Shepherd Bot (ArtzainBot)

Description

A low-cost, all-terrain shepherd bot.

"Artzain" means "Shepherd" in basque. Sometimes could see this word but means the same :)

This is my first project in robotics. I like to set specific goals for myself and for the project to be of practical use. So the target for this first version is a small, low-cost UGV (Unmanned Land Vehicle) with off-road capability. It is inspired by the Martian rovers or their opensource equivalents like Sawppy.

Martian rovers work with 6-wheel and a Rocker-Boogie suspension. It seemed too complex to start there, looking for other alternatives I have seen and was inspired by a project called Leorover.

Artzain-Bot has a 3D printed lightweight body along with a 11x15cm electrical junction box. The design of the concept, chassis and parts is from my own, for the electronics I have relied on the OpenBot platform.

Details

Features:

4 driving wheels
H-bridge based on L298 to drive the engines
Arduino Nano
Ultrasonic sensor
Powered by three 18650 batteries
Old Smartphone without SIM connected to the Arduino through OTG cable tha provides power and "Intelligence".

For the control part I'm working with several options:

OpenBot platform
ESP32 Cam
Platform based on Jetson Nano (coming soon)

At the moment I'm working with OpenBot. . Although I have a Jetson Nano I have preferred to save it for a larger project. It didn't fit well in the OpenBot chassis and I was going to have issues with heat dissipation as the printed parts are PLA and can warp.

OpenBot consists of a firmware installed on the Arduino Nano and an Android app installed on the smartphone that communicates with the Nano through the USB port. It uses the ** TensorFlow Lite ** framework to control the robot, which can be controlled from another smartphone in the hands of the user. It has packages installed to "navigate" autonomously avoiding objects that it detects through the mobile camera. There is another way that allows you to follow a person.

The system can be "trained" to do other things. So, this project helps me to experiment and evaluate other potentially interesting projects.

The ultimate goal would be the construction of a very robust UGV with a high capacity to move autonomously, which can transport some objects and accompany the user in the garden, make emergency calls in case of problems and other things.

Credits

Artzain-Bot is a concept created by Victor Barahona .

This project has been based on Martian rovers such as Curiosity and some UGV designs but mainly I love Leorover .

At this stage, the electronics and software have been adapted from the platform OpenBot

License GPL3.0

More info in my Github account (in spanish).

Files

Barra principal.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 1.11 MB - 09/26/2021 at 16:36

Download

Union_barra_chasis.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 795.59 kB - 09/26/2021 at 16:36

Download

Tapa jack 12V.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 288.07 kB - 09/26/2021 at 16:36

Download

tapa union barrachasis.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 358.09 kB - 09/26/2021 at 16:36

Download

Tapa ultrasonicos.stl

Standard Tesselated Geometry - 264.34 kB - 09/26/2021 at 16:36

Download

Components

1 × Old mobile phone (sim card not neccesary)

1 × Arduino nano

1 × OTG wire to connect Arduino and phone

1 × H-bridge L298

4 × dc motor with wheel (cheap model)

Project Logs

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Working in V1 & V2 design

Victor Barahona • 09/27/2021 at 18:51 • 0 comments

ShepherdBot is a concept: an small robot to help you in the garden. So it must be hard, all-terrain, long range, must carry tools and sensors. In my dreams could autopilot and follow you, ask for help if you have problems and could recover it if he turns around. Ahhh ... must be cute , too.

Yes, I know, I'm dreaming ... but why not?

I''m 55 years old. Im my childhood I saw a movie called "silent running" and I was amazed. The story and ... the robots, they are gardeners!

This is the reference in IMDB

Silent Running

And here is a picture. Maybe have seen this before.:

They inspired me about how to make a gardener robot, or maybe a shepherd robot. From this came to me the name of the project:

ShepherdBot (ArtzainBot)

As I said is a concept. That means that I'm interested in several designs. I have presented V1, the objective is low-cost and all-terrain.

But I'm working too in V2. In this case the objective is an strong robot with more capacity to carry things. Here is a picture to illustrate the concept:

This is a work in progress. I'm working in both versions to see the pros&cons. Stay tuned!

Video with ShepherdBot in outdoors

Victor Barahona • 09/26/2021 at 21:47 • 0 comments

This afternoon I have edited some footage with my shepherdbot in outdoors to see how is its behaviour.

Here is the video. Enjoy!!

Build Instructions

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Step 1

Work in progress.

Coming soon...

Discussions

Shepherd Bot (ArtzainBot)

Description

Details