D-bot by Roger

This robot is built using a 6-wheel motorized toy called the BOSS (Battery Operated Spin System) which was available at toy stores a few years ago for about $120. The unit included wheels, gear motors, batteries and charger. The plastic stuff was tossed and a wooden base was attached and multiple decks made from sheets of aluminum. The power electronics including the batteries and motor drivers are on the bottom deck, the computer is on the second deck and the sensors are on the top deck. The computer is a standard PC/XT motherboard which controls the 2 DC motors using the parallel printer port. Software resides on a 3.5" floppy and automatically boots the robot program which was written in Quick-Basic V4.5. The software has the ability to read a joystick and record motions then play back the motions. This teach-and-repeat technique works well for short robot competitions where the task is well defined. Overall cost was about $450. Email questions to roger@robotics.com.

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