BOTUS Project

This instructables will describe the robot BOTUS, which was built as a term project for our first year of engineering over at Universite de Sherbrooke, in Sherbrooke,Quebec, Canada. BOTUS stands for roBOT Universite de Sherbrooke or, as we like to call it, roBOT Under Skirt :)

The project that was proposed to us consisted of finding an interesting application for voice control. With one of our members being a fan of robotics, and following on the footsteps of our previous project*, we decided to build a remote controlled robot that would use voice command as an added feature for people who aren't used to manipulating complex remotes with multiple buttons (in other words, non-gamers ;) ).

The team responsible for the accomplishment of the robot is composed of (in alphabetical order):

- Alexandre Bolduc, Computer Engineering
- Louis-Philippe Brault, Electrical Engineering
- Vincent Chouinard, Electrical Engineering
- JFDuval, Electrical Engineering
- Sebastien Gagnon, Electrical Engineering
- Simon Marcoux, Electrical Engineering
- Eugene Morin, Computer Engineering
- Guillaume Plourde, Computer Engineering
- Simon St-Hilaire, Electrical Engineering

As students, we don't exactly have unlimited budget. This forced us to reuse a lot of material, from polycarbonate to batteries to electronic components.

Anyways, I'll stop rambling now and show you what this beast is made of!

Note: To keep with the spirit of sharing, all the schematics for the PCB as well as the code that drives the robot will be given in this instructable... Enjoy!

*See Cameleo, the color changing robot. This project wasn't finished on deadline, notice the unequal movements, but we still managed to receive a mention for innovation for our "Color Matching" feature.

Step 1: A Quick Evolution Of The Robot

Like many projects, BOTUS went through multiple stages of evolution before becoming what it is now.

First off, a 3D model was made to give a better idea of the final design to everyone involved. Afterward, the prototyping began, with the making of a test platform.

After validating that everything was working well, we began construction of the final robot, which had to be modified a few times.

The basic shape was not modified. We used polycarbonate to support all the electronic cards, MDF as the base, and ABS tubing as the central tower that supports our infrared distance sensors and our camera assembly.

Comments

[Evileo]

I'm on the picture, whoaaaaaaa Let's go P8 It is the best robot ever made;), but we'll do better, way better

[wee_man]

Hey this is realy cool but way out of my capibiltys but keep going hard and next robot you make publish it here aswel