Over the summer, I’ve been working on restructuring much of the robot—both to reduce its physical size and to reduce its power requirements.
A short (and incomplete) list of changes:
- Switch from old laptop motherboard to an Artigo pico-itx computer
- Move the Kinect down—empirical data shows that it does not need to be placed very high to get useful readings
- Elevate the base (by using bigger wheels): I’ve had troubles getting over bumps due to low ground clearance
- Change microcontrollers from an ATMega328P to a ATMega2560
- Add an LCD for quick feedback on important things like battery voltage and motor speed
Source code is available for download—there’s a Git repository at tpmo.im/robot.git.
git clone git://tpmo.im/robot.git
Alternatively, browse the repository over the internet here
Pictures:
Replaced the computer and moved the kinect. It's a lot smaller now!
