Team Made "Segways"

[dez250]

OK yeah so we have seen the numbers of them grow over the past few years and now im wondering, what teams have them and do you have pics of them?

~Dez

[sanddrag]

And add to that: how do they work?

[Ryan Albright]

we have one sorta we actually took it aprt to work on it so no pics sorry

[D.Fahringer]

Check out www.pitnews.org for an article on our version..We are Team 122, the NASA Knights and have two "Knight Krawlers".
Two wheels and smooth control. Also do a search here on CD for Knight Krawler or Fahringer.

Should we have more teams with these?

[Darek905]

www.howstuffworks.com .. look up segway .

[Pin Man]

I'm going to try and attempt to make one with some team members...

[Joe Matt]

Originally posted by D.Fahringer
Check out www.pitnews.org for an article on our version..We are Team 122, the NASA Knights and have two "Knight Krawlers".
Two wheels and smooth control. Also do a search here on CD for Knight Krawler or Fahringer.

Should we have more teams with these?

When will you guys have auto-balance code in them Dave?

[D.Fahringer]

I don't Know....Stephen? ....Mark? Where are You ?

[Lloyd Burns]

Harrison, and his treammates from Mowatt ('Mobotics') were riding around on one at the Canadian regional, but airline restriction probably prevented its going to Houston.

[D.Fahringer]

What is this Canadian Segway like? Two, three, or four wheels?
Could you tell how it was powered?

[computhief263]

my team is trying to build 1 using 2 gyros.
but i have a question to all (however many) teams have tried to build 1.
wut motors did u use and did u try to use the gyro w/ an auto ballance code?
if u did or didnt id still like to know how yours worked and if it was similar to the real thing?

[Matt Krass]

Darn, he beat me to it. Well as he said, my team is heading up a project to attempt to build a two-wheeled, gyro-balanced segway. One question he missed (I think) was, how did you guys pwoer yours? We want to use old bot batteries but we're afraid it'll drain too quickly (like 15 minutes). Any info appreciated.

[D.Fahringer]

The Team 122 custom Segway (Knight Krawler) uses the 2001 window motors and kit battery for power, why not read the article on it at www.pitnews.org? The pictures were lost for the article, but I could give the author, Mike O'Brian, some new ones. Anyone want to see close-ups of the Knight Krawler?

If you haven't seen it run check out "122 is done!" in quicksearch.

d.f.

[Matt Krass]

I tried that, found the thread but all the links are dead. Also, you said you used a PIC to control the motors, did you try it with RC? Was it too slow? too jerky? didn't work at all?

[MattK]

http://24.62.235.165/rightnow/lower.jpg

Does having the platform lower than the wheels help alot with the balance? Does it help at all?

Thanks

[D.Fahringer]

I will have to get a good video of this thing in action with closeups. Can I load one here at CD?

I never had it set up with RC control...only a toggle switch (can you say primative?).

The next question about the offset between the axle and the platform, yes it helps, especially when you are new to this
and are climbing on. but if you are used to the control of the wheels steadying you on the machine there will be less of a problem. After all this is just like doing a wheelie on a wheelchair
but instead of manually rotating the wheels to keep your balance you are using a twist grip to do it! If your control is good and
backlash of the gearing/drive is minimal then it is up to your skill
at sensing and correcting for your balance!

It only makes sense to lower the CG as much as possible.

I want more power ...bigger wheels....and a certain amount of suspension would be nice. I thought that the van door motor
might be a good step up in power, that would be the easy way. The other way would be to design a slim transmission and use the drill motor without its own transmission (way too much slop!!)



D.F

[srawls]

Originally posted by D.Fahringer
I never had it set up with RC control...only a toggle switch (can you say primative?).

By RC I believe he means Robot Controller--that is, we use the PIC Chip, but did we at first (or would it be helpful to) use the IFI Robot Controller? To answer your question, no, we never went with the IFI RC. One, we don't have the money to buy extra RCs for every segway we build (that assumes we'll have more than one--we have two now, and I know Mr. Fahringer is already planning a "new and improved" model). Two ... try finding space for the RC and radio modem! Maybe in another design you'll have ampel room, but in ours we don't have much room to use the RC and keep it protected. Also, you asked if using the RC would make it jerky. In our setup it would not, but I imagine if you try to use the gyro then the scan-time on the IFI controller would come into play, and the balancing might be crude.

And to the question of auto-balancing. The answer is a big, resounding ... maybe! I want to do it, and I think it would be a good sojourn into using sensors with custom circuitry that might be useful for next year's autonomous mode. But, there always seems to be too much to do and too little time, so we'll see.

Stephen

[Matt Krass]

Well, so far we're doing pretty well. We've built a test bed using edubot parts to test balance code. Ironically enough we built it to well! it balances on its own, so we just plopped the abttereis on the back to throw it off :-). We plan on using either the Isaac16 RC or the full size RC we have from 2000, so I'll let you know how smooth it is.

[D.Fahringer]

A larger vandoor motor powered version is now designed and may take form with help from our students this summer. A benevolent team with a good condition vandoor motor would be truly appreciated as it should allow interested FIRST team members to try our version without our school saying no for liability reasons. The teachers have been forced to fend for themselves, insurance wise and they are not willing to take even the most remote chance of liability suit.

The issue is one of ownership and the project will not be owned by New Horizions to protect our teachers.

I am still awaiting a decision from Segway's Maureen Toohey
and others as to whether it would be o.k. to give the plans for the Knight Krawler to FIRST and the FIRST community so they would have a neat pre-robotics program to teach manufacturing and electronics and have a pyseudo Segway to show for it.

If Dean or Segway thinks that it is not a good idea then I'll forget it.

Dave Fahringer

[Matt Krass]

Hmm, good idea to check with Segway before posting plans. AS for the vandoro powered version, good luck. So far our segway is taking shape albeit slowly. I hoep, with Segway LLCs permission, to be able to release ivnentor drawings and plans for it after completion.

[Victim of Fate]

MWHAHAHAHA

Right now were doing some sweet summer projects that will include our own autobalancing segway

[D.Fahringer]

You are so fortunate to be allowed to work in the summer months on a project so interesting! The project we had in the Knight Krawlers was for me a year saver! I worked with avid robotics students to make the mechanical unit and had the help of our all around expert robotisist Ron Woodward to make the control box but the programmers were assigned a different task for their mentorship and never got it to take advantage of the kit gyro. They did however learn how it is to balance a Segway with no autobalance and some got very good at it! a lot of practical problems will be solved by your team if you can get it to balance with the weight ( and weight shift ) of a person on it!

If I can be of any assistance let me know!

Dave Fahringer

[Victim of Fate]

Right now its in the design phase, we havent actually built anything, but if we run into anything ill tell you