Whenever you consider a robotic, you may envision a big, complicated contraption. Nonetheless, Dr. Chris Stemple’s ingenious Dimebots are a distinct development. These micro-bots, in regards to the measurement of a dime, are surprisingly easy and simple to construct with available components.
Stemple crafted the intelligent little micro-robots with a tiny motor, LiPo battery, proximity sensor, and a microcontroller. They weigh solely 5 grams and are about the identical measurement as a US dime (about 18 millimeters), therefore the identify Dimebots.
A Microchip ATtiny1614 microcontroller runs the robotic. Stemple initially thought of the Microchip ATmega328P, the identical eight-bit microcontroller used within the Arduino Uno and Nano boards. Nonetheless, the ATtiny1614’s SOIC package deal provides simpler soldering and a single-pin Unified Program and Debug Interface (UPDI), which saves area on the customized printed circuit board and reduces the construct price by not requiring a specialised programmer. For instance, you may create a UPDI programmer with a USB-to-serial cable and a single (10 kilohm) resistor.
An optical sensor positioned on Dimebot’s entrance supplies “imaginative and prescient.” It’s a Vishay VCNL4040 proximity and lightweight sensor. These infrared-based sensors, with their built-in sign conditioning and I2C communication, seamlessly combine into tasks like Dimebot. They’ll detect ambient gentle and, extra crucially for a robotic, decide its proximity to a wall or object, enabling the bot to navigate round obstacles.
Dimebot weight with LiPo (📷: Dimebots/GitHub)
A 30 milliamp-hour battery supplies vitality for Dimebot’s electronics and a 4 x 8-millimeter motor. Stemple repurposed this mini motor from a pager’s vibration module. In keeping with the motor’s datasheet and the battery’s capability, Dimebot’s runtime might attain as much as an hour. The motor’s 70-millimeter shaft attaches to the drive wheels.
The drive wheels have two main elements: a hub and a tire. Stemple 3D-printed a hub that attaches to the motor’s shaft and a “tire” created from 005-sized o-rings. The freewheels, created from an off-the-shelf ball bearing, additionally use the o-rings as tires. Stemple evenly sanded the o-rings to extend their traction.
Dime bot on prime of a dime (📷: Dimebots/GitHub)
You’ll be able to obtain the MIT-licensed Eagle design information, 3D-printable components, and pattern Arduino code from the Dimebots GitHub repository. This venture description supplies further element on why Stemple selected particular components.