I've started hoarding - Robots!

17 Mar 2020

At present I am not panicking but recently I was given a refund for a robot I ordered two months ago, because the company no longer had any stock due to the effects of the Corona virus. As the idea of not having robots to study in a serious and scientific way (otherwise known as playing) caused me some concern, I ordered several more from a source that had them in stock - with the added bonus that they were cheaper than the original one.

I now have plenty of robots to put-together as part of my master plan of creating a herd of walking robots and then subsequently, taking over the world. Still, it wouldn't hurt to have a couple more.

Dubbie

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beacon_dave over 5 years ago

May be of interest - Dirk Fox / Thomas Puttmann have finally published their latest book - Fischertechnik with Arduino.
https://fischertechnik-roboter-mit-arduino.de/

Flicking through it, there is a design for a self-parking four-wheel buggy like the ones created for the Robotics Cup competitions:
e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1NIK23P1Ks

Their books tend to look at old designs, does the maths behind them and recreates them using Fischertechnik constructor sets. In this publication he looks at some 1980's pick-and-place robots, pen plotters and buggy's.

It's only published in German text, but the quality of the presentation of the material I find is excellent. There is always Goggle Translate.

I've always thought that they should do a version of 'musical chairs' at Robotics Cup. One less parking bay for each lap of the circuit. Let the chaos commence !
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dubbie over 5 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

Dave,

The Fischertechnik stuff is like time travel. It must have been in the early 1980s when I used this stuff having just started as a lecturer. I remember all three of the robots illustrated, especially the Greif Roboter as I was heavily into cartesian robots at that time (not so much maths!). Sadly it was very expensive so we only have one or two sets whereas I had over 100 students so we changed to something much cheaper, I cannot remember what.

I have not seen the parking mobile robots before, I think I must have been going around with my head in a bag or something, or maybe I was just working really hard trying to teach students about embedded systems design.

Dubbie
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beacon_dave over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

There are a few videos on YouTube of the Carolo-Cup parking competition:

https://www.youtube.com/user/CaroloCupTuBs/search?query=einparken
(filtered by 'einparken')

They appear to have incorporated parking into their larger test track circuits now, and also include different styles of parking.
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dubbie over 5 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

Dave,

A great set of videos with some interesting ideas of how to park. I didn't see one that just turned all four wheels through 90 degrees and moved sideways. I wonder if that is not allowed.

Dubie
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beacon_dave over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

There was the 1930's Brooks Walker 'park-car' design which may be of interest.
It re-used the spare wheel in the boot as a parking assist device, but it never caught on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omoAp42Mk8g

Mecanum wheels would be an easier option for a robot though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tVkgT89dM
They have started to appear on equipment such as forklifts and moving dollies.
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dubbie over 5 years ago in reply to beacon_dave

Dave,

If I hadn't seen the video I would never have believed the fifth wheel car existed. A bit of an overkill solution but looks great.

I haven't really thought of using mecanum wheels as for some reason I just didn't like them, but the video was interesting and I might be up for trying to 3D print my own - that would be interesting.

Dubbie
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beacon_dave over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

The mecanum wheels are strange but yet fascinating to watch in action.

The 3D printed results in that video looked quite impressive, but I suspect they would wear out quite quickly if you tried to use them for anything serious.

The maker ones available to buy tend to be quite expensive and it is not clear as to how long they would typically last beyond light experimentation use either.

I recall someone was using them for prototype wheelchair designs, which would have to be a much more durable product given the widely varying surfaces encountered on a daily basis, plus the load carrying ability. Still a bit large for many projects however.
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beacon_dave over 5 years ago in reply to dubbie

The mecanum wheels are strange but yet fascinating to watch in action.

The 3D printed results in that video looked quite impressive, but I suspect they would wear out quite quickly if you tried to use them for anything serious.

The maker ones available to buy tend to be quite expensive and it is not clear as to how long they would typically last beyond light experimentation use either.

I recall someone was using them for prototype wheelchair designs, which would have to be a much more durable product given the widely varying surfaces encountered on a daily basis, plus the load carrying ability. Still a bit large for many projects however.
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