Ballbot

Created Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:31:39 +0000 by Mr_Fixit

Mr_Fixit

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:31:39 +0000

This project is a robot made out of one of those large rat balls. Most the mechanics are inside the ball structure, with a support arm that goes over the top to hold the ultrasound sensor, camera, and a compass/tilt sensor.

First phase is just to get it moving around the house. The mechanics are fairly straight forward, but there are some complexities to overcome.

Second phase will incorporate more elaborate programming to facilitate an awareness of the environment including mapping, course planning, and object avoidance. Auto docking will probably occur here also.

Once second phase is complete, I may have the bot patrol a set of waypoints and alert when/if things are out of place or unexpected. Something like a security drone. However, dealing with a dog and a couple cats may prove interesting at best.

Third phase will start to incorporate some neural networks on a laptop where instructions are send to the Ballbot. This is a long way down the road, so we shall see.