Offy Robotics » David Offerman

Website Downtime

David Offerman — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 06:44:41 +0000

Sorry for the downtime today, we’ve been busy transferring servers! Look for many changes in the next few weeks, this website has been purchased by KFN Web Solutions, a web development company, however we will still be retaining Dave for his amazing robotic skills

Robot Toy Jeep

David Offerman — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:22:25 +0000

So, I paused on my SnR robot because I got a toy jeep. So, I started modifying it. I added a caster in the front, so the front 2 wheels wont be used, but they are still attached for the look. Then I got bluetooth working on it, so when I press “W” on my keyboard, it will move the robot forward, and it works for “A” and “D” also to turn. And since I don’t feel like making it go backwards, “S” just stops it so I can stop it from crashing into a car. In the mail I am getting some sensors now. I am expecting tilt sensors, temperature sensors, and a few others to calculate distance. The tilt is going to find out if it is going up a hill or not. The temperature sensor is for fun. I am going to make it reply to the computer with the current temperature. Distance is of course to get the distance. I am going to add colour tracking to this robot. And I am going to add a light sensor to make it so when its dark, the front lights on the jeep turn on. I know, a few features have no real point, but its just fun to add. So expect me to be posting a few pictures soon, and a video in a few weeks.

SnR Robot Video Update 1

David Offerman — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:22:34 +0000

This is the first video update of my SnR Robot.

Some Details:This is my most recent project. It’s goal is to go around in urban locations (cities) and map the location. Then it will look for people that it thinks will need help. So it will ask them, if they do need help it will send a signal to base with their location from the map it has made. It will also follow people if they tell it to follow them, they they can have assistance. —- Sorry for all the air going into the mic. I was going to record this with my camera mic, but the sound was bad. So I thought this would be better.
- This article brought to you by: San Diego Auto Repair

Airsoft Robot

David Offerman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:08:08 +0000

I made this airsoft robot. It is controlled with a joystick that is connected to my computer. Not that much info needed to say, so here is the video. Below are some pictures also of the robot. It is controlled with a roboduino mcu, and a transistor board I made to turn the airsoft gun on and off.

Pictures:

Search and Resue Project

David Offerman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:01:12 +0000

I got started on a new project a week or so ago, the goal at first is to follow me around my neighborhood (just for fun). After that it will do a search and rescue task, in the woods and urban enviorments. As of this post, I have the chassis made (still a few problems), the color tracking code finished (written in processing 1.0) and have some other stuff hooked up (as seen in pictures below)

So what is in this robot?

Well, we are having a whole computer in it. The computer is doing all the image tracking, maping, and much more. The specs of the computer is a 2.0 ghz cpu, 1gb ram, and a unknown video card. I know that is over kill for what it has to do, but I had the parts in my closet, so why not?

What am I going to add:

I am going to add 1 ultrasonic rage finder, so it can figure out how close it is to the object it is following, I am adding a few tempurature features in the robot to make sure it stays cool and doesn’t over heat.

Pictures:

I am back

David Offerman — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:46:44 +0000

I have been gone doing other stuff such as working on my computers, school, working on a few computer programs and tons of website jobs. So now I am back to build robots. If anyone has any ideas for me to build I will do my best to do it if it is a cheap enough project. If it is more on the higher cost donates will help. So in the next few days/weeks I will be updating this site.

Sudo TV – A robot tv remote

David Offerman — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:07:08 +0000

I got really tired of not having a remote for my tv. And I was really to lazy to go out and buy one when I had the parts to make one that I could turn on and off my tv though terminal. So this weekend I got to work and made a simple design, a servo that would push the on button. I than added my bluesmirf so it would be wireless. Now I can just type in terminal sudo tv on, or sudo tv off. It worked ok until I realized I would still have to turn the robot on and off. Well I thought I would share that simple robot with you. You can see pictures below.

Humanoid Project – Review

David Offerman — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:25:17 +0000

This is a review of what I have so far on the Humanoid Project.

Specs:

Roboduino MCU

2x HS-311 Servos

2x Wheels

5x 9g mini Servo’s

Wood, Plastic, screws, bolts and nuts

Start

I started this with just the sides, top and had the 2 HS-311 drive servos on the side. That didn’t do much so I had to keep on building, I built the front and bottom. Since my robot couldn’t balance I added a 3rd wheel to the back from my Offy Bot robot.

Moving

I set up controls for my robot to move using W A S D or the basic gaming keyboard controls. Since that wasn’t fun enough, I coded a program so I could use my joystick to drive it, I set my justsick axis to those letters so I could drive it around.

The Arms

I cut 2 more holes, one on each side, for the arms. The arms can go up and down using the servo atttached to the chassis, than it can turn side to side by the servo attached to the servo that moves up and down.

As you can see, the arms do not touch the ground, and the ends of the arms are angled at 45 degrees. They are angled at 45 degrees so they can touch each other so it can pick up what it needs to. They don’t touch the ground because it would have hit the wheels, the ground and much more and would of caused to many problems.

What is going to be added

I am adding bluetooth so it will be wireless. I am also adding a spy camera for the eye’s the data will than be sent to my computer, a program will process what is going on, and send it back to the robot. Sonar is another thing I will be adding. I will have 2 ultrasonic range finders on each side of the head acting like ears. I will than have a program on my robot so if it sense something coming closer and closer, on the program the side it senses the movement will blink, so I can look at it. The last thing I plan on adding is voice. This will be done using Wave Shield and a old computer speaker that I take apart.

Autonomous

This is when the robot can think on its own. As of right now it is all manual controlled and I am not a big fan of that. Once I get all my parts such as the vision, bluetooth, range finders I will set it up to be autonomous also. It will be autonomous when there is no serial connecction, serial connection is wired or wireless from my computer to the robot, so if I don’t connect to my robot, and it has power, it will think on its own.

Humanoid Project – Arms

David Offerman — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 14:01:49 +0000

The Humanoid Project is going by really fast, I just finished mounting the servo’s for the arms. (pictures below). It uses 2 mini 9g servo’s one of them moves the arm up and down, the other will turn it side to side so it is more realistic. The point for the arms is to pick up items, wave to people, lift it’s self up when it falls and much more. A video of the arms should be done in a few days, I didn’t have time last night to make one.

Humanoid Project – To do list

David Offerman — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:33:50 +0000

So right now I have wired movement from a joystick for the robot, almost have the arms and than a simple IR Range Finder. I am going to do the following

1) Replace IR Range Finder with vision

2) Add Ultrasonic Range Finder for the ears

3) Add bluetooth so movement is wireless (Product is in RMA right now)

When I get my bluetooth back I will have an updated post and video, stay tunned in so you can see how this Humanoid Project is going along.