Author Topic: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers  (Read 2095 times)

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Offline firemonkeyTopic starter

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Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« on: September 20, 2013, 04:32:49 PM »
Hello everyone,

I'm converting my old indoor combat robot to a all terrain vehicle.  The idea is to create a dynamic suspension using a mountain bike suspension and a heavy servo attached to the top of the rod.

My questions:
1. Where can I buy heavy servo's that can handle shocks + heavy load (max 60kg, 180 degrees)
2. Is there a better solution to adjust the height of my wheels ? (Using electronics)
3. Which microcontroller/fpga on the market has build-in hd video processing + io inputs/ouputs, pwm, i2c, low power, network capabilities, 1ghz + ...

Thanks Firemonkey

Specs:

DONE 4x 35cm all-terrain wheels (Teflon + rubber)
DONE Axes + Bearings
DONE Heavy duty DC motor driver 2 x 300w (24v)
DONE 24v x 52 Ahr battery pack
DONE 2x 200W 24v DC motors
DONE Electronics => Gyro, Positioning sensors
DONE Safety switch + heavy duty cabling.
DONE 1000Mw 2.4Ghz Data uplink
DONE Front led lights + led indicators
DONE High power led spotlight (5000 Lumen)
BUSY  Back suspension
BUSY  Front suspension
TODO GPS
TODO 3mm Steel/Teflon body 45 degree angle
TODO Impact coating
TODO Camera + sensor unit.

Programming language:
C++ (Controller)
Node.js, MongoDb, Jquery (Interface)

Protocols:
Tcp/ip (Transport layer)
Json (Application layer)
H264 (Video)

Offline Roman505

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Re: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« Reply #1 on: September 20, 2013, 04:50:22 PM »
I am not sure of your design that specifies 180 degrees but have you considered linear actuators? Pololu has some that provide 50Kg force and a far higher locking force. Stroke length and speed may or may not suit your requirement. Damping needs dampers rather than inflicting the shock directly on the servo or actuator.

HTH

Offline firemonkeyTopic starter

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Re: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« Reply #2 on: September 20, 2013, 05:27:18 PM »
I am not sure of your design that specifies 180 degrees but have you considered linear actuators? Pololu has some that provide 50Kg force and a far higher locking force. Stroke length and speed may or may not suit your requirement. Damping needs dampers rather than inflicting the shock directly on the servo or actuator.

HTH

Indd, linear actuators seem to be the best solution.  Does someone know a good webshop in europe ?

Offline Webbot

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Re: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« Reply #3 on: September 21, 2013, 07:57:59 AM »
Does someone know a good webshop in europe ?
You can find some links to UK based websites here http://webbot.org.uk/iPoint/38.page
Webbot Home: http://webbot.org.uk/
WebbotLib online docs: http://webbot.org.uk/WebbotLibDocs
If your in the neighbourhood: http://www.hovinghamspa.co.uk

Offline Billy

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Re: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2013, 07:20:51 PM »
3. Which microcontroller/fpga on the market has build-in hd video processing + io inputs/ouputs, pwm, i2c, low power, network capabilities, 1ghz + ...

Analog Devices Blackfin has a dualcore DSP opensource type project called the FINBOARD.
Aside from the dual core DSP and IDE (Eclipse) there is preprocessor hardware for pipelining video frames with dedicated HW blocks for performing specific types of alogos on the frames.

Find it here:
http://www.finboard.org/

The learning curve will be very steep unless you already have DSP and video processing experience.
The starter kit offered from Avnet has application examples that will get you started on the video processing.

Personally I'd rather slam my hand in a door than take on the project from scratch. Roborealm has a very reasonably priced PC based program for vision processing. Have you considered mounting a laptop on the bot and drive from there?

Either way, good luck and let us know how it goes.

Offline jwatte

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Re: Dynamic suspension using servo's & Microcontrollers
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2013, 11:54:13 PM »
You really don't want to go FPGA for video processing. Try something like the Raspberry Pi, or the BeagleBoardBlack, or perhaps the Odroid-X2 if you need quad-core power.

It should be noted that the usable processing capacity of FPGAs on boards is generally significantly less than that of high-end integrated "ready-made" CPUs, although you can slice that FPGA processing power in many separate parallel elements if you need to, which is much harder for CPUs. And if you're trying to debug or tweak an algorithm, the speed and ease of software development will beat the FPGA hands down.

 


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