rgordon
USA
Asked
— Edited
Anyone made a robot that finds its own charger and docks with it? What would be a good way to do this?
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Synthiam
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So making a low cost beacon circuit the same at the pololou IR beacon,can be done fairly cheap without the need of the pololu ir beacon boards using only a EZB and 5 digital ports
4 for N,S,E,W and one for the IR driver (transceiver)
Looking at about $20 or less,now can use 2 pairs of IR'S but tracking wont be as good,360 deg scan is better then -45 and +45 deg scan using only 2 pairs
I can easy make a circuit to explain it better
I realise this would reduce the effectiveness greatly but I'm thinking about say that the beacon emits a 360 degree IR signal, the robot has a receiver front and centre, if it spins on the spot in the room with the beacon, provided there are no objects in the way it'll know the general direction of the dock. That could be useful and a cheaper alternative, plus use less ports for those with nearly full EZBs and don't want to run two in the robot.
Its called multiplexing ,ITS the easy way of getting more digital or analog ports from one output without losing speed,and cost of another EZB
Lot of the members here like to use 1 to 3 EZB'S thats up to $210 total if getting at about $70 each
on the multiplex idea onle $70 plus under $2 for the chip
speed stays the same because it digital its not using another EZB
ON the IR beacon since i have a scxope,plus digital counter and signal generator will do some testing on the design to pick the right PWM values and more
Will start friday and post my data,waveforms if needed is hard now,since my company made return my digital storage scope that had print outs of waveforms (rats)
ON the way the 360 deg works it spins until it finds the right beacon signal,doesnt matter if anything blocks it,can hacve the robot move a little if needed and scans again
WITH using only one or 2 RECEIVERS and transceivers IF there is a object in the way or if the robot is turned around it cant detect home base
Now there are simple other ways to use only one beacon ,one is use a SPINNING mirror to get 360 deg
like the LIDAR design or A OMNICONE or parabolic mirror
it alot of different ideas
docking logic
there are over 50 pages just to let you know,i did print all of it about 2 years ago
When i was really into the finding home base designs and testing all types
another edit was about 5 years ago on my date on the bottom of the pages i printed ,wow
it talks alot on why a OMNI CONE IS NEEDED
Also saw on another site someone using a Christmas tree ornament so they could have a 360 deg. camera view and/or also use it with IR detection.
only item works very well is one from the roomba docking station ,whats good about this one it has IR receiver same as the common panasonic or the replacement now
rentron ir receiver tsop4840
also there many other companies sell it much lower
BUT on the roomba docking station ,since it comes with and selling on ebay around $4 its cheap
also virtual wall has the some omnicone,i just sold some for $5 while back on ebay
If like me you have strayed away from the boring white or magnolia walls in your house and opted for something a little brighter you can use that to identify which room the robot is in.
Alan
Here is yet another item I am trying to find out more information on. Not sure it is available yet though. I intend to contact them about it. This could also be handy for a number of other robot applications as well. Hope it won't be to expensive. (They also have one that is for 180 degree detection.)
IR Control Freak 360
User Guide
AS i buy every type of sensor made to test and compare to my others,mostly do it for my projects
BUT i can share my results to others
But I refuse to give up on my robot! I will find a way...
In 3 weeks there will be so my photos up of my designs and more
money i have more then i will ever need,so i just have to wait
I'm glad you posted on this topic though, this item has made it's way back up my never ending list and I will be hitting it again soon. You saved me the trouble of searching for it
AT least with my posts we are getting better.
RICH here is a idea for you instead of searching for a post save as a link on your desktop like i do.
I'm however facing a lot of obstacles regarding doing anything more complex than this and any help would be appreciated. For example I can hardly move then check for the presence of another glyph arround (so I could move from room to room) because the variable $cameratrackingtype="glyph" and all other variables regarding this such as $cameraistracking send always the value "true" while not in view of the glyph anymore.
I posted about this issue and many others here :
www.ez-robot.com/Community/Forum/Thread?threadId=8223
if someone could at least tell me how to make my robot capable to "forget" the previous object, that would be just awesome : the ControlCommand() ControlCommand("Camera", CameraClearLastGyph) doesn't seem to work.
Thanks in advance.