Click on the image at left for a larger view <---------------------------------------------------------- Also, Here is a MPG movie of Xbot in action: Movie 1 (500kb) You can hear the two tones produced with either right or left impacts on the bumpers, and when the robot gets directly under the brightest part of our kitchen light, the melody starts playing until it gets into the dark again.
Here is our first robot constructed with the Lego Mindstorms kit. The robot has a functional front bumper which have extensions to guard against impacts over a wider area. Ive also added the light sensor, which looks upward, and when the level is bright sunlight, the robot will play a series of notes while it is still moving. The robot occasionally gets stuck in corners, but the software is pretty simplistic, and its a minor inconvenience at best.
Programming the RCX with the drag-a-block seems like a great idea, but the software lacks the tools or sensors to really get serious. But the main purpose here is to contstruct prototypes of new mechanical designs to develop into fully autonomous PIC controlled robots in the future. Its a lot of fun making a complete robot in a matter of hours, and seeing it work much more rapidly than the weeks it takes to develop a microcontroller based conventional architecture robot. Lets see where we head with this, at least I willl now understand the crazy cult that exists with these mindstorms kits!
