Robots are supposed to make our lives easier right? Well this Tool Carrying Robot is sure to lighten your load. I remember the days of doing service work, I would have a huge case full of hand tools in one hand, a laptop slung over the other shoulder and some type of paperwork in my one free hand. Lugging this gear through large industrial buildings becomes a pain real quick…Â This robot could have sure came in handy back then! One enhancement it would need is a way to follow you upstairs. But I think TheGrue did a great first crack at the issue. This robot is an iterative build and it is interesting to read and learn from some of the issues that were faced during the build, below is an interesting side effect of a robot that uses a thermal sensor to “see” you and follow you.
“TOBI 4 will enhance or replace the thermal sensor in TOBI 3. The reason is that, after designing this project for over a year, I have come to realize that in an office environment, the thermal sensor has a serious flaw. TOBI will lock onto ANY human and follow them, so in this version I am going to add a secondary system to identify the master target from all other heat sources. At this point, I have no idea what I will use. It could be IR, RF or ultrasonic.“
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Why use thermal? This is just going to lock onto a rack of servers or something hotter than a person at that height.
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I enjoyed your write up on my robot. I was surprised that anyone other than the members of LMR are interested in TOBI. The Thermal sensor idea came from two other robots that I read about in Robot Magazine. I have come far on this project but I am still a total Noob when it comes to programming the Propeller. If I can do this, anyone can.