So it's decided...

After talking it over with the team, we will be going full force with the Arduino boards. We already have one in from Sparkfun.com

Check it out:

Arduino !?!?!?

Luckily we are still very early in our project that we can make drastic changes. Although we have already programmed our 2 Freescale micro-controllers to communicate wirelessly, we may look into switching to the ATmega328 micro-controller housed on the Arduino Duemilanove. The Freescale MCU may have more functions, pins, and faster speeds, but our project does not require a lot out of the MC to begin with. The Arduino has a large (largest?) following in small to large electronics projects with much support from fellow engineers and developers. After viewing the language (based on C++) that the Arduino uses, it seems very user friendly and very easy to learn. In contrast we were using straight forward C++ on the Freescale. There are many prebuilt libraries that we can use for the Arduino that we can make our programming a lot easier to do.

Finally! Pictures! (Big Update)

We started getting our items in and finally got to do some assembly (and disassembly) of our parts. We chose to use the lower half of a remote controlled tank, which 'was' a German Tiger. This will allow us for a large platform to house everything and gives us good maneuverability.

These 2 pictures shows the inside of the tank where we are most likely going to mount the on-board microcontroller (circuit board on right). Nothing is plugged into it and nothing is programmed yet, we just wanted to see how it would mount up:

These 2 pictures are the beginnings of our sensor modules. These will interface the gas sensors to our microcontroller. We use these to determine the levels that have been detected as well as determine how much gas we want it to detect to trigger the alarm:

Here is a shot of our sensors and Zigbee boards:

Programming one of our microcontrollers

First batch of items

Just ordered out first batch of items for our project. Only cost us about $200 and will be (hopefully) only half of it. Hopefully meaning nothing breaks or needs replacement, but I wouldn't mind purchasing more parts for add-ons and enhancements.

Carbon Monoxide Sensor - MQ-7 x2
Methane CNG Gas Sensor - MQ-4 x2
LPG Gas Sensor - MQ-6 x2
Humidity and Temperature Sensor - DHT22 x1
XBee Pro 900 XSC RPSMA x2
900MHz Duck Antenna RP-SMA x2

We still need our chassis which will consist of the lower half/hull of a tank with the top taken off replaced by plexi glass. We also need our microcontroller, camera, alarms, leds, and little odds-n-ends.

Next blog updates will be of our first constructions and first lines of coding.

"Company" Name

Just another short blog entry before some down and dirty building of our actual robot.

One question I am asking my followers is: What is a good company name for a company that would produce products such as Hazard Detection systems marketed towards police and military?

100 Followers

Finally reached the 100 followers club. Thanks for all the support! Will promise to keep everyone as up-to-date on the project as much as I can.

The Real Battle Bots

Part of any senior project will always involve research. Part of this research will go into other similar or competing products that our project will meet commercially. Our robot is aimed towards Police and Military markets, so here are some products currently being used or are being developed.

"Packbot"



"For instance, when tricked out with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal, or EOD, Kit the ‘bot can seek out and find improvised explosive devices (IEDs) while the operator is at a safe distance away. The base is fitted with spool loaded with 825 feet of optical fiber and a wide-angle drive camera with multiple positions for forward, rear and downward views.

The EOD kit comes with an ICx  Fido explosives detector. The detector can sniff out explosive vapors and other particles emanating from munitions and IEDs."




"Dragon Runner" - Scout



"...the Dragon Runner is a small, lightweight, portable mobile reconnaissance/scout robot (or "bot"). At 15.5 inches long, 11.25 inches wide and 5 inches high, it is a tough low-lying/low-observable ground sensor.

It's designed to withstand being tossed over walls, chucked out of windows, and heaved over stairs, and then sent on its way, looking for bad guys.

A nonactive, invertible suspension and durable overall construction allow Dragon Runner to withstand a whole lot of physical abuse and continue to operate no matter how it lands."




"BEAR" - Battle Extraction Assist Robot

"BEAR is able to go where humans cannot, or should not, go -- that includes everything from minefields to firefights, and near toxic chemical spills to inside structurally compromised buildings.
A combination of three things makes BEAR so special: its powerful hydraulic upper body, two independent sets of tracked "legs" that make it especially agile on rough terrain, and dynamic balancing behavior."





"Mini Andros" - Bomb Bot

"This robot has all the features required of a good bomb disposal robot. It has a camera coupled with a strong light. The knobby tires and the tracks should provide very good stability and rough terrain capability. Finally, there is a sturdy manipulator on the front. The robot uses this manipulator to pick up the bomb and then uses the mobility platform to move the bomb to a remote location where it can be safely destroyed by secondary explosives. All of these activities are telecontrolled by a remote operator."