Need Help on gesture based angle control

[thesidjway]

I am a beginner as far as robotics is concerned, but have basic knowledge about embedded coding, differential drives etc. I currently am building a robot for a robotics competition that requires hand gesture based motion of robots and picking up blocks and depositing them at safe zones, while avoiding mines which are to be detected using metal detection. The problem statement of the event is here.

To make the gesture based motion control, what I wanted to do was to rotate my bot with the same angle as my hand and then move the bot forward. That according to me would be a very convenient way to control a robot. The bot would follow the rotation of my hand.

What I thought could be used was a pair of stepper motors for the differential drive, and I thought of using a LED-LDR pair to govern whether the bot was rotating (wheels spinning in opp. direction) or traversing (same direction), with the sensor on the palm of my hand. For the locomotion, I thought of using a MPU 6050 accelerometer+gyro sensor. But now the problem is that I don't know whether torque of stepper motors (0.65Kg-cm) would be able to bear the weight of my bot (about 1.5kgs) and how in the world am I supposed to attach the robotic wheels to the stepper.

Using a simple geared DC motor for the same could be a solution, but I don't know how to implement that in Arduino code. And also the motion could depend upon the surface of contact of the bot with the arena which I don't know.

Please help me out of this problem

Thanks in Advance

Siddharth Jha

[mklrobo]

  Hello! I would offer an opinion...
Condition;
I currently am building a robot for a robotics competition that requires hand gesture based motion of robots and picking up blocks and depositing them at safe zones, while avoiding mines which are to be detected using metal detection.
problem;
1> To make the gesture based motion control, what I wanted to do was to rotate my bot with the same angle as my hand and then move the bot forward. That according to me would be a very convenient way to control a robot. The bot would follow the rotation of my hand.
2> But now the problem is that I don't know whether torque of stepper motors (0.65Kg-cm) would be able to bear the weight of my bot (about 1.5kgs) and how in the world am I supposed to attach the robotic wheels to the stepper.
3> Using a simple geared DC motor for the same could be a solution, but I don't know how to implement that in Arduino code. And also the motion could depend upon the surface of contact of the bot with the arena which I don't know.
I will try to address the multiple problem you have.
1> I would use a special ring (control) on my hand, to secure it obeying my commands, and not other objects
or other people's commands in the area. This ring could be recognized by the robot, and easier to process.
2> The axles for the robots support the weight of the robot; the motors are for using for for
static any dynamic movement. (much less the weight) I would encourage you to visit a post by Bdeuell, (electric bicycle)
in which this information is in depth, and very helpfull.
3> I do not know about the code, but have reviewed code of this sort in the Avalon and propeller(Parallax)
microcontrollers. Your quest for the code, is finding the libraries that contain the nuggets you will need.
The Avalon microcontroller, as supported in this forum, seems to have alot of libraries already avaliable,
which will reduce your programming headache, and allow faster time to completion of your project.I think
they even have camera recognition.(?) Good Luck! Please keep me posted on your progress....