Robotics

Robots are cool, you can build your own!.

We built a small robot called the "Tutebot." It stands for tutorial robot. This robot is a simple bump, reverse and turn robot. We got the plans from a book at the library, it's called "Mobile Robots" by Joseph Jones and Anita Flynn.

This is the tutebot.

The weird shape on the front (red, yellow, white bricks) is the bumper. The wires on top connect the bumper, batteries and control system of the Tutebot together.

This is a good picture of the control system and battery packs.

This robot includes two battery packs, two electric motors, two bump switches and one analog (means not digital) control system. The control system is the blue and black square on the top that has the mess of wires connected to it. The bump switches are the black things above the wheel. When the Tutebot bumps something, the bump switch turns on. This tells the control system to reverse the motors that make the wheels spin. The control system reverses the left wheel for about 1/2 second and the right wheel for about 1/3 second. This makes the Tutebot back up and turn when it bumps into something.

Here's a picture of me (Jarryd) holding the Tutebot so you can see how big it is.

Someday we will convert this stuff into a computer controlled robotic arm!

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Please send any feedback or questions to Tom Schmidt: Schmidt@Geocities.com.
This page was last edited 11 March 1998.