| ||||||||
 |
||
|
Computer Executed Semi-Autonomous Robot |
||
|
Preliminary
Steps
Tires 1. Remove Powerwheel plastic tires. 2.
Place one 1.5 X 3/8 ID X 5/8 OD nylon bushing on the axel
for each tire. 3.
Slide one pneumatic tire onto each of the two front axels. 4.
Then slide on a 5/8 washer onto each front axel. 5.
Using a hammer, push a push-nut onto each of the front axels to
securely hold the tires into place. The front tires are now finished. 6.
Cut (2) 6 pieces of 1 X 4 pinewood 7.
Drill a 5/8 hole directly in the center of each of the 6
pieces of wood just cut out. 8.
Drill two Ό holes each 1 away from the large 5/8 hole in
each piece of wood. These are where the bolts will go to hold the wood to
the tire. 9.
Screw the gearbox to tire adapter from the Powerwheels onto the
wood 10.
Using 5 X Ό coarse-thread bolts, secure the each of the
remaining two tires to the 6 pieces of wood. 11.
Now slide the entire mechanism onto each of the rear axels. Make
sure the gearbox to tire adapter fits into place. 12.
Then slide a 5/8 washer onto each axel. 13.
Finally, using a hammer, secure a push-nut onto each axel to hold
the tire into place. The rear tires should now be connected to the
gearboxes.
Batteries 1.
Place the 12v 35 amp battery into the front hood compartment. 2.
Place foam padding onto each side of the battery to ensure a snug
fit. 3.
Place (3) 12v 7 amp batteries in the back trunk area and fasten
them down with nylon zip-ties. 4.
Place foam padding onto the sides of the batteries to ensure a snug
fit. 5.
Using heavy guage wire, solder the three batteries in the rear in a
parallel series to maximize amperage. 6.
Wire the positive lead from the 35 amp battery across the vehicle
to the negative terminal on one of the rear batteries. 7.
Screw an automotive-type starter soldenoid relay into the front
hood. 8.
Wire the negative lead from the battery to a switched terminal of
the relay. 9.
Run a wire from the other switched terminal of the relay to the
cabin of the Powerwheels. 10.
Run a wire from the positive terminal of the 35 amp battery into
the cabin. 11.
Give the relay positive power from the 35 amp battery. 12.
Drill a hole and mount a key switch onto the little tray in the
cabin of the Powerwheels. 13.
Give the key switch negative power from the 35 amp battery and run
the other wire to the other power input on the relay. When the key switch
is now activated, the relay should turn on.
Sound
System, Lights and Siren 1.
Screw 30 watt amplifier into the cabin. 2.
Wire negative power to it and connect the positive lead to an
illuminated switch on the little tray in the cabin. 3.
Wire the illuminated switch to positive power. 4.
Using nylon zip-ties, attach the side-firing speakers to the back
of the Powerwheels. 5.
Spray-paint the speakers black. 6.
Run the wires back to the amplifier in the cabin and connect the
wires to the speaker outputs on the amplifier. 7.
Cut a 5 X 4 piece of welders steel. 8.
Drill a hole in each corner and mount the piece of steel between
the two overhead bars on the Powerwheels using small nylon zip-ties. 9.
Using small nuts and bolts, mount the 4 PA speaker under the
metal. 10.
Wire the speaker to the amplifier running the cable through a piece
of plastic wire tubing. 11.
Plug an audio Y-splitter into the input on the amplifier. 12.
Plug one audio cable into the Y-splitter and run it to the laptop
cradle. 13.
Run another audio cable to a walkie-talkie. 14.
Place the police siren light atop the welders steel. The
magnetic base will hold it. 15.
Run the cord from the light through the plastic wire tubing. 16.
Mount the 12v socket into where the mock gas tank cap once was. 17.
Wire negative power to the 12v socket and put a cherry switch in
the cabin between the socket and positive power. 18.
Plug the police siren light into the socket. 19.
Mount green strobes onto each side of the robot. 20.
Wire the strobes in the same fashion and using the same switch as
the police siren light. 21.
Glue the switch onto a servo so that it is able to activate the
siren light and strobes. 22.
Drill a Ό hole into the left and right sides of the front
overhead bar. 23.
Place the off-roading automotive lights into the holes and tighten
the bolts. 24.
Wire negative power and hook up a switch in the cabin between the
leads from the lights and positive power. 25.
Mount a halogen socket facing backwards and attached to the rear
overhead bar. 26.
Place the halogen bulb in the socket. 27.
Wire the socket in the same fashion as the off-roading lights using
the same switch as the lights. 28.
Glue the switch onto a servo so that the servo is able to turn on
the lights when the horn hits the switch. 29.
Mount a siren onto the front bumper of the robot. 30.
Give it positive power and hook up a switch between negative power
and the other lead from the siren. 31.
Glue the switch onto a servo so that the servo will be able to
activate the siren. 32.
Mount two blue 12v lamps on each side of the front of the robot. 33. Wire them up to power so that they turn on when the robot powers up.
Steering 1.
Cut out a 7 X 14 piece of plywood. 2.
Using assorted all-thread and appropriate nuts, mount the plywood
to where the dashboard once was on the Powerwheels. 3.
Drill a 3/8 hole for the steering rod to come through the
plywood. 4.
Thread the 3/8 steering rod with fine threading down 8 from
the top. 5.
Cut a hole into the plywood to allow the motor for the steering
mechanism to fit through when it is slid onto the steering rod. 6.
Screw a nut onto the steering rod. 7.
Slide the turntable motor onto the steering rod. Guide the motor
into the cut out hole. 8.
Weld a 3/8 fine thread nut into the center of the metal pressure
expansion plug so that it is not covering the hole in the center. 9.
Screw the entire pressure expansion plug onto the steering rod.
Using a wrench, tighten the turntable assembly between the lower nut and
the pressure expansion plug. 10.
Drill holes above the pre-threaded holes of the turntable assembly
and screw the pressure expansion plug onto the turntable assembly. 11.
For added strength, weld the steering rod to the pressure expansion
plug. 12.
Use (5) 4 X Ό bolts w/ nuts to secure the motor and
turntable assembly to the plywood. 13.
Drill two small holes (each on opposite sides of the pressure
expansion plug) and thread then with Ό course threading. 14.
Mount a 10 pulley onto the steering mechanism to cover it up.
Use bolts to hold it onto the pressure expansion plug through the holes
that were just drilled. 15.
Rim the pulley with plastic tubing. 16. Glue two cherry switches onto each side of a servo and wire them to the steering mechanism so that the motor reverses when the horn of the servo goes to each side.
1.
Mount the Mini SSC into a small project enclosure box. 2.
Connect power to the circuit via a 9v battery in the front hood.
Wire the power through a 12v relay which will turn the Mini SSC on when
the entire robot powers up. 3.
Wire a rocker switch to turn power on and off to the circuit. 4.
Mount the switch to the small tray in the cabin of the Powerwheels. 5.
Mount a 6v voltage regulator to a heatsink in the cabin. 6.
Connect 12v power to the regulator and on the output side, connect
it to the servo power input on the Mini SSC board. 7.
Plug all servos into the Mini SSC. 8.
Run the serial control wire from the board to the laptop cradle. 9.
Mount a USB hub under the laptop cradle. 10.
Run the USB wire up to the cradle. 11.
Glue a webcam onto the piece of welders steel suspended between
the two overhead bars. 12.
Run the wire through the plastic wire tubing to the USB hub and
plug it in. 13.
Mount the ActiveWire circuit board in another small project box. 14.
Run the USB cable from the ActiveWire (in the cabin), to the USB
hub and plug it in. 15.
Mount five cherry switches across the robot for bump sensors
one under each of the rear, side-firing speakers, one on each side of the
front bumper, and one in the center of the front bumper facing forward. 16.
Give +5v to one end of all the cherry switches from the ActiveWire
board. 17.
Solder a circuit board that receives the other end (output) of all
five of the cherry switches and puts a 100k resistor between the switch
output and two wires: the ground and the digital input on the ActiveWire
board. When the switch is depressed, the digital input reads the power and
tells the computer that a switch has been depressed. Each switch is wired
into another input. 18.
Solder the sonar circuit board and give it 6v power. 19.
Mount the sonar transducer above the front bumper facing forward. 20.
Run the parallel port control wire to the laptop cradle. 21.
Run an audio cable from the amplifier to the laptop cradle. 22.
Using a U-shaped bracket, mount a shotgun microphone onto the front
hood. 23.
Run the audio cable to the laptop cradle.
Drive and Servos 1.
Attach a switch to the other side of the servo used to activate the
siren. 2.
Wire the switch to turn on a relay so that when it is on, 12v power
is given, and when off, 24v power is given. This will in turn go to the
drive motors after the drive relays are hooked up. 3.
Glue a switch onto each side of a servo. 4.
Hook up 2 relays to the switches so that when the servo horn hits
each switch, the input power on the relays (supplied from step 2)
reverses. This will enable forward, reverse, and stop movements. 5.
Wire the outputs from the relays to the drive motors. 6. Mount all servos onto a small piece of particleboard to ensure their stability. Make sure there are not any wires obstructing the movement of the servo horns. Robotic Arm 1.
Cut two curved rectangular pieces of Lexand. They must be exactly
the same. They should be 12 long and 3 ½ wide. At the outer edge
where it curves, they should be 1 ½. 2.
Spray paint the interior side of the Lexand with black spray paint. 3.
Epoxy a large servo at the non-curved end facing out to the side. 4.
Epoxy a small servo at the curved edge facing out (lengthwise). 5.
Across from the large servo, epoxy a small block of pinewood and
drill a 1/16 hole into it. 6.
Attach a servo to the robotic gripper and then attach the gripper
to the small servo glued onto the Lexand. 7.
Drill (4) 1/8 holes into the Lexand to place bolts through. 8.
Tighten nuts and bolts. 9.
Cut out 1 ½ X 2 pieces of pinewood and screw them onto the
back of the robot. 10.
Drill 1/16 holes into each one of the pieces of pinewood. 11.
Mount the arm between the two pieces of pinewood using screws and a
small metal rod. 12. Connect 36 servo extension cables to each servo and run them to the Mini SSC. Other 1.
Cut out 5 X 5 pieces of gray mesh to cover the top of the
overhead bars. 2.
Using nylon zip-ties, fasten the mesh to each side of the
welders steel. 3.
Cut a 30 X 3 piece of black plastic mesh. 4.
Screw the mesh down to cover the rear batteries. 5.
Cut a 14 X 4 piece of black plastic mesh. 6.
Using a small torch, heat up and then bend the mesh on the
length-side 1 from the top at a 45 degree angle. 7.
Mount a small 1.2 GHz wireless video camera on the rear overhead
bar facing backwards. 8.
Give the camera power via the same 9v line as the Mini SSC. 9.
Cut a 36 X 12 piece of plywood to cover the cabin. 10.
Screw the piece of plywood down to cover the wiring and servos in
the cabin of the Powerwheels. 11. Cut a 3 X 6 hole in the plywood to fit the small project enclosure box. 12.
Glue the small project enclosure box containing the Mini SSC to the
hole so that it is accessible from the outside. 13. Place a piece of foam the same shape as the plywood above the plywood.
Please go to the computer program page for the Visual Basic server application of the robot. The server runs on the robot and the client application runs on the remote laptop.
|
About the Project