Pi Robot: What Do You Think?

We prototyped up a Raspberry Pi Robot we're thinking about working on. What do you think?

What do you think a Pi Robot absolutely needs? We were thinking we need to add encoders, and maybe line-following sensors. Anything else?

rincewind1 over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

Ultra sonic range finders are relatively cheap (for arduino anyway)
I built arduino obstacle avoidance car using one, don't know if would work on pi though
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rincewind1 over 12 years ago in reply to e14 Contributor

Should have said look on eBay at IWM rocket robot avoidance car kit (he's nothing to do with me I just bought one and it works)
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e14 Contributor over 12 years ago in reply to rincewind1

Regarding battery consumption, you power challenges will go well beyond what the Pi need. A major challenge will be the drive train. In order to have manuverablility, I think you will need separate motors for each wheel. For motors that are strong enough, yet battery operated, I am thinking they will have to be at least 12vdc. To get any reasonable length of operation, especially for competition, the battery pack will be heavy. Of course, added weight means more power required and more power consumption. So our weight-to-power ratio becomes critical. Fortunately, the Pi itself and the various sensors are light.
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e14 Contributor over 12 years ago

Most of the Raspberry Pi robots I have seen could easily be done with just an Arduino. I am toying with the idea of making a soccer robot where the ball would be a bright, contrasting color, such as orange, and the goals would be marked by flashing IR lights. The robot would use the Raspberry Camera for blob tracking (mounted fixed, forward looking) to find the ball and an IR sensor (TSOP 1738) could be mounted on a servo to locate the goal. The raspbery then would need to calculate the angle between the two and postion itself to move/kick the ball into the goal. Just an idea now, but I think this would make better use of the Raspberry.
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dexterindustries over 12 years ago in reply to SGarciaV

Yes, we have more detailed plans at on http://www.dexterindustries.com/GoPiGo

This has a few more pictures, and a link to our Github repo where we're keeping the code and the designs.

We're looking at using 8XAA's. AA's because they're cheap and ubiquitous, and because we've put a step down power regulator in there. You're right though, the battery pack is heavy.
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dexterindustries over 12 years ago in reply to SGarciaV

Also, I think it's really hard to use PWM with the Pi, hence the second microcontroller. The PI doesn't have A/D either, so if you want to add any sensors that aren't I2C / Serial ready then you need an outside chip. I think?
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