Project: Snake-Robot the.medusa.project();

[prempador offline]

Hello guys,

I wanted to introduce you to our final school project. I know, this is the "Home Built" Forum, but I wasn't sure where exactly I should put it. If an admin knows where it belongs to, please just move it there.

First of all, What we are working on:

Our project is called "The Medusa Project" [the.medusa.project();]. The goal of the project is to build a snake-robot which can move like a real snake. The robot has a central processing unit that calculates the movements. These values are sent to a decentralized system which converts them into mechanical movements on our servos. As servos we are using the Dynamixel MX-28R (RS-485). Because we need a special case for our snake we designed a 3D-Model which we will print.
Here is a short overview on how the system should look:


Image 1: A System Overview


The system consists of three different parts (as you can see in the graphic at the top):

• "Face"
• "Head"
• A various number of "Links"
• "Tail"

Next, What do the elements do?

Head

We have a central processing unit (like I said before) in the "Head"-element. It contains a Raspberry Pi Compute Module which is connected with the PC (where the snake gets the commands from) via LAN and Wi-Fi and a STM32F429 System-on-Module which communicates with the other parts of the snake.

Link

There are two different types of links:

• One part contains a STM32F429 SOM, needed for the decentralized system, a LC-Display, where you can test the functions and show the logs, a battery, responsible for the power supply of the link and up to 6 servos and some more components.
  You can check the components planned construction here in the Link Overview:
  
  
  Image 2: A Link Overview
  
  
• The second type of Link just contains servos, a battery and PIC24FJ64GB004. The PIC is needed for the numbering of the links. The software needs the numbers of the "Links" for the algorithm and the Graphical User Interface.

Tail

The "Tail"-element connects the snake and the computer via Ethernet or USB and has a power connection.

Face

Implemented into the "Face" there is a ring of LEDs and a camera which both can be controlled by the computer.


Let's go to Software-Sided-Functions next:

The software is parted into Low and High Level Software.

Low Level Software is INSIDE the snake. It's the communication between "Head" and "Link"-elements and the "Link"-elements with each other.
High Level Software is the PC-Side part. It is the GUI (Graphical User Interface).



We will give you some further updates in this post if we have some major progress to show you. I also try to tweet about little changes and work we do on my twitter account.
If you have any question, suggestions or anything to say just write a comment and/or message me.

Thank you for reading the post and for any comments.

Yours Sincerely,

Benjamin Müllner [prempador] (Group Leader)
Sebastian Mach [electronicMe]
Jens-Morten Fristad [Frenszination]