The First Law of Robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
(This project is named, in irony, after Isaac Asimov's first law of robotics.)
Updated April 30, 2007 11:20 PM

Current Sponsors:

I'm currently using the 8 servo serial controller, and s666n High Torque servo motor, both of which are made by Pololu Robotics. I highly recommend using their servo controller over the Mini-SSC variety, because of the added resolution. Pololu's servo controllers work with Mini-SSC protocol as well, however I saw quite an increase in precision when I switched over to Pololu protocol.

I'm currently developing a weapons platform for the Defcon Bots competition, which will double as a friendly home security tool!

I'm going to document this project differetly than I usually do, since some of the information needs to be kept private. I will share whatever I feel I can on this page. After the competition I will release more info. If you email me with questions I'll try to answer them as much as I can. More details will be available on the private page.

TIME LINE :

• 12-02-06: Contest rules posted on Hackaday, competition piques my interest.
• 12-15-06: Begin correspondance with Ashish, and he decides to help me! Getting in touch with Ashish was probably the most important step.
• 12-20-06: Start Learning C#
• 01-09-07: Successfully controlling servos in C#, prototype1 built.
• 01-10-07: Decide to enter competition.
• 01-11-07: Prototype2 built.
• 01-14-07: Begin working with image recognition.
• 01-25-07: Build relay box to fire weapon.
• 02-04-07: Laser controlled turret created with prototype2. Video on youtube.
• 02-15-07: Implement circle filtering algorithm
• 02-27-07: Pololu Sponsorship Procured.
• 03-18-07: Prototype3 built. Problems cause much frustration (lol)
• 03-25-07: Pololu protocol implemented. Discover the controller will turn the servo past 180deg (yikes)
• 04-10-07: ServoCity Sponsorhip Procured.
• 04-20-07: Prototype4 Built and Operational. All the problems in prototype3 fixed.
• 04-30-07: Complete Working Demo Promised for Pololu. (done)

Future..

• 08-02-07: DEFCON. Compete.

DEVELOPMENT:

Prototype #4 : ASIMOV1

The 3rd prototype has been built and is operational. Videos Coming Soon!

Videos:

DEFCON 5 (I watched War Games this weekend...)
wmv
defcon5.wmv (7.6 MB)

youtube

Pictures:

From Afar.

From the front

Original Proof of Concept

Laser Guided Airsoft Turret
youtube



wmv
lasercontrol2.wmv (1.37MB)


Resources:
Defcon Bots
Winner of last years competition
Ashish's Programming Journal Ashish has helped me quite a bit with this project. He's accomplished some cool stuff that relates to the defcon competition (laser tracking, finding luminance, etc).
Pololu 8 Servo Serial Controller (the one I'm using)

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