ROBO ALIVE Robotic Snake Series 3 (Red) Light Up Toy, Battery-Powered Robotic Toy, Realistic Movements, Toy Lizard

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The vibration motor is added to simulate the a rattling tail on a snake. We were given our vibration motor from class, so we do not have a model number, but just like the other steps of this project, use the size motor that best fits the snake that you are building. We wanted the smallest motor possible, so that it would be able to fit on the small tail piece we were building. A robot snake has been developed by scientists in the race to advance the abilities of search and rescue machines. The team created the robot to mimic the snakes’ movements. They say that compared to robot snakes from other studies, their creation is more stable than all but one, and came close to matching a real snake’s speed. Again, in this step, we found it was easiest to draw out what we wanted timing wise, so we could easily see when to turn on and off each component. They're based in convenient locations including supermarkets, newsagents and train stations. Plus they're often open late and on Sundays.

Sneel is the name of my snake / eel swimming robot. This is documentation of hardware, software and mechanical design of Sneel_003. In this step we will be setting up three photocell sensors, all of these will be needed to complete the snake. Two of these sensors will become directional sensors, controlling the motors. The more light either the right or left sensor will have will control how much power each of the motors will receive, controlling the speed and direction of the snake’s movement. The last sensor will become the ambient light sensor, detecting how much light is in the room. This is necessary for each of the directional sensors so they can tell how much more light is being directed at them; and it is necessary for the leds, if the room is dark, the leds will light up. Allow the head base fabric to have extra 1 or 2 inch of indent so it has extra room for all the materials to be in the head. One of the main problems with the previous steps was that each piece of the project was constructed separately, but when added together it created problems in the programming. The photocell sensors required immediate reaction to control the motors, but the groups of LED and vibration motor needed different lengths of delays to control them. Also the LED groups blinked at the same time even though they are supposed to be three separate groups. To control everything in the code the way we need to, we require a timer.

Researchers studied how the variable kingsnake – commonly found in deserts and pine-oak forests – climbed steps in Li’s terradynamics lab. “These snakes have to regularly travel across boulders and fallen trees – they’re the masters of movement and there’s much we can learn from them,” he said. Acquire fabric of prefered choice. We used green fabric to make it look like somewhat more snake looking. Measure the size of balsa wood base, sketch it on fabric. Cut two a piece of rubber about 1.75" diameter, so that it fits inside of the vacuum reducers. Cut two pieces of cord about 2 feet long, to act as tethers and to help position the body inside of the skin. We also found that each motor needed a minimum value of speed (ours was 100) to be able to pull the weight of the snake. There could never be a speed value of 0 going to a motor. If a motor would completely stop, it would then take too much work to get the motor moving again.

We then subtract photocellDifference1 and photocellDifference2 from each other and store it in lrValue. By taking this difference, we are able to tell how much more light each directional sensor is sensing. If this number is negative than it means Sensor 4 has less light than Sensor 3 and more speed should be directed at Motor B. If the lrValue is positive than it means that Sensor 3 has more light than Sensor 4 and more speed should be directed to Motor A. We recommend gluing the hook part to wood, because it is much easier to sew the loop part of velcro into fabric. The attached graphs show the output angle values of each servo mapped over time, slightly out of phase from each other. The difference is when there is a different offset (delay in the time it takes one servo to get to the angle of the previous one in the line of waves).If any of the servo joints are stiff or the metal is rubbing, I add some grease between the rubbing sections. Note: an arduino mega is necessary not because of the numbers of outputs but because the flash memory space in the arduino UNO is not large enough. We then take the differences between Sensor 3 and Sensor 5 (and store it in photocellDifference1) as well as the difference between Sensor 4 and Sensor 5 (and store it in photocellDifference2). This will tell us how much brighter the directional sensors are from the ambient sensor. Since the light will be shinning on these sensors, the difference readings should tell us how much light is being directed at each sensor. Our snake will contain three groups of LEDs, each with 6-7 lights on each strand. To create groups of LEDs, it is the same process as creating a single group with only one LED in it. In our snake we used Pin 5, Pin 6, and Pin 7 to control the different strands of the LEDs. Also to save space on our breadboard, we connected each LED group to the same resistor that then connected to ground.

Temporarily attach motors and wheels to the head base piece of the snake robot. Mount the arduino components, breadboard, and the batteries to the head base piece of the snake robot as well. Test run the motors; set them to full power to begin with, and see if the wheels can break the static friction all of the extra weight is causing. Although the motors may seem like they have enough power when the snake is in the air, the motors will have trouble starting off. If the motors do not pull the snake head forward with reasonable speed, they will not be able to pull the rest of the snake with it. Be sure to buy strong enough motors before permanently mounting them to the wooden base! cut length of plastic 5/16" tube to the length of the snake. Slip it over the OUTPUT nozzle on the pump (the more narrow nozzle is the output). I like to briefly blast the junction with a heatgun once I slip on the tube to make the connection nice and snug. Secure a hose-clamp around the tube at the joint.We used the following code to get the LED blink. We first turn the LED on, then pause for one second to leave the LED on. We then turn the LED off and pause again for one second, so that the LED stays off. This then causes the blinking action to happen. Soldering iron, laser-cutter, scissors, sewing needle, small screwdriver, wire cutter/stripper, strong flashlight Once it is all the way on, I use the string on both sides to hoist the carbon fiber all the way into to the end of the vacuum tube. I tie a knot here to prevent slipping.