PC Based Robots « Trossen Robotics Blog

Archive for the ‘PC Based Robots’ Category

Brainbot Gets Bigger and Badder

Friday, February 19th, 2010

Some of you may remember Brainbot, a project directed and funded by the Brain Engineering Laboratory and Neukom Institute at Dartmouth College, designed in collaboration with Jon Hylands and HUV Inc. The purpose of which is to enable the study and practice of brain engineering.
Well, Brainbot is getting a brain transplant into a 1/5 scale top of the line rock crawler chassis, for the purpose of creating a navigation variant. Onboard smarts? A Core 2 Quad, 2.83 GHz, 2 GB RAM, and a 32 GB Solid State HDD, 802.11n wifi, GlobalSat USB GPS, Prosilica gigabit ethernet camera (640 x 480, 60 fps) which plugs into Roborealm, and a Hokuyo UTM-30LX scanner laser rangefinder.

In Jon’s new Project Thread, he says:

I went out and bought a 1/5 scale RC rock crawler chassis. Just for scale, those tires are 8″ in diameter, and the whole thing is 30″ long. We chose this chassis because it would have no issues going long distances at speed, and it would be able to handle curbs and grass and such with no issues. Being a rock crawler, it also goes slow enough that the sensors can keep up…

Right now, it has the quad core mini-itx mounted, and is being driven around with my Logitech wireless joystick. The motor driver (a Sabertooth 2×25) is controlled from one of my Bioloid I/O boards, which is connected to the bus. A program (written in Squeak Smalltalk) takes the joystick input, and sends speed and steering commands over the bus to the I/O board and the steering servos (AX-12’s).

Here is a short video of it under remote control:

Edit: Another Video just posted!

Tags: Brain Engineering Laboratory, HUV Robotics, Jon Hylands, Navigation, Neukom Institute, Off Road, PC Based Robot, Rock Crawler
Posted in Dynamixel, Featured Projects, Featured Robots, Hack / DIY Stuff, PC Based Robots, Research Stuff | 1 Comment »

Wi-Fi Warhog Mayhem!

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Our pals over at Coding4Fun wrote up a pretty extensive, and pretty awesome tutorial on how they made their Wi-Fi Warthog project a reality. Remember Power Wheel toys as a kid? Add in Phidgets, Nerf Guns, computers, and Xbox 360 controllers, and you’ve got yourself a real life videogame!

The video below shows the Wi-Fi Warthogs in action at PDC09!

Tags: PDC09, phidgets, Warthog, Wi-Fi
Posted in Featured Projects, Fun Mods, Fun Stuff, Hack / DIY Stuff, PC Based Robots, phidgets | No Comments »

PhidgetSBC – Phidgets Linux Based Single Board Computer

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

Phidgets have long been a favorite for computer software developers due to their ease of use, wide selection of sensors and I/O boards, and solid API offering for a variety of programming languages. The one thing that has always been a requirement however, is a physical connection to a computer via USB cable.

All of that is a thing of the past now with the introduction of the PhidgetSBC; an Arm9 based embedded Linux computer (it runs a custom Linux Distro built using Buildroot) combined with the tried and true Phidgets 8/8/8 IO Board.

So what does that mean to you? In its simplest form and function, it effectively cuts the cable of your Phidgets projects and allows you to access your Phidgets devices over ethernet or the included Wifi dongle. The onboard computer acts as a server for the variety of APIs that Phidgets offers, and this enhanced ‘mobility’ opens the doors to a much wider variety of applications. The PhidgetSBC can function as a wireless extension of your PC, a Wifi enabled Robot Controller, or even a standalone Robot Controller. That’s right, the PhidgetSBC is fully programmable; there is an easy to use interface that allows you to load custom C or Java code directly to the board and have it run autonomously, without the previously required PC link. If that wasn’t enough, more advanced users can modify the Linux build to their hearts content, host other USB based Phidgets devices by simply plugging them into the PhidgetSBC, and has integrated support for streaming a web cam feed back to your PC. I’m really just skimming the surface here, for more details check out the (as always) very well documented product manual.

The PhidgetSBC will run you $243.90 USD and we are currently accepting pre-orders for this as we anticipate it to be a very high demand product. Given that the development kits for the onboard computer used here usually run in the ~$150-200 range, this price is a VERY good deal to anyone looking to take their Phidgets projects to the next level. Initial quantities will be limited and orders are filled on a first come first serve basis, so get your pre-order in ASAP to snag one up!

Tags: Phidget Computer, Phidget Linux Computer, Phidget Single Board Computer, Phidget wifi computer, PhidgetSBC
Posted in Announcements, Front Page News, Hardware - Electronics, New Kits / Products, New Technology, PC Based Robots, Product Spotlight | No Comments »

Loki – Homemade Robot Looks Amazing

Friday, September 18th, 2009

I’m not at all exaggerating; Loki, a 4 foot tall 40lb ‘Domestic Style’ robot looks far better than anything I have seen produced for commercial sales.

Beautiful aesthetics aside, functionally it is one of the most impressive and polished PC based robots I’ve ever seen as well; custom software that handles object recognition, mapping and navigation, as well as voice commands, just to name a few. If all of that wasn’t impressive enough, creator Dave Shinsel has the schematics, documentation and even source code available on his site! Definitely check out Dave’s entire site, he has an impressive body of work, and his Youtube Page has some very cool videos demonstrating Loki in action.

Posted in Featured Projects, Featured Robots, Hack / DIY Stuff, PC Based Robots, Vision | 2 Comments »

The Roboard is Back in Stock!

Monday, May 18th, 2009

This has to be one of our hottest selling Robotics controllers yet. Our initial stock sold out almost immediately, the 2nd shipment sold out before we even received it in, and the third shipment received today is already half way gone! Get ‘em while they’re hot!

The Roboard RB-100 is a new breed of robotics controller: a fusion of a traditional microcontroller and a full function computer. Think of it as an OS capable microcontroller on steroids, boasting a 32bit x86 CPU running at 1000MHz and 256MB DRAM. The ability to load an operating system of your choice and have direct access to I/O, Comm ports, USB, and networking opens this controller up to a wide range of robotics based applications. Our Roboard Starter Kit comes with just about everything you need to implement this feature rich controller in your next robotics project! All you need to supply is a 1-2gb Micro-SD card to load an OS onto, 6-24v, and a robot!

Tags: Roboard, Robot Computer, SBC, Single Board Computer
Posted in Front Page News, New Kits / Products, PC Based Robots, Product Spotlight | 2 Comments »

Hagetaka: A Bipedal Combat Robot

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Remember when we teased you with a stack of RX-64 servos? Well its time to unveil a bit more of what we’re working on for the upcoming Mech Warfare competition at Robogames 2009. Meet Hagetaka; a 7DOF per leg biped built around the powerful RX-64 servo from Robotis. This robot boasts 14 RX-64s, 2 RX-28s, a custom aluminum chassis machined by sponsor Big Blue Saw, an onboard linux based Gumstix computer with a PS3 Sixaxis controller , a WiFi video server using a Headplay Personal Cinema System for remote piloting, and of course dual automatic airsoft guns. Video and more info will be available in the near future, and be sure to check out the June issue of SERVO magazine for the first in a series of articles detailing the build process of this Mech.

Click for larger image.

Tags: big blue saw, Biped, Hagetaka, Mech Warfare, Robotis, RX-64
Posted in Featured Projects, Featured Robots, Humanoid Robots, Mech Warfare, New Technology, News / Articles, PC Based Robots | 7 Comments »

Introducing the Roboard: The Robot Computer

Friday, March 20th, 2009

The Roboard RB-100 is a new breed of robotics controller: a fusion of a traditional microcontroller and a full function computer. Think of it as an OS capable microcontroller on steroids, boasting a 32bit x86 CPU running at 1000MHz and 256MB DRAM. The ability to load an operating system of your choice and have direct access to I/O, Comm ports, USB, and networking opens this controller up to a wide range of robotics based applications. Our Roboard Starter Kit comes with just about everything you need to implement this feature rich controller in your next robotics project! All you need to supply is a 1-2gb Micro-SD card to load an OS onto, 6-24v, and a robot!