This year, one colleague (C. Molter) and myself, with the help of two students,
have develloped a small Robot. We want to use robots like this one to demonstrate
in real-world the AI algorithms developped at the lab. The robot have, as
its heart, a JStamp MicroController AJ80. The machine-language of this microcontroller
is the standard java byte-code invented by Sun. It means you can program the
robot in java and still have fast native execution. So, the competences of
the Lab. in java programming can easily be used. The robot have at it's disposal
a color CMOS camera of 352x280 resolution. It has the possibility to move
11 servo-motors at the same time. However, actually it has only 6 motors:
2 for the wheels, 3 for the grip in the front and one to rotate the camera.
I have worked a lot to add a bluetooth module to the robot to communicate
with other robots of the same kind but I must admit it was a failure. What
went wrong? Did i burn all the chips during the soldering process? I don't
know. The physical part of the robot is made with meccano. It's good souvenir
from my young days! I personnaly think that all these lego-based construction
games really destruct the ability of the children to build (and see) 3D objects.
As a matter of fact, the qualities of the mechanical engineers are dropping
and i personnaly think the cause is inside all these legobrick-contruction-games
(serious studies are done in the UK at this subject). Use mecanno! ( pub :-)
).
The wonderfull site of Electronics
in Meccano is mirrored here (old version). It's
really a GREAT site! Have a look! They are building a completely new site,
with everything re-done.
Motors&Differents parts to contruct robots:Lynxmotion
The AJ80 java-byte-code-based processor: Systronix
A good Introduction to soldering by Harvey
Twyman is mirrored here.
Another guide to soldering SMT (surface mount
technology) components.
We used CMU cam
camera inside the robot.