I decided to name it OdinScout as it has Odins capabilities but with Bluetooth R/C and an on-board camera along with additional sensors. The on-board camera used is a Kodak V1233. With leftover parts I had I realized I could fit a slim line camera onto the side of OdinScout. Basically I have the camera held on with two rubber bands below the sound sensor. The other side has the touch sensor and I didnt want on that side in case it interfered with the touch sensors operation. However I realized when OdinScout is up on its central pivot it would lean over to one side, so I added a counterweight to the other side. There are two videos showing the on-board camera in use: One with the Squaredance program by Philo (OdinScout travels a path in the shape of a square) and then a Bluetooth R/C demo. Speaking of Bluetooth, the phone used is a Motorola RAZR2 V9 running FunkNXT. FunkNXT was the only J2ME applet I could find that would work properly on a J2ME phone like what I had. The advantage is FunkNXT gives you active readouts of the 4 sensors (ultrasonic/touch/light/sound) along with remote control. I had to write a program for when OdinScout was being operated remotely. Most R/C programs treat robots with two independent drive motors or a motor-steering configuration. OdinScout of course is neither. In this case, I set the program to monitor the rotations of the motor that extends/retracts the central pivot. If it senses movement it calculates how much it has moved and moves it to the correct position. (This is why when it is being remote controlled that is tends to hop when lowering the central pivot). |
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