pic: kiwi vex robot

[Steve0100]

Very nice design!

There seem to be many variations of Vex holomic robots out there, probably because they are so fun to drive. Here's the beginnings of my first Vex bot, thanks to the RS sale:



Here's the underside:



My goal was to design a robot as clean and symmetrical as I could. It took one Starter kit and an additional hardware kit. The orange spacers in the motor mount bracket are the only non-vex parts, from an Erector set. They are conveniently in-between sizes of the vex plastic spacers.

To avoid having to support the axles on the outer sides of the wheels, I set back the motor with these spacers to allow a collar to hold in and support the axle on the motor side inside the bracket.

I've added sensors and have devised a scheme (still in the process of Implementation ) to have the robot detect walls and "bounce" off them before hitting with an angle of reflection equal to that of the angle of incidence. I'd like to put it inside a boxed-in area and have it bounce around like an billiard ball for robotics demos.

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Steve0100

Very nice design!


I've added sensors and have devised a scheme (still in the process of Implementation ) to have the robot detect walls and "bounce" off them before hitting with an angle of reflection equal to that of the angle of incidence. I'd like to put it inside a boxed-in area and have it bounce around like an billiard ball for robotics demos.

Thanks.

I really like how clean your assembly looks!

On sensors.... from my experience with the the Vex Ultrasonics.
They do a good job of sensing objects directly in front as long as object has a surface that is perpendicular to the sensor. In other words, when approaching a wall at an angle, the sensor wont pick it up very well at all.
Additionally, if you do put your bot in a box, the walls will bounce the 40KHz signal pulses quite a bit, causing misreadings from the controller.
Here's a thought. Try using the light sensors from the Line Following kit. With a little experimentation, you should be able to fine tune an algorithm to detect the relative distance from the wall based on the amount of light being reflected off of it. The biggest problem you will face with that is consistent light levels, and that may render this option useless. (Remember the difficulties with the CMU cam. and reflected light in 2005?)

[Steve0100]

Originally Posted by billbo911

Thanks.

I really like how clean your assembly looks!

On sensors.... from my experience with the the Vex Ultrasonics.
They do a good job of sensing objects directly in front as long as object has a surface that is perpendicular to the sensor. In other words, when approaching a wall at an angle, the sensor wont pick it up very well at all.
Additionally, if you do put your bot in a box, the walls will bounce the 40KHz signal pulses quite a bit, causing misreadings from the controller.
Here's a thought. Try using the light sensors from the Line Following kit. With a little experimentation, you should be able to fine tune an algorithm to detect the relative distance from the wall based on the amount of light being reflected off of it. The biggest problem you will face with that is consistent light levels, and that may render this option useless. (Remember the difficulties with the CMU cam. and reflected light in 2005?)

Thanks, and thanks for the sensor feedback. I did consider Ultasonics, but couldn't hit on a scheme I thought would be reliable. Your info on the ultrasonics and performance at oblique angle confirms that I would have had a lot of problems. So- I'm using IR, very close proximity sensors, and a timing algorithm to detect differences in IR triggering in relation to angle of approach. I also have a mechanical switch backup plan- but I'd rather keep it clean with no real contact with the walls.

Thanks again for your reply. Billbo and Colin, your designs are both inspirational. Colin- I'll put your method of joining chassis parts with bearing blocks in my mental toolkit- I'm new to vex so I appreciate seeing new uses for the parts. It's amazing what can be done with, and learned from from, common creative constraints.

I'm glad I'm contending with 4-wheel math for holonomics rather than 3 though- much simpler. Thanks, trig.