Project - SID the robot

[Thom Smith]

A couple of weeks ago I met Kim, and Jon, who introduced me to one of the original Re:Make projects which isn't yet finished.  His name is SID, a robot also known as the SilkMill Interactive Display / Spatial Interactive Display.  SID's job will be to guide visitors around the museum, and generally be awsome.  Maybe he will deliver cake too.  We were talking yesterday, and in the push to get SID moving, we thought we'd open this up to anyone else who's got SID-skills, or wants to learn some!

The original Re:Make team came up with a brief for SID, which is attached to this mail.  It's ambitious, but it is also an "evolving" project.  My thinking is that the sooner we start the sooner we finish, and even a basic robot trundling around the silk mill guiding people to exhibits would be a great thing! Maybe eventually we can even get 2 SIDs running, one wow-ing the crowd, and the other being upgraded on Thursday evenings.  We'll be on Mars before we know it ;)

So, how should we build a robot base, quicksmart?  I think there are 5 mini-projects that need completing before SID will be interesting enough to put to work in the Silk Mill. (He'll have to pass the recruitment interview, after all).  

1)  Sid's chassis.  The Re:Make team finished this, so we have a good base to work from.  

2)  Drive and movement.  I have acquired a mobility wheelchair which will donate it's motors, gearboxes, wheels, and wiring.  (it was ethically sourced - no pensioners were harmed).  To finish this stage we need 2 car batteries (mobility scooters are 24V), and a few evenings mounting everything in the chassis.  I'm going to drop the scooter off tomorrow - if you're free to strip the motors and wiring please do... :)  Does anyone have any old but working car batteries?

3)  Safety and collision avoidance.  SID will be working in a "live" space, with people and children, so must stop quickly and safely when unexpected things happen.  IR sensors all around the chassis are probably the most reliable way to do this, combined with physical bumper switches as a fail-safe.  Ultrasonic sensors are an option for more detection range.  Has anyone prototyped IR sensors before?  Would you be able to dig them out and we can test their range...

4)  Routefinding and Navigation.  This is two phases.  The first will get SID up and running quickly, and the second is something genuinely challenging for us to build.  

Phase one is to make the robot capable of following a white tape line.  This line can be laid and taken up quickly by the Silk Mill staff when different events happen in the hall.  Will, are you reading this?  You let slip you've made skid-steering line-followers before... We need you! :)

Phase two is a remote mapping and location system based around electronic "crickets".  Jon is already working on this...  

5)  Interactivity.  A silent SID is a boring SID.  We need sound and pictures, and a way for the public to interact.  I'm thinking a cheap Android tablet, with a simple button navigation app.  Click a button to "take me to the RB211", and SID will tell a story and some robot one-liners on the way...  Can anyone here make simple android apps?  

So, I just wanted to get that plan out there.  None of it is set in stone, so if you've got a different idea just shout up.  Can we get SID moving by the end of February, and thinking by the end of March?  The fastest way will be by working together to combine the 5 mini-projects.  Does anyone want to claim one?  

If anyone's done any of this before and can help, or if you'd like to learn how it's done, just reply here, or come and say hello on a Thursday.  Any of the museum folk will be able to point you towards Jon, Me, Kim, (or SID!).  Looking forward to it!

Thom

[Thom Smith]

This is what SID looks like so far...

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Thom,  sounds like a load of fun.  Count me in.  What time will you be there; I've not been to the Mill for ages.

All the best
Paul

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[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

That's great news.  I'll be there 2ish today (very approximate), and from 6 till 9 on Thursday.  

Looking forward to it...

Cheers,

Thom

[Paul Stevens]

Right ho,  will be at the SM on Thursday about 7

All the best
Paul

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[Bolding Gt Grandson]

Ach, sorry we left early on Thursday so didn't see you.

I've just checked the 2 buggies on the garage, both use Gel batteries not car batteries: & no I daren't remove them for testing!!!

I'd also put (whilst we're testing) a couple of big red panic buttons on SID's outside, just in case!

Oh, I forgot to say - count me in

Tony

[Thom Smith]

Great, 

Thanks Tony.  I agree about the panic buttons - it's always nice if there's a button somewhere to make it all OK again.  

I'm sure we'll be able to pick some batteries up fairly easily - there's no great rush because I know the motors work, so we can get on with other stuff till we need movement.  

Thom

[Thom Smith]

Gregory asked me to post a few more specifics, so here goes...

This is all open to discussion, and I'm aware that I'm just helping out with Jon's project, and he's not on this board much.  We should probably aim to get together on Thursday and see where we're at.  I'm just posting this to get people's creativity going - there is usually a better way of doing things, so if you can help by suggesting it (and then doing it!), that would be great. 

See you on Thursday...

Thom

[Tony Brookes]

Thom

I like the breaking down the overall work into manageable chunks.
It's possible (I suspect) to use a Pi or one of the other Arduino variants instead of a few Arduino's. But simply starting off with 1 unit is a sensible place to start.

You may also want to take a look at the Arduino robot. It's a 2 wheeled unit, and I may have 2,3,4 circuitry already in it: from memory it's about £160 pounds and possibly too expensive but it's open source and a possibly helpful place to start.

I'm not sure how much of Thursday evening I'll have spare, as there's something else possibly happening then: I won't know till nearer the time. I'll catch up when I can.

I assume we're working towards a costed proposal to the Silk Mill to fund the purchase of equipment?
Tony

[Thom Smith]

Hi Tony,

Here's some thoughts...

Pi vs. multiple arduinos:

I agree that once finished, all the code in one place will be easier to manage.  My logic was that different teams can work in parallel and test their modules more easily if we start with multiple arduinos.  Definitely nothing to stop us consolidating things back down to a single board towards the end.  Or building SID2 with a more efficient architecture.  

Arduino robot:

I didn't know about this so thanks for mentioning it.  The price makes it a little over-budget, but definitely useful to use the published circuits as a starting point.  

Budget:

The museum do have budget for this project, but the exact amount hasn't been written down.  It's likely to be around £300 - £400, but it may also change in light of the recent council funding issues.  What I'm hoping to do is arrange for "team SID" to meet with some senior bods from the Silk Mill early in the New Year, when we can get that, and the exact brief bought off.  It would be good to hear the vision from them first hand, and make the session a motivational one.  

Purchasing bits:

I'm thinking out loud here.  At this stage no-one should buy anything they wouldn't be happy to pay (and keep) for themselves.  Important - keep the VAT receipts for use later.  As a general principle I was going to suggest that people try to get as far as possible in proving their concept before buying anything.  For example, I have an arduino uno gathering dust that I am happy to loan to the project, as long as I get it back again.  Once we have an agreed plan, ideally supported by some working prototypes, then we can make the "shopping list" to scale things up.  Since the plan realistically won't be finished until the New Year, I would suggest that until then people only buy things that they would be happy to keep (hobby stuff).  What do people think about that?  Is that too restrictive?  

We definitely need to chat to Jon, who already has some components bought by the Silk Mill.

Thom

[Gregory Parker]

I love how the schematic splits the project into sub projects, but I suspect fewer microcontrollers will be required and I also think some tasks could be devoted to smaller arduino compatible chips like the ATTINY85 or ATTINY84. It would certainly be cheaper that way.

[Thom Smith]

It was good to get chatting and planning on Thursday.  It's really good to be working on a group project - thanks to everyone for getting involved...

For those who weren't around, this is where we got to:

The project breakdowns we decided were (correct me if I'm wrong):

Project 2 (chassis, motors, power, estops).  Tom

Project 3 (sensors - collision detection & line sensing).  Paul

Project 4a (was line-sensing, but now overall arduino motion control).  Jon

Project 4b (electronic crickets ready for after the line-following stage).  Jon

Project 5 (interactivity & live streaming webcam tour :) Gregory

The plan from now until after Xmas is to do research and small-scale prototyping, ready to present the plan to the Silk Mill.  Straight back after Xmas we'll sit down with the Mill to show them some details, and to confirm the budget.  

In the meantime if anyone else is interested in joining in, feel free to get involved on a Thursday night!  

I've attached a new photo of the schematic to this mail.  This includes the notes we made on Thursday, and also corrects the project numbering mistake I made on the original.  On that theme - photos are good!  If you're doing anything to SID that looks interesting, get a photo and post it on here... 

Happy tinkering...

[William Bednall]

I'll bring some code along that i wrote for calculating the direction, the infrared sensor works by distinguishing between black and white, so it might be more reliable to use a hall effects sensor and some magnetic tape

[Paul Stevens]

That sounds good William. Ill be there on thursday from about 7. Hope to see you.

I’ve made a start reading US sensors and will get the other motor signalling done today ready to feed into the Control module. I’ll not do anything on the line following till we have had chance to have a chat.

All the best

Paul

> On 14 Dec 2014, at 22:41, William Bednall <williamb...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'll bring some code along that i wrote for calculating the direction, the infrared sensor works by distinguishing between black and white, so it might be more reliable to use a hall effects sensor and some magnetic tape
>

[Paul Stevens]

I have the sensors and motor controls working now.  I’ll bring my mockup down to the SM tonight.  Will has some ideas on the line following so i’ll meet up with him tonight and have a chat.

Cheers

Paul

[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

 

Hope it all went well tonight.  Sorry I wasn't able to make it down.  Still planning to go in on Saturday at some point to measure up for woodwork/motor mounting.  

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,  Yes it was good thanks.  I plan to get the line following done before we get back together in the new year.  Will had some good ideas as well.  I might be able to knock something up to show the Mill.
have a good break

All the best
Paul

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[Paul Stevens]

I plan to come down on Thursday at about 7.00.  Is anyone from the SID team planning to be there ?

Thanks

Paul

On Friday, 5 December 2014 22:36:13 UTC, Thom Smith wrote:

[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

Unfortunately I'm working away this week so can't make Thursday.  I'm planning to get to the museum one day at the weekend to do some of the motor mounting...

Tom

[Thom Smith]

Hi,

I popped into the museum on Sunday to do some work on SID, but unfortunately the workshop's not open then.  I can't make this Weds or Thurs either. 

Is anyone interested in meeting on Saturday to do some work?  I'm planning to get some wood cut to mount the motors up, and if things go really well actually fit the wheels.  

The more the merrier!

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,  I might be able to make Saturday, what time would you be there?  I have finished the sensor part and have a mock up to test with.  If I come (don't like town on Saturdays)  I'll bring it down,  if not I will be there next Thursday.

All the best
Paul

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[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

It's open 1 till 5, so I'll plan to get there at 1 or shortly after.  

The sensors mockup sounds good - hopefully see you if you can face the weekend traffic!  The following Thursday is looking possible for me too.  

Tom

[Thom Smith]

A quick update after an afternoon at the Silk Mill:

Paul gave a demonstration of the line-follower he's built since we started the project, which shows how the drive and steering is going to work.  I think it' excellent progress, and it's spurred me on to get the rolling chassis finished ASAP.  Here's my first attempt at uploading a video:

I've designed a mounting method for the motors that gives us decent ground clearance but remains simple to build.  It also involves a 10mm acrylic sheet that Steve pointed me towards, and the lasercutter!  Thumbs up!  If you're any good at mind-reading, this is the plan:

[Thom Smith]

A lasercut plate and some jigsawing has got the motors mounted!  A little more jigsawing will allow us to mount the front castor wheel, and then we can do a tour of the museum to check ground clearance.  

Does anyone have a car battery going spare?  I can't make Weds or Thurs this week, but we're not far off having a motorised SID...

Paul, I was thinking - the floor in the Silkmill is quite dark.  If I leave a roll of white insulation tape in the box, would you be able to test your line-follower directly on the concrete floor?  

[Paul Stevens]

wow Thom,  that's impressive.  Good progress indeed. . Yes it should follow a white line just easily,  a software switch needed that's all.  white would be better but there is the risk of it getting dirty and Sid getting lost.  But we can trap that in software and put the brakes on.

Let me know next time you are at the SM on Wed or Thu and I'll join you.

All the best
Paul

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[MARK HANCOX]

I have a standard car battery I can loan indefinitely (though I will need it back for the kit car at some point!) Dims 200x180x180 mm, Mass 13kg. It's not been used for a while so I'll see if I can put in on charge, and I can bring it down this Wednesday. Who wants it?

Cheers

Mark

[Thom Smith]

Mark,

That would be great...  When the budget from the museum is confirmed we'll buy a proper deep-cycle battery, but yours will tide us over very nicely.  

I won't be there this week unfortunately.  If there's no-one working on SID, would you be able to lift the lid and put the battery inside?

Tom

[MARK HANCOX]

No problem.

I have it on charge now; it's taking charge but I can't guarantee how good it is! Hopefully enough to get you going though.

Cheers

Mark

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[MARK HANCOX]

The car battery is now inside the case; it's pretty full in there so the lid is sitting a little proud

[Thom Smith]

Thanks for that, Mark.  I was in at the weekend and I got all 3 wheels finished - wiring is the next stage.  Also Pete has finished the 2nd decorative plywood wheel.  

I'm planning to make it down this Thursday.  Will anyone else be around?

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,

If you are going down I’ll come along as well.  With the progress you are making we should probably need to start building my bit in soon.

Cheers

Paul

[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

Great, looking forward to catching up.  Yes, we're actually quite close to being able to do some wiring now.  I've had a separate message from Jon, who also has some progress on the motor control code.

I guess we're not far off writing a purchasing list to help get a budget agreed with the Silk Mill.  

See you on Thursday

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

really sorry Tom,  can't make it tonight after all.  I'll try this week to draw up a list of items I used and some sort of circuit diagram and the arduino sketch.  I am happy to donate the line following sensors as I doubt I would need them again.

All the best
Paul

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[Thom Smith]

I've just picked up a 2nd car battery from Loom's, which I'll drop off today.  

If anyone fancies getting it wired up at 24V with the original scooter controller that would be really helpful.  That would mean we can show it off moving at Creat-a-con in Leicester.  I was thinking of just stripping the ends of the battery leads and pipe-clipping them onto the battery terminals.  It will be safest if we keep the fuse breaker in the circuit.  The wires are all labelled from when I disconnected them.  

No problem, Paul.  We did some planning.  We're going to write a "to buy" list each, which Tony will collate into something we can talk to the museum about.  Aiming for £500 total including the android tablet.  There might be more budget available, but the more affordable we make it, the more likely it will be a success with the Silk Mill.  

The only other thing that happened was a reporter from the Telegraph turned up, so there might be something in the paper at some point!

Tom

[Thom Smith]

Famous (ish)

http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Derby-s-Silk-Crafting-making-tinkering-free/story-26008147-detail/story.html

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,

I have written up my notes on the controller so far.  I’ve included the main items for budgetting. Will you be at the SM this week.  If so I’ll bring it down on a thumb and/or printed if you prefer.

I am hoping to be moving house in the next few weeks and are off on hols just after (badly planned I know) so I might be out of the loop for a while.

Cheers

Paul

[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

Yes, I'm planning to be at the Silk Mill tomorrow (and could arrange to be on Thursday too).  

It'd be good to catch up...

Tom

[Thom Smith]

Paul,

I'm really sorry but I can no longer make it tonight.  I will plan for tomorrow instead.  

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

No problem Tom, thanks for letting me know.  I’ll see you tomorrow

Cheers

[Thom Smith]

Hi all,

I managed to get SID moving this morning.  It's a shame we didn't manage to do it yesterday in Leicester - it only took a bit of wire-stripping, but we were far too busy making flashy badges & rope!  

The robot wasn't as quick as I thought it might be given that it's running on 24V.  I'm a little worried that dropping down to 12V will make it too slow, but the only way to know for sure is to try it at 12V directly through the 12V board and decide from there.  Dropping from 24V to 12V should halve the speed, but the current batteries are not too healthy so charging them should give us some speed back.  I started charging the white battery (Mark's) to see if that improves things.  

Had a trundle round the museum, and one visitor remarked on how much it sounded like a train (because of the castor wheel on the concrete).  

Progress, anyway!

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,  how's SID these days.  has it progressed or on hold.  If it's stopped I have a use for the motors and wheels for a project.

All the best
Paul

[Thom Smith]

Hi Paul,

I hope you're well. SID hasn't moved on a great deal, but is moving under battery power and just needs some minor work to get the line-following working. A target to have it working by the Maker Faire was discussed a couple of weeks ago.

So at the moment we need to keep hold of the motors.

I'll be down on Thursday evening - if anyone's interested in getting involved in the project I can explain where we're at and what help we need :)

Tom

[Thom Smith]

I've just seen a message about the mini maker faire in October.  

Is anyone up for having a bit of a push on this project, and getting something moving by then?  I have most of the parts for the next stage (IR leds and arduinos), and am planning to be at the Silk Mill this Thursday evening if anyone new is interested in getting involved.  

The next stage is getting the line-following working, and then the sensors to stop at obstacles.  I'm happy to donate the parts I've collected so far.  

Anyone around on Thursday?

Tom

[Paul Stevens]

Hi Tom,  Yes I'll be there this week for the pi chat.  Happy to help where I can.

All the best
Paul

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[Thom Smith]

A little update,

I'm happy to report that SID has been entered (and accepted) into the Maker Faire on 24/10!

Let me know if you'd like to get involved in manning the table on the day - should be a good opportunity to chat to people, and also gather some ideas for the next steps!

We will be showing:

> SID in operation, trundling along with a live webcam stream to a remote laptop

> A demonstrator of how the line sensing and motor control works, using some mBots running on the table-top

> SID's voicebox in action.  Interactively showing how we plan to allow SID to express his inner thoughts, using some speakers and a RPi

There will also (probably/possibly) be:

> Suggestions cards...  "I would like SID to be able to................"

> Possibly some colouring cards with SID's outline for kids to take away

> Other stuff if people can think of more good stuff

So, that's all good news!  

The main jobs still to do are:  (I'm writing this list mainly as a memory braindump)

> Making a perspex lid so that the "doings" are visible inside - Pete's happy to do this

> Wiring up in a tidy way, including properly mounted E-stops which will be essential for the risk-assessment - I'm doing that

> Putting a few IR and ultrasonic sensors around the front edges to stop before driving into things/people - Anyone's welcome to do this, but I will do in October if not already finished.  

> Making a RPi stream video over wifi to a separate laptop - Stuart and I are going to have a look at this in October.  If you can beat us to it, can we borrow your RPI on the day?!

So, all good.  As ever, drop me a note if you want to get involved and I can help get you started...

Tom

[Thom Smith]

Another quick update,

Several volunteers have come forward, so the Maker Faire stand is going to be manned by me, Jon Tuck, and Simon Carter (+kids).  

Simon, could you let me know your email address/twitter just so we're in touch for details nearer the time?  

Looking forward to getting stuck back in in October :)

Tom

[Thom Smith]

Hello all,

A small update from the Mini Maker Faire which happened this weekend.  Good news, SID was a successful exhibit, with plenty of people stopping to find out about the robot.  There were lots of Qs, and although many people walked past thinking it was a static plywood box (ouch!), the ones who did stop to ask were generally really excited by the project. 

Simon, John, Al, Stuart, and I were on the stand at various points during the day.  We ran the robot every time it was safe to do so, managing around 30 laps with no battery problems.  Best of all, at the end of the day Al realised that the Raspberry Pi which we’d been using to stream video to my laptop had also been recording to the SD card.  I’ve edited a video together which gives a flavour of the day here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWMVXrQY1U8

So where does the SID project go from here, now that the Maker Faire is over?  A long way, I hope... :)

I have realised I need to do a better job of documenting the project, so that others can get involved and make improvements. 

So, you can find the Arduino code for the 3 arduinos on GitHub here:

https://github.com/DerbyMakers/TourGuideRobot/tree/master/Arduino_Code

I have also written a list of future improvements which volunteers are welcome to get involved in, categorised by beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.  These improvements are open to be worked on by any member of the Derby Makers.  You can find the project list on the GitHub wiki here:

https://github.com/DerbyMakers/TourGuideRobot/wiki/Projects-to-do...--Help-needed...

Over the coming weeks I will add to the project documentation to include wiring diagrams.  If you need any more information to be able to work on the robot, let me know and I will make it available. 

Many thanks to all who had a hand in organising and running the Mini Maker Faire, thanks to Al for teaching me the GitHub basics, and thanks to SID for teaching me Arduino, Raspberry Pi, IR sensors, and serial communication. 

If anyone is interested in learning Arduino, Raspberry Pi, IR and ultrasonic sensors, motor control, or robotics, you need SID!  

And SID needs you..!  :)