Minibot/ax-12a/ax-18a

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Minibot4.pngMinibot2.png

The robot above is a custom designed and 3D printed robot we refer to as Minibot and was created as a part of a senior design project at George Mason University. It is comprised of a series of Dynamixel AX-12 and AX-18 servos, daisy-chained together, and two USB cameras connected separately. All of the pieces are connected using 3D printed, plastic brackets, available on Thingiverse, and the robot is attached to a 1/2" thick, 7.5"x12" board. The board is attached to the mobile platform, an MMP8, by velcro for easy removal. From the videos, it can be see that the blue robot is the controller for the red robot.

The code for the project scans to see how many servos make up the robot and controller. In order for the joints to be linked, the servo ID's must be in a specific order. For example, the servos in Minibot are ordered from 1-10 starting from the left claw, to the left shoulder, to the right shoulder, and down to the right claw. The waist is 11, neck (pan) 12, and finally the head (tilt) is 13. The servos in the controller, then, either begin at an offset value, say 21, if the robots are controlled on one PC, or the same value 1 if they are being controlled by multiple PCs, and go up to the highest value on the controlled robot. It is important to note that the controller will have two less servos than the robot, since the virtual reality system accounts for the commands sent to the robot's stereovision system.


Tutorials


Code

Videos

Building Minibot