Thinking about having a Big Brain outside of the robots. The Little Brains onboard can handle local behaviours, inputs and outputs from sensors to actuators respectively, whilst Big Brain does more serious computing such as image processing, direction finding, swarm coordination etc. It’s not too challenging technically as the ‘solar computer’ already talks to the […]
Started tinkering with a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) design for the robot due to reaching the limits of a small breadboard design. If the Xiao ESP32S3 Sense is to be used which has a camera + an additional i2s microphone is added (for now getting the onboard Sense mic working under Micropython is not easy)
After a little testing on artificial grass wondering if we’re reaching the end of the road (so to speak) for wheels on the robots? Wheels (tracks too) definitely have limitations as to the kind of terrain they can handle. Legs though are comparatively a lot more complicated when built ‘properly’. That is, legs can use
Reinventing the Wheel: Legs! Read More »
Each of 13 designs of robots, drones and computers were listed together with the experiment and results then the best and worst features of each were also listed. The most notable features were finally aggregated to form general specifications for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for these efforts: Finally, an additional specification (of sorts) is
Thinking Backwards Read More »
There were some developments not (yet) reported here. For example, the user cognitive load actively controlling a robot and drone simultaneously was onerous! As mentioned on X though it’s perhaps time to take stock of numerous experiments, developments & test results to create some kind of Minimum Viable Product (MVP). That is, it’s tempting to
Roadmap Sitrep: Lost in Space! Read More »
Managed to ‘brick’ a couple of Xiao ESP32C3s at the heart of the robot. Had one spare remaining, commented out the offending code (timer exceptions – dark art though that’s another story). Anyhow, to ‘unbrick’ the others I believe this is the procedure: Can’t exactly remember the order of the above so PLEASE do experiment!
Finally focused on this project a little. In a nutshell the newly redesigned robot is now controlled from Bluetooth and the hacked drone from WiFi. All from an Android smartphone. Just got the pair working concurrently. The robot trundled along whilst the drone took off. However, bad light stopped play as the drone positioning system relies
There’s been a brief hiatus in the development of this project. The hope is that further progress occurs over the holidays. The main obstacle, besides a lack of available time, has been the addition of the Time of Flight range finder on the robot platform as it’s already bustling with various elements; actuators, sensors etc.
There have been several iterations of names for the various elements of these projects. The above is an acronym for “Personal Anti Landmine System”. It works though may not be unique. Additionally, there’s ABC: Airborne, Bot, Commander. That’s self-explanatory. Since three bots are in progress at this time the following real life pals are being
The original ‘dream’ was to have a swarm of ground bots overseen by a drone (UAV). Many iterations later this remains as the desired target system. However, there are countless constraints with cost being the most obvious one in addition to (small, portable) size and off-grid (solar) capabilities. These constraints together with more off piste
Few (Re) Developments Read More »
