Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Toymaker on February 16, 2009, 08:52:39 AM

Title: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 16, 2009, 08:52:39 AM: Here is the AIMEC:3 robot.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3369/3289456787_2d22c95d2b.jpg?v=0)

http://twitpic.com/1irou

Internally the robot has 4 18F PIC's (as main processors) with 3 further PIC's as glue logic etc. PC controlled with voice recognition and soon face recognition is to be added.

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: airman00 on February 16, 2009, 11:59:59 AM: cool robot

Except I see those robot arms are from OWI - they are really weak arms.
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 17, 2009, 02:05:43 PM: Hi Eric

On the prototype robot, we have "beefed" up the arms/claws and they can easily pick up a can (or small bottle) of Coke. The production arms will be stronger.

Hi Admin

I seemed to have incorrectly inserted the picture link, as it has not worked. Can you let me know how to correct this, so I can post more pictures?

Thanks

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Trumpkin on February 17, 2009, 04:08:10 PM: Right click your picture and go to properites, copy the URL and put it in the image tag.
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: pomprocker on February 17, 2009, 04:10:47 PM: I saw you post that link on twitter ;)
Do you have any videos of it in action?

The picture link works fine. I click on it, and it takes me to a page with the picture.

If you want to 'embed' the image on your post then you just right click the image and click 'copy image address' With that address in your 'clipboard' you can then click the button above to the left of the Globe button that looks sort of like a mountain landscape and it will insert image tags. You then paste the image URL ending in .jpg or .gif or whatever in between those tags.
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Trumpkin on February 17, 2009, 06:32:57 PM: Didn't work Pomprocker ;)
(http://www.societyofrobots.com/images/main_bluerobots.gif)
Works for me though
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: pomprocker on February 17, 2009, 07:21:32 PM: odd, it was displaying it just fine right after i posted it.

maybe twitpic changes its URLs constantly or something
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 18, 2009, 04:54:02 AM: Thanks Pomprocker and Trumpkin, I have opened a Flickr account and pictures seem to load from there.

Here is another AIMEC:3 photo

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3523/3290281000_99faa10a88.jpg?v=0)

The arm wires are position feedback sensor wiring

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: airman00 on February 18, 2009, 05:55:13 AM: what did you use to mold the body?
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: frodo on February 18, 2009, 06:04:22 AM: i would say that that is injection moulded because it looks a bit complicated for vacuum forming and i can't remember what the other method is called. :D
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 20, 2009, 06:12:42 AM: Here is a back view of AIMEC:3 showing the arm motors, they are amazingly powerful (ariel rotation motors) they only draw a couple of hundred mA, but its almost impossible to stop motion of the motor, they have so much torque!

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3368/3295137450_e6c22e1cfe.jpg?v=0)

Got sound localisation working, can track to within 3 degrees. Need to add this to AIMEC

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: paulstreats on February 20, 2009, 09:07:07 AM: It all looks very tidy inside the body considering what a mess it could be ;D

I like the brain in a bubble thing on your desk ;D
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 22, 2009, 01:06:48 AM: Quote from: paulstreats on February 20, 2009, 09:07:07 AM
I like the brain in a bubble thing on your desk ;D

Hi Paul

Just for fun, I have put the plastic brain on a spare AIMEC:3 body!

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3089/3298903919_98efa4c891.jpg?v=0)

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 24, 2009, 04:13:10 AM: The new AIMEC:3 head with sound localization mics, they have to be 17cm apart. I am using the cross-correlation function which seems to work very well. A dedicated PIC will be linked in to the AIMEC sensor network.

Human scanning now working very well thanks to Thermal array and tracking algorythm. The new head will also have a camera for face and object recognition.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3545/3295137560_a7a6ed6bc0.jpg?v=0)

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Admin on March 02, 2009, 12:47:27 AM: Quote
The production arms will be stronger.
Is this a product you plan to sell?

And that brain head reminds me of Mars Attacks . . .

(http://www.mikecs.net/prodigeek/images/7greatestalieninvasions_AA8E/mars_attacks.jpg)
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: SmAsH on March 02, 2009, 01:14:04 AM: is that from jimmy neutron?
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on March 02, 2009, 02:04:12 AM: Quote
The production arms will be stronger.
Is this a product you plan to sell?

Yes, I am starting up a new AI and robotics business, I think now that vision is possible, robotics will emerge into mainstream life.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3594/3321404727_7d5c03400c.jpg)

This is how my AI see's me, the same tech is now going into the AIMEC:3

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: jamort on March 08, 2009, 08:35:55 PM: nice to see incredible work from man extremely seasoned builder
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on March 09, 2009, 03:38:38 AM: Quote from: jamort on March 08, 2009, 08:35:55 PM
nice to see incredible work from man extremely seasoned builder

Thanks Jamort!

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: pomprocker on March 09, 2009, 01:01:51 PM: Are you looking for any proteges? lol
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on March 09, 2009, 01:20:52 PM: Quote from: pomprocker on March 09, 2009, 01:01:51 PM
Are you looking for any proteges? lol

Hey Pomprocker, your stuff is pretty cool!

Cheers

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on March 15, 2009, 08:34:08 AM: Here is a model of what we expect the production AIMEC:3 arms to look like

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3574/3355822463_073ffd589c.jpg)

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on July 01, 2009, 08:10:04 AM: (http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3386/3664962714_536eaaf65c.jpg)

Here is the AIMEC:3 robot doing Karaoke at the Brighton Robotics event last week

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3158/3664965484_331384f85b.jpg)

Second layer of body mounted microcontroller boards showing nodes:3 & 4

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on July 27, 2009, 09:04:45 AM: AIMEC Robot first video - "Robots do dream, but not of electric sheep!"

[youtube]yYYvjTGCq5s[/youtube]

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on October 21, 2009, 01:19:28 AM: AIMEC:3 is finally getting his leg section!

Here is an artist impression

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2547/4030815017_954a46740a.jpg)

Tony
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Joker94 on October 21, 2009, 04:07:54 AM: it is looking pretty good, the legs wiil add a massive amount to the overall look. well done ;D
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on January 31, 2010, 08:06:30 AM: AIMEC:3 finally gets its leg section, no stopping this robot now!

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2790/4318251501_3c854cb1d2.jpg)

Toymaker
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: paulstreats on February 01, 2010, 03:53:26 PM: Love the Phillip K Dick reference in the video above :)

some interested questions:

Where or how did you come by the formed platic for the body and legs?

How much weight can Aimec lift from the arms?

Do the lower arms have weaker motors than the upper arms? and if so, why did you choose such large motors for the upper arms if the lower arms cant support the same?

Do the legs work yet? and if so what is their range of motion currently and do you have plans to increase the range of motion?

Do you have a plan to move main control into the robot, rather than being controlled by an external controller (at the start of the post)?

Once again, very nice robot and still looking very clean and tidy inside. WELL DONE so far :)
Title: Re: AIMEC:3 Robot
Post by: Toymaker on February 03, 2010, 05:45:37 AM: Answers to your questions

The body is made from fibreglass and fabricated by my modelmaker.

The arms have been strengthened, and can pick up reasonable weights, but the idea is to replace them with much more flexible arms and this is work in progress.

The legs cover a skid/steer drive mechanism.

The next (hobby) robot design has started:

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4294763881_055e865662_m.jpg)

This robot will be a radical change of direction for me, so far (as with the earlier AIMEC series) I have opted for the more complex stuff like speech recognition, TTS etc to be off-robot on a bi-directional 2.4GHz wireless link. Then I used multiple microcontrollers in the robot itself.

Inside the new robot I am now going to use 2 micro PC's:

http://www.fit-pc.co.uk/meet-fit-pc-II.html (http://www.fit-pc.co.uk/meet-fit-pc-II.html)

These puppies are absolutely miniature, yet have good enough spec and one will do quality speech recognition (DNS10) and TTS while the other will do and face/object recognition and have the Ai core. A couple of PIC18Fxxxx microcontrollers will do all the slave stuff like sensor data pre-analysis and controlling motors etc. But there will be no need for the external PC

Toymaker