What do you build when you have too much time?

[November X-ray]

(05-17-2012, 08:00 PM)Highpower Wrote: So what's the lone star state doin on a bama boy's smoker?

My "true" home is Texas, I just got stuck in Bama "temporarily" for the past 8 years!

[Highpower]

(05-18-2012, 10:31 AM)November X-ray Wrote: My "true" home is Texas, I just got stuck in Bama "temporarily" for the past 8 years!

I had a feeling that was the case.

[krv3000]

hi well i keep threatening to mack a cage for the wife

[henryarnold]

This is Leaf the Robot. He uses artificial intelligence to talk, listen, and recognize people. He can answer questions and navigate around a room without crashing into things using sonar. The Dinosaur Face is animated. His head and mouth move as he talks.
   
Leaf has 2 closed loop servo motors for differential steering for turning. The ring in the upper right is a bump sensor in case the sonar fails to see something.
   
Leaf's brain power comes from a Intel Pentium Duo Core Carputer
   
View from the bottom
   
Leaf's chassis was fabricated Erector Set style with lots of holes, screws and brackets holding it together. Leaf is fabricated from 6061 aluminum and weighs 35 pounds including a 24V 10ah battery. His run time is about 3 hours.

[EdK]

Hi Henry,

So is your Leaf functional now? Any videos you care to share?

Ed

[DaveH]

Henry,

That's neat Rather splendid

Yea, if you have a video I would also like to see it

Did you build it from scratch?

DaveH

[Mayhem]

I don't see any arms - how does she/he help out in the shop?

[ETC57]

Maybe it's equipped with a 3D cad program and provides up to date drawings on request.

At any rate I think it's cool even if all it dose is follow you around like a puppy.

Jerry.

[henryarnold]

(05-23-2012, 06:02 PM)EdAK Wrote: Hi Henry,

So is your Leaf functional now? Any videos you care to share?

Ed

Ed,

Yes, Leaf is functional. I use him to teach robotics classes. He is preprogrammed with various responses to questions. As I teach the class, I ask him a question and he answers it so it appears that he is my teaching assistant. He doesn't have the ability to follow me around like a puppy but he can wander around a room without crashing into things. If you don't talk to him, he says "I'm bored, I think I'll take a nap" and then goes to sleep. I did not design the Leaf Software. I did add on to Leaf’s personality and adapted him to help me teach my classes. The kids love Leaf. I'll try to put a video together.

I posted the pictures of Leaf because he represents one of my more elaborate machining projects. Before I had a lathe and milling machine, it was very difficult for me to build things like the Leaf chassis and to mount motors, gears and pulleys.

[henryarnold]

(05-23-2012, 07:56 PM)Mayhem Wrote: I don't see any arms - how does she/he help out in the shop?

Using arms and walking with legs in robotics is far harder than movies would lead you to believe. Creating an arm is not too difficult but adding the required vision to guide the arm to do useful tasks is very difficult and expensive. Maybe someday, but for now Leaf was a fun machining and programming project.