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Objective 
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My main objective in for this project was to make something actually useful. I mean people ask me don't you have any robots that can do something useful. Vacuum the floor, clean the dishes.... and all can say is "well no but I have a cool walking robot that can back up". Well it's here! DusterBot!!! DBot was constructed to be able to live in a household/room with no intervention and clean the room. I just got so tired of vacuuming the floor every couple days that I thought to my self as I was cleaning the floor one day "there must be an easier way". After thinking about it I decided I would build a robot to do it. It would have to come on at night so it wouldn't get in the way. Needed to be solar powered, wouldn't get stuck and has to have some sort of light so you could see it at night so as not to step on it. As a conclusion to my objectives I'd have to say DBot turned out much better than I'd originally hoped. |
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Analysis
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After leaving DBot alone in my room for about 2-3 minute's I turned him over to check to see how much dirt he found and I was amazed! Look at all that dirt, and that's just from a couple minutes imagine how much he'll collect on a full charge.  As far as the roaming pattern DBot veers a little to the right but that's good and I think it covers an area better that way. When he bumps an object he turns between 90 and 180 degrees getting him around the room nicely. |
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Construction
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DBot was constructed of parts I just had laying around. I will explain DBot in two sections, the frame and the electronics.
As you can see the frame is relatively simple. Zip ties were used to secure the motors while brass screws were used as solderable posts to which the paper clip battery cadge was attached to and to hold the electronics board on. The paper towel sweeper was then taped on the front. The front tactile sensors were soldered directly onto the electronics board giving a very clean look.
Electronics
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Images
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Front shot
 Rear shot  Side  Top  This one has a ruler (sorry you can't see it well) I didn't have a long one handy but you can get an idea of the size because the solar cell is 6" x 6" (around 15 x 15cm). Close-up of the electronics portion  |
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Additions
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| Things needed are more tactile sensors and a circuit that will cut power when the batteries get low so they don't run totally dead just sitting there. | ||||||
