THIS ROBOT IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION

As an active member of the Vancouver Robotic Club, I am developing a six-leg mobile robot in my spare time.  The chassis of the robot, as shown in Figure 1, is purchased from Lynxmotion and I am designing and implementing some of the hardware and software components of the robot but not the mechanical parts.  Javelin Stamp, a 24-pin DIP module programmed in a subset of the Sun Microsystems Java language, is employed in controlling motion of the robot and the embedded software is written in Java.

Figure 1.  Chassis of a six-leg mobile robot

The robot is controlled by a PC via a wireless serial communication port and the controlling software in the PC is also written in Java.  With the release of Java Communications API, it is relatively easy to develop platform independent communication software.  The GUI of the software, as shown in Figure 2, has been implemented and will be modified if necessary.

Figure 2.  GUI of controlling software in a PC

My design idea is to keep the robot brainless.  The controlling software in the PC carries out decision-making and the embedded software in the robot controls robot movement only; the PC is the master and the robot is the slave.  This master-slave relationship makes design, implementation, and debugging easier.

Please come back to this page for the latest development of the robot.  I shall make the page as the documentation of the six-leg mobile robot to share with other robot enthusiasts in the world.  Feel free to give me any comments or suggestions concerning my robot design at georgew@ece.ubc.ca.

If you are living in Vancouver and would like to purchase amateur robot components, please go to the Vancouver Robotic Ltd.  I purchase most of the robot components from this store and the technical support is excellent.  

Last update: March 26, 2003