It's hard to stop giggling long enough to write this. I've been playing with a robot that I've been piecing together over the past few weeks. It's far too much fun. I'm such a robot virgin.
This is just a remotely-controlled wheelchair right now. Don't imagine that I think it's a full-fledged intelligent being. It has possibilities though. (I'm most interested in using it for "telepresence.")
I started with a Quickie G-424 wheelchair.
Everything was just sitting there staring at me, waiting to go. I did't believe that it would be that easy. Surely the motors would explode because I mistakenly assumed they weren't brushless. And I was betting that I wouldn't be able to control the hardware without a few calls to RoboteQ.
Finally I just decided to try the smoke test. I connected a motor and began firing commands at it through Kermit. "!A01" Nope, not even a full echo. Hmmm...documentation...looking...ah! It needs
9600,e,7,1. Wow! It's been a long time since I've used that.O.k., look through Kermit...set parity, set stop-bit, ... Try again. Nope. But it echos now. Must need more power. "!A40" Doh! There it goes! Woo hoo!
From there it was a matter of hooking up the other motor, getting a Python serial module and writing some code. I put my newer Toughbook in the wheelchair seat with a small 802.11b antenna and did the programming on my other Toughbook from the relative warmth of the garage doorway. (See the videos for why I want Toughbooks around this thing.)
It's fun writing code that immediately *does* something. It also makes debugging more interesting when a 7-bit carryover error results in something that weighs more than I do suddenly reversing directions - at full speed! (24 volts at ~50 amps can really turn the wheels.)
My wife came to see what was causing the uncontrolled giggles and maniacal laughter. (The dogs, OTOH, stayed hunkered down in the bedroom.) I pulled out my camera to capture the moment.
Oh, such fun I'm having!
In case anyone feels like providing pointers, I'm looking for obstruction sensors, an arm capable of opening doors, and a 24VDC power supply for MiniITX systems.
--kyler