Twin Cities Robotics Group - Member Page / Bill Arden

Bill Arden

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William Arden - Brainerd, MN, USA ,Earth, Milky way galaxy, local cluster
Web Site: www.longrange.net/battlebots.html

Sucks

Type: Small suction pushy bot
Purpose: Suction technology demonstrator
Controller: Atmel At90S2313 and futaba T8UAPS
Software: I am too cheep to purchase tools so I downloaded the free atmel compiler and made my own programmer using apnote 910.
Sensors: Vacuum sensors. (not done yet)
Actuators: Two white board erasers.
Size: 7,10,11 inches
Weight: 3 pounds
Power source: NI_CAD. (I hope to have the fusion reactor done soon.)
Speed: Very slow
Contruction history: The first version took two days to build. It used two hacked servos and lego wheels.
Operational description: Sucks uses a blower fan to create 9 pounds of down force. This allows it to climb up walls and drive across the ceiling. (if it is smooth)
Future Enhancements/Plans:Version 2 will have four wheels for better traction and a clear lexan shell.
I also plan on adding vacuum sensors with a processor so it is smart enough not to drive onto a crack.
Status: Version 1 is Complete.
More Info:

Rack Bot

Type: Large research robot
Purpose: To autonomously navigate the science museum.
Controller: Two 1Ghz athalon Rack mount PC's (connected with a ethernet hub)
Atmel ATmega163 for Motor control, encoder inputs and various I/O.
Software Development Environment: Windows 98SE, Visual basic,C++ and assembly for the Atmel
Sensors: Video cameras with a stepper motor mounted on a pole.
Laser pointers for distance measurements.
Touch sensors connected to the side panels
User interface: Keyboard, Mouse,Joystick, Futaba R/C controller.
Output Devices: Color monitor
Speakers and Microsoft Speech SDK
Actuators: I am planing on adding a arm.
Size: 36H x 28W x 30L
Weight: 300 pounds
Power source: Two 65 pound deep cycle AGM lead acid batteries.
Speed: Slow walking speed
Contruction history:
I wanted to make a versatile system that had lot's of processing power.
I built the first R/C operated version in 4 days.
The base contains the batteries and motors.
It has six spring mounted wheels. Only the two center wheels are driven.
These are connected to the controllers located in the side panels.
A inverter converts the battery voltage to 120 volts for the computers.

Operational description:
1. The unit can be controlled using a controller for model airplanes.
2. It can be put into a interactive learning mode.
3. It can aimlessly wander around. Was that a feature? Oh wait, it's not supposed to do that.
4. It can be told to go to a specific location and it might navigate it's way there.

Future Enhancements/Plans:Add an arm that can push elevator buttons and plug itself into outlets.
Status: In progress. Frame with Rack mount slides and R/C control is complete.
More Info: See the SMC (Science museum challenge) or click on autonomous on my web site.

Laser table

Type: 10 Watt Laser cutting/ engraving table.
Purpose: To test the software for Kern Electronics.
Controller: PC connected to a custom card using a Analog devices ADSP2181.
Software Development Environment: Quick Basic, Visual Basic, Visual C++, 2181 Assembly
Sensors: Home position switches and a halt button.
Actuators: The unit uses micro stepping drivers connected to stepper motors.
Size: The table cutting area is 24 x 24 inches.
Weight: Over 200 pounds.
Power source: 120 Volts.
Speed: The table can move at over 20 inches per second, however it must move slower to cut most materials.
Contruction history: I wrote the original software over 10 years ago for Kern Electronics. The original version was written in microsoft Quick basic and used a parallel port.
About 4 years ago I made an ISA card with a analog devices 2181 dsp that handled all the timing, thus allowing operation under windows.
We are now working on an external parallel port version that uses an atmel to interface the port to the DSP.
Operational description: The user generally imports the files into corel draw and then exports a HPGL and a TIFF file. The HPGL file does the cutting and the tiff file does the 3D scanning. The my software then reads the tiff and HPGL files and controls the table.
The software has to accelerate/ decelerate the table while changing the laser duty cycle to keep the cut consistent.
Future Enhancements/Plans:A new version uses a EMF printer. This allows the user to click on "print" and the system will automatically create and load the separate vector and raster files.
Status: Never ending improvements.
More Info: http://www.longrange.net/

LineBurner

Type: Small line following robot
Purpose: Follow a line using the most processing power possible and add any other fancy things I find.
Controller: NetBurner.com MOD5234 (145Mhz) and an Atmel just to read the reflective optics.
Software: C++ code, GCC compiler, Ethernet updater
Sensors: reflective optics(4 IR LED's and 4 IR Photo-transistors), Wheel encoders
Actuators: Two gear motors driven by variable DC supply's switching at 40Khz.
Size: 5x5x4 inches
Weight: 1.5 pounds, but still increasing.
Power source: 4 NI_CAD AA batteries.
Speed: slow
Contruction history: This started out as a motor platform from Alan and I added a Atmel ARM processor, but that processor was too slow to be a web server ;) so I added a netBurner board and an LCD display.
Operational description: Push 1 on the 3x4 keypad to start moving it will stop when it runs out of a line or the batteries die.
Future Enhancements/Plans:Add an OLED graphics display and perhaps a Intel Core duo or maybe a AMD if I can get it to boot.
Status: Never ending improvements
More Info: http://www.longrange.net/Robots/LineBot.html