Yes, thats my second. My first, I wont even mention, as it was a joke made out of balsa wood. This one, however, I consider a success. I got the idea of object detection and avoidance from robot mk1, a robot made to do just that. When I tried two methods that didn't work, I made it a photovore, or a light eater that followed any light source. The results from that were much better.
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As you can see, it ran off two 'c' batteries, and had a really cool two motor separate drive gearbox used for differential steering. The base is actually just a lid to a tupperware container painted blue with hobby paint.It also had a small airplane wheel in the back that just followed where the others went. It was a pretty simple design, and it is the basis for what my next robot will be. You may ask 'where is all the circuitry?' and the answer is is that I used a Radio Shack breadboard for all the circuitry because it was easy to change and improve, hence I never got around to making a soldered version of it.
My submarine was not a complete failure, but was a learning experience. It did not work for many reasons, but I ran into a few main problems:
waterproof driveshaft- Yes, no matter how trivial it seems, it was a major problem. I finally figured it out, but it leaked after about 7 minutes underwater.
sinking- The thing sank like a rock. Thats it. It didn't have enough air displacement for the weight.
propeller- I had a time making a propeller, and then attaching it to the motor. I wound up using two flat pieces of aluminum superglued to the shaft of a nail, same in diameter as the motor shaft. Also, I had the problem of, when underwater, the prop would stay still, and the whole body of the robot would spin. I could only think of putting wings on it.
All in all, it was fun, and I wound up making it into a boat. The system was great as a boat, and went considerably fast in the tub I tested it in for only running of 1.5 volts.
© 2001 David Stillman |
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