Stair-climbing Robot Built From R/C Car Parts

dpa writes "The ability to climb and descend stairs (5M mpg) is one of the unexpected behaviors of this new home-brew off-road autonomous robot platform. The robot has a custom chassis and uses standard suspension and drive components scavanged from old R/C monster trucks. Here is a link to the build log, and here is a link to a hi-res version of the video (20M mpg)."

Comments

obligatory quote from Family Guy

[Man in Spandex]

Firebug: Gooooood, goooood

Exactly what I did

[xintegerx]

I made the same thing but better in 2001, but MUCH COOLER THAN THIS. It was a Lego Robotics "Dual-Diode Stairwalker", as I named it. It had 4 wheels, not six, about the same size as those in the mpeg. However, the school stair steps were twice as tall as that, so the middle of it would get stuck against the step half-way up. As well, going down the stairs was a very messy endeavor (remember, it was made of all Legos.) Yet, on those stairs in the video, it would have worked just fine.

However, the cool thing was this: The robot (monster-truck-like vehicle) had a light sensor in the front, and one in the back. I programmed it so that if you shone a flashlight on the back, it moved forward (i.e. 'pushing' it with the light). If you shone a flashlight on the forward of the truck, it went toward you (i.e. 'pulling' it with the light.) Much cooler than using wired or wireless radio. Oh, and when there was no light shining at either end, it would spin in place, about 1 rotation per 2 seconds. The light sensors were at 45 degrees so you could point the light at them standing up. Simply walk behind and shine the light at it, and it will move forward in a straight line. If you want it to turn to the left, either walk infront of it (causing it to lose the light and start spinning) and then when you're in position point the light at it as the front of it is coming into view and it will come toward you, thus following you. Or, you can push it along by walking to the spot *behind* where you want it to go, wait a second for the back to face you, and shine the light. It will notice and start moving away from you. That was pretty fun. It was great for the 10 minutes before I had to take it all apart, finally getting that (a final for a class) to work, to put the pieces of away. But, before that, after the teacher saw it, he had me 'drive' my lego dual-diode thing to the superintendent's office and show it around for 5 minutes. Heck, it was their money they were funding the class with. Man, I was the man.