Society of Robots - Robot Forum
Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: seantheworld on March 05, 2014, 08:35:20 AM
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Good day everyone.
I'm new on this site and have never built a robot of any kind before, but am starting to grow a keen interest.
I hope I'm in the right place, and asking this question in the correct area....forgive me if I'm not:-|
My plan is to build a little toy for my kitten. I have attached a simple (don't laugh :-) image that I made in Photoshop of what I would like to do. Basically: My cat walks past the toy robot, it senses him, and then starts to rotate a few feathers on a rod for him to chase. A stepper motor, sensor, controller, batteries etc....I think
I live in Pretoria in South Africa, and have this store available. Could someone pls tell me what parts I should buy, how to assemble it and pretty much help me to get it to work. I have no one who can help me here.
The link to the shop i have is: www.robotics.org.za (http://www.robotics.org.za)
All and any help is much appreciated:-)
Sean
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It looks like you have a general grasp of what you need for your project. You might get a better response from the forums if you ask more direct questions, such as "Would a PIR sensor be suitable to detect a kitten for a toy as shown in this photoshop image?" On overly broad request as the one you posted generally produces little to no results. As for your application I would recommend a servo motor or a standard dc motor instead of a stepper motor and I would most likely go with a servo. As for a controller I would recommend an Arduino, or one of the many Arduino clones, as there are lots of resources available online for assistance. Good luck on your project, I'm sure your kitten will love it.
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I think you should stick with a stepper motor. Once a claw is snagged in the target, you will want the power for the target to be pulled free. A servo may not have to torque.
It may be a good idea to monitor the current being pulled by the motor, so in case of a serious snag, the controller will just give up for a few seconds rather than over heat your motor and/or drain your batteries.
Just my two cents...
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For me you should initially define what exactly you need from robot. Then according to the requirement map it with the things your required. Eg: Servo or stepper, microcontrollers, types of USBs (if any), jumper cables and others.