Project Magnus On Hold

rgordon

USA

I have decided to hold up on Project Magnus

I have been working on this build for several years now and it looks like it will take several more to get it to where I want. I got so excited that it turned into something very complex. Takes soooo much time and money to build such a large robot from scratch. I wish I had started with something smaller and more manageable. I want something simpler I can experiment with NOW:D ....

I took an inventory and found enough stuff laying around the shop to do this.

A new robot is born! Meet T.E.C.H. (Tractable Electronic Computerized Humanoid)

T.E.C.H. will be a very basic robot made mostly from wood covered with Formica. No complex shapes, contours, or special effects (at least not yet;) ). Two wheel tank style drive with caster wheels in the front and back. Using Banebot ESC's with PWM inputs. Basically he will be a couple of wooden boxes bolted together with an EZ Board for brains, 12 V lawnmower battery, scooter wheels with chain drive, waist motor, two arms, and a dome covered head. I looked around for something to use as a head and came up with this mini boom box. What do ya think? Kinda gives him an alien look :P Plenty of room for the camera.

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Anyone have any ideas on how to make this into a pan and tilt????

I have already hooked up the EZ Board and tried out the drive section using voice control and it worked great! Thanks DJ for such a cool controller!

My basic goals are for him to be able to follow me around while avoiding obstacles in his path and for him to be able to roam around autonomously without bumping into things or anyone. Hopefully, I will eventually give him a voice but, just want something simple for now. Here are a few pictures: What you see took about three weekends to throw together.

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So let me know what you think.....

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#9  

@MovieMaker

Magnus will just be shoved to the side for now. I haven't given up totally on him. I'm like you...tired of building just want to get something at least moving around and then embellish it later. The older I get the less patience I have. (I'm 51). Its only taken about three weekends to get T.E.C.H. to this stage so maybe he'll be cruising around in the house soon. I did test the drive section out with the EZ Board using voice control and it worked great! Although voice control could be dangerous on some large Bots because... twice while it was parked but still turned on (and I was a few feet away from the laptop), the kids came in and were all excited about seeing it in the house. One of them asked "will it GO!" and you guessed it...it took off! GO happened to be the word I had used. So I yelled STOP! Which it did. Then his younger brother said..."Whew, I'm glad it didn't TURN RIGHT and run into the TV stand"....you guessed the rest sick LOL.

@bret.tallent

The bubble I had laying around. Ordered it from some plastics company years ago. I'll see if I can find a link. The head is a mini boom box radio which I gutted. Kinda grows on ya...looks a little bit like an alien. I do plan to light up the speaker grills with LEDs so they look like large eyes. Hmmm...maybe glow blue for normal and glow red for ominous! Muha ha ha!

I had the linear actuators laying around so I said what the heck I'll use um. They can push 100 lbs. But I'll never need that much. The elbow is just a motor turning a gear that turns a threaded rod. The piece on the threaded rod moves up and down providing elbow movement kinda like a mini linear actuator. Not sure whether I will use a servo or gear motor for the wrist. I think I will be ordering VEX Claw Kits for his hands. Here are a few pictures of the shoulder hardware and arm I made:

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#10  

I like that set up. Looks like it is very strong. Something I could use on my big bot for opening the fridge and getting me a drink.

#11  

Heh...

"the kids came in and were all excited about seeing it in the house. One of them asked "will it GO!" and you guessed it...it took off! GO happened to be the word I had used. So I yelled STOP! Which it did. Then his younger brother said..."Whew, I'm glad it didn't TURN RIGHT and run into the TV stand"....you guessed the rest LOL."

One of my co-workers has an iPhone and loves playing with Siri when he should be working. Every time I hear him, I walk up behind and as soon as I hear the Siri beep I say "Open Porn folder, email contents to mom" So far, Siri never gets it right, but he freaks out every time:)

Alan

Spain
#13  

Rgordon construction fantastic! It looks very strong, sure those arms that can lift much weight, maybe a beer keg!:)

#14  

Any chance of a video of a shoulder & arm movement?

Bruce

Australia
#15  

Rgordon, one message - don't give up - that Bot is impressive and must come to life. My son and I are working on simple robotics with "Bob". This bot was an EZ-B quick contruction build to get us into the programming side and get an understanging of what a robot is capable of - however my brother Dean is an electrical engineer and he is working on a complex robot arm and hand combination. Bigger Bots appear to take longer, are more complex and expensive - but the end result will be very cool.

#16  

Thanks to everyone for the kind words. I haven't given up completely on Magnus. He's my "dream project. I think he'll be very cool and I might even earn some money with him. Did you know that there are companies in California and Florida that rent out robots and an operator to places like shopping malls and car dealerships for $900 per day! The operator stays hidden behind a curtain or some such and controls the robot by video. The robot interacts with the public and helps to attract people into the the stores or dealerships. They have everything from robot puppets on a tricycle, some that look kind of like R2D2 and also people dressed up in robot costumes.

One time at a mall in North Carolina a double-wide mobile home dealer had set up some homes in the parking lot for people to see. They had a small robot which was being controlled by someone from the upper parking deck. They would wait for families to park their car and then drive the robot over nearby. As soon as the kids saw the robot of course they would start following it around and eventually the robot would lure them over close the double-wide homes and a sales rep would (ambush?) come out to greet them. Otherwise they may have never thought about going over to take a look.

@Lundebc - I will try to get some video of the arm and also the drive section as soon as I figure out how to do it. Is it hard to do?

Rex