Battery & Charger

[Humanoido]

I'd like to charge batteries in Robonova for 5 minutes and then use them for 2 to 4 hours. I read about this at the Dr. Robot web site.

http://www.drrobot.com/research.asp

Does anyone know where I can buy the batteries and charger?

Humanoido

[Humanoido]

I've also seen where the SONY Aibo dog can walk up to its recharger and autonomously recharge its batteries. I-Cybie robot dog does that too. And roomba vacuum cleaners? Why can't we do something like this with robonova?

I don't like to follow the little man around constantly checking to see if I need to charge his batteries. I think he should be on his own, and take care of himself to some degree. I mean, during the day, I don't mind if he sits in his little chair or naps on the little bed, and shows off and explores the room on his own. But for darn sakes, why can't he take care of his own power needs?

He should also have some auto diagnostics built in, to check not only the battery low signal but look for other conditions, such as stuck somewhere, overheating, some loose bolts, slop in a mechanical connection, a faulty servo, a break in a wire, etc.

Humanoido

[tinman1]

That HR7 is pretty slick, wish it were for sale although it would probably be out of my price range for now!
I have a Roomba and an Aibo and both dock to a power station when battery power is low.
The only problem is if either roam out of the room the charging staion is in. They both get lost and can't find the station if it is in another room. I would guess to successfully find the station if out of sight would require some sort of room mapping so the robot always knew where it was in relation to the station and navigate back to its location. Way over my head at this time.
Several discussion threads on this subject are on the Lynxmotion forum, but with little success.
tinman

[DirtyRoboto]

He should also have some auto diagnostics built in, to check not only the battery low signal but look for other conditions, such as stuck somewhere, overheating, some loose bolts, slop in a mechanical connection, a faulty servo, a break in a wire, etc.

I think you are talking about these guys... http://lis.epfl.ch/resources/podcast/mp ... Lipson.mp3

As you can see/hear, the problems that you highlighted are ones currently being investigated by researchers and research institutes.

I investigated making the RN self recharge but had issues with the controller knowing when it had a full charge.

I have also programmed a self diagnosis routine for the servos. If the bot falls then it will check its leg servos by doing mutiple moves and reads. If any servo fails this test then the RN bleeps the servo number out loud.

I am also looking into getting a torque reading by a little code trickery. It is a bit hair brained at the moment but I have had a few successful runs. Its a code problem that I am getting closer to solving each time. The code needs to be altered inline with each servos function and loaded stress.

[mthomson]

I've got a Roomba Scheduler that returns to the docking station to recharge also, but mine too is hit and miss. Maybe a Roomba could be hacked so that RN1 could ride around on it, controlling Roomba's direction, as a kind of sentry chariot, reserving his power until he needed to step off to take some sort of action....kung fu on the cat etc.

mark

[DirtyRoboto]

I was thinking the same but in a different flavour.
I could sit my RN on my car when I park it and program the RN to destroy all traffic wardens!!!

[engineer]

while we're dreaming why not have RN sit unthe windowsill with distilled water inside of it that it can turn intohydrogen and oxegen then run through a fuel cell and give us power, I have a lab kit that does that ,not much power though,when we get hold of those 5498"s we're going to need more. HI guys

[Humanoido]

I was thinking about something similar. RN can hide in the glove compartment of the car. When the thief hijacks the car, RN can come out and teach him a lesson.
Humanoido

[Humanoido]

I read somewhere that each room can be tagged with IR beacons or some kind of reflectors. The robot can then identify each room and return to the charging station.

You can now get GPS for your RN. If the rooms are large enough and RNs position has enough differential and signal, maybe it would be possible to identify location. You could program a fuzzy perimeter for detection to indicate which room RN was in.

http://www.parallax.com/detail.asp?product_id=28146

Thanks sincerely for the podcast link.

Yep, HR7 is really cool. I've been following this little humanoid since the time they put up a web site. He's really amazing. Its development progressional image collage is reminiscent of Honda and Waseda.

Humanoido