I stumbled onto a very interesting DIY robot project I want to build. It's called the ArduBot. It is a robot very similar to the commercial Pololu 3pi robot. The big difference with the ArduBot is it is one you can build yourself, and I plan to do just that. You can customize it with pretty much anything you want to add to it, including sensors, wireless, etc.
In fact, I will be building my first Ardubot a bit differently from the Sparkfun Tutorial though. I'll be using slightly faster motors (24:1 instead of 30:1), larger wheels (42mm instead of 32mm), and adding wheel encoders. Using the encoders requires the larger wheels. Having the encoders will allow the ArduBot to know how fast it is going, how far it moves, and whether it is going forward or reverse. Encoders are a requirement to be able to do dead reckoning.
Unlike the 3pi, the ArduBot is designed to be 100% Arduino compatible. In fact, the "brain" of the Ardubot is an Arduino or Arduino compatible controller board. I will also be using a slightly different Arduino type board for the controller of my ArduBot though. I found the WiseDuino and RoboDuino. The WiseDuino has a battery backed real time clock, an EEPROM for data storage, and a place to plug in this XBee adapter for wireless communication. This will be ideal for my experimentation in robot swarming, and I am planning to build several ArduBots for this purpose. I wish the RoboDuino had these features, which would make the perfect robot controller for the ArduBot.
Maybe I can eventually create an RoboShield for the Arduino to add these features to the RoboDuino. I want to get a RoboDuino kit, so I can build it to allow for shields to be attached under it (instead of on top, like most shields would be added. Since the RoboDuino already has the nice 3 pin headers for attaching sensors and servos, I don't want to interfere with this, so the shield will have to go on the bottom. I already have long pin headers that will all me to do this. I'll have to think about what other features I might want to go with a RoboDuino. This RoboShield would be able to attach either above or below an Arduino compatible board. I'd also want to add 3 pin headers for all the I/O pins in case it is attached above a board that doesn't already have them. I've been thinking about this RoboShield idea for quite awhile now, and I think it is finally time for me to do something with it. I'm already starting to learn how to use the Eagle EDA (schematic and PCB designer) software, which I'm now much more motivated to learn how to use.
All of my robots, including WALTER and ASTRID, will get XBee radios for wireless communication.
8-Dale
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