The Butler Bot

[yash25]

Hi! Im an amateur robotics enthusiast  and i've built a lot of BEAM robots till date ( around 10) . However i'm absolutely new to microcontroller based robotics. Now I am very interested in building the Butler robot , which i saw very recently here, http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-Your-Own-Butler-Robot/
Now, I want to make a slight modification in this particular model, i.e I want to build my own microcontroller circuit as the brain to this bot. Now, can anybody suggest, how i should start going about this?
Also, i am confused about where to start from, the mechanics(as suggested by the author of the link) or the electronics...
Thanks to all!

[SmAsH]

ahh, eric's butler robot...
well, first you should decide on what sensors you want the robot to have...
then you should decide what you want the robot to look like... maybe make a cad of it.
electronics are quite flexible, you have a wide choice...

if you use a microcontroller you will want lots of sensor inputs and digital outputs...
the axon http://www.societyofrobots.com/axon has over 55 I/O ports to use, so something like that is idle...
you could keep most of the stuff the same as eric's robot but use something else for vision.
ie, the blackfin cam, cmucam etc...

[yash25]

okay..well, a couple more doubts!
what kinds of sensors would you recommend? because i've only handled IR sensors and LDR's and TSOP's( i think i've just worked with a TSOP once), so basically, i barely know what to do as far as sensors are concerned!

secondly, say i want the exact same design as erik's bot, do i still make a CAD design( will autoCAD do?)

thirdly, well, i'd like to build the controller board myself..then how do i go about it? (I'll tell you why im being so stubborn about my own controller board..now in my university, if i submit my bot as a project, they will surely disqualify it for the readymade circuit board)
also what controller do i use in that case?(well, im learning AVR programming basics so i know a bit of that, so can i use an Atmega?)

I know, my doubts may sound stupid, but well, can u solve them?
thanks a lot!

[SmAsH]

i reccomend blackfin cam or cmucam if you want vision... but thats complicated.
if you want simple sensors you can have a sharp ir mounted on a pan/tilt servo...
and then simple bump sensors at the base of the robot?

[yash25]

oh yes..i'd like vision.
ive got loads of time this month and i'd like to upgrade my brain a bit!

so, u suggest, i start looking up sensors right now for starters? any other things i can start with?

also, when i was BEAMing , i used a very basic technique of tactile sensors as bump sensors, i.e two long antinae which feel the obstacle and help the bot to alter it's course.
Im sure such a basic technique would'nt work here! but then where and how should i start looking up other sensor circuits?

 Also, what about my controller query?

[SmAsH]

for the controller i would suggest an atmega640 or 1280... just something with lots of I/O..
but with the 640 you can use admins codes....

[yash25]

ok..two queries...any good resources for sensors info. which will be useful for the butler?\
and "admins codes" is exactly what?

[SmAsH]

you could search airman00s posts?
admins code is all the code he has written for the axon, if you use the mega640 you can use the code

[dellagd]

you sure you want to build this for your first MCU based robot?
looks pretty advanced

[yash25]

hi dellagd.., i know what u r saying is right.but the problem is that i'm studying engineering and i barely have time to begin slowly! moreover im also making a microbot and a micromouse! just trying to cram as much as i can in as little time as possible because once the semester starts, my teachers will devour me with the portion so im making the most of my vacation!
however , i'd really appreciate alternate project ideas! any suggestions?

[dellagd]

well, you could make the $50 robot of course, but also maybe a robotic arm driven by servos? I always wanted to do that.

EDIT: robotic arm*

[yash25]

yes...i'll try that too! thanks!

[jamort]

welll one thing i can tell you is you better have over $500 dollars and really close to $1000 for this.... It takes a lot to but sensors and a cmu cam alone is like 180$... then if you have any sonar they start at 20$ a piece but you probably need to spend about 30 realy or even more to get something really worth getting... all in all this is not a cheap at all hobby and im not sure what type of engineer your becoming but you need a lot of computer programming electronics and mechanical engineering abilitites to do this and more than likely your first robot is not going to be as good as you want it to be...
youve got a month... sounds like a lot... but in fact, in reality its not... when yopu have to focus on all those things.... look in the miembers tutorial section and at the hour logs Im sure airmans butler bot took him a long time i also believe it was his first but before going crazy buying things he did research then he took that and figured out what parts he would/wouldnt need and have everything placed... not sure of how youve been about reading admins tutorial but "a well built robot is better than a well programmed..." anyway i could run on for hours typing but dont be too ambitios u may learn more from simple things.... and youll also learn from mistakes


heres the board that iwoul build if i were you since it has to be custom built.... [url][http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=8060.0/url]
is this an actual assignment? if not i dont see a reason to be so worried your professors should start with simple stuff.... if you want to suprise them after class starts study hard and get the best grads you can get... after all there there to teach you