Seeker

08/22/08

Seeker

"Seeker" was designed to compete in Robo Magellan contests, or "DARPA Mini-challenge" at the Seattle Robotics Society (SRS) Robothon. He won first place in 2005 (the only year we competed). Seeker uses the same base software as my other robots, including the ability to do remote control and diagnostics over 802.11, but was my first robot to add path planning and map display capabilities ( which are extended even more in Loki).

Photos. Click here or on one of the pictures to go to the Seeker Photo page.

Seeker Design

Seeker is built on top of an EMax RC 4X4 chassis, with a custom frame to hold a laptop and all the required interface circuitry. My original intent had been to strip the laptop, and just mount the motherboard on the robot, but after adding heavier duty springs, I found the EMax handled quite well even with the additional weight.

The laptop talks to a PIC processor, mounted on the great Mark III controller board, via a USB to Serial converter. The PIC is programmed using the CCS C compiler, and the PC software is written using Visual C++ 6.0.

Click on a link below for more info:

	Mechanical / Chassis
	Schematic and design
	Laptop Software
	PIC Software

This site was last updated 08/22/08