“Initially, set Roamer on a charging station. She will wander around, feed herself and rest at night. The next day, shell do it again.
The charging station is merely a metal plate and a pole with metal foil attached to a bench power supply.
To me, a personal companion robot should have the functionality of an ant or better: no programming, setting controls or recharging batteries.
Roamer can run about 20 minutes between charges. A charging station can be constructed quickly. The station is simply an energized floor plate and energized bump rail. A spring on the bottom of Roamer contacts the floor plate and Roamers front bumper contacts the bump rail. The floor plate and bump rail are energized by a bench power supply set at 9 volts dc with current limited to .8 amps. When Roamer makes contact with the bump rail, she turns off her motors and evaluates the voltage between her bumper and spring. If the voltage is greater than 2 volts and less than 8.5 volts, she sits and waits until the voltage rises to 8.5 volts, then she backs up and is on her way—unless it is dark.
Supplies:
- (2) Servo motor, no end stops
- Boost converter
- 500 farad, 2.8 volt capacitor
- Lever switch, momentary
- photo resistor
- Arduino
- Arduino motor shield
- Vacuum belt
- One amp diode
- (4) 4.7 k resistor
- breadboard
- aluminum duct tape
- spring, 5.5 mm x 38 mm
- sheet steel
- Bench power supply
- Wire, solder, 3mm screws
- 3d printed parts (files available in this Instructable)”