Leaving this blog

Hi There!


I've been 3 months without posting here, but I didn't stop making things...
There are lots of new ones on my main site: http://www.franciscodias.net/ 


Have a look!


From now on, you can visit my new blog here: http://www.franciscodias.net/blog

Robótica 2011

The Festival Nacional de Robótica (Portuguese Robotics Open) is an initiative of Portuguese Society of Robotics which aims at promoting Science and Technology among students from the 1st grade to university studies, as well among the general public, through robot competitions.

This year the Festival took place in Lisbon (IST) and I and Francisco Purdom participated on it with Magabot, a robotics platform developed by Artica, IdMind and Mapa das Ideias:

 

They invited me to participate on the competition called Condução Autónoma (Autonomous Driving) - Rookies. The challenge was to make the robot drive a road, in a very similar way to an automobile, respecting the roads and the lines, in the fastest time possible. 

There were lots of very good participants:

Of course, I used my app ComputerOnWheelsController, which I had just created (feel free to download and try it). The specific code for the contest was done in just 3 or 4 days. 

It was coding until the start of the rounds, but in the end we got a third place.

I would like to say a special "thank you" to André Almeida from Artica and Paulo Alvito from IdMind for all the help provided and for the fantastic opportunity they provided me :)

Make a simple platform and give mobility to your computer

 

Original Instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-simple-platform-and-give-mobility-to-your-c/ (Please rate it and vote on it for the contests).

A computer is a very handy thing to use in your robots.

If you start listing all the features that can be used for robotic purposes you'll find that it is cheaper to buy a netbook than buying LCD, wifi and bluetooth modules, cameras, speech synthesizer modules, keypads, memory card readers, speakers and many other stuff.

Thats why I decided to make this platform to my netbook. To let the computer control the motors, I tried two different ways: Firstly I used a arduino duemilanove with two motor driver boards, but then I found that it would be much easier if I just used a motoruino .

With this I could create lots of different applications that let my computer follow certain colors, follow human faces, detect flames, drive around the house avoiding walls, be remote controlled through the internet or using a wiimote, and the list of possibilities is almost endless. You can find and download some examples that I've already done at my website:http://www.franciscodias.net/processing-applications.

The Materials:

This is what you'll need:

• 1x Motoruino 
• 1x FDTI Cable
• 1x Box
• 2x Motors, wheels and supports
• 1x Third wheel
• 1x Battery pack 
• Some wires and jumpers

Prepare the box:

Let's prepare the box to fit our needs:
Cut the holes that you need for the USB cable and for the wheels.

I used a knife which I heated on the stove.

Place everything inside the box:

To the motoruino, you have to connect the wires from the motors and  the battery to the respective screw terminals.
If you have doubts check this page: http://www.guibot.pt/using-the-motoruino/.
Then you have to connect the usb cable, if you're using one with the FTDI chip embedded just connect it dirrectly to the board, if you're using an adapter board like me put it in place and connect the usb cable to it.
Make sure you're connecting it the right way, you may have to connect it faced down.

Upload the sketch to the motoruino:

Download the attached file, open it with the Arduino Software, read it if you desire, choose the serial port and the board, and upload it to your board.

Test it!

Open the serial monitor window and see what happens when you send the following commands:
    - 'w' move forward
    - 's' move backward
    - 'a' spin to the left
    - 'd' spin to the write
    - 'g' stop

Open your imagination!

Now that you have your platform working, start creating applications for it!I've created some with processing, which is a very easy language to learn, specially you you already know how to program in arduino.

You can have a look and download them here: http://www.franciscodias.net/processing-applications.

Always remember to check the available Serial port on your computer, in my case is COM19, but this is different from system to system.

Thank you for reading!

New Tutorials page

Have a look!