Tiny robot family

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These three little autonomous vehicles have a lot of similarities such as controller, battery and movement mechanism, and they all percieve the world through photo-transistor eyes. But they are all distinct designs with different capabilities and behaviors. They are the first members of a growing family of miniature robots that I have been playing with off and on for a long time

A key aspect of their design is at least one photo-transistor eye and one controlled LED. This allows them to interact in a meaningful way. Depending on how they are programmed, this could be as complex as data transmission between bots or as simple as interfering with the sight of other bots. The resulting interaction would also depend on the type of bots. For example, the eyes of robot 1 point downward to scan the surface, while robot 3 only looks forward.

At this point I have not programmed them for any complex interaction. Their main behavioral features are thus:

Robot 1 - Has left and right eyes looking down. Can detect lightness patterns on the ground. Here is a video of it acting as a line follower.

Robot 2 - Has one downward eye and one forward. Controlls a group of LEDs around its perimiter. It can see the lightness of the ground and look forward. It can also signal in all directions with the LEDs.

Robot 3 - Has one eye looking forward and two separately controlled LEDs pointing about 45 degrees to either side. It is supposed to be able to detect obstacles and determine which direction to turn to avoid them. I am still developing this feature.

The hardware:
The controller could be any of the 8-pin ATtinys. I have used the tiny85 because that's what I had on hand. I have considered a version based on the ATtiny10, but haven't gotten around to that. The batteries are LIR2032 rechargeable lithium coin cells that I pulled out of some solar key chain lights from the 100yen shop(dollar store). They don't last very long between charges, but I'm not planning on spending much money for fancy new batteries.
Here is the underside of each one.

You can see the 2N7002K mosfet transistors for driving the motors. There are also various resistors, capacitors and LEDs. The schematics are here:

The software:
At this point, the software is very simple, but it is easy to add another behavioral pattern in the code since the main loop simply calls a behavior function. Robot 1 has a line following bahavior. Robot 2 scans the ground and can signal to other robots in the area. Robot 3 avoids obstacles(still working on that one). I would be willing to upload the current code if requested, but since it is continually changing and far from complete, I won't put it here just yet.

If I make new robots, videos, changes etc. I will post a log here about it.

Components

1 × ATtiny85 Microprocessors, Microcontrollers, DSPs / ARM, RISC-Based Microcontrollers

2 × 2N7002K MOSFET Discrete Semiconductors / Transistors, MOSFETs, FETs, IGBTs

2 × small motors from andromedabots

1 × some red LEDs

1 × some ASDL-6620 phototransistors

Project Logs

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Updated code for line follower

shlonkin • 09/07/2014 at 12:14 • 0 comments

Here is the line following code for robot 1 on Github.

Robot1.ino - Arduino version can be used directly in Arduino
Robot1.cpp - c++ version, but it still uses Arduino libraries

If there are any questions or requests, let me know.

Some requested code

shlonkin • 05/20/2014 at 05:41 • 0 comments

This log is now obsolete. See the newer log containing code.

Discussions

APBurner wrote 07/05/2014 at 03:55

What are you using for wheels. I see something red on the end of the shaft but can't tell what it is.

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shlonkin wrote 07/16/2014 at 22:21

Sorry this reply is so late. It is a piece of wire insulation from 0.6mm(22AWG) wire. It just happened to fit perfectly.

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ZaidPirwani wrote 07/03/2014 at 18:27

so i just ordered

10x ATTiny85s for $10.0 from http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-10PCS-Original-Integrated-circuit-parts-ATTINY85-ATTINY85-20SU/827307420.html

10x Pager Motors for $8.30 from http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5pcs-4-2V-46000RPM-6x14mm-Coreless-DC-Motor-Strong-magnetic-high-speed-for-helicopter-model-aircraft/1679522733.html

the rest i will be able to buy locally and at cheaper rates, only these 2 I need to import - what about the battery..???

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shlonkin wrote 07/04/2014 at 14:01

I'm using LIR2032 rechargeable coin cells that I pulled out of some dollar store keychain lights. You could use whatever is most convenient for you.

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ianlee74 wrote 06/29/2014 at 23:06

I love these! In fact, I could see a whole community built around creating infinite variations of these. Please put all your design & source files on GitHub so we can start playing together. Perhaps start a Google Group forum? We're always looking for cheap projects to use for teaching/training kids & user groups and these are just perfect. We can use them as tools for so many different topics including:
- Robotics (of course!)
- Arduino & other programming topics
- PCB design (very small PCB that can be created during a 1 hr demo).
- Motor Control
- Sensors

Perhaps you define a standard size & shape that has to be followed and the challenge then is to see what people can do in that small of a space. Of course, it needs a catchy name too.

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ianlee74 wrote 06/29/2014 at 23:07

Also, how are you currently programming them? Do you remove the ATTiny85 and use a separate programmer or is there something onboard? Is the header for charging the battery?

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shlonkin wrote 06/30/2014 at 10:51

If someone had a real interest in this, I would love to support it. I'm often putting together robots that are as simple and cheap as possible. I want to come up with something that even young children could make for just a few dollars(I'm a kindergarten teacher). The great thing about such a simple device is that there is no need for things like design files. As for the code, I would be happy to share, but you have to write your own to understand what's happening.
To program them I have to remove the chip and stick it in a breadboard. I would rather program it in place, but the rest of the circuit would interfere. The two pin header is for connecting the battery. It is a coin cell that is not shown in the pictures because it would cover the whole thing.

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srainsdon wrote 06/29/2014 at 23:02

A wifi finder would be cool

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Richard Kutina (kutis) wrote 06/29/2014 at 16:01

I don't wanna bitch much, but why are all the LED's in those schematics the wrong way around?

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Richard Kutina (kutis) wrote 06/29/2014 at 16:02

ok, the one in the first schematic isn't...

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shlonkin wrote 06/30/2014 at 10:30

Oh man, you're right. That's embarrassing. That's one danger of hastily copying and pasting.

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zakqwy wrote 06/10/2014 at 12:04

Have you thought about other cheap-o sensors? Maybe an RTD to sense relative temperature and seek hot areas? Or a CdS cell (or other analog light sensor) to avoid/look for light?

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shlonkin wrote 06/10/2014 at 12:24

Yeah, various sensors would be interesting to try. The reason I chose these was so the robots could interact somehow. They can detect the light from other robots. Sadly my life has become far too busy to spend more time on this project, but I may get around to it again someday.

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denizece2005 wrote 05/15/2014 at 23:42

Love these robots. I am just starting out to make my projects and want to give a try to something like these. Would you mind sharing the current software you are using, even if it is incomplete?

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shlonkin wrote 05/16/2014 at 07:53

Sure. I'll find some time tonight or tomorrow to clean some up and post it.

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shlonkin wrote 05/20/2014 at 05:43

OK, the code is posted in the log above. Enjoy.

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The Big One wrote 05/03/2014 at 20:18

Hey, would you happen to have a link to the eBay store that you found these at (or even better, the actual item link)? I couldn't find the store when searching by name, and I previously could not find any good deals on pager motors (they were all something like $5 for a single one!) I did end up ordering some small hobby motors for larger robots with my kids, but pager motors would be ideal for really small bots like your (very awesome) design.

Cheers

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shlonkin wrote 05/03/2014 at 23:32

http://andromedabots.com/motors.html
It's not the ebay store, but the shop's website. They are $1.30 each, but shipping may be the expensive part.

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The Big One wrote 05/03/2014 at 23:33

Thanks!

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zakqwy wrote 05/02/2014 at 00:22

Let me know if you need a hand with PCB stuff. I've been working on a few things with SMD ATtiny44as and recently had some boards fabbed; drop me a note if you want any help with KiCAD and such.

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shlonkin wrote 05/02/2014 at 08:41

Thanks for the offer. What have you been making with those ATtinys?
I've designed some boards for these in Eagle, but I haven't made enough concrete plans or tested enough to justify getting them fabbed. On the other hand, making the boards myself is half the fun.

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zakqwy wrote 05/02/2014 at 12:46

Mostly just small dedicated I/O boards for handling serial data or flashing LEDs (replying to your comment below, not quite sure how to do get this one below yours). I ended up outsourcing the board fabrication rather than getting an etch setup put together at home; also, that meant that I didn't have to worry about solder mask, which helped the toaster oven reflow process significantly. For small quantities, places like OSH Park or other small-run outfits might be good.

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glofishing wrote 04/07/2014 at 19:12

This is a cool project. I could see highschoolers programming these things to play soccer. What's the total cost for one of these? I could see potential education market for these if they were more modular like legos. Razor and blades type model where you get the basic unit for $10 but the add ons cost $10...

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shlonkin wrote 04/08/2014 at 10:46

They were each between 500 and 550 yen(a little over $5). It would be very easy to make a cheap, simple kit. The only tricky part is gluing the motors in the right position, but if you made a plastic clip it would be a snap, literally. Someone with a 3D printer and the motivation to design a customizable, modular pcb could make a really cool educational toy.

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jaromir.sukuba wrote 03/22/2014 at 21:31

Nice robots. By the way, what is your work procedure for removing the unbalaced weight from motor shaft?

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shlonkin wrote 03/23/2014 at 00:24

Thank you. I tried various methods to remove weights, but finally gave up. I bought these motors without weights on ebay. They came from a shop called "Andromeda Robots" in Ukraine I think. They were pretty cheap and good quality. I recommend them.

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other wrote 04/28/2014 at 21:36

I have had luck with putting them in a vise so that you are squeezing the weight the long way then using a pair of needle nose pliers to hold a very short section of piano wire over the shaft and hitting that with a hammer. That doesn't damage the motor.

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Tiny robot family

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Updated code for line follower

Some requested code

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