Fijibot

Fijibot is an autonomous, self-charging photovore. I built him using a 1.5 liter Fiji Water bottle, an Arduino Uno, 6v solar panel (plus various other parts) from Radio Shack, an Arduino Proto Shield (plus various other parts) from Adafruit, and the wheels and steering arrangement from an RC car.

I decided to use a Fiji Water bottle as the robot's exoskeleton because Fiji Water is an environmentally conscious company and Fijibot recharges its batteries via a solar panel. Plus, I think the round-edged rectangular shape and the (see through) clear bottle make a really cool looking robot!

Step 1: Materials & Tools

Materials:

1 - 1.5 Liter Fiji Water Bottle (I actually used several bottles during my trial and error stages, but at least I had plenty of great water to drink!)
1 - Hacked RC car
1 - Arduino Uno (Radio Shack #276-128)
1 - Arduino Proto Shield (Adafruit #51)
1 - Break-away pins (Adafruit #392)
1 - Female/Female jumper wires (Adafruit #266)
1 - 6 Volt solar panel (Radio Shack #277-052)
2 - Parallax Continuous Rotation Servos (Radio Shack #273-457)
2 - Parallax 4-6VDC Standard Servos (Radio Shack #273-441)
1 - Parallax Ping Sensor (Radio Shack #276-136)
1 - 4-AA Battery Holder (Radio Shack #270-391)
1 - 9 Volt Batter Holder (Radio Shack #270-324)
4 - Photoresistors (Radio Shack #276-1657)
4 - Panel Mount LED Holders (Radio Shack #276-080)
4 - 10K ohm resistors (Radio Shack #271-1335)
1 - 1N4001 Micro 1A Diode (Radio Shack #276-1101)

Tools:

Soldering Iron
Solder
Helping Hands
Wire strippers
Side cutters
Dremel

Comments

[DayBowBow]

Do you have the wiring diagram for your Figibot

[mikesoniat]

Sorry for my delayed response. I've been out of town on business and no time to follow up. I'll add the schematics as soon as possible.

[LJduino]

wow!! awesome hope you can get the sketch out

[mikesoniat]

Thanks! The sketch is available at https://github.com/mikesoniat/Fijibot

[fozzy13]

This is a cool project! However, because the Arduino runs off a 9v battery, can your Fijibot actually fully recharge itself? Or can it only recharge the 6v pack, leaving the Fijibot abandoned in the wilderness when the 9v dies?

[mikesoniat]

You're right, but to charge both batteries he would need a solar panel bigger than his bottle (body)!

[Lectric Wizard]

Instructable is great but I have to agree with parkerq. Not only is the water pumped with diesel it is then shipped over 5000 miles to the US + shipping inside the US.Add to that the plastic bottle (Unless you build a bot with it) . Very bad deal for the planet. If tap water turns you off then get a filter & a reusable water bottle. But THANKS FOR RECYCLING !!

[mikesoniat]

Well it's still a cool bottle, right?

[parkerq]

Not that it affects your instructable (which is great by the way) but the corporate marketing of the bottled water industry which says "Fiji Water is an environmentally conscious company" does not mention that though we can easily buy water from Fiji, less then half of the citizens of Fiji have access to clean drinking water and all power to the Fiji water plant comes from generators burning diesel.. :-(

[mikesoniat]

I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up!

[Misac-kun]

Amazing and campact. even Green in nature! let's us see how it behaves on sun light!

[mikesoniat]

Yeah, since he looks for the brightest spot and just sits there and basks in it, he's not too much fun in the Sun. I guess I could modify his program to wander around after his battery is fully charged.

[Dy7lan]

This seriously could be mass prodiced as an amazing toy/kit for kids.

[mikesoniat]

I would probably have to simplify some things, but maybe so...

[randofo]

It took me a moment to realize why this was called Fijibot, and then I laughed out loud. This is great.

[mikesoniat]

Thanks!

[Kiteman]

Oh, the ultimate pet - never poops, feeds itself, stays out from under the furniture and your feet!

Add a pair of big doe eyes, and you could sell millions!

[mikesoniat]

Doe eyes, huh? I'll have to consider that for the next generation!