Feynman 6

by Scott Preston - 2007-04-26 10:28:43

I have decided to create Feynman6 and retire Feynman5. This robot will be taller, have more 80/20 and less wires via a new distribution board with onboard carrier for a BS2.

Detailed Specifications

Larger View

Robot Name:	Feynman6
Date Built:	November, 2006
Chassis:	80/20 with pivots and exoskeleton for installing skin.
Power:	(2) 33AH Batteries from Batteries Plus. All DC power regulated by on-board controller and distribution boards.
Movement:	(2) NPC-41250 12-24V 7.5 RPM per Volt. Upgraded to 8" wheels from 6" on Feynman5. Differential drive. (2) Victor 883 Speed Controllers. (IFI Robotics cost of $150/ea ($300 total). (1) Scott Edwards Mini-SSC II (1) Pan-Tilt System from ServoCity.Com
Sensors:	(2) USB Logitech STX Web Camera (2) SRF04 Devantech Sonar (1) Microphone via WebCam (1) CMPS03 Digital Compass
CPU/OS:	BS2/PBasic, Toshiba Laptop, Windows XP Home Edition, Java.
Other Info:	t.b.d.

I thought I was going to turn Feynman6 into a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) based robot, but given the issues with Linux I have had of late I have decided to shelve that idea for upgrading Feynman. Instead I will just have less wires and build a better distribution board. If you can see in Feynman5, I had lots of wires connecting my Basic Stamp, SSC, and even more connecting my PC, Serial Connections, Etc.

Some of the other problems included:

Too many wires - poor connections & vibration lead to downtime.
Too much power consumption - Electronics & PC on 1, and Motors on another battery lead to a shorter life.
No skin - showing the guts of the robot is fine, but I needed to skin the bot to make it more able to travel.
Low clearance - this lead to a lot of hard stops going over un-even terrain and it was also difficult to move up transportation ramps or on sidewalks.

Update: 4/20/2007

I have ran into limitations with Feynman6, mainly transportation related, he is too heavy about 250lbs. Also testing with battery only is time consuming so I have decided to create another robot, called Carnot, this robot will be stationary and will be plugged in and have a dedicated PC for serial control, speech and use a network webcam for vision.

Update: 4/26/2007

Just purchase a nice Pan-Tilt system from ServoCity.Com and because of some code I was able to create to convert the USB cameras to Network cameras, I should be able to bring back two eyes. I will also need to make it a little shorter because my supply of 80-20 is running low, but only by about a foot.

Media & Photos

Me walking/driving Feynman6 to the March Columbus Robotics Society meeting.

Flickr Photos (Beta)

Feynman6 #1

Feynman6 #2

Comments About This Article

Hello Scott,
Your robot,Feynman6, looks pretty cool.I'm new to the programming side of robotics.I notice that you are using two victor 883's and a SSC II. My robot uses the victor 883 and SSC II also.Could you provide sample code that shows how the BS2 and SSC II,control the victors.

Thanks
ken

Posted by: kenneth bunkley at Sunday Aug 19, 2007

Hi Ken,

I have all the code in my book and it's also available via download from my project at source forge.

Thanks,
Scott

Posted by: Scott Preston at Thursday Sep 27, 2007