Starting to Plan the Body of Butler

I've started doing some research on how I want Butler to look and putting down measurements on what I find as I work.

I chose to do a dual track system on the bottom similar to "Wall-E".  The belt will be 3" wide.  I chose to go with lynxmotion's parts.  They have a good reputation and durable.  After doing some calculations, the motors will need to be doing 292RPM for the 3" diameter sprockets that'll be used for the tracks on the bottom of the body.  The equation is RPM = (( 60 * speed ) / ( diameter * PI )).

The speed remember is how many inches you want to go per second, in/s.  I did some calculations and found out that a human walking averages 45in/s.  What I did is laid out a tape measurer and walked normally the length of the tape measurer.  I had a small tape measurer at the time of 138" and I was able to walk it in 3.1 seconds.  You get 44.5" when you do the math.  So I just averaged it to 45" to make it easier.  The diameter is the size in inches of how big the wheel or sprocket attached to the motor.  In my case, it's 3".

I've chose to go with this motor times two for the track system.  Planetary Gear Motor - 12vdc 20:1 300rpm (6mm shaft)  It's got the speed I need.  Now, the plan is to keep Butler light and strong so as soon as weight is added onto these motors, the RPMs will drop and hopefully just to the right number that I've proposed above.  That's why I chose to do a little bit of a higher RPM'd motor.

Here's a sketch of what I have planned.  My goal is to come as close to this as possible.  The box I already have on hand and uploaded it in my first post.

Voice Commands and Flashing Lights

So the LEDs and speaker have been added to the system.  BitVoicer has been implemented into Butler.  The voice commands are working great.  Unfortunately, the microphone on this laptop isn't doing it justice.  I'm now working on implementing a microphone into Butler for better voice control from a further distance.

The LEDs are connected to digital pins through a 1000k ohm resistor.  The speaker is connected to a digital pin through a 100 ohm resistor.  The coding has been written and split up through different tabs for better reading of the code and easier to change if needed.

I have found ways to implement different tones to different commands given.  Butler can even play familiar tunes, whistle, and sing.  Butler will certainly have all types of different abilities that will stand above the rest.

Enjoy a few of the videos that we've taken through the progress:

My brain hurts, So much research!

Some new notes to add to the journal.  I found a previous Wall-E robot prototype tutorial.  I plan on using a few parts and techniques it has listed.  I will refer back to this in the future.

BitVoicer will be used for our voice recognition.  I purchased the license for $4.95 today which I was quite pleased with the price for such an advance type of software for robotics.  I've been messing with it to learn the functionality and will be using THIS to practice using BitVoicer.

I'm going to make a quick run to RadioShack to get some resistors, LEDs, and an 8ohm speaker to start working on outputting tones for different commands.  I want to make Butler different from other "typical" robots.  I'm thinking more like R2D2 responses to commands.  I believe I can express feelings with the movements, sounds he makes, and lighting.

The light sensors seem like they will work for their purpose.  I will need probably four different light sensors throughout the body due to a very limited angle of only 5 degrees of detecting the light source.  When the sensor was directed straight into a light source, it worked great.  More study will go into this.

The sonar sensor works.  I did notice that it will error out when there was a sudden change.  Going to research into this further to see if it's the coding or the sensor itself.

Here's a few pictures to entertain you on what's been done so far:

My Toolbox

Light Sensor

HC-SR04 Sonar Sensor

My Setup

BitVoicer

Breadboard / Arduino Mega Setup