Robots that play with people and pets

Frnak McKenney · 2007-01-05T01:47:17+00:00

I'm working on a design for a something to impress and entertain myniece Caroline, who has recently gotten involved with robots.Caroline is eleven; my impression is that she hasn't done anyground-up robot construction, but she does seem to have enjoyed aLego-based program at her school.So... I have an old Radio Shack "Street Quake" R/C truck I've dugout of my collection of thrift-store $2 specials, and I'm wonderinghow I can come up with "something" that is: - Interesting and/or amusing to an eleven-year-old, - Autonomous, and - Cheap. My first thought was a simple "wandering truck" that wouldoccasionally go to sleep, then wake up, and wander some more. Itsmain goals would be to (a) move randomly so it looked like it wasexploring and (b) not run into too many walls.Then I discovered Bert Van Dam's 'web site and read his article on "Tom", a Subsumption-based robot that "chased" things, and things started falling into place. Here's what I hope I'll be able to make this truck do: 1) Wander about exploring and not cause too much damage. 2) Find a dark place and hide ("sleep") for a while. 3) Chase moving objects (based on distance) 4) "Play" with humans (and possibly dogs and cats) by moving toward them, following if they move away, and running away if they come close.("Tom" has a rather full array of sensors, but I'm hoping I can get similar results with fewer, and a smaller investment.)Well, after several days exploring odd places on the 'web, I haven'tbeen able to come up with a simple, clear, and inexpensive way totell if my robot is facing a warm-blooded creature. I've looked atE-fields, radiometers, thermopiles, pyrometers, and all sorts ofnoncontact temperature measuring devices with prices from $40 to$500 (I even looked into a gadget called a capaciflector); the bestI've been able to come up with is sticking a pair of Fresnel-domedPIR motion detectors on the front of the truck. (Panasonic/Matsushita's 'MP' series have some really nice features,...

Jan 05, 2007 20 Replies

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--snip--

IOW, "Sorry it wasn't in the PDF file. I don't have the specifics at hand, but you can probably find something via Google."

The search turned out really well, especially the part about using "pyroelectric" rather than "PIR". It even turned up the following, which pointed out that (a) one could use a motion detector to detect still, warm objects (or is that "still warm" objects? ), and (b) why EEs don't waste time playing with water balloons:

Hoser: A Squirting Mobile Robot

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"Two pyroelectric sensors were also mounted on the robot to detect body heat. One was mounted, forward looking, at the end of the arm. The other was mounted on top of a Futaba servo on the toy's "head" to scan back and forth looking for people."

So the trick is to get a DOD contract to supply these exact units to, say, the Army, for $817 each. "Kinky... I like it".

In the mean time, I'll see how hard it would be to pair a PIR with a Sharp IR Ranging unit and use a servo I have left over from a prior project to "sweep" the two back and forth inside the truck cab.

All I need is a "Cylon" sound to go with it.

(And a redesigned bumper. And a couple more IR obstacle detectors. And a voice-input command system. Oh! How about TV remote IR driving capability... this is how I wind up with a basement full of GedankenRobot parts. )

Anyway, thanks again.

Frank

-- "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." -- John A. Shedd