Building robots is expensive. Motors $20, controller $20, motor driver $20, sensors $10, battery $10. Just the basic components and you’re already up to $80. The costs add up fast and it’s hard to pour a lot of money into building a lot of robots. That’s one reason why it’s great to have a resource like the Robotics Club. If I wanted, I could walk in and build a complete robot with parts that are already there. All I would have to invest is time, no money (well, a $25 membership fee, but that’s beside point).
Because building robots is expensive, for now I’m going to be focusing on projects that don’t require funding or that I have funding for already. I’m going to focus on Mobot (which I have almost all of the parts for), Micro-Colony (which I’m getting funded through the Build18 project), StairBot (a robotics club project I’m the head of, I’ll keep updated on its status as I work on it), and some other projects that I have in mind.
Unfortunately, I’m pushing Desk Rover to the side for the time being. Mainly because my robot fund is a little short of the price tag of desk rover, and I have plenty of other robots to work on in the meantime. I will build the first stage (chassis, sensors, motors, etc. no LCD or wireless) once I have enough money.
I will continue to work on the FWR3 Jasper. Most of the work in it is design work as of now, and that doesn’t cost anything but time (which, I now have a lot of as I’m on break).
I’ve come up with a parts list for version 1 of my Desk Rover:
- Control
- Arduino Nano USB Microcontroller v3
- Quantity: 1
- Cost: 35
- Total: 35
- Source: http://www.robotshop.us/arduino-nan-v-3.html
- Pololu Qik 2s9v1 Dual Serial Motor Controller
- 1
- 25
- 25
- http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1110
- Sensing
- QTR-1A Reflectance Sensor
- Quantity: 4
- Cost: 3.5
- Total: 14
- Source: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/958
- Sharp GP2D120 IR Range Sensor
- Quantity: 2
- Cost: 14
- Total: 28
- Source: http://www.robotshop.us/sharp-gp2d120-ir-range-sensor-1.html
- Microswitch – 2 Terminal
- Quantity: 2
- Cost: 1.5
- Total: 3
- Source: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9414
- Wireless
- XBee 1mW Chip Antenna
- Quantity: 1
- Cost: 23
- Total: 23
- Source: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8664
- XBee Explorer Regulated
- Quantity: 1
- Cost: 10
- Total: 10
- Source: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9132
- LCD
- Serial Enabled 16×2 LCD – White on Black 5V
- Quantity: 1
- Cost: 20
- Total: 20
- Source: http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=813
- Motion
- 150:1 Micro Metal Gear Motor
- Quantity: 2
- Cost: 16
- Total: 32
- Source: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1097
- Pololu 42x19mm Wheel and Encoder Set
- Quantity: 1
- Cost: 40
- Total: 40
- Source: http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1218
- Grand Total: 230
I will be building DR1 in phases. In the first phase I will build the motion and sensing and control parts. Once I have them working I will add the LCD and wireless capabilities. Right now I have 4 unused I/O pins on the arduino (2 digital, 2 analog), so I have some room for expansion. I may add a camera in the future.
I’ve been thinking about building a small robot that would be able to navigate around on the top of a desktop (hence the name Desk Rover). This robot would be approximately 3in x 3in x 3in. The robot is going to be used to do a lot of things I’ve never done before. Such as wireless and using an LCD. Additionally, I’ve never designed a robot just for me before, and it’s something I would like to do. I would like the design to be fairly versatile in terms of sensors and capabilities. I might also build a few of them to have them work together, or just upgrade the design as I move from one iteration to the next.
The features of the first Desk Rover include cliff sensors, range finders, LCD, wireless communication (via Xbee) as well as possibly encoders on the wheels. I plan on controlling Desk Rover with an Arduino Nano and eventually I may design my own boards to make the design more compact.
Here some sketchhes of the proposed layout of Desk Rover, in theses sketches I was thinking about using the GM 6, but I may end up using micro-metal gear motors from Pololu instead. I have a few configuration options which I may explore as the design progresses through iterations.
Sketches:
[nggallery id=3]