My robot hovers using compressed air from an on-board air tank. I need help programming my moster of a robot. I'm making it one leg at a time. It has a total of four legs. Each leg will have 1 Ping Sensor, 1 Gyro, 1 Motor Sheild, 1 Arduino Uno and 3 Servos. The pictures that are attached don't show the motor shield and the gyro is not shown either since its on the arduino. Also, none of the wiring from the Arduino is shown so its is easier to see everything else. Oh, and I noticed that I placed the Ping Sensor on the wrong spot, it should be connected to the part of the leg which does not move. So the air comes from the tank and stops and the valve to be regulated. The valve is controlled by a servo. The servo works together with a Ping Sensor to regulate the amount of air that comes out. I want it so that the servo keeps the leg of the bot at a certain height all the time. Then the air goes out the end where it is directed by the other two servos. I need those to work with the gyro to keep the robot level. If you thing I should use the gyro or Ping Sensor to do something else please tell me. I need help programming everything so can you guys help me get this project running? Ask me any questions that will help you write the best code. Thank you so much, I know I can do this if we work together.
Why does the robot have articulated legs? It is going to be very complicated to calculate what is going on and getting the thing to balance, plus you end up with a lot of weight.
Why not just have vertical air jets in the corners to raise the robot off the ground, then horizontal thrusters to move around.
There was a device called the "flying beadstead" it used one central jet engine for the main lift, I am not sure how they stabilised it.
radman:
Why not just have vertical air jets in the corners to raise the robot off the ground, then horizontal thrusters to move around.
I think the OP is saying the robot supports itself on legs powered by compressed air - it's not a flying vehicle. Compressed air is a very inefficient power supply for this type of thing because air is so compressible - the only way to drop the pressure is by throwing the energy away.
I don't understand the purpose of having a gyro on each leg. Wouldn't it be better to have a position sensor tell you the angle of each joint and use that as input to your position feedback system? If you're hoping to keep the body horizontal (rather than parallel to the ground) that's going to be quite hard to do and will involve the sort of gyro/accelerometer system used on flying vehicles. In that case it'd probably be best to seek help in forums relating to autonomous drones rather than try to develop it from scratch yourself.
The design would be better suited to some kind of walking device.
This however is supposed to fly :
My robot hovers using compressed air from an on-board air tank
An air tank such as a diving cylinder certainly contains enough air at sufficient pressure to take off like a rocket. So in priciple you should be able to make something hover at least for a while. He has not specified what height the robot needs to hover at. By putting a skirt round the device you would get a hovercraft which could provide quite a bit of lift and would avoid the problems of keeping the thing stable.
Looking at the picture, I think you're right. The mention of legs threw me. Using the air tank to drive an air jet to support the weight of the vehicle seems even less practical than using it to drive pneumatic actuators, and the overall concept strikes me as absolutely bonkers. I love to see people make madcap ideas like this work!
I love to see people make madcap ideas like this work!
Yes, look at the "Curiosity" landing on Mars, no way was a daft automatic scheme of that complexity ever going to work.
I still cannot believe they pulled it off.
