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First, I'd like to thank Hao-yang Wang for letting all of us know about the
availability of rotational sensors.
In case you missed it:
>I saw both the rotation sensor (9756) and the temperature sensor (9755)
at
>www.legoworldshop.com last week.
>( I suggest you to call S@H first, as things may change now.)
I highly recommend the Rotational Sensor to all of you robot builders!
I bought two, and it's been a blast!
Basically it's an extra thick 2x4 brick with an axle hole and a wire.
You just put an axle through it, and as you turn the axle, the value of the
sensor is gradually incremented or decremented (depending on which way the
axle was rotated). I believe a full rotation changes the value by 16. The
sensor is very loose, it does not take any effort at all to rotate it, so if
you can hook a motor to it without worrying about friction.
First thing I built was a robot hand.
It's basically the robot hand that's on the MindStorms box. Actually, it's
just the claw part.
I built two of these, one with motor, the other without. The one without
motor, is rubberband loaded to stay open. Each hand has a rotational sensor
on it.
With a few lines of NQC (thanks Rick Overmars & Dave Baum!) the motorized
hand mimics the non-motorized hand. It's proportional! - The motorized hand
closes and opens the same amount as the non-motorized one. It's really
cool! Freaky, but cool!
The second thing I built was a "new" (I've never seen this done before)
steering mechanism.
I wish I have a digital camera, this explanation would have been much
clearer with a picture.
But here it goes anyway...
Basically, I use a string ( Non-LEGO, sorry... but I need a rather long
string) to steer the vehicle remotely.
It's kinda like guiding a dog with a leash. You hold the trailing string
behind the vehicle.
You control the vehicle by moving the string left, right, or straight behind
the vehicle.
Of course, a rotational sensor was used to detect the angle of the string.
I also hooked the end of the string (one on the vehicle) such that when I
tug the string it would toggle the motor power. One tug, motors on, another
tug motors off.
It took some time to get used to driving this way, but it's pretty slick.
Oh almost forgot to mention that the vehicle is a PodRacer of my own design.
Anyway, as you can see, I had fun with the rotational sensors.
If you enjoy the MindStorms, get the rotational sensor! It's a lot of fun!
hwiguna
PodRacer
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Fun with MindStorms Rotational Sensors
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| (...) Agreed, I went and bought one too. :) I'd like to get really smooth speed and position control of a motor using this thing for feedback. Motors with two speeds (go and stop) get boring after a while, all the really cool robots I've seen glide (...) (25 years ago, 3-Jun-99, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Fun with MindStorms Rotational Sensors
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| (...) Yes, I have a couple of them too and they give you so many possibilities... (...) I like this! My children would love a robotic pet to guide with a leash. I might enhance your system and detect the strenght applied to the leash to make the (...) (25 years ago, 3-Jun-99, to lugnet.reviews, lugnet.robotics)
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