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As I’ve stated in the title I’m interested in starting to make a robot, which I would like to start on during summer when I have some time spare. I hope to 3D print most of the parts, however I’m a bit unsure of what electronics and programming to use. I hope to create a basic robot then add to it as I go along.

Does anyone know of a way which I could do this, by adding parts and being able to control the robot effectivitly?

Would I need a main circuit which could control smaller circuits like a network?

Does anyone know of anything I could do?

Also how would I program the robot and what would be the best application to use for it?

Thanks in advance.

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Hi

From time to time, I build some simple robotic platforms.

It is an interesting endevour always.

While the most common electronic part of the build would be Arduino, I’ve been using Parallax microcontroller boards.

Building robots is a multi-skill process. It’s good to do preliminary 3d printing designs and preliminary programming circuits and programming. It might surprise you at how much designs changes during initial development. The following list is what I use.

Parallax Basic Stamp or Parallax Propeller microcontrollers. Then I use SketchupPro2016 to do my mechanical designs. After that I contact a 3D printing Hub near where I live to print my projects. Robots sound simple, but there is very much to learn. Have Fun With your Robot Project.

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Thanks for the help. I’ll have a look into the things that you’ve suggested.

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Hi,

Have a look at http://inmoov.fr/ . This is an open source 3D printed life size robot projet that is quite famous. You’ll find everything to make your own robot and control it.

Have great fun !!!

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Thank you for letting me know there is a site out there for this. I’ve looked at it an a lot of the things I would need are here. Thank you so much!

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Hi,

Ive no previous experience with robotic but a bit on electronics.

I would definitely taking a look at youtube, its the best way of researching.

Look at 3D printing circuits, I do know you can, I just dont know how, what kind of fillament or if it works with any kind of fused deposition modelling printer. It would be much faster and probably easier than creating circuits from scratch.

It will probably cost you mind.

Here is a good starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwcAnbVhruQ

Hope it works out…

Best of Luck!

PJ

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Check out the Robocore…I backed this on Kickstarter and plan on using it for my robotics project.

https://robocore.io/

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Thanks for the advise PJ p, but I only want to print parts for structuring the robot, like arms and legs, not the circuit. Apologies if this is not clear in the comment I started with. I will however take a look at YouTube. I’ve used this as a tool for different purposes, but had not though of doing so for this project.

Thanks again.

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Thanks for the help. I shall look into it when I get some spare time.

Cheers

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have a look at

for robots, and

www.toptechboy.com

for Arduino and Raspberry Pi lessons by Paul McWhorter.

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Hi, Great project idea. What kind of robot would you like to build? I am an electrical engineer, so if you need any help with the electronics, you can ask. Check out xrobots.co.uk His electronic solutions are not always the best but he has made some great mechanical designs.

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The easiest and fastest way to get a roboter working is if you use an Arduino board.

A lot of libraries for sensors and stuff are available there.

There are also tons of tutorials out ther for programming an Arduino.

Depending on what your robot should do, you will need different sensors like ultrasonics ones for detecting the area around you.

Have a look here. http://www.instructables.com/id/James-Your-first-Arduino-Robot/?ALLSTEPS

Best regards

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Thanks. I shall have a look at these later today.

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Hi Tim,

Thanks for the help. I’m thinking of making a basic human like robot. The only problem is controlling it. If I start with say an arm and create a basic circuit for it, how would I then make the other parts separately then connect them so that it works effectively.

I’d like to hear back from you with what you think would be the best thing to do.

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Thanks for the help. I was thinking of starting with a few motors for movement, then move on to adding sensors so this has been quite useful. Cheers

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Hi!
I’ve actually already built my own robot!

I know, you already seem to have gotten a lot of informations, but if you are a bit daring you could try building something similar to my Zephyr robot!
It’s completely 3D-Printed (and also otherwise self-made), even the omniwheels I use for motion, and the code includes everything necessary to set it up, including the electronic schematics and libraries for controlling it.

(Though you really don’t have to do something quite as complex at first)

If you have no experience with electronics soldering, then, as many have said already, I’d go with an Arduino. It’s basically the same chip I use for my robot, but it has a lot of nice libraries, so you’re gonna like it!

For programming then also obviously, the including Arduino programming environment is a good option, though if you want more control over the code later on, you can use “eclipse for C++” together with an AVR-Plugin to program the Arduino directly in C or C++

For a small robot you won’t need many chips. A normal Arduino Uno will serve you well, with enough pins for motors, sensors and maybe some output, and the Serial Interface is always really handy!

I hope that helps you out a bit ^^

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Thanks for the help. I currently have Esclipse for C++, but I don’t know how to get coding. I’ve tried creating projects and such but nothing seems to work. Do you have any experience or know how to help me out? I know the basics of programming and have a bit of knowledge of functions, loops and if statements, but could learn more. I think I’d rather program this myself than use Arduino, but will look into this before making a decision as many have advised to do this.

Thanks again.

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Eclipse for C++ by itself won’t do for programming a robot.
You’ll need to install this plugin for it, and maybe install the nececary compilers for AVR. I recommend doing it on a linux system if possible, but you should be able to set things up on windows too.
Actually, for Windows there is a nice IDE from Atmel that you should be able to use, Atmel Studio, which probably is even better suited!

You’ll also need the hardware.

If you have a normal Arduino then you are ready to go! The eclipse plugin has a preset for the Arduino to program it, and it won’t override the bootloader so you’ll be safe to play around! I am not sure about Atmel Studio, but I am confident that the community has a solution ^^

For programming microcontrollers in C or C++, a lot of things behave the same way. If’s, whiles, for loops and everything.
There is, however, one main difference in how you communicate to the outside world: With so-called registers.
Registers are fixed-position memory slots that do something very specific. For example, the “PORTA” register controls the input or output mode of certain pins.

I’d recommend googling around and reading up a bit on what they do, but they are very simple to understand.

Oh, and I’d also recommend a good understanding of the binary operators ^(xor), &(and), |(or), ~(not) and <<(left-shift), they can get handy.

If you want to get some sourcecode examples, feel free to delve into mine, though I would rather recommend searching up some tutorials. (My code really needs documentation X3)

For extra information:
The chip you are using with the Arduino is an ATMega328-P, an 8-Bit AVR processor, running at 16Mhz
The compiler used for it is AVR-Gcc

Just some extra bits if you want to search up something ^^

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Hi It seems a bit odd to me that everyone talks about arduino and no one talks about Parallax.

The Parallax people do a good job at promoting robotics and anything microcontroller related.

I’m not in any way associated with Parallax but I’ve been using their microcontrollers for several years now.

Check out their forum using this link http://forums.parallax.com/

If any Parallax forum guys are listening to this 3D printing Talk forum, Please say something.

Robotics is a fun and educational endevour.

Have fun.

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If you want a 3D Printed Robot, I highly recommend the EEZYbotARM:

It’s based on the very popular MeArm and aimed for the first timer, so you can use the plentiful sources for it to build your own robotic arm :slight_smile:

I recommend buying legitimate servo motors from a hobbystore and not eBay, because there’s a lot of fake motors that could be too underpowered.

And go for the metallic ones such as a real MG90s because plastic ones like SG90 can break inside.

Regards,

Dennis

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