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aeldric
Joined: 08 Oct 2004
Posts: 100
Location: Melbourne
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Heh. Yes, I cut off the final line of the GUI when I sliced and diced the image. The final line says: 1,2,44,44.
Basically just diagnostic stuff. The GUI will change once I know that it works (hopefully we are hooking it up to the motors this weekend).
At the moment RoboWars is our goal, but we are considering commercial applications. The robot describes itself to the server wby using XML, which means that modules can be swapped around and the server will reconfigure the GUI, based on what modules are loaded and working. We are hoping that this is a handy feature in RoboWars - but I figure there might be a commercial application for robots that can be rapidly reconfigured and retasked.
Particularly if the whole thing can be built for under $5,000 (for comparison - a US Army packBot has similar specs, but less functionality, and costs US$60,000)
_________________
David C.
Team SubKor
I wonder what happens if I do this.......
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Wed Nov 24, 2004 6:55 pm |
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aeldric
Joined: 08 Oct 2004
Posts: 100
Location: Melbourne
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Well, we have good news and bad news.
First the good news:
1. Making armour is going well. 4 pieces done. 2 more to do.
2. Brett suggested that the only way this design could be used by others in "All terrain" robotic combat would be to box the electronics up into kit form. We looked at that today. Not hard. The electronic hardware cost us almost $2,000, however now that we know how to do it it can be done cheaper - but still not cheap. An alternative is that we could just post instructions. We are using low footprint boards, low power-requirement CPUs, power supplies that clean the DC power, etc. Other people could just chose to use standard motherboards. Brett may be right about the potential for other uses. Other groups (such as the Big Guns naval people and the tank wars people) may appreciate being able to sight straight down the barrel of their guns... Once the electronics is packaged up it can be used to control multiple motors and a significant number of video cameras can be added before you run out of processor power.
3. The robot is surprisingly mean. It is smashing wood and mangling steel. I will see if I can post some videos soon. The weapon (a spike) is still a bit lame compared to other weapons out there, but the robot is not completely helpless. We may get our butt kicked, but we are going to dish out a few licks. Here is a video David R took during testing: http://www.davidsuniverse.com/P1010329.MOV
Now the bad news. We ran into two problems today:
1. The motherboard isn't quite the shape we expected. When we went to fit it into the robot, the motherboard didn't fit! Drastic surgery will be needed, new armour sections will need to be built, new mountings fabricated, etc. For now, the robot is on an umbilical cord 
2. The microprocessor does not behave the way the microprocessor simulator does! This was a bit unexpected. The code runs in the simulator but doesn't work on the microprocessor. David R has found the bug in the simulator (the simulator was supplied by the chip manufacturer), but it will take time for him to debug this problem.
This has set us back a bit. Not certain if we will be ready for RoboWars II, but we still feel we have a good chance.
Given that robot is still on a lead, I am not certain if we should show up to the builder's meet this Saturday - might show up just to say hello.
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David C.
Team SubKor
I wonder what happens if I do this.......
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Sun Nov 28, 2004 9:46 pm |
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