Building a robot...?

[Feanor]

I took robotics at my highschool. It was kind of fun, but also a bit lame. For one thing, being a hoby robotist is extremely expensive. My partner and I spent about $1,000 of our school's money on just the peripherals for our robot.

The best road to take would probably be to join a competitive team that is being sponsored by some big company.

[iago]

"Bump sensors" are pretty easy to make.  All you need is a photodetector (http://store.yahoo.com/webtronics/if-e10.html is a cheap one, and pretty good for this sort of thing).  Detection is pretty easy.  if(something_is_there) { move(); }  I'd say stick with simple stuff.  A breadboard is always a good way to go early on (no soldering needed!  And they are pretty cheap).

Aside from that I can't say much right now (too early -.-).

I hate breadboards.

I have a nice training board that isn't a breadboard, but is functionally equivalent. 

I left the picture big so you can see details, so I won't hotlink it:
http://www.javaop.com/~iago/atmel2.jpg

Notice that you can easily add/remove CPUs and other bits.  It's a really great board to learn on. 

[deadly7]

That's hot.  Did you solder it yourself?

[iago]

There's no solder anywhere on the board. 

[zorm]

I've done the breadboard stuff before, and used handyboards for robotic development at school. My only problem with these is that they weren't very powerful and didn't interface with anything else well.

I don't really know of anything aside from USB/Firewire that will provide modular components like I'd like. I also suspect that if I wanted to go down that road it'd be even more expensive. Thats one advantage of using something more common in everyday use like USB that it will be cheaper.

Feanor: $1000 on just peripherals seems excessive.

On wifi: being able to quickly switch access points or what not isn't a huge deal. I mainly plan to use it for information relay/debugging to avoid cables. It will probably also be used for remote control in the start.

So heres my list of goals for now atleast:
1. Remote control drivable, w/video
2. Autonomous with simple sensors, and simple tasks like avoid light or just move around avoiding obstacles, etc.
3. Autonomous and traveling along GPS waypoints, the idea being that I can give it GPS waypoints down my street and it will be able to travel there based only on its knowledge.

Edit:
I came across http://www.epiacenter.com/modules.php?name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=61 which talks briefly about making a PC based robot. I also found http://www.linuxrobots.org/ which seems helpful.

[rabbit]

If you want sponsorship for this, you need to have some sort of goal, otherwise I doubt you'll get much cash.

Aside from that, good luck.

[zorm]

Not intending to get sponsorship or anything of the sort, this is just a project for fun.

[deadly7]

There's no solder anywhere on the board. 

What the hell? How do the LEDs stay in? :?

[zorm]

So just sort of looking around at various parts and I've come up with this list:
VIA EPIA ME6000 LVDS Fanless Motherboard $135 @ http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
Compact Flash to IDE Adapter (Type 1/2) $34 @ http://www.mini-itx.com/store/
Kingston 512MB Compact Flash (CF) Flash Media $24 @ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820160013
Crucial Technology 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 266 $106 @ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145085

Still requires wireless card and wireless AP, as well as motors + way to drive them + batteries.

[Nate]

I would suggest maybe an older laptop battery off eBay...Charging would definately be an issue though.  Also you are going to need to take weight into consideration, I really don't know where you are in school but if you don't know the physics then just ask.

[rabbit]

Solar panels!

Okay, maybe not.  Litium hydride batteries are pretty good for technical stuff.  Also, if you weren't going to send it down the street for a beer I would have suggested an umbilical.  Hey!  Maybe you can give it a plug and teach it how to charge itself when its batteries get low?

[Nate]

I was going to say teach it to map WiFi hot spots around your house.

[zorm]

Looking at a couple of http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2049668s to be the batteries. Think I should have a seperate battery dedicated solely to the computer?

The local newspaper sells aluminum plates that are 35"x 23-1/16"x.007" thick for $0.20 each. It doesn't really sound thick enough but I'll have to investigate more.

I dug up an old webcam, which appears to have drivers made for it already on Linux. The webcam does 640x480 @ 30fps so it should be more then plenty for my needs.

Now I just have to figure out which linux distro to try and use. Any suggestions from the crowd?

Also I saw somewhere online a suggestion of using windshield wiper motors, if only I knew where to find a junk yard because I could probably salvage some of those for rather cheap.

[edit]
The mapping Wifi hot spots is a neat idea actually, but I'm unsure how useful it'd be around here. Solar panels seem like a cool idea but unless my robot is going to be outside for extended periods of time on its own they aren't very useful. Making it know to return home to recharge however is a very good idea and I can probably be done.
[/edit]

[rabbit]

I just hope you realize those batteries are realllly heavy.  IIRC they are about the same as a car battery.  I highly doubt windshield wiper motors could carry a couple of them around.  I think that you would be fine with running the computer off a few 9v's, especially if it's not a whole tower (which from the sound of it, it won't be).

A problem with aluminum is that it doesn't like to solder.  Even with an acetylene torch I have a hard time making a good bond.  Unless you have a plasma torch (IE: for welding), I doubt you want to use aluminum.

I doubt it will be powerful enough, but picotux is SMALL.  Another one which might be a bit more well suited is Damn Small Linux which is about 50mb, which leaves lots of room left for sensory storage or just lets you use a smaller (cheaper) drive.

[Nate]

Those batteries are so fucking huge like wtf?  I say find a common old laptop battery and gerry rig a few into the robot as your powersource.