Information on Project TRS-4U2

Project TRS-4U2 will be a BASIC 2 Stamp based robot with a trash can body. The idea was derived from a trip to Magic Kingdom. As me and a friend were leaving the park, we encountered a trash can. Not just any trash can, it moved! When we got back we later started work on the US FIRST competition. Later the programming teacher thought of starting a class and building a robot, and as it would happen, I said a trashbot(after I said remote gatling gun). And now here we are.
Project TRS-4U2 is based on a trash can that is a little over 2ft in height and 1ft in diameter. It will (hopefully) have IR Proximity detection, Line Following ability, Light-sensing ability, and maybe some more inputs if I have enought I/Os left. The main drive system comes from a dual motor robot that I bought second hand. It has quite a bit of torque but also seems to have rather large power needs. I'm hoping to either purchase or build a speed controller to handle these motors.
 

Hopeful specifications

  • Dimensions
    • Height - 2' and 27 1/2"
    • Diameter - 1'
    • Weight - Unknown at this time
  • Metalic gray dome trash can with rotating door
  • Diferental Drive with gear boxes(from a Terapin Turtle)
  • 6 inch lawnmower wheels with custom couplers(very crappy)
  • 3 levels of clear plastic cut into round shapes(or was round)
  • 8 5/16" threaded rods with 40 nuts
  • PBASIC Compatible Homebrew Stamp 2 BASIC Stamp 2 clone
  • HVWTech L298 based H-bridge kit
  • 74CH04 or 74CHT04 based IR detection unit or PIC based IR detection unit
  • Light tracking unit with 2 Cds cells
  • Line tracking unit with 3 Cds cells and 3 LEDs
  • PWM motor control
  • Dinsmore electronic compass
  • Advanced motion detection using Passive IR

Possible future plans

  • Either a Motorola based CPU or Dual Stamps
  • Joystick or Radio Tx/Rx control interface
  • Sonar or Ultrasonic ranging and/or detection
  • Shaft Encoders
  • Sound tracking
  • Teleoperation, or just a camera to see where the thing gets stuck
  • LCD display (Don't really need it, but it would be neat!)
  • Don't really know about sound, but maybe
  • Some form of communication with other robots
  • Edge detection, this one is the easiest! Most likely gonna be in the smaller version
  • I hope bump switches won't be needed
  • More function to its dome head
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