Firefighting robot

[shimniok]

I'm working on a prototype firefighting robot for a local competition... 44 days from now. Yeesh, lots of work left to do... This is all I have... (built entirely out of stuff I had on hand). Wish me luck. I need it! Darn thing's not even autonomous yet... servo's broken. But hey... it's red. That's gotta count for something right? :D Various posts on the firefighting build-up here (http://bot-thoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/firefighting)

http://bp3.blogger.com/_59HHJuZw_Rk/R4l_AiK6XrI/AAAAAAAAAEM/j6MesaJ6XhY/s200/Firebot_done.jpg

http://bp1.blogger.com/_59HHJuZw_Rk/R4l31CK6XoI/AAAAAAAAAD0/wq6XZj7QZZc/s320/Firebot1.jpg

[shimniok]

I made more progress on Sparky (prototype firefighter) and got him to the point of autonomy so I could do some performance testing. Only 40 days left to build the real competition robot! eek!

Here's a video I threw together:

Sparky Build & Performance Test (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F2OZPFJDkk)

[shimniok]

Only 30 days left! eek!

Here's what I've been up to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shjyukbL68k

Lots to do, such as actually starting to build the real competition robot. Sparky's been a great prototype but the final bot has to be larger to fit the fire suppression system. Hoping to install a Sharp GP2D12 IR ranger in time for the club meet tomorrow so I can work on the navigation software.

Michael

[TheDuck]

Is this for the Trinity Firefighting competition? I was there one wet, rainy year taking pictures and videos. I saw some really creative ways of detecting and attacking fires. Some rather amusing ones, too. I recall one that had a balloon attached to it. The robot would go toward the candle and the flame would pop the balloon. The balloon popping would blow out the candle! Every once in a while everybody would jump when they were testing their robot.

I also found that the heat sensors must have been very sensitive to detect those little candles. One team had a very sophisticated setup that worked extremely well in their lab. Unfortunately, the gymnasium that the competition was in was different by several degrees. It took quite some time for them to recalibrate their setup.

Good luck!

[shimniok]

One of the local Colorado clubs (Front Range Robotics) hosted a Trinity-like contested Mar 8. Maybe in a couple years we'll try for the Trinity thing :)

Anyway, I ended up decommissioning Sparky above to make way for building Pokey below:

http://bp1.blogger.com/_59HHJuZw_Rk/R951Bn8jKTI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/qfDJkviPwYQ/s400/Pokey-comp-closeup.jpg

Unfortunately he didn't do so well in the contest; I just wasn't able to devote the time to fine tuning the coding. I ran into problems detecting the candle, too. That's on the list of things to work on. Along with getting the wall following working better.

Anyway I threw together some video of the competition:

http://bot-thoughts.blogspot.com/2008/03/firefighting-video-clips.html

And if you're *really* bored, here's all the various blog posts I did in prepping for the competition. :)

http://bot-thoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/firefighting

[shimniok]

Hey, cool, Pokey made it into the most recent issue of Robot Magazine!

http://bp3.blogger.com/_59HHJuZw_Rk/SBc8arJAz_I/AAAAAAAAALc/nXBp51a2dxk/s320/Pokey_Mag.jpg

Pokey's happy about this but wants a rematch! :)

Michael

[shimniok]

Last week I got word that a new firefighting competition was scheduled for July 12! Finally, a chance at redemption for poor Pokey!

Here's what's left to do before the next competition:


Tweak the wall following code -- main source of Pokey's defeat
Gradual acceleration from a stop -- to prevent wheelies :D
Refinements to low level motion control -- better turn execution
Code up a way to get Pokey from the 3rd to 4th room
Add code to get Pokey to go home from any room
Major improvements to candle scanning, extinguishing routines
Add second fan and rework the fan driver circuits
Finish painting :mrgreen:

[Kevin Berry]

So, post and tell us how its going this weekend!