Author Topic: Am I setting myself up for disaster?  (Read 1867 times)

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Offline Physics FuTopic starter

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Am I setting myself up for disaster?
« on: May 02, 2012, 05:46:57 PM »
I've had an idea for a robot rattling around in my head for a while, and I'm finally going to do something about it. It's like a simpler version of National Taiwan University Develops a Leg-Wheel Hybrid Mobile Robot Using LabVIEW but with the added capability to paddle. It would pretty much just be a drive train, though a novel one. I have a solid amount of experience building robots, almost everything from mechanical design to electronics. Almost everything... I've never done software before. There's always been a software team to hand if off to, but not this time. I've given programming a couple short-lived attempts before, just long enough to learn the very basics, but each were extraordinarily poorly-timed. Not this time. In two weeks, my schedule will be almost clear, and in just over a month I will begin summer vacation. I'll be keeping the software simple: no autonomous, no vision sensing, no frills - the only functions will be walking, rolling, and paddling. Is it feasible for me to go from near-0 to 60 and take this robot from start to finish in six months? At that time my time will for the most part no longer be my own, and I would like to get it finished before then.

TL;DR: Extensive robotics experience, but never programmed. Feasible to build and program somewhat complex drivetrain in six months?

PS: Wow those are some intense anti-spambot defenses.

Offline Gertlex

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Re: Am I setting myself up for disaster?
« Reply #1 on: May 02, 2012, 06:37:23 PM »
Looks straightforward enough to do, and your programming requirements are simple enough to learn from scratch. 

My two thoughts are to possibly do six leg/wheels, and to build one, initially.  That one should be enough to figure out most of the programming on.

Let us know how it goes :)
I

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Re: Am I setting myself up for disaster?
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2012, 09:51:38 PM »
By 'paddle', you mean to go in water?

Sounds very straight forward and not too difficult for your skills. I think one month planning and one month building would be all you needed.

I strongly encourage you to use WebbotLib. It does all the boring/hard low level software for you, so that you can spend more time on the higher level stuff.

Just google up some youtube videos on how WebbotLib works.

The required quadrature encoders will be a bit of a pain to synchronize. Your microcontroller will need to handle 8 encoder inputs. You'd also want it remote controlled, right?

(I'm bias and financially motivated, but I'd recommend my Axon II :P)

PS: Wow those are some intense anti-spambot defenses.

 


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