Mr. Bricks

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Mr. Bricks was my Phase-1 tabletop entry. The first phase of the challenge is to get the bot to drive around the table without falling off. It uses a PIC18F252 as its brains, and uses a Devantech sonar unit to look down for the table edge. The sonar unit is mounted to a servo so I can sweep it right and left looking for an off-center edge. It works, most of the time. Still needs more improvement.

In order to demonstrate the power of Wayne's Robobricks, I decided to try to use all Robobricks in my early phases of the robot. Using Robobricks allowed me to focus more on the software, and less on the hardware. I am slowly improving the circuitry in this tabletop robot by adding more bricks. Currently the robot is using a PIC10 Master brick, a SonarDT1 brick, a Motor 2 brick, and a Compass brick. The Devantech compass module is a bit tricky to get accurate results out of, so I still need to write some software filters to make it work better.

The base is one that Bob had lying around his shop and wasn't using, that he added a Lego flat to the top of it. This allowed me to snap a Lego frame onto the top to carry the electronics, and the battery.

The downward looking sonar works, however, the robot has to be practically teetering on the edge of the table before it realized it had better back up or fall off. It makes for some exciting robot action. Here are some clips of "Mr. Bricks" in action (windows media 9.0 format):

	First turn - Falls off the table
	Second turn - Falls off the table again
	Third turn - Roams around the table with a little bit of help from the guys in the club. Lots of close calls ;-)