Last night I presented at the Chicago GTUG. It was held at 1871 in Merchandise Mart, and wow is that a great space! It was a real pleasure to talk there.
Here’s a link to the presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1id7sUVDHFXhKzujg3dPWivC3kM5o3r7NIrWkq3IB_Ws/edit
Links to references from the presentation:
I will post something more thorough next week, but I wanted to get some pictures and a video up for the robot I’ve been working on.
The robot was inspired by the Sparkfun IOIO: a great little board that allows you to merge the world of Android phones with the world of hobby electronics. The result? A relatively cheap robotics platform with a huge range of possibilities.
Code is here: https://github.com/jessicaaustin/robotics-projects
Here’s the breakdown:
Base:
Lynxmotion Tri-Track chassis with two 12V DC motors — $220.95 (I actually got this used for $175)
Robokits RKI-1004 Dual Motor Driver (up to 5A) — $16 (thanks, Robot City Workshop!)
12.0V 2200mAh NiMh battery pack — $24
Electronics:
SparkFun IOIO — $49.95
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic distance sensor — $13.95
HTC Evo — “free”
9.6V 1800mA NiMh battery pack — $18
Total cost: $342.85
Currently the robot has two modes: a manual control mode and an autonomous, obstacle-avoidance mode. In manual mode you simply tell the motors to go forward, backwards, left or right. In obstacle-avoidance mode the robot will move forward until an obstacle is detected, at which point it will execute an “evasive maneuver” to clear the obstacle, and continue as before.
Code is here: https://github.com/jessicaaustin/robotics-projects
Next steps: get rosjava installed and integrated with the application. This will allow for remote control of the robot, plus remote computation like image processing of camera data.
