Butler Robot

[airman00]

Hello,

My entry for this contest is my butler robot , which I call Chives. I had wanted to build a robot that pours drinks and does other butler duties, but sadly a search on Google for butler robot returned no appropriate results. I spent many nights building and designing and after a series of butler bot prototypes , I finally got it all working about a year ago. I am happy to say that now when you search Google for "butler robot" you will get a step-by-step guide to build your own butler robot , my butler robot tutorial!

My Step By Step Butler Robot Tutorial


The first version of my butler robot had a lot of room for improvement and once I heard about a certain robotics contest I decided to make a better version and this time I wanted to fully document my butler robot.
My second version of my butler robot uses a better voice recognition engine , has a nicer body , pours drinks, and can grip things with his hands. In addition to those features it can do image processing with its head camera, allows easy interface to attach sensors, allows wireless control from a laptop or cellphone or iPod Touch, and it can speak the time ,weather, and more! Plus I made a detailed tutorial to make your own!

What makes this robot special:
It is one of the handful butler robots out there
It is the cheapest and most documented butler robot
It can pour drinks by voice command
It is made from easy to find and inexpensive parts
It is very easy to build when you follow my step-by-step guide
It allows room for expansion
It has a realistic speaking voice
All the software is open-source!

Improvements to be made :
Add Sabertooth motor controllers for speed control
Add more degrees of freedom to arms
Develop algorithms using image processing
Add sonar sensors and radio locators
Make the butler robot self charge

Full Feature List:
Drive in all four directions by voice command ( speak distance to travel in "units")
Manual control by a built-in Joystick
Pours a drink by voice command
Speaks the current time by voice command
Speaks the current temperature by voice command
Speaks the current weather conditions by voice command
Plays sound effects and does preprogrammed parodies of classic movies
Built-in Webcam for image processing using Roborealm
Built-in Mini fridge keeps drinks cool
Gripper in a revolving arm allows the robot to pickup objects
Wireless control over the internet using a laptop/computer/cell phone/iPod Touch
Easy to use functions in software make adding commands simple and straightforward
10 extra output ports and 14 extra input ports available on interface board
Powerful motors allow the user to jump on the butler robot and drive around on it
Security software alerts the user whenever motion is detected in the camera and the robot speaks a warning

[airman00]

anyone know?

also pls vote for my robot
http://www.instructables.com/id/Buil...-Butler-Robot/

[archcvd]

Neat project! Any details on the software?

How much runtime do you get from those two batteries and what do you use to charge them?

[airman00]

Software will be uploaded tonite or tomorrow nite with details

Batteries will last quite a while for me. On discontinuous use they last like 2 months before charging is needed

Please vote for my robot!
http://www.instructables.com/contest...sort=USERVOTES

[Alex]

I got you entered in this round airman00, but could you provide more info in this thread? Parts list, problems encountered, what you learned, etc. (all required info can be found on contest page).

BTW, awesome project!

[airman00]

I'll add more into this thread later this week . I've been crazy busy the last few days....


Also, whoever hasn't voted yet please vote for my butler robot , please do so now. Voting ends tomorrow.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Buil...-Butler-Robot/


Thanks,
Eric

[LinuxGuy]

Do I have to post the tutorial on this site , or is that link good enough?

You could put it both places. I am posting my tutorials in two different places, but only those interested in Hammer will see them twice.

8-Dale

[ScuD]

Slightly offtopic, but hasn't anyone ever gotten confused with the "erobots" thingie? ;-)

[Alex]

Do I have to post the tutorial on this site , or is that link good enough?

You don't "have" to post the tutorial in the TRC (please don't post a tutorial in your project submission thread here), but I'm sure the community would greatly appreciate a nice tutorial added in our community tutorials section:

http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/fo...play.php?f=118

In this thread though, you will need to up the content (just look at our contest page).

[airman00]

Slightly offtopic, but hasn't anyone ever gotten confused with the "erobots" thingie? ;-)

I'm not understanding what you are saying . My name on instructables is erobots ( after my blog: erobots.blogspot.com ) but elsewhere its airman00.

I have a nice weekend ahead of me , so expect this thread to be done by Monday.

,Eric