Edit Overview
While at a robotics club meeting several years ago, I ran across a guy that made vacuumed formed robot shells. I really liked this one as it reminded me of the
Topo robot from the 80's. So I bought one from him and made Smallbot. I still have him although he's been sitting on a shelf for like 6 years now. The only real mode I made was to cut his off and mount a servo so that his head could rotate. Maybe I will get him off the shelf and do something with him again. You never know.
Edit Brains
I used an
ooPIc for his brains. It provided plenty of CPU power and I/O for my needs. It also didn't consume much power or space which was important because there is not much room inside to fit motors, electronics and batteries.
Edit Locomotion
I used standard sized hobby servos that I hacked for continuous rotation. Smallbot uses an interesting placement of the drive wheels. As you can see in the photo, they are at a sharp angle. I'm not sure if there is really any benefit to this, but it looks cool. I have a feeling its extra stress on the on the motor shafts and wheels that they were not designed for.
Edit Sensors
I only had put a few sensors on Smallbot before I stopped working on him. In his head he had an ultrasonic range finder, his chest had a light sensor, and near his "feet" he had two Sharp IR distance sensors, and a couple of bump sensors in the front. Internally he also had a small circuit to measure battery voltage from the MCU. I never got around to it, but he was also going to have wheel encoders.
Edit Photos
All the photos I could find of Smallbot...
As you can see, he's not very big. Maybe 12-14 inches tall. |
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The red push button was his reset button. The two switches controlled power to the ooPIC and the motors. The phone jack is his serial port for programming. |
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A little side shot action. |
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Closeup of the front right side showing off the bump sensor and one of the Sharp IR distance sensors. |
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This was taken before I cut off the head and mounted a servo so it could rotate. His eyes are just LEDs that the ooPIC can control individually. The mouth is not a speaker, its actually a long range ultrasonic range finder. The small button in his chest is an ambient light sensor. |
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The placement of the Sharp IR sensors allow for good object detection when combined with the long range sensor in his head. |
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I really should get him running again, I think he's just cool. |
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