Make Your Own Robot

Making your own robot might be expensive, but not that tough

Ever since man made the first machine, he has dreamt of making a robot that will relieve him of his daily chores. Industrial robots have been around for a while, so have robotic vacuum cleaners, grass cutters and toys that know how to negotiate obstacles. But a robot that will really be at par with humans seems to be still some years away. This week, I will tell you the basics about robots and maybe inspire you to build one of your own.

The heart: Microprocessor and the project board



The project board is a printed circuit board (PCB) that comes with many cavities for the different processors. It is just like any other video game, but since this is hardcore electronics, a mistake means that you will land up with a burnt unit that the radio repair mechanic down the road will not be able to fix. After this your will need to choose a processor and get some chips and cables to hook all this up.

The mechanics: Servo motors



A servo is what makes the robot move. Like other motors, this too has some wires coming out and a gear on one end to connect the other mechanical parts with it. The difference here is that the servo understands movement in angles and if you want to turn the leg or the hand of your robot forward by 10 degrees you can send it a command through your programme to the microprocessor to change the angle. The more powerful the servo, the harder the work your robot will be able to do. If you plan to build a robot that can climb stairs, not only will you need the servo to lift the weight of the whole mechanics, but also to move in half a degree steps.

The senses: Sensors



Like a human can touch, feel, see, hear and smell, a robot too will need some kind of feedback of the environment around it. In case you want it to climb stairs, you will need to provide sensors in the foot that let it know that you are now touching the surface. In case you want it to turn its head the moment it hears a sound or sees a light, you will need to put in sound or light sensors. You can even put in ultrasonic sensors so that the robot can detect if it is going to bump into something and react accordingly. But all this will make the whole system more complex and you may end up needing more than one processor – maybe one each to handle the senses and mechanics.

Control: Wireless or wired



The cool toy robots started with a wired remote control that could make it jump or walk and then switched on to wireless. With the technology available now, you can choose to integrate a Wi-fi chip to command the robot over the home wireless, or a GSM chip so that you can just send it an SMS to get things done.

Bells and whistles

Remember R2D2 from Wall-E? Well, they all had their own bells and whistles, quite literally. An LED glowing on top of the head showing it is receiving programme to a horn that blows every time it has an obstacle in front, the possibilities are endless.

Programming
This is the difficult part. After the mechanics and the electronics are all in place, you need to be able to write a programme and then teach your robot to follow it. In fact, some robot kit manufacturers give you a simulator where you can actually test out the programme on your computer before you try it out on your expensive robot.
All this might seem a bit overwhelming, but if you have a knack for electronics or mechanics and love building things you will get over the fear. For those who don’t want to build from scratch, there are kits such as Robonova (hitecrobotics.com) or the Johnny 5 (lynxmotion.com), both with dealers in India. The kits will set you back a big amount of money, but then who said robots came cheap.

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The above article appeared in the Indian Express, on Sunday 13th June 2010