Yup, this little guy happened by accident. I found myself with a Sharpie and some thick copper sheet from a jobsite. A late night and some pneumatic shears and I was holding the pieces that would later form the head. Once soldered together, it sat on the top of my monitor for days, just staring at me asking for a face. I really don't know what happened from there --All the pieces seemed to "just make sense" when they were being made, and went together just as easy. I guess it was just meant to be...
In terms of function, it is simply an Arduino-based Start Here Robot --with a fancy body and nifty screen. (The "Start Here" robot is a beginner's project that can be found at Let's Make Robots) It can drive around and avoid stuff, and not much more than that. This is just a simple one. The LCD is a 1.44" LCD from 4D Systems and would be worth every penny at twice the price. I have not only this 1.44" screen but also the 3.2" touch-screen version. Both have SD cards onboard, a full-on microcontroller with it's own language, I/O pins and all the bells and whistles any other robot brain would have. Each can display photos and graphics as well as video --The bigger version even has WAV player built in. --I can't say enough about these screens, again, worth every penny.
After I had completed the construction and code, I stared at this little one wondering what would be on his little screen face. I tried to commission some art friends to draw different faces to display (each with a different expression) and I gotta be honest --it looked terrible. (Not the work, mind you, but the idea of an actual "face" on this guy) Instead, I decided to think of where this robot might live or have lived. If you look at him, he might be the one that had survived The Nuke or survived the Great War. Staying with that mode of thought, I suppose he might display images of all the things he saw as the world was destroyed. Yup, this might just be the "Apocalypse Bot"...
Video to come soon --for some reason, my sonar decided today to not play nice when the motors start running. I know, know, gotta get in there with some caps... I will, and well, video to come soon. For now, nice pictures.
And a few of his "images"...
***Little tiny update***
For some reason, my sonar and my motors still just won't play nice together. For now, I wrote a quick, silly program to simply go forward for a random amount of time and then turn (in a random direction) for a random amount of time. Yeah, its not driving around, avoiding walls and the like, but it is sorta funny...
Ting!
In terms of function, it is simply an Arduino-based Start Here Robot --with a fancy body and nifty screen. (The "Start Here" robot is a beginner's project that can be found at Let's Make Robots) It can drive around and avoid stuff, and not much more than that. This is just a simple one. The LCD is a 1.44" LCD from 4D Systems and would be worth every penny at twice the price. I have not only this 1.44" screen but also the 3.2" touch-screen version. Both have SD cards onboard, a full-on microcontroller with it's own language, I/O pins and all the bells and whistles any other robot brain would have. Each can display photos and graphics as well as video --The bigger version even has WAV player built in. --I can't say enough about these screens, again, worth every penny.
After I had completed the construction and code, I stared at this little one wondering what would be on his little screen face. I tried to commission some art friends to draw different faces to display (each with a different expression) and I gotta be honest --it looked terrible. (Not the work, mind you, but the idea of an actual "face" on this guy) Instead, I decided to think of where this robot might live or have lived. If you look at him, he might be the one that had survived The Nuke or survived the Great War. Staying with that mode of thought, I suppose he might display images of all the things he saw as the world was destroyed. Yup, this might just be the "Apocalypse Bot"...
Video to come soon --for some reason, my sonar decided today to not play nice when the motors start running. I know, know, gotta get in there with some caps... I will, and well, video to come soon. For now, nice pictures.
And a few of his "images"...
***Little tiny update***
For some reason, my sonar and my motors still just won't play nice together. For now, I wrote a quick, silly program to simply go forward for a random amount of time and then turn (in a random direction) for a random amount of time. Yeah, its not driving around, avoiding walls and the like, but it is sorta funny...
Ting!
Awesome Job! I love this little project...very inspiring!
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