Some small update after christmas celebrations.

Efika Robot blog

That is great. :D

Thanks for the update.

RoboEFIKA here we come!

Will this be a 4-wheeler or have you sorted out the stability and control for two?

R&B 8)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

The original design turns around a two tracking wheels and one smaller like the ones in supermarket chariots.

the two steppers will change speed and direction rotation to control the movement on each direction.

the third motor will control a webcam and ultrasound detector to calculate distances and avoid obstacles.Once it finds an obstacle it will turn around to search an alternative route.

Another small update

http://projects.powerdeveloper.org/proj ... roject=287

monitorizing the projects activity automatically like forum posts in the main page would be cool, bTW ;)

I few years ago I went to a land combat expo and got to
see how the army puts these kinda bots to use. Some where large with crane arms that could remove a bomb and put it in a blast container while the operator was a safe distance away. Others where small and could go into places where a human couldn't get to and could see if people where trapped under a fallen building. It's gonna be interesting to watch these project grow. Do you plan to use Linux to control the robot?

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Pegasos-II board G3/600 MHz CPU
Flex Micro ATX tower/ 256 MB DDR ram
32 MB ATI Radeon /DVD Sony DDU-161216speed/40speed
Harddisk AT/IDE 3.5\\\", 60 GB

@Nitro:

First option to make it happen is running a small linux distro, with just very basic functionality built.I haven't started with specific areas yet, but it could prove fun to try and implement it under MorphOS, as soon as it is available.Needed resources are almost available in both,
wireless network drivers are available for both,usb webcam support too,i may need some broadcast software to send the video over network but the lightweight nature of MorphOS could make it as well.

Of course the underlying hardware is just a proof-of-concept and could allow for some variations to allow more powerful motors,and/or different transport solutions,to be able to travel inside a gas pipe,or somewhere else.

@Ami603:

Bump! yet another update.

EDIT:

Here

That is good. We think it is great some one sent you Project funding via PayPal. That is one of the desired benefits of developing a Project like this. Plus, we can follow on your Project page and your Gallery as you progress. We like the human angle too and hope your wife learns English as well as she can! :)

We will fine tune this site as we both move along...

R&B :)

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http://bbrv.blogspot.com

Yet another status update, no blog to put it, so i'll resume here:

It has been quite a while since my last efika hacking but here we go.We've installed obstacle bumbers on each side of the chassis to figure when we hit something.Also the efika board has been fixed to the upper side of the chassis.I'm not very proud of the design of the 3rd direction wheel but i've got another idea to solve it in a better way.

Still haven't got no webcam to install nor the required chips to finish the stepper's logics

some photos here

EDIT: Where's MorphOS for this toy? it would prove more fun if sw developing could be made with it, rather than fighting with some linux distro. ;)

done?

Not really, but quite near ;)

Have you gotten the comm to the ultrasonic detector working yet? Also, I'm curious how you interfaced the EFIKA to the bumper-switches, I've got the same issue on my next design (see http://www.powerdeveloper.org/project/efika/697), and am thinking right now using a slaved OOPIC with serial comm to the EFIKA...

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Kevin Nickels, Assoc. Prof, Trinity University, San Antonio, TX, USA

Hello Kevin.Sorry for my long delay at answering,i was very busy the last months.
As for the ultrasonics i haven't decided yet what will put there but i've got 3 analogic and 3 digital inputs on my usb board to connect some obstacle bumpers in front of the wheels and the analogic for the ultrasonics circuitry.
For now i will just leave it with two bumpers and improve over the design as soon as the basics are working.

Updated project blog.

Really.