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0 0 10 . 7 4 $ A D A N A C 0 5 . 5 $ 71486 02422 . $5.50US $7.00CAN S . 0 U CoverNews_Layout 1 9/4/2012 9:03 PM Page 1 Vol. 10 No. 10 SERVO MAGAZINE TROUBLESHOOTING ARDUINOBOTS • WEDGIE • QUADCOPTER • NEMO10 • ROBOT CONTROL October 2012 Full Page_Full Page.qxd 8/7/2012 11:57 AM Page 2 RUBBER TREADS STANDOFFS ROBOT CONTROLLER GEARMOTORS MOTOR/ METAL POLOLU.COM! ORDER AT NEEDED: LASER-CUT CHASSIS!! SHARP DISTANCE SENSORS GEARMOTOR METAL ORANGUTAN CONTROLLER SIMPLE MOTOR CONTROLLER ! CODE TREX JR CONTROLLER USE COUPON SERVO383 ACCELEROMETER? ? ORDER AT POLOLU.COM! NEEDED: LASER-CUT PIECES SHARP SENSORS? SERVOS JRK CONTROLLER? CHECK OUT SMC? USE COUPON CODE! ROBOT876 Take your design from idea to reality Engage Your Brain www.pololu.com TOC SV Oct12.qxd 9/4/2012 2:57 PM Page 4 10.2012 VOL. 10 NO. 10 Columns 08 Robytes by Jeff Eckert Stimulating Robot Tidbits 10 GeerHead by David Geer Collaborating With Hubo 14 Ask Mr. Roboto by Dennis Clark Your Problems Solved Here 74 Then and Now by Tom Carroll The Many Ways to Control a Robot Departments PAGE 10 06 Mind/Iron 20 Events The Combat Zone... Calendar 21 Showcase 32 BUILD REPORT: Testing the Prototype: Klazo — 22 New Products My 1 lb Drumbot From 26 Bots in Brief Kitbots.com 66 SERVO 34 Upcoming Events Webstore 80 Robo-Links 35 Clash of the Bots 3 80 Advertiser’s 38 The History of Robot Combat: Index PAGE 26 Robot Battles at Dragon*Con SERVO Magazine (ISSN 1546-0592/CDN Pub Agree#40702530) is published monthly for $24.95 per year by T & L Publications,Inc., 430 Princeland Court, Corona, CA 92879. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT CORONA, CA AND AT ADDITIONAL ENTRY MAILING OFFICES. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to SERVO Magazine, P.O. Box 15277, North Hollywood, CA 91615 or Station A, P.O. Box 54,Windsor ON N9A 6J5; [email protected] 4 SERVO 10.2012 TOC SV Oct12.qxd 9/4/2012 2:58 PM Page 5 In This Issue ... PAGE 42 42 Give Yourself a Wedgie! 64 The ASABE Student by Zachary Lytle Robotics Competition A wedge robot is a simple and durable design, by R. Steven Rainwater and is the perfect platform for your first bot. Each year, the American Follow these construction details to build Society of Agricultural one for yourself. & Biological Engineers hosts a student contest 50 Finding NEMO10 which has a different by Fred Eady agricultural theme. Every microcontroller that exists can be This year, participants instructed to produce an RS-232 data stream. had to navigate a scale However, a microcontroller may not be robust model of a feedlot. enough to handle a TCP/IP stack. If your robotic device can speak RS-232, the NEMO10 can be used to translate the resultant RS-232 data stream into a TCP/IP packet. 69 Parallax Elev-8 Quadcopter — Part 2: 58 Troubleshooting The Electronics Setup Tips and Tricks by Bryan Bergeron How to Keep Things From Going Take a look at the testing and setup of this Wrong With Your Arduino-based Bot flying robotics platform, including integration by Gordon McComb with an R/C transmitter and receiver, the Not sure where to start when you need to selection and care of Li-Po batteries, plus the diagnose a problem? This guide will help! never-ending task of maintenance. SERVO 10.2012 5 Mind-Iron - Oct 12.qxd 9/4/2012 2:40 PM Page 6 FOR THE ROBOT ERVO Mind / Iron INNOVATOR Published Monthly By by Bryan Bergeron, Editor T & L Publications, Inc. 430 Princeland Ct., Corona, CA 92879-1300 (951) 371-8497 FAX (951) 371-3052 Platforms Webstore Only 1-800-783-4624 www.servomagazine.com he pioneers in robotics faced and overcame numerous challenges. For example, if they wanted to develop, say, a new navigation Subscriptions T Toll Free 1-877-525-2539 algorithm, they had to first build a hardware platform. They couldn’t Outside US 1-818-487-4545 simply go online and decide between dozens of off-the-shelf flying, P.O. Box 15277, N. Hollywood, CA 91615 swimming, crawling, and walking robotics platforms. PUBLISHER Today, the issues are affordability, functionality, popularity, and Larry Lemieux support — largely in that order. Sometimes this isn’t the best order of [email protected] consideration, however. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER/ I’ve gone through my share of commercial platforms including VP OF SALES/MARKETING various forms of the Parallax BoeBot, a six legged crawler and arm from Robin Lemieux CrustCrawler, at least two roamers from a now-defunct company, arms [email protected] from Trossen Robotics and Lynxmotion, and flying platforms from EDITOR Parallax, DIYDrones, and a few offshore companies. Some have been Bryan Bergeron great time savers, and a few have been time sinks. [email protected] The two carpet roamers (from a company I can’t recall) were time CONTRIBUTING EDITORS sinks because, well, the company is defunct. That means no technical Jeff Eckert Jenn Eckert Tom Carroll David Geer support, no spare parts, and no user community. It’s hard to avoid this Dennis Clark R. Steven Rainwater sort of endgame unless you know something about the company. Kevin Berry Michael Jeffries The issues of affordability and functionality are easily quantified. Morgan Berry Fred Eady Twenty minutes on the Web will reveal the best price, and user reviews Gordon McComb Zachary Lytle are great for assessing functionality. The Web is also a great tool for Andrea Suarez assessing the popularity of a platform. Look for articles and postings CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT on YouTube to give you an indication of whether you’re considering a [email protected] dinosaur or a hot platform. MARKETING COORDINATOR The one area in which I’ve stumbled lately is support. In these WEBSTORE cost-cutting times, it’s common to offload support to a user forum. Brian Kirkpatrick Sometimes these are fantastic responsive resources. Other times, it’s a [email protected] pool of questions with no answers. Plus, it’s difficult to determine the WEB CONTENT level of support until you have a specific problem. I’ve found this most Michael Kaudze commonly associated with open source software. [email protected] For example, I’m working on a robotics book and needed a ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT platform to illustrate some robotics principles. I identified two vendors Debbie Stauffacher of popular platforms and purchased the platform with the best PRODUCTION/GRAPHICS specifications and apparently the greatest popularity among Sean Lemieux experimenters. Unfortunately, the software was open source and not Copyright 2012 by supported by the hardware vendor. I wasted days trolling through the T & L Publications, Inc. forums looking for an answer to an interface question without luck. All Rights Reserved The forum leader was away on vacation or grad school, or both All advertising is subject to publisher’s approval. apparently. We are not responsible for mistakes, misprints, In the end, I ordered the somewhat dated hardware platform with or typographical errors. SERVO Magazine assumes a commercial software library, and was up and running in minutes. no responsibility for the availability or condition of advertised items or for the honesty of the There was a professionally edited and indexed user manual online and advertiser. The publisher makes no claims for the other support that you’d expect for a commercial product. I had to give legality of any item advertised in SERVO.This is the up the bleeding edge hardware, but it wouldn’t have been fair to sole responsibility of the advertiser.Advertisers and readers to feature a cool looking but inoperative robot. their agencies agree to indemnify and protect the I’m not suggesting that all open source software and hardware is publisher from any and all claims, action, or expense arising from advertising placed in SERVO. Please suspect — I’m a fan of both. I am suggesting that you take a look at send all editorial correspondence, UPS, overnight who or what is behind the product. Parallax, for example, sells an open mail, and artwork to: 430 Princeland Court, source quadcopter, and both the hardware and Propeller software are Corona, CA 92879. amply documented and professionally supported. It’s the same with the Printed in the USA on SFI & FSC stock. 6 SERVO 10.2012 Mind-Iron - Oct 12.qxd 9/4/2012 1:56 PM Page 7 open source hardware and Arduino software from DIYDrones. Bottom line is that you have to do your homework on the quality of support available when you’re considering a commercial robotics platform. If you have lots of free time and enjoy debugging hardware and software, then support may not be an issue. You’ll probably become a super-user, The easiest providing much needed advice on the user forums. However, if you’re way to go looking for a platform as a means to your real interest in robotics, wireless… then make certain support is right up there with the technical specifications when you’re making a purchase decision. SV …especially if you use this world-leading microprocessor. Got an MSP430-based product that you’re ready to take into the wireless realm? Based on proven Texas Instruments low-power RF chips, Anaren Integrated Radio (AIR) modules offer: > Industry’s easiest, most cost- effective RF implementation > Low-power RF solution > Deployment with virtually no RF engineering experience required > Tiny, common footprints > Pre-certifi cation/compliance to FCC, IC & ETSI (as applicable) To learn more, write [email protected], visit STARTING AT www.anaren.com/air, $ 99 9 or scan the QR code FOR 10K OR with your smart phone.