This is going to be my crack at making a robot. Some people would question this, as there are very few actual reasons to build one. Most of the robots you see on the net really do not do anything - follow a line, put out a candle, etc. This robot will be about as useless, with one exception. I am making it to keep current with the technology. It will also be yet another interesting hobby.
Here are some of the features I am working on:
This is a distributed processing robot that will have a considerable number of PIC micro controllers connected together to make a fairly complex unit. Using this model, many behaviours will be easy to implement. Who knows rumba may have competition!
Everything needs a name. Since my first real robot is going to be a learning machine, I derived the name from: Research And Developement Autonomous Robot or RADAR for short!
Robot Base shows how RADAR's base was developed.
PWM Motor Control explains about drive electronics.
Yet to come:
Motor controls, speech synth, power distribution board, sensor board, UI board, and PC104 main brain! Yes, this robot will be a challenge!
Looks like there are going to be a few robots rolling around. Check out RADAR1 build notes. There will be build notes on each of the robots in the RADAR series. Note the acronym RADAR was created by Steven Manzer in the summer of 2004. Please do not use this name for your bot - be creative and make up your own!