moverstreet's Blog

I am sad to report that interest in my robot and anything to do about humanoid robots in the KC area has seemed to have died down to nothing. After the article in the KC Star and the local competition put on by The KC Robotics’ Society, I got e-mails, phone calls and lots of questions about the best humanoid to buy. I talked to about 3 or 4 people who seemed very interested in buying a humanoid robot at the competition. I was also hoping that they would show up at the next KC Robotics’ Society meeting. Only four new people from the competition showed up at the meeting and none of them where the people I talked to the most! I am a little sad and frustrated. It just does not seem like there will ever be much interest in humanoid robots in the KC area. My dreams of a local competition and hopes to find ways for my hobby to pay for itself or sponsorships will have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future. I may even have to put off buying a new robot until next year?

Right now I am thinking about going with the Robotis platform and the Dynnamixel servos for my next robot. The Dynamixal has faster and higher torque servos than Hitec. The robot is programmed in C. This is a video I toke at the Robogames. The robot can be built with the new advanced kit due out by the end of the year. Rumor is that it will sale for around 1,000 dollars.

Video

My last big frustration with Hitec is RoboBasic. The language is great for beginners in Robotics but it is a limited language. There are commands that are in other languages that are not supported by RoboBasic. The biggest problem that I have with it is that the compiler does not work in Vista. The problem is that the compiler was written in VB6 and Vista does not support it. Vista supports VB.net only. It is getting harder and harder to find new computers with XP on them and Windows 7 will be out next year. I doubt that Windows 7 will support VB 6 either. I am not sure what Hitec is thinking. How will they get new people interested in Robotics and to buy their robot when the complier will not work on new PCs?

Boomer’s retirement is close at hand. It is sad for me to say this but Boomer’s competitive days are numbered. I don’t know what I can do to improve him much more. The biggest problem is servo torque and speed. The standard servo’s that come with the Robonova-1 (HSR-8498HB) are an old design with limited speed and torque compared to newer robotic servos that are coming out on the market. I was hoping that the new replacement servos for the Robonova-1 that just came out the HSR-5498SG would help. I have found them to be lacking. Before Robogames, I replaced three of each of the leg servos with the HSR-5498SG. In side by side comparisons between my robot and other robonovas I saw very little difference.

*Robobasic is very limited programming language. Complier will not work in vista.*

One of the most important things that I discovered was that in robotic competitions you need more than one battery! Have one battery in the robot and the other charging. You never want to find yourself in the middle of a competition only to have the battery run out of power. I like to have three or four that way you always have a fully charged battery. The first thing you do when you show up at a competition is to start charging your batteries. The goal is to have at lest one battery fully charged at all times. This may not seem important but just wait until your robot falls down and then it can’t get up because it does not have enough power!

Controlling your robot with a video game remote controller or something similar is the way to go. You can get by with PC control or IR remote control in some competitions. The problem you run into is that you are looking at the PC or the IR remote control more than you are looking at your robot or what is going on around them. Must people are already use to looking at a TV or computer monitor while pushing buttons on a game controller. So it comes natural for most people to control their robot using these way. The most important thing to do is to practice, practice and practice more. The less you have to think about what button to push the better. The other side benefit is that there is also less interference with the signal sent by most game controllers. I have been happy with my PS2 game controller so far. They are cheap and easy to use. The only problem that I have ran into is that you must make sure that the receiver and the controller or synced-up before you start.   

The new Robogame's metal, is the blue metal around his neck.

I have two upgrades that I will work on for Robogames.

1. I am going to put the gripping tape that they put on the top of skateboards on the soles of Boomers feet. I am trying to increase the traction on slick surfaces.

2. I noticed that my front to back gyro only uses two of the leg servos to keep Boomer upright. I am going to upgrade only those servos to the higher torque HSR-5980SG. Those servos also have steel gears in them. I am hoping that, that upgrade will make it harder to knock Boomer down!

Link to the website.

Boomer wins first place at the 1st Hitec Cup! Check out the awesome trophy! Boomer smokes a servo when he tries to lift it!

Video 1st

Video 2nd

Video 3rd

Boomer is not ready but what else is new!

Link to the website.