Wiimote controlled firefighting robot
The Wiimote makes a perfect control system for a fire fighting robot.
It has IR sensors which can detect a candle and a bluetooth transciever to communicate back to a host computer. I use a boebot as the robot platform, an arduino, wiimote and a Linux computer.
The wiimote uses its IR sensor to find the candle. It transmits the sensor readings back to the host computer over bluetooth ( see my earlier post for details). A C program running on the host computer reads the sensor data and sends commands back over bluetooth to the wiimote. The wiimote relays those commands to an arduino board over the wiimote's expansion port. The expansion ports uses the I2C protocol. The arduino then controls the servos (the boebot uses servos modified for continuous rotation) and fan. The fan is controlled by a ULN8023 chip.
This fire fighting robot is still very crude. It lacks the number of sensors that you would be need to seriously compete. It is mainly a proof of concept that the wiimote can be used in a fire fighting robot. It basically just circles around until it sees a candle, then turns on the fan and moves toward the candle. The wiimote seems to loose the flame when it gets withing 4 inches. Maybe the candle is overloading the sensors or maybe its just bad programming on my part.
Arduino code
C code for host computer
The C program depends on version .4 of libcwiimote
For more info on fire fighting robot competitions visit Trinity College
wiimote_write_byte speeds
Hey Chad,
Great job on the robot! I'm doing something very similar with some friends at my lab in USC, and we're using your code as a starting place. I seem to be having trouble sending commands to the arduino any faster than once every 200ms using libwiimote though. Have you noticed this at all?
Thanks!
Rand
Bravo!
Quite some well calculated work! I'm amazed. Speaking about Linux, good choice. I tried running a helicopter with windows and it crashed. The helicopter and my windows. Now I have a Linux backup just in case.
RE: Are you connecting to the
Are you connecting to the wiimote at 400khz?
I think that the 300 would be sufficient for this!
Awesome BT connectivity
I dont think I'm the only one here to realise that the key feature of interest (nay, excitement) is the two way Bluetooth connectivity.
If I'd known the Nunchuk talks straight I2C, and that you can hook into the raw Nunchuk data, I would have gotten my MicroChip PIC16F877A and PICBasic on the case in a flash! True wireless connectivity to a PC/Laptop, albeit low bandwidth but just fine for device control like how you are using it!
Code the complex brain on your 'fat' PC, put the motors and servos in a 'thin' robot, tie the two with bluetooth, amazing. Sounds like the robot will be having a serious out of body experience! ;-)
Amazingly too it doesn't require opening up your WiiMote and soldering anything!
Excellent work there!
Thanks
Fantastic
Morons. He needn't change the fan for a c02 canister or water hose or other more suited fire extinguisher. The robot is a proof of concept. The point of the project... "it is mainly a proof of concept that the wiimote can be used in a fire fighting robot." The current fan method of extinguishing the candles this little robot faces is overkill as it stands.
I doubt that robots built as extensions of this idea to face things like house fires will implement the current extinguishment method.
Come on people. Use your brains.
Fight Fire With Wind!!!
Just to let you know that Wind on fire make it bigger :)
Put a hose on that bot and you got your firefighter...
coooool
coooool
A easy suggestion that will wonder
y don't u putt a kind of bowl/cup/plte of sand in front of fan..
now see fan will work as sand blower and without much change u cn hv better result..
What a great suggestion!
What a great suggestion! Now the author can spend all day cleaning sand out of everything in the room instead of working on the robot! Yes, an easy suggestion that will wonder indeed. I know I'm wondering.
Oh, and it's nice to see you saving electrons with your txt-speak too - the world needs more conservationists like you who are prepared to drop their vowels to help prevent global warming!
Cool
best of luck at the compaction i was there 2 years ago with my friend we took 5th but it was so fun !!!!
: P
LOL stop studdering!
It just goes to show this
It just goes to show this persons lack of intelligence. How ignorant.
Stu-DD-ering?!?!?
For the love of Christ, where do pinheads like :P come from? It almost makes me stop believing in evolution when someone like him opens his ignorant pie-hole. I mean, holy shit - you would think with eight-zillion sites on the internets these douche bags would eventually all sink to the bottom together, making pea-brain comments about themselves. Maybe we could develop some sort of web "attractant" algorithm for cobags, and funnel these dick wads into a separate region of the digital universe where they won't waste anyone else's bandwidth with their miserable existence?
Just a thought.
Oh yeah - awesome site, Chad!
your an asshole dude, why
your an asshole dude, why pick on him for stuttering. Have a good look at yourself before being such a prick.
Great job, but the fan
Great job, but the fan should be replaced with something more useful extinguishing fires not feeding them...Congrats tho! it is still fuckin awesome.
Hey, how about using a servo
Hey, how about using a servo and a 12 gram CO2 duster like
http://www.sherwoods-photo.com/meade_scopes/tet_air_mini.gif
Totally Cool!
This project is totally cool!
Wait, Are you using a fan? Feeding the fire with more air is not a great idea, but anyway, your project is awesome!
independent upgrade
Wow! this is pretty cool.
I wonder about fighting a real fire when tethered via bluetooth to a PC (30ft?)
Depending on what the Arduino can support, if all the software were on board, it could operate independent of the PC.
If the Arduino doesn't have the processing power, you could use a pico-ITX computer, and connect directly through USB or serial.
http://www.mini-itx.com/store/?c=39
To improve sensor accuracy, you could try placing an additional filter over the IR sensor to attenuate the input, or you may be able to design your own IR array going straight into the Arduino board.
An idea.
You could add a movable watergun with variable pressure,etc so that you could put out the candle with a little water droplet.
cool
thats awesome! XD
Nice one Using the wiimote
Nice one
Using the wiimote as a bluetooth interface is such a great stuff !
Are you connecting to the
Are you connecting to the wiimote at 400khz?
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