Author Topic: I'm finally documenting Chives!!! (Read 13159 times)

airman00 · « **on:** June 08, 2008, 04:16:49 PM »

I am going to redo Chives , my butler robot and I am actually going to document it

I'm gonna take him apart and build him up in a new design.

The old chives looked like this

It boasted voice commands, remote web control , web cam used in image processing , arm to pour a drink ( not pictured since its already taken apart for the new design), and manual drive with a joystick. Oh yeah , and a minifridge that kept drinks cool .

The new Chives will be 100 times better . I'm planning for HUGE advancements, I'm talking about more sonar sensors, three microphones to track direction of sound, better robotic arm for pouring , cooler design, and anything else that you guys suggest that is feasible. all of this in addition to the old features.

Here is the basic design for Chives :

It will follow that design , and that after I have that basic design all finished I will attach my robot arm , some sensors, etc. So when its done it will resemble that CAD .

So far I've finished improving the chassis , making it more secure. Now I'm waiting for some pieces of wood and plexiglas to close up the batteries and relay system ( which I made). Hopefully I'll be done by the end of the week with the chassis.

The album is located here
http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj202/erobot/Chives%20Reloaded/Chassis/

This will be the official forum thread for improvements to Chives, I'm abandoning any other thread that dealt with this.
My intention is to enter Chives in the instructables robot contest , but I am not sure if I have enough time since I only finish exams a week before the deadline. $:-\$

Written documentation will be posted next week or the week after.

Feedback is appreciated.

,Eric

Parth · « **Reply #1 on:** June 08, 2008, 05:42:05 PM »

SWEET! That looks awesome, and the second a documentation goes up, im reading it! One attachment I'd recommend (though it might be too expensive) is to hook up a camera by your front door and whenever someone rings the doorbell, it tells a TV screen on Chives to show you who's at the door through the camera. This might be complicated, but just trying to give you some ideas!

Good luck

jman571 · « **Reply #2 on:** June 08, 2008, 06:40:15 PM »

Since I know not an inkling about how to make a robot of this caliber all I can say is:

This is like super crazy ambitious! Is any of the software done yet? Woweee. All I can say is how long do you have to work on this??? The whole summer I hope

airman00 · « **Reply #3 on:** June 10, 2008, 02:10:32 PM »

Quote from: jman571 on June 08, 2008, 06:40:15 PM

Since I know not an inkling about how to make a robot of this caliber all I can say is:

This is like super crazy ambitious! Is any of the software done yet? Woweee. All I can say is how long do you have to work on this??? The whole summer I hope

I already had the thing working and I'm just improving it. Theres a video on Youtube about it titled Chives butler robot or something like that. The video shows the voice commands in action. I have two weeks to make all the improvements , but I have all the parts already at home and I did this before. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it in that time spans

Details about the old butler robot on erobots.blogspot.com

pomprocker · « **Reply #4 on:** June 12, 2008, 11:18:42 AM »

I want a chives!

just a thought, maybe you could make it so that anyone could place whatever old laptop they have on it to power it?

Parth · « **Reply #5 on:** June 12, 2008, 12:01:23 PM »

Came up with another idea! Lol... Well, maybe you could put some sort of calender on it. For instance, let's say it's someone's birthday. Chives could remind you by saying, "It's so-and-so's birthday today" or something like that. Just trying to come up with some thoughts!

pomprocker · « **Reply #6 on:** June 12, 2008, 12:09:22 PM »

Quote from: Parth on June 12, 2008, 12:01:23 PM

Came up with another idea! Lol... Well, maybe you could put some sort of calender on it. For instance, let's say it's someone's birthday. Chives could remind you by saying, "It's so-and-so's birthday today" or something like that. Just trying to come up with some thoughts!

home automation software works like that....

maybe you can make chives interact with home automation software.......misterhouse.org

airman00 · « **Reply #7 on:** June 12, 2008, 03:41:37 PM »

nice ideas guys!

home automation is the next step!

pomprocker · « **Reply #8 on:** June 12, 2008, 03:48:46 PM »

sorry bad URL

http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/

airman00 · « **Reply #9 on:** June 12, 2008, 04:25:22 PM »

god dam it, is everything I think of already out there?

airman00 · « **Reply #10 on:** June 12, 2008, 05:08:52 PM »

guys I need your help

http://www.societyofrobots.com/member_tutorials/node/141

Have a look at that please , tell me if thats detailed enough on how to build the chassis.

Trumpkin · « **Reply #11 on:** June 12, 2008, 08:26:39 PM »

looks good to me!

pomprocker · « **Reply #12 on:** June 13, 2008, 09:46:43 AM »

looks good to me!

i'm not too excited about using wood on a robot though.

Trumpkin · « **Reply #13 on:** June 13, 2008, 11:36:34 AM »

Quote

i'm not too excited about using wood on a robot though.

Why? I guess you could always use HDPE instead of wood.

airman00 · « **Reply #14 on:** June 13, 2008, 11:54:16 AM »

Quote from: pomprocker on June 13, 2008, 09:46:43 AM

looks good to me!

i'm not too excited about using wood on a robot though.

why?

I'm painting it silver anyways , if its about looks.

pomprocker · « **Reply #15 on:** June 13, 2008, 03:38:46 PM »

When I think of a robot I don't think of a wooden robot for some reason, I picture metal and gears, and nuts and bolts.

I dunno, I like to think of a robot as a machine being.

If wood it used it seems a little too "organic" to be a robot.

Also I like to think robots we make would last a long time. I think of wood as being not as sturdy.

airman00 · « **Reply #16 on:** June 13, 2008, 03:58:46 PM »

you seem to have a bad experience with wood for some reason .
I think you are terribly mistaken , wood is very sturdy and lasts very long. Think whats holding up the very house / apartment you're in!

I just painted it , it looks very silvery.

jman571 · « **Reply #17 on:** June 13, 2008, 11:16:50 PM »

If anything plastics is NOT the way to go here in my opinion. Although lighter than wood, to get equivalent strength you'd need a thick cut, possibly 1" or more with plexiglass. Just going from my experience with my RC robot in class the last week or so and its plexiglass chassis it's that this stuff has a high resilience, but when it scratches, and even when you get a small crack, WATCH OUT. This stuff harbors tension like a dirty politician. It's good for a while but out of nowhere...boom. Suffice to say, my bottom plate cracked right in half, if it wasn't for plastic cement I'd be done

For something like Chives I'd have prob. gone with sheet aluminum, but it's definitely a lot harder to work with than wood if you don't have the proper equipment for it.

Gertlex · « **Reply #18 on:** June 14, 2008, 11:15:55 AM »

Well plexiglass generally means cheap clear plastic to me. Get true polycarbonate if you want durability. Still, not super durable. Just being a detail freak

airman00 · « **Reply #19 on:** June 14, 2008, 07:19:31 PM »

thats really weird

i havent had any trouble with plexiglas , I even made a rotating platform for me to stand on with i think 1.5" plexiglass as the base and there was no crackigng. i guess its all about weight distribution

Trumpkin · « **Reply #20 on:** June 17, 2008, 03:26:00 PM »

Is there such a thing as a wireless phidgets interface board? so I can use a desktop instead of a laptop??

airman00 · « **Reply #21 on:** June 17, 2008, 05:14:01 PM »

Quote from: Trumpkin on June 17, 2008, 03:26:00 PM

Is there such a thing as a wireless phidgets interface board? so I can use a desktop instead of a laptop??

sadly no

but you have two ways to get around this:
a) This is the easiest way, just get a Belkin wireless USB adapter ( wireless USB up to 30 ft away)
b) make your own phidgets using wifi or bluetooth and your microcontroller board of choice

I can help you out with either method, but please make a new topic if you want to go into this, it will be a lengthy discussion

Trumpkin · « **Reply #22 on:** June 18, 2008, 02:58:32 PM »

ok, maybe later, I have some other projects that I need to get done.

airman00 · « **Reply #23 on:** June 23, 2008, 03:56:58 PM »

I made a to-scale , perfectly accurate CAD of chives and I think I'll put more CAD images of the steps than real images of the assembly process.

What do you guys think of a mostly CAD pictures of each assembly step, considering that the CAD images are clearer and perfectly to scale?

pomprocker · « **Reply #24 on:** June 24, 2008, 09:50:22 AM »

You use google sketchup right?

I wish I was better at that planning process.

It would be nice to have a virtual existence of my robot for planning purposes.

airman00 · « **Reply #25 on:** June 24, 2008, 11:46:55 AM »

yep sketchup

HDL_CinC_Dragon · « **Reply #26 on:** June 24, 2008, 04:34:05 PM »

Needs more cowbell and a flux capacitor

But seriously, great work

airman00 · « **Reply #27 on:** June 27, 2008, 08:25:47 AM »

An update:

Thats kinda bad picture b/c the flash from the camera reflected off the head .

Here is a pic of the head

And check out the tutorial page , I wrote a lot .

Please vote for me in the instructables contest also!!! I'll post a link to that hopefully tomorrow since I am just making the deadline . Just barely making it. Thank you . I worked hard to document it in a way that anyone can build it .

Admin · « **Reply #28 on:** June 27, 2008, 01:37:17 PM »

Whoa nice tutorial! Nice pics!

Let me know when you have it "finished", as I want to feature it on the front SoR page

airman00 · « **Reply #29 on:** June 27, 2008, 03:01:12 PM »

thx admin

I'm cutting it really really close to the deadline for the instructables contest

What I have left to do:
Wire the Arm Motors
Wire a Pouring Servo
Color Tracking
Finish the new Voice Recognition Software

and document it all!

News:

Author Topic: I'm finally documenting Chives!!! (Read 13159 times)

Related Topics