Built: 2003-11-11 00:00:00
Feynman3
This is a real upgrade from Feynman 2. It\'s also my first robot written in Java.

Specs

Chassis: 80-20 Aluminum Extrusion, courtesy of my father. Acrylic from Lowes & Home Depot.
Power: (2) 33AH Batteries from Batteries Plus $100. I also created a 5 volt regulator circuit with about 5 LM7805\'s. The wiring was a large problem it involved a lot of soldering and connectors. The 12VDC switches I bought from AutoZone. The wire I purchased from Lowes and Radio Shack.
Movement: (2) Windsheild wiper motors from F-150 from junkyard $30.
(2) Victor 883 Speed Controllers. (IFI Robotics cost of $150/ea ($300 total).
Sensors: (2) Pyro 1394 Firewire Webcams
(3) Polaroid 6500 Sonar Modules
Wheel Encoder
Vector 2x Compass
CPU/OS: PC - VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX with 256MB Ram, a 20Gig HDD, and wireless 802.11b/g.
Software 100% written in Java.
IDE - Eclipse
Other Info: The proximity sensing of this robot was not as good as I first thought. It kept running into tables and it could not create maps too well. But the power and chassis was a 100% improvement over Feynman 2.
Software Info:

Other Robot Info

Some of it's new components include:

  • A new computer.
  • 2 Webcams for stereo vision.
  • Chassis of Acrylic & 80-20 Extruded Alumnum
  • Cordless via (2) 12volt 33 Amp-Hour Batteries.
  • No more drill motors via (2) Windshield Wiper Motors out of Ford F-150 Pick-Up via junkyard. (2) Victor 883 Speed Controllers.

The software is a combination of remote control via web server and autonomous algorithms all written in Java.

Some Early Attempts

I went through a lot of chassis designs until I finalized on the one you see pictured above. Here are some attempts and what I liked and did not like about them.

Here is the first base design. It was very sturdy but the middle plate kept getting in my way.
Here is the bottom of the first base design. It shows the two motors, two casters for a Diamond wheel base (which wobbles by the way) and the encoder wheel.
Here is the top of the first base design with speed controllers attached.
Here is the bottom of the first base design. It shows the a single battery where I housed the microcontroller and power distribution.
Here is a picture of Feynman 3 with a laptop attached. Although it worked well I found the VIA single board PC for $100 from an article at robots.net and it just lasted a week-end.