LUCS Robotics Group
The Builder Robot
The Builder Robot is a complete mobile robotics platform and includes an arm with a gripper and an active vision system.
The main parts of the builder robot are the sensory systems, locomotor systems, arm with gripper and the on-board computer running the Ikaros system (Balkenius, et al. 2010).
Sensory Systems Each camera is
mounted on a servo that allows it to move up or down. The robot can also measure the voltage and the current it uses. This can be used to estimate the power used by the robot at any time. In addition, all servos provides information about their current position, their temperature and other data.
Locomotion System The locomotion system uses a holonomic drive system with four Mecanum wheels mounted on servos. This allows the robot to move in any direction on the ground. Arm and Gripper The arm has five degrees of freedom and a gripper that allows it to pick up and manipulate objects. The arm and gripper is controlled using seven servos. Each servo system provides feedback about the current position of each joint.
On Board Computers The Builder Robot has a Mac Mini on board that is modified to run off battery. There is an Arduino Mega that is used to control the LED strip around the body of the robot.
Ikaros Control System The Ikaros framework (www.ikaros-project.org) provides the robot with features such as real-time sensory processing and motor control, threading, web based monitor interface, and a selection of over 200 modules for various processing and control functions (Balkenius, et al. 2010). The internal state of the robot (sensor values, navigation, etc.) can be monitored remotely from a web browser over WiFi.