DragonTail The DragonTail

Transcription

1 Mobile Robot Experimenter s Platform Have a robot experiment to do? Here s a solid platform to test your ideas on! Sturdy anodized aluminum chassis Acrylic front & top plate with Arduino-compatible mount holes Continuous-rotation servo drive (no motor drivers needed) Obstacle detection touch-sensors (deluxe version kit) 5-cell AA battery pack SKU: Dlx-60130/Std Doc. Rev.: Oct 28, 2011

2 There s a need for a handy-size robot platform - not too big to be unwieldy, but large enough to carry a decent load, and strong enough to take a tumble. The DragonTail is designed to be an affordable, customizable experimental robotics platform. Being just a motorized base using continuous-rotation servos, it s a simple task to interface practically any microcontroller to make it move. The top plate is designed to be mounted with an Arduino-compatible footprint microcontroller development platform, such as the standard Arduino family, Freeduino, PICAXE-28 Project Board, and EZ-B. The front faceplate is designed to fit most sensor footprints. Features Include: Anodized aluminum chassis Continuous-rotation servo drive units Solarbotics SW Servo wheels Acrylic top-plate with cutouts for a sensor-sweeping servo and pass-through wiring ports Acrylic top-plate works with Solarbotics S.A.F.E. (Solarbotics Arduino Freeduino Enclosure) to protect your electronics in off-road environments 5-cell 'AA' Battery Pack DragonTail The DragonTail Disclaimer of Liability Solarbotics Ltd. is not responsible for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any breach of warranty, or under any legal theory, including lost profits, downtime, good-will, damage to or replacement of equipment or property, and any costs or recovering of any material or goods associated with the assembly or use of this product. Solarbotics Ltd. reserves the right to make substitutions and changes to this product without prior notice. 1

3 Parts List (A) (B) (D) (E) (C) (F) (M) (H) (I) (K) (L) (N) (O) (P) (R) (Q) (A) 1 x DragonTail aluminum chassis (B) 1 x Acrylic top plate (shown paper off) (C) 1 x Acrylic front plate (shown paper on) (D) 2 x Black Solarbotics servo wheels Sensor Parts (Deluxe Edition) (E) 1 x Caster wheel set (F) 1 x 5-AA battery pack (N) 2 x #4-40 x ½ bolts with barrel plug (O) 2 x #2 x 1/4 screws (H) 20 x #4-40 x 3/8" bolts (P) 4 x #2 x ½ screws (J) 14 x #4-40 hex nuts (Q) 2 x SWT9 lever switches (K) 6 x #4 x 1/8 nylon spacers (R) 2 x Touch sensor wires 2 x 10k resistors (not shown) (L) 2 x GWS cont. rotation servos 2 x 0.1µF capacitors (not shown) (M) 1 x Acrylic sensor mount* *included only with Deluxe Kit (SKU 60130) Tools: Assembly is quite straightforward, but you ll still need: Philips #1 screwdriver Needle-nose pliers Tape, for hard-to-hold nuts Soldering equipment (for sensor switch wiring) 2

4 Assembly - The Touch Sensors Step 1 - Do you need to do step 1?: If you re building the standard version without the touch-sensors, skip ahead to the front-plate installation. Otherwise, proceed! Experience has shown that no matter how good your eyes are, you ll still walk into a really clean plate glass door. You don t see your dog do that - they have whiskers to avoid being embarrassed in front of their human. So it is with the DragonTail touch sensors... Add these so it won t be embarrassed in front of the other robots in school. Step 2 - Mount the SWT9 Switches: Install the lever switches in the orientation shown, with the #2 x 1/2 screws going in from underneath, threading into the switch body. Step 3 - Install the wire whiskers: Using the small #2 x Step 4 - Tape nuts to Sensor Assembly: Use some tape on the top-side of the sensor assembly to fix the #4 nuts into the T-slots. Remove the tape only after the sensor plate assembly has been bolted into place. Nut 3

5 Assembly - The Touch Sensors Step 5 - (Deluxe Edition) Thread sensors through Front Panel: Gather your front parts, and remove the brown paper from the acrylic faceplate. Slide both touch sensors through the slot on the front plate. The sensors are pretty tough, so don t worry about bending them a bit to get both through. Sensors inserted through slot in front plate Front Acrylic Plate Chassis #4-40 x 3/8 Bolts and nuts Sensor Mount (Deluxe Edition) Step 6 - Bolt the Front Panel to the Chassis: Take your sensor assembly and front plate install them to the front of the DragonTail Chassis with the #4-40 x ½ bolts and nuts as shown, then remove the tape off the nuts. As the sensor mount takes up space on the inside of the chassis, the front plate has to move to the outside. The Standard DragonTail has the plate mounted on the inside for better protection. Installation for Deluxe DragonTail (front plate mounted outside chassis) Front Acrylic Plate #4-40 Nut (taped into sensor mount) Installation for Standard DragonTail (front plate mounted inside chassis) Front Acrylic Plate Sensor Mount #4-40 Nut #4-40 x 1/2 Bolt Chassis (side view) #4-40 x 1/2 Bolt Chassis (side view) 4

6 Assembly - THE Motors & Batteries Step 7 - Caster Installation: Break open the caster kit, and nut & bolt it to the underside of the chassis near the rear. Pop the bearing into the holder, and you re finished! Step 8 - Servo Motor Mounting: Using the #4-40 x 3/8 bolts and nuts (optional), mount the servo motors into the side-ports of the chassis. You will need 4 sets of nuts/bolts per servo. Bolt the servo with the output horn facing outward and toward the whiskers (sensor assembly) of the bot. Step 9 - Install the Wheels: Nothing magical here - just install the wheels to the servo motors with the small black #2x1/4 screws that come with the servo. Step 10 - Installing the Battery Pack: Use two #4-40 x 3/8 bolts to secure the battery pack to the rear of the chassis behind the servos. These holes are small enough that you will not need to use nuts underneath - the bolts will thread themselves into the holes. Arrange the battery pack so the wires are at the rear, and easiest to plug into your Arduino or other microcontroller board. 5

7 Assembly - The Top Plate Step 11 - Mounting the Top Plate: Use four #4-40 x 3/8 bolts and nuts to lock the top plate to the T-slots on the chassis. Of course, you will still want to mount a microcontroller board to it to actually make it functional, but it s always nice to test-fit everything first. We ve included 4 extra #4-40 x 3/8 bolts and #4 spacers to help you install your microcontroller board. The footprint fits most of the most popular hole-patterns (Arduino, Freeduino, PICAXE, and EZ-B have been all tested). We recommend the SB-Freeduino (has built-in power switch the Arduino does not), and a GVS Shield. Step 12 - Configuring the Touch Sensors (Deluxe Edition): The touch sensors use a simple lever switch with three pins: Common, Nomally Open and Normally Closed. We use the first two pins with a split servo extension cable 10k resistor and 0.1µF capacitor to make electronic interfacing simple and smooth. The signal out is low (ground) until activated, when it returns a high (5V) signal. Simple! Pin 2: Normally Open 0.1µF Capacitor Pin 1: Common 10k resistor Ground (Blk) Signal (Wht) Pwr (Red) 6

8 Troubleshooting & Wrap up Here s our test-bed Deluxe DragonTail, featuring a SB-Freeduino and GVS Shield, and optional microservo and Sharp Sensor. It works very well, and easily roams the offices with rare obstacle difficulties. We haven t even had to add additional sensors to the front plate (with the included extra nylon spacers)! The Arduino source-code and build list is available at our website at Visit us online for more info and cool stuff: Solarbotics Ltd. 3740D - 11A Street NE, Suite 101 Calgary, Alberta T2E 6M6 Canada Toll Free: International: +1 (403) Fax: +1 (403) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Made in Canada