One of the most basic positioning elements of autonomous robotics is the encoder. These are attached to rotating points such as arm joints and wheel axles in order to determine distance of movement. We sell an array of our IG32, IG42, and IG52 gear motors with a hall-effect encoder option. How do they work? The picture above is a simple diagram of the hall-effect encoder found on the back of our m...
Read More »
Today for Tech Thursday we are discussing chain coupling for wheeled robots. Chain coupling allows for a better 4WD system even if you are already using a motor per wheel. This is because each wheel is powered by two motors. It won’t make a difference if you are driving on level terrain but if you start driving in rougher terrain where a wheel might come off of the ground it will help immensely. W...
Read More »
System Architecture Introduction: Yes I know, why automate a chicken coop? Well we just wanted to do a starter home automation project and one thing led to another and now I have the fanciest chicken coop around. Spoiled chickens lay good eggs… It also is because I am a little lazy and don’t want to get up every morning to let the chickens out and go out each night to close the coop. S...
Read More »
Lately we have been hard at work developing a new robotic beer servant named Keg-a-Droid; you can check out our Kickstarter campaign. Keg-a-droid is a remote controlled, mobile robot equipped with a keg and tap system and this week’s Tech Thursday will demonstrate some components of the beer dispensing control system. More specifically, this is the test setup we used to calibrate our flowmeter out...
Read More »
PulsedLight’s LiDAR-Lite (TS-070-001) is a compact and high performance distance measurement sensor. The small size and light weight makes it an ideal positioning sensor in mobile robotic applications. The sensor also boasts an incredibly wide operating range. It can accurately measure from about 5cm all the way up to 40 meters! This makes the sensor great for both precision and distance mea...
Read More »
Home automation is a hot topic these days. In this week’s Tech Thursday I will show you how to deploy a simple motion sensor and use it to set the position of a servo. For motion detection I will be using our Mini PIR motion detector module (TE-232-805) as our detector, and an Arduino Uno and a Pololu Maestro6 for our controls. The Pololu Maestro provides a simple and easy way to control mul...
Read More »
Pneumatics opens up a world of possibilities when it comes to robotics. You could write a book on applications of pneumatics but for now we will start with the basics. Knowing what you need is sometimes harder than knowing how it works. For this example we are going to control an air cylinder extend and return slowly. We will be using a switch to turn on a solenoid valve and exhaust valves to cont...
Read More »
PID control (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) is a major building block of a robotic system. It provides a straight-forward method to precisely control a motor to perform a pre-determined action without the need for direct human control to adjust the machine. PID control is an algorithm that uses a determined error that can be used calculate the necessary motor response to achieve your task. Open...
Read More »
We recently listed three arms for sale on the website as stand-alone items. Two of them are heavy-duty arms that we use with our tactical robots. One of these is our HD2 Multi-Axis Arm (TP-702-000), a large 5-axis arm that we use with our HD2-S Mastiff. The other is our LT2 Multi-Axis Arm (TP-701-000), a smaller 4-axis arm that we use on our LT2-F Bulldog. The third arm we listed is the Dagu 6DOF ...
Read More »
With many of our projects, we set them up with simple RC control for initial testing. This lets us verify the robot’s mechanical features and power distribution are functioning properly before implementing more advanced control methods and/or autonomy. We tend use Spektrum brand remotes and receivers for their ease of use and reliability. Depending on the receiver they can bind two different...
Read More »