Magenicon - Robotics Studio Project
So I'm almost finished building the Robot and before I start writing code, I figure I should give this thing a name. I thought of names for awhile it came to me when I was speaking with some one about Magenic and how we refer to each other as Magenicons. I sounds very robotics ... so that's the name.
Right now the robot has the following software:
Windows Vista Ultimate
SQL Server 2005 Express
Visual Studio Team Suite
Robotics Studio 1.5
Speech Server 2007
I bet you may be asking...Spech Server?!? Well this robot will run Speech Server for out bound calls. The idea is that I will have a Windows application that uses SAPI, that someone can say.."I am here to see Michael Dunn". It will then use Speech Server to call my office and tell me, "Someone is here to see you". I then can reply, "Bring them to my office" At that time it will use SAPI TTS to tell them to "follow me" and bring them to my office and then return to it's starting location.
Yea, I know I could have Speech Server installed on another server and this robot could just have an application to place a call in the queue for the other server to call, but right now I it's on the robot it self. At 1Ghz and 1GB of RAM, I won't be doing a lot of calls, and being installed on Vista I have a 2 port limitation anyways but it works for what I'm trying to do.
I had to buy a few more parts since my first post.
Additonal Parts List:
Logictech USB Webcam with microphone
Generic Lithion Ion Battery for Motors (Bought from Ebay - Hong Kong)
iRecharge Universal Laptop Battery for the PicoITX motherboard.
Polycarbonite sheets
Misc Screws
Cable Ties
Phidgets 8/8/8/8 with LCD
5 Volt, 1.5 Amp Voltage Regulator
Voltage Regulator Breakout Board
USB Hub
Power button for the motherboard
IR Range Detector Senor
New Drill and Jigsaw
Assembly and Pictures
After first putting together the tracked chassis for the base, the Polycarbonite was pre cut for electonic boards I wasn't going to use. So I had to buy more and recut the base, so I cut more and built two more tiers on top of that.
I found a Lithum Ion 12v battery on Ebay for $20 from some place in Hong Kong which was smaller than my NiMH battery I had orginally intended on using. Next, I realized that using the on motherboard 4GB Flash drive, wouldn't be enough for Vista, so I bought a 60 GB Laptop hard drive to use. I then needed to find a universal laptop battery that was small enough to fit on here, but powerful enough to keep this thing running for a couple of hours. I found the perfect one called iRecharge at RadioShack. for $99. Now I needed a Voltage Regulator with a breakout board (as I can't cut with a Jig saw, let alone solder anything) so that my 12v battery didn't ruin my motors.
At this point I have already gone way out of budget, I went ahead and bought a Phidget 8/8/8 with LCD text screen (Not added yet) and a Logictech Web cam, with a microphone on it.
So here are the initial pictures, I'm finalizing it this weekend so it will change slightly.
PicoITX and parts - This motherboard is @#$#@% small!
Phidgets 8/8/8/8 and Phidgets MotorLV control boards
Assembly tracked chassis with some of the electronics
3rd and 4th tiers with electronics
Front view - almost finished
I eventually need to create a navigation system, right now I'm thinking RFID, but we will see. The fun really starts now as I need to start programming this thing. Let me say this Robotics Studio is freaking hard! I can't wait for Sara to finish the book on it!