Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: beginner435 on July 30, 2007, 09:51:54 AM

Title: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: beginner435 on July 30, 2007, 09:51:54 AM
i'm building a robot that's gonna follow me around and carry mi stuff while i walk to school. i'm gonna need a lot of power and i don think 9V batties are gonna cut it. I need mi robot to power washing machine motors and the load will weigh over 30 lbs. I also need to no wat to use to enable the robot (with the $50 robot microcontroller) to be able to control that voltage....could i use a transistor or a relay?
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: Steve Joblin on July 30, 2007, 10:32:15 AM
You will need to use a pretty heavy duty AC Motor Controller... Here is a link that will get you started... http://motion-controls.globalspec.com/LearnMore/Motion_Controls/Controls_Drives/AC_Motor_Drives

You might want to consider different motors, as washing machine motors are AC, not DC.
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: Admin on July 30, 2007, 06:44:26 PM
Consider buying a used electric wheel chair (EBay?) and hacking in your microcontroller to operate the already built in motor drivers.

If I were to do your project, this is the approach I would take.

How will it know who you are so that it can follow you?
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: beginner435 on July 31, 2007, 07:10:41 PM
i'm only going to be walking so i was thinking i could use an IR rangefinder and calibrate it each time
to focus on mi back
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: Admin on August 01, 2007, 05:08:44 AM
Ummmmm that wont work I promise you.

You most definitely would need a camera, with you wearing bright clothes . . .
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: beginner435 on August 01, 2007, 02:53:56 PM
oh okay, du ui hav n e recomendations bcuz all i can find is the cmu cam and thats expensive
Title: Re: I need to get a lot of power with little experience
Post by: Admin on August 02, 2007, 06:45:40 AM
A webcam with roborealm (http://www.roborealm.com/).