Autonomoues Wall-e

Question

Hello everybody! My name is Alessio, I'm italian and a new member!

I just recently purchased an Ultimate Wall-E robot of Thinkway, and my goal is to turn it into an autonomous robot, just like djsures did with his Wall-E. I wondered, as my model (Ultimate) is very large (about 16" tall) how can I make an internal system, so as to make it independent from an external PC on which to run the ARC? Should I insert a PC in Wall-E? If so, there is a very small system (such as a cubieboard) which can run Windows and the ARC? Any other suggestion is welcome.. I really want to make a robot that does not depend on an external PC...

PS: please, forgive my bad english...

jayceekeys · Answer

I am sure more experienced guys than me will jump in and help you. It sounds like a great project though so good luck ! I just wanted to say that I'm from England and your English is far better than most people who come from England ! Don't apologise - your English is amazing ! Cheers, Jay

irobot58 · Answer

@Sparkino search the Forum with the word Wall-E and you will find a huge volume of amazing projects and ideas.! and yes your English is very good!

Rich · Answer

There are a few Windows 8 tablets which can run ARC. The Acer W3, W4 and W7 for instance. They may fit in there.

stonewolf · Answer

Hello :-} Another one that will run ARC is the HP Slate 7, I know because that is what I have :-}

hoolagen1 · Answer

Yo I have the same ultimate wall-e. No one here has tried to do one. You can find some nice dissection pics of it on flikr. How much did you get yours for?

sparkino · Answer

Thank you all! @hoolagen1, can you give me the flickr link, where I can see the photos? I get the mine for $570...

CardboardHacker · Answer

From what I've seen, that's a deal sparkino!

hoolagen1 · Answer

I'll look it up now. There's a teppee motor in the neck...other than that. Looks pretty easy. I paid 350

hoolagen1 · Answer

here you go

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Link says "Page not found"

hoolagen1 · Answer

Ahhh... Sorry. Google. Ultimate wall-e dissect flickr

sparkino · Answer

@hoolagen1, interesting link, thanks! Can you show how you have modified your Ultimate Wall-E?

Rich · Answer

Here you go... needed a redirect url to avoid the forums formatting due to the @ symbol in the url... Photos I didn't realise these went for that much. I have a Wall-E that's waiting for an EZ-B, not 100% sure if it's this one or not but I think it is... I paid about 30 for it around a year ago. I'm really tempted to start my Wall-E sooner than planned since it's not too difficult a job to do and is awesome when done. I prefer the toy conversions and smaller robots and there's a bit of a lack of them recently.

hoolagen1 · Answer

Thanks rich. And yeah. I haven't started mine yet. I finished my mini wall-e but have not started on the big wall-e. Next project is the Hasbro r2. Then I'll have 2 bots on my resume. Kinda being a chicken, since it cist so much.

hoolagen1 · Answer

One last thing ill say about it. ultimate wall-e is 2 feet tall. hes huge. but....you cant really add a acer w3 tablet. there's a ton of room but not enough for the tablet. once you add the ezv4 a large battery, motor control for wheels, plus motor control for stepper motor in the neck, plus a large servo and the "built in mechanism" that makes the wall-e "tilt forward and back up" when he moves....it doesnt leave enough space for the tablet. what you can do is... install a slick way of inserting and removing an android phone in the the backpack or the front panel. this way you can set up the master project as a mobile app. run in on the phone, and then insert the phone into the wall-e. boom! super mini computer. @rich what do you think? (i ask because, well...you know.) (ill post a link to you a youtube video of this kid that modified his wall-e to have a legit mini digital screen in the "battery panel " on the front side of the wall-e and he also has the front body panel open up to reveal the insides. )

Rich · Answer

You know what, I've hardly touched the Android version. Provided the Android version can (eventually) run all controls that are on the project then yes that would work. I need to spend about an hour messing around with the mobile version and seeing how much has been added to it since the first release (the only release I've installed). Or you could build a nice case for the android and use it like a handheld remote, that could also work (provided it's in range).

Tony1952 · Answer

@Rich sounds like you have the "Command" version of Wall-E. I paid a similar price off ebay last year for one in very good condition. They are worth a lot more now as they become rarer by the day. There are a few over $500 on ebay today, one for $750! https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Amazing-rare-U-Command-Wall-E-Robot-with-infrared-remote-control-/171242289138?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27ded5f7f2 I almost regret pulling mine to bits in anticipation of getting the development kit. They seem to be very well constructed. I can't wait to get started on that project! My biggest fear at the moment is that the new "Revolution" camera will not fit into Wall-E's eye. Also have to see what size servos come in the kit.

hoolagen1 · Answer

@tony1952 I never thought of putting the camera in the ultimate wall-e's eye. simply because the blinking ability it has is awesome. not sure where to put the camera since I want this wall-e to have face tracking, unlike my other mini wall-e that does not. but again the blinking aspect is to nice to let go of.

sparkino · Answer

@hoolagen1, How I can mantain all the original functions of Ultimate Wall-E, but autonomously? I like an autonomous Wall-E with all its original functions, but independent from the remote. And some new features, like face recognition, speech recognition etc..

Rich · Answer

Yes it is the U-Command (I know this as I started on him last night - project to come), which was a little disappointing but I'm sure I can get him up and running just the same You know the camera doesn't have to be attached to the part that moves, i.e. the camera could be on the body but move the head pan/tilt to suit. ARC has the ability to do that. The camera doesn't need to move, the software can make the head look in the right direction.

hoolagen1 · Answer

@rich yeah I tried the remote camera thing but....it doesn't feel as natural because kids will want to look at wall e in the face/eyes to get a reaction. I dunno, I like the idea of the remote setting but it doesn't work all well for this project.

hoolagen1 · Answer

@sparkino its really easy to do....well not really easy, but pretty easy. I would strongly suggest you start with a smaller project. or at least a less expensive one. ive never done this before so I started with the small wall-e, I learned a lot. -patience. -attention to detail -reverse engineering -servo space and placement -balance/weight distribution -use of a rotary tool. -working out ideas and implementing them in a very small space. again im a noob but got the hang of all these things. I cringe to think what my big wall would have looked like if I learned on it. ultimate wall-e part by part base/wheels remove all the electronics, add a motor controller for the 2 sets of motors in the wheels. BOOM! you have control of the wall-e tracks. body tilt in the flickr site you can see the mechanism that makes the wall-e body tilt forward for additional animation. This mechanism turns a gear on a track, within a small case. this gear is moved by a motor. remove the motor and replace with a continuous rotation servo. BOOM! you have control of the body tilt motion. arms more to come, sorry im at work.

Tony1952 · Answer

@Rich do you intend giving your Wall-E servo controlled horizontal arm movement? Looking at other projects in this community where it has been done, it seems you have to pull the arms apart. I can't work out how people have done this as it seems my Wall-E has his glued together at the hand end, so there's more than just undoing the screws. My U-Command Wall-E also has the plastic rollers (adjoining the tracks) mounted in the middle, not the back of the body. I'm not sure what they are there for, but as Wall-E has a tendency of flipping back, they are probably better off mounted at the back! Wall-E might seem a simple project but it definitely gets the mind working!

Rich · Answer

My Wall-E will probably end up being pretty simple. A couple of servos to move the arms up and down, two continuous rotation servos for movement and one servo for head pan (possibly pan/tilt if I can make it fit). There's certainly less space in there than I first thought!

hoolagen1 · Answer

the wall e breaks up into 3 pieces. the bottom plate, the box and the top plete. once you open up the wall-e body you can see how the arm come off. as far as horizontal arm movement... see the grey disc that the arm is attached to? glue a servo horn to that, stick a servo into that and attach the arm to that servo. BOOM! horizontal arm movement. (by the way, that's a great band name)

Tony1952 · Answer

@Rich I should probably limit myself to the same, tinker with the software and see how that goes. I'm just a beginner. Probably a Boxbot would have been a better start. It's hard not to get too ambitious when you see the great projects some very talented people have done in this community!

Tony1952 · Answer

Thanks @hoolagen1 I notice you crammed a lot of movement functions into your Wall-E which is even smaller than the U-Command model! How on earth did you do the hand movement? And did your Wall-E's arms come apart by just undoing the screws or was some cutting required?

sparkino · Answer

@hoolagen1, thanks for the suggestions! I just bought an U-command Wall-E ($35) and I will work on it. You suggest me to remove all the electronics from the base of Ultimate Wall-E, to add a motor controller for the 2 sets of motors in the wheels (H-Bridge?), but if I will remove all the electronics, how can I have all the original sounds of Wall-E? I bought an Ultimate WALL-E because it is the most complete model currently on the market, and frankly I liked to keep all of its features (especially the electronic features, such as voice recognition, sounds, etc...). I just want to make it independent from the remote. However, as a beginner, I will work on the small U-command...

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

@Sparkino. You're probably going to have to find the Wall-e sounds (wave or mp3) on the Internet and play them through ARC. I did this with my R2 D2 project...

sparkino · Answer

@Richard, really is it possible?

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

@Sparkino... I did and other people have too. It's pretty much the only way to give wall-e a voice. .... That's how DJ did the sounds for his original Wall-e way back..

Rich · Answer

The V4 has built in soundboard/speaker too which makes it easier, plus it's smaller. After looking at my U-Command I will more than likely hold off on the EZ-B until I can get hold of a V4 for him (the original plan was to use one of my V3 boards but that would need a separate MP3 trigger etc. and it's bigger)

sparkino · Answer

@Richard, I thought that DJ used the "on-board sound card" of his Wall-E... I did not realize that he used external mp3 files..!

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

Nope, I am pretty sure he used wav or mp3 files. Wouldn't be an easy task getting the onboard sound card to spit out appropriate sounds when required... So much simpler to use wav or mp3 files through ARC...

sparkino · Answer

@Richard, thank you very much! Now I must found all the sounds... I only find the classic "wwwwwalleeeeee"... I love the sound that DJ's wall-e play when the orange ball disappear!

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

What Rich said..... V4 with its on board speaker will make projects like wall-e even easier.... Won't even need a mp3 trigger board...

hoolagen1 · Answer

yo @sparkino yea I have the v3 and a sparkfun mp3 trigger....downloaded a ton of wall-e sounds, plus a bunch of random audio clips too. because in the movie he would reply by playing an old tv audio clip you can keep all the original functions of the wall-e and add many more, by removing all the original components and adding in the v4 or v3, in the software you can -add voice recognition -automated movement -specific motions (dancing, reactions to certain phrases) but remember the microphone that is picking up the commands is on your pc/tablet/phone, not on the robot itself. you can add microphones to the robot itself, but this is only useful to make the wall-e turn towards the sound of a voice (using an ADC voltage reader thing) giving the impression he turns to see you when you speak. but the commands or voice recognition must be picked up by a microphone on the pc. (for v3 that is) @tony1952 as far as my mini wall-e the hand rotation was pretty easy I think I posted a bunch of detailed pics on the build....I think my thread is called "pics of progress..." not sure. originally the hand would "pump" in and out of the arm. but I noticed with so much animation in the eyes, neck and body, the in and out motion was kinda lost. no one noticed it. so I re worked the inside of the arms and made the hand rotate. used a micro servo I think. the real challenge were the eyes. each eye has 2 servos in it. and 2 for the neck. I get up and down, left and right and a "twitch or tilt" motion from the eyes alone. then the neck moves up and down too. pretty slick. one last thing, the ultimate wall-e has the ability to "grip" with his hand. so now im sure I will be able to add -horizontal arm movement -vertical arm movement -hand rotation -hand gripping motion in each arm. pretty slick right?

hoolagen1 · Answer

pics of mp3 trigger added to my wall-e

Tony1952 · Answer

thanks @hoolagen1 I found that " Pics Of Progress" thread: https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/678 There are lots of very detailed pics of the head/neck mechanisms but nothing on the arms. You do however mention that you used the arms from the Limited Edition Wall-E because they were "thicker than u command wall-e and fit mini servos for hand rotation" I don't have a spare one of these lying around plus I can't even pull apart the arms of my U-Command Wall-E, so I'll just stick to vertical arm movement for my Wall-E. Good luck on adding that hand gripping motion. That will be a sight to behold!

sparkino · Answer

@hoolagen1, thanks! Where I can find some interesting audio clips? Please, forgive my curiosity, but I have a question: you said "you can add microphones to the robot itself, but this is only useful to make the wall-e turn towards the sound of a voice (using an ADC voltage reader thing) giving the impression he turns to see you when you speak". How can I realize this? Have you some link where is explained how to use an ADC voltage reader for this purpose?

hoolagen1 · Answer

@tony1952 oh yea that's right! sorry been a year. ill post some pics. im actually swapping the body and arms from the u command wall-e (im only keeping the neck from the limited edition wall-e) I know, so much waited time. but again the arms that Louis t did and someone else on this forum were done with the u-command arms. @sparkino ill see if I can upload the clips of wall-e sounds I already have.... -there are simple microphones on ebay or amazon, they connect to any port on the ezb. -add 1 microphone on each side of the wall-e body. near the arms, they will work as ears. -then use the adc voltage option on the software side of the ezb -make a simple script, if that meter raises higher than a specific number, the body and head will turn in that direction. example: if you clap on one side of the wall e, that mic will trigger the closest mic. and voltage reading will come up on the screen. the script will kick in and the wall-e will move. BOOM! But remember -the voice recognition part cannot work with these microphones. -that must be done with a mic. that is added to your pc. knowwhatimsaying?

Tony1952 · Answer

@sparkino Wall-E audio files were covered in this thread https://synthiam.com/Community/Questions/2224 Many links on google

sparkino · Answer

@hoolagen1, thank you. knowwhatyoursaying! @Tony1952, just found a lot of original Wall-E audio files, thanks! Someone can tell me the title of the song that DJ's Wall-E played when dancing? It's really nice!

Rich · Answer

You can use the soundboard which DJ set up in the Wall-E example too, it holds all of the sound bites DJ uses on his Wall-E, they are embedded in the project so no need to search and download.

sparkino · Answer

@Rich, the sounds are in the ARC folder? Ok, I will search, thanks!

Rich · Answer

No, the sounds are embedded in the project. You will need to open or import the Wall-E project.

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

I just copied my R2 D2 sounds to a folder on my desktop. .. then used PlayAudio command ( ) in ARC to play R2 sounds out through the pc speakers. When I get my V4 boards I will swap out and play the sounds through the V4's on board speaker. This way I don't need a mp3 trigger board.

sparkino · Answer

@Rich, thnaks, now I understood!

caegear · Answer

I see this is an old thread, but I am very interrested to know what solution you ended up using to let your Wall-E operate without external PC. Did you go for the tablet, small PC or the Android solution?

Dunning-Kruger · Answer

@caegear Please understand... Unless you put a PC or mobile device onboard the ezb will need a remote pc or mobile device...  it does NOT operate stand alone.... Capiche?

sparkino

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