I built a frame that paint bot can be mounted on for testing. I built it out of scrap lumber from the CMU Robotics Club. The frame has the motors mounted near the top with the cables running through guides at the top of the frame.
I currently do not have any sort of painting mechanism mounted to paint bot. I’m thinking about building a marker holder so I can test it a little easier than using spray paint. Currently I just have a weight attached to the two cables to simulate the painting mechanism.
I completed the main electronics board for Paint Bot in Mid-July. The control board consists of an Arduino Microcontroller, a motor driver from Pololu and a custom circuit board (perf board) that does some interfacing for the sensors. The board is mounted on a piece of 3mm acrylic.
As mentioned previously, I’ve been working on building a painting robot. I believe I have finally completed the construction of it. The only task I have left to complete the robot is the programming.
The robot is comprised of 4 parts:
- 2 motors (essentially winches)
- Painting mechanism
- Controller board
I had previously completed the motors and painting mechanism. Over the past week I have worked on building the electronics needed to control the paint bot. This evening I was able to complete the wiring. I also ran some tests interfacing with the motors and the rough encoders I built for them.
Programming the robot is going to be an interesting challenge. I am going to be encountering things that I’ve never done before, such as using encoders. The math required in moving the painting mechanism connected to the motor by 2 none orthogonal lines will be interesting. I’ve thought about it some, and I’m hoping it wont be too difficult to implement.
Over the past month or so I have been working on building a painting robot. This robot will be able to paint a wall using spray paint in a graffiti-esque manner. My initial inspiration, and thus similarity in design, was a robot called Hektor. Hektor was a graffiti robot built as a project by Jürg Lehni with help from Uli Franke at écal, the University of Art and Design Lausanne. More about Hektor here and écal here.
I just finished some testing on my spray paint can holding/spraying mechanism. The video below shows the second test of the spraying mechanism. In the initial setup the servo used to depress the spray nozzle couldn’t provide enough downward force all the time. The second video shows an attempt at getting around this issue by the servo pressing on the nozzle from a different direction.
Second Spray Test:
Initial Spray Test:
I will probably end up modifying the spraying mechanism further so it is less of a hack to get it to depress the spray can nozzle.
The following pictures show the can holder and spraying mechanism during the build:
I’ve also finished building motors to move the spray can around. When I get time, I’ll post something about the motor build.
