Robots

Welcome to the “Robots” section of HWR Robotics! The robot below is creatively named: Roberto, Roberto the Robot. He is the prototype robot. If you browse through the pictures or look at the front page slideshow you will see that I have attached a pneumatic system to him which includes two pistons in both the front and the rear. If I need to prototype anything it ends up getting mounted to Roberto. He has come in really handy when I want to test out small engines but don’t want to make a frame in order to test them. All I had to do was drill four holes that line up with the bolt pattern on the engine. The only step left was to line up the holes and bolt on the engine. Roberto’s drive train consists of 4 wheelchair motors driven by a Dimension Engineering Sabertooth 2×60 motor controller. The power source consists of two 12 volt sealed lead acid batteries. The batteries are wired in series to produce 24 volts at 35ah. However, the batteries are starting to show their age. When I finally got Roberto up and running relatively reliably it had been a year since I had purchased the batteries and they were performing well. However, they were not performing as well as they did when I first purchased them, which is to be expected.

For long runs with Roberto I am thinking of designing some sort of extended run kit which would basically consist of a small little gas engine driving an alternator. This way I could run Roberto for much longer and I would not have to worry about the battery pack dying. If you want more detail or have questions feel free to email me at [email protected], or through the contact form on the website. Enjoy the following pictures and videos of Roberto the Robot in action.