Hexapod System Diagram

 By Chau To

This blog post contains the system block diagram, fritzing schematic diagram, breadboard diagram, and a bonus MATLAB code for angle calculation of the Hexapod movement.

Hexapod system block diagram:

figure 1Fritzing schematic diagram:

Hexapod connected servo directly from Arduino ADK Digital I/O pins.

figure 2

 Fritzing Breadboard Diagram:

The digital pins we used are pin 30 to 47 for leg servos. Pin 26 for Camera servo.

figure 3

The protection circuit such as:

BONUS:

This is the bonus MATLAB code for my “angle calculation” blog post (available at: https://www.arxterra.com/hexapod-forward-and-backward-movement-calculation-and-algorithm/)

This code calculated the angle where the shoulder, femur, tibia have to make and compensate with each other so that the hexapod can move forward or backward steadily.

Please read the link for blog post provided above to understand the input and output parameters of this function:

function [new_a,del_a,new_b,del_b] = cal_ang( T,F,alpha,beta,theta )
%Inputs parameters: T, F, alpha, beta, theta
%T = length of Tibia
%F = length of Femur
%alpha = inital angle of Tibia
%beta = inital angle of Femur
%theta = inital angle of shoudler

%Outputs:
%The New and the adjustment angle for alpha
%The New and the adjustment angle for beta
A = T*sind(alpha)+ F*cosd(beta);
x = A – A*cosd(theta);
new_a = asind((T*sind(alpha)+x)/T);
del_a = new_a – alpha;
y = T*cosd(alpha)-T*cosd(new_a);
new_b = asind((F*sind(beta)-y)/F);
del_b = beta – new_b;
fprintf(‘The new alpha is: %.2f\n’,new_a)
fprintf(‘The adjust in alpha is: %.2f\n’,del_a)
fprintf(‘The new beta is: %.2f\n’,new_b)
fprintf(‘The adjust in beta is: %.2f\n’,del_b)

Initial Code Implementation

By Matthew Clegg – Computer & Control Systems

With the assembly of Spiderbot about 80% complete, implementation of the code for its operation is finally being implemented. There have been many difficulties in Spiderbot’s operation. After several runs of the code, it seems Spiderbot is having difficulties with keeping its base off the ground. At this moment there is hope that this issue can be fixed with code, or that maybe there is not enough traction on the surface on which it is being tested.

A video of the first steps of the nearly-completely-assembled Spiderbot can be seen at the following link:

http://youtu.be/brh-NxkkgS8 

Spiderbot Assembly

By Simon Abatay – 3D Modeling & Manufacturing

With the final parts obtained from manufacturer Ali Etezadkhah and the final components casted and cured, the body of Spiderbot was ready for painting. After all the parts were primed and painted, the final Spiderbot was assembled. The servos for the femur pieces had to be taken apart initially in order to place them securely into their designated holders. A combination of epoxy and small screws was used in order to hold the tibia pieces in place with the brackets connected to the femur pieces. Some components were held together with Velcro and double-sided tape until the final operational components could be placed into Spiderbot.

Below are images of the assembly of Spiderbot without the operational components and pan and tilt components.

 SONY DSC

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Modified Slush Casting Method

 By Simon Abatay – 3D Modeling & Manufacturing

After the mold is finished, it is time to cast the leg.

This method is a variation of roto-casting and is popular in the DIY prop making community.

(TheRPF)

http://www.therpf.com/f11/mold-making-slush-casting-whre-do-i-start-36457/

Materials:

  • 2-Piece mold
  • Smooth Cast 300 Part A and B
  • Rubber bands
  • Oil Based Clay
  • Liquid Dye
  • Plastic Cups
  • Mixing device

Process:

  1. Use rubber bands to hold the 2 piece mold together. Apply the rubber bands in both the horizontal and vertical direction of the mold.

    SONY DSC

  2. Pour equal amounts of the Smooth Cast 300 parts in 2 separate cups. Roughly about 2 – 3 ounces per.
  3. Pour both parts into the same plastic cup and stir well.
  4. Check both the color and viscosity of the mixture to make sure it is uniform throughout.
  5. Drop about 3 eye drops of liquid dye into the mixture and repeat step 4 after mixing.
  6. Pour the mixture into the mold.
  7. Lift the mold and move it side to side and in a circular motion. This will slush the mixture around so it will form along the sides of the mold.
  8. After about 2 minutes of casting you will see that the mixture will bubble. This bubbling is due to the dye and resin mixture.
  9. The mixture will then rise out of the mold where it was initially poured into.
  10. Using the clay, plug the hole so that the bubbling mixture doesn’t rise past the mold itself. This bubbling effect will fill the inside of the mold while keeping the desired shape and look.
  11. After 15 Minutes, Pull the mold apart. What you are left with is a lighter version of the 3-D printed piece. The inside of the casted piece will mimic the honey comb effect of the 3-D part.

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  12. Sand, prime, and paint to the desired color scheme, or keep it raw.

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The following link is the process in video form:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I57pOEQ6x_w&feature=youtu.be

Solutions to Wi-Fi connection issue

Members:
Vinh Khoa Ton: Biped team, Control & Image Processing
Tien Dang: Hexapod, Communication

Chau To: Hexapod, Computer systems & Software
Mevan Fernando: 3D Bio Printer, Sensors, Actuators & Powertrain
Robert Licari: Communication

Objective by Vinh Khoa Ton:

Hexapod team and Spiderbot team need to run their robots on a track field that does not support internet connection. Our team’s goal is to find a way for them to get access to the Wi-Fi connection so they could control their robots remotely using Arxterra control panel. The solution should have minimum cost. The internet connection should be stable (no disconnection or lost signal) with enough bandwidth for at least two mobile phones and two laptops, and the range of Wi-Fi is enough to cover the track field.

Some considered solutions

Wi-Fi Antenna by Tien Dang

http://arxterra.com/wifi-antenna/

Wi-Fi Range Extender by Chau To

http://arxterra.com/wi-fi-range-extender/

Buy a Wi-Fi/4G access point by Vinh Khoa Ton

http://arxterra.com/buy-a-wi-fi4g-access-point/

Main solution – Smart Phone Hotspot by Mevan Fernando and Robert Licari

http://arxterra.com/smart-phone-hotspot/

Conclusion by Robert Licari

In simplest words, the best and easiest WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) that can be produced in our testing grounds is the smartphone hotspot capability that is virtually a company standard. In an area that demands the use of a Wi-Fi connection in this manner, we have verified that this solution covers our requirements of speed, cost, bandwidth, and range.

 

 

Wi-Fi Range Extender

By Chau To

Introduction:

Wi-Fi extender or Wi-Fi booster is a device that picks up a wireless signal and then rebroadcasts that signal. It acts as a second access point for other devices to connect to. The range of a typical Wi-Fi extender is around 300ft. Some expensive Wi-Fi boosters can achieve a range of around 450ft.

Pros and Cons:

Pros:

1. The Wi-Fi extender can be a solution to solve the Wi-Fi problem at the testing point. It can be used as a second access point between the building and the test place.

2. It is very easy to set up. There are 3 steps to set up a Wi-Fi extender. First, connect to the laptop via DSL cable. Second, launch the set-up GUI. Third choose the wi-fi signal to extend.

3. It is easy to find: Fry’s, Best Buy, online etc.

4. Quality and cost can be reviewed at this website:

http://wi-fi-booster-review.toptenreviews.com/

Cons:

1. The Wi-Fi extender always experiences 20%-50% throughput loss (the data rate loss) because it has to receive and then transmit data. As a result, the efficiency of the Wi-Fi extender is not that good. The amount of data used by Arterxa is very large because of the camera video streaming, so the efficiency of the Wi-Fi extender would affect the performance of the robot.

2. Wi-Fi extender is not very reliable. The connection is very bad especially for outdoor because of interference.

3. High-quality Wi-Fi extender can be expensive.

Testing:

Use the Diamond WR300NR Wi-Fi Extender (in the figure) to see if it can solve the Wi-Fi problem. At the test site, we experienced many problems:

1. The Wi-Fi extender used the school’s Wi-Fi signal beachnet+ and boost that signal over the parking to the test site. The best place to place the Wi-Fi extender is around 50ft outside of the building so that it could performed at max efficiency. However, the test site and the building is 500ft apart, the Wi-Fi extender couldn’t boost the Wi-Fi signal to the test area.

2. Interference is another major problem. Although the smart phone we used to connect to Wi-Fi was in the range covered by the Wi-Fi extender, the speed was very slow. And it lost connection all the time.

3. Power could be a problem because the Wi-Fi extender connected to 120V AC power from the wall, so we had to use a long cable to connect from the building to the parking lot.

Conclusion:

The Wi-Fi extender is not a good solution for the WIFI problem because of the range and the outdoor interference. A better quality and more expensive

 

Smart Phone Hotspot

By Mevan Fernando and Robert Licari

Introduction by Mevan Fernando

Tethering is when a smartphone is turned into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot and its 3G/4G data connection is shared. Once tethering is turned on in the smartphone, any device with a wireless connection can connect to the internet via the smartphone’s connection.

Procedure by Mevan Fernando

The steps taken to connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot and connection to the Arxterra Control Panel on the mobile data connection is shown below. The mobile phone used was a Samsung Galaxy S3 and the test was run at the site of the route where the robot will navigate. The following set up tutorial is performed with an android phone (Samsung Galaxy S3).

Step 1 – Click on the Mobile Hotspot app on the phone
step1

Step 2 – Turn on Mobile Hotspot
step2

Step 3 – Connect to the mobile data connection using any device with wireless connectivity (password required)
step3

Step 4 – Log in to the Arxterra Control Panel
step4

Step 5 – Start control your robot
step5

Discussion by Robert Licari

Wireless provider

The wireless provider is a simple matter considering that most, if not all, of our employees carry a cellular phone and an almost equivalent number of employees carry smartphones. Taking this into consideration, we can simply utilize the sources provided by different service providers to view their coverage maps; however, they lay claim to all areas around long beach as a part of their “Nationwide Coverage” slogans dictate. To get a more accurate map, utilizing www.sensorly.com (a free coverage map source) we can see that Long Beach is not completely covered by any of the major providers. Sensorly, however, is a user-dependent tool and is thus, not 100% accurate either, but it does provide us with an idea of actual users, in the field, using data at varying speeds from 4G down to 2G (which are relevant for our purposes). Overall, this will not be an issue considering that the field is nearby one of the many sensorly tested areas, which we can safely assume and test for signal strength and viability.

Bandwidth and Range

Our major concern is Bandwidth and Range when we consider our service provider. This factor is almost completely dictated by the amount of customers utilizing bandwidth as well as the distance the client (in this case a laptop) is from the smartphone. This is reliant also upon the service coverage area that we are working in. To be clear the International Telecommunication Union has NOT set a defined standard for the rates of mobile data services. Upon further research, one can find multitudes of numbers with even more multitudes of tests done in controlled or uncontrolled environments. The reason for this is that it is highly dependent upon the above factors and is greatly influenced by movement of the hotspot. Generally speaking, it is widely accepted that we shall be receiving approximately 300 kb/sec. To be blunt, this number is not random, but in a world where some receive 25 Mb/sec and others that receive 25 kb/sec, it is difficult to accurately pinpoint an exact number for any particular time of day. On average, 300 kb/sec will be our acceptable bandwidth, which will begin to deteriorate as we begin to venture farther and farther from our client to a maximum distance of around 50 feet.

Cost

The final concern that we have will be cost, which is, quite possibly, the most varied of our concerns because this is strictly on a case-by-case basis. One person could have an unlimited data plan, while others could have a fixed data download plan that will limit them for the experiment. For this reason, should this be the final factor in deciding whether or not this is our solution, it is simply a matter of finding a volunteer with unlimited data to have their cellular phone be a mobile hotspot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Buy a Wi-Fi/4G access point

by Vinh Khoa Ton

Introduction

A Wi-Fi/4G access point is a location that provides users wireless network. Nowadays, most electronic devices are equipped with a wireless adapter (mobile phone, laptop, tablet, watch, etc.), the demand for wireless connection increases rapidly. The Wi-Fi hotspot could be found usually in public areas such as airports, post offices, coffee shops, or fast food restaurants while the 4G hotspot could be found almost everywhere you go. The 4G access point is a portable device that give you Wi-Fi access.

Cost and Range

Wi-Fi hotspot is quite affordable offered by most major network carriers. AT&T offered Wi-Fi on the spot with $3.99 to $7.99 per session. However, Wi-Fi hotspot is limited only to public areas that offer the service. The track field that we need to have Wi-Fi access does not have a Wi-Fi hotspot nearby.

4G hotspot (or mobile hotspot) has more coverage range and gives more flexibility for outdoor internet usage such as hiking, camping, biking at some remote areas. A hotspot device usually works well within 50 feet and could support up to 5 users at the same time.

For example, FreedomPop offers 500 MB of 4G data free every month and charge $0.02 for every extra MB used.

freedompop plan

However, the drawback is that cost for the portable hardware is expensive, ranging from $50 and up to more than $100.

freedompop price

Conclusion

The Wi-Fi hotspot provides a pay-as-you-go option that suits our need for a short project demonstration but lacks the flexibility in coverage range. The 4G hotspot could provide the needs in coverage range but the cost is too expensive. As the reasons above, we does not choose this method as our solution because it does not meet all of our requirements.

 

Heat and Power Problems

By Tien Dang

Introduction
Power level, power lost, and heat product are the problems that we need to maintain during testing and demoing period. To maintain the power level, we need to use a voltage regulator (https://www.arxterra.com/voltage-regulator), but power lost and heat product are always there, all we can do is deduce them to a minimum level; we can’t get rid of them.

Reducing Heat Product
When using a step down voltage regulator, a massive production of heat will be produced. The reason of this heat problem is because the different Voltage of the battery (7.4 V) and the output of Voltage regulator (6V). This difference will form extra energy, which is heat. For a long period of time, this heat will be a thread and cause fire if we do not deduce it. To prevent this problem from happening, we installed two small heat sinks under and one small fan next to the Voltage regulator.

figure 1 

Figure 1: Voltage regulator andHeat Sinks

figure 2

Figure 2: Fan and Battery

Heat sinks do not need power, so we do not need to apply any power to them; all we need that is attach them under the Voltage regulator so they can suck out the heat however the fan needs power to turn it on. For our project, we will use a separate battery (as show in Fig. 1) to minimize the power drain from the main power source.

Minimizing Power Lost
Beside the power lost due to heat converting while use Voltage regulator (which is unavoidable), the power may lost while the robot is stand by, but the power is still in the power outlet. To prevent this, we attached an On/Off button to the main battery. So we do not have to worry about the power lost while the robot is standing by.

figure 3 

Figure 3: A switch is attached to battery

Conclusion
Heat and power lost are unavoidable, but we can minimize them. Adding button to main battery, installing heat sink under Voltage regulator, and connecting a small fan next to Voltage regulator are solutions of our team. After the tests that we performed to test the movement of the Hexapod, we could see that these solutions are working very well. The voltage regulator is not getting hot or smoked, and battery can be used over ten minutes without running out of power.

Spiderbot Schedule

 By Kristine Abatay – Project Manager

In true undergrad fashion, the completion of Spiderbot is behind schedule. An image of the updated schedule is posted below, along with the allocation of tasks for the group members in the Gantt chart below it:

 Blog15_image1

Blog15_image2

As anticipated, the printing of 3D parts for Spiderbot had to be pushed back with the increasing need of 3D printed parts from other projects. We are very satisfied with the turnout of our pieces, so many thanks to Manufacturing Division Manager, Ali Etezadkhah for his hard work and for offering his 3D printer in the first place.

Difficulties were encountered with the initial casted Spiderbot component (the tibia). The original casted pieces were much too heavy for the servo motors to handle, so our manufacturer worked hard to develop a modified method that would produce pieces that were lighter in weight. Unfortunately, this hard work caused manufacturing dates to be pushed back as well.

Servo tests were initially not properly run, which caused the breakdown of one of the servos that needed to be tested. The completion date of this task was later due to availability of the group members and our designated systems engineer, as well as a modification of the nature of the overall test for proper testing late in the game.

Due to unforeseen issues that occurred with prototype Chop Suey, coding of Spiderbot has also been pushed back to an extremely optimistic and risky completion date that will truly be a test of the group’s determination and work ethic.

Many lessons have been learned as a result of these unfortunate delays. A majority of these delays were caused by hurdles that needed to be overcome in order for proper materials studies and tests to be conducted, which is a good reason for delay.