This is the diagram of our actor robot. The base is a Rover 2.0 tank RC robot. The head is a helium balloon. The center arm can bend down when the motor at the base tightens a string running up the arm. Everything is controlled from a game controller connected to a laptop.

These are a few alternative design idea’s that we’ve been toying with.

Raphael is the successor to Donatello the drawing robot. The goal of the Turtle bot project is to create a robot that can create its own works of art. Just like Donatello, Raphael drives around on a whiteboard table and draws as it moves. Using OpenCV libraries the bot is able to detect the lines that it (or you) have already drawn and adjust it’s current logic state. Raphael has many improvements over Donatello. Raphael is much more mobile and can zoom around the table at break neck speeds. There have been many software advances including more complex states for the bot to be in and red line detection that keeps the bot on the table. Donatello had many physical breaking problems that have been fixed in Raphael by switching to open beam.

To learn more about Donatello click here.

Below are detailed photos, code, and diagrams that should help you build your own version of Raphael.

Click here to view the code. 

We started this project with the goal of creating a robot that makes its own art. Donatello is a simple robot designed to draw turtle graphics on whiteboard tables. Named after the teenage mutant ninja turtle, Donatello uses a two DC motors, a dry erase marker, and a webcam to move around, draw lines, and see where it has been. The body of the robot is constructed out of open beam components and custom 1/8th inch plexiglass laser cut pieces. Donatello uses a raspberry pi as a brain. The pi is running a custom python program that uses the wiringpi and OpenCV libraries. The future holds many possibility for the logic that Donatello follows. The current rendition of the code has a simple two state system. When the camera detects a blue line under the robot it drives in a zig-zac line, when no line is detected under the robot Donatello draws a slowly drifting spiral shape.

Below are detailed photos, code, and diagrams that should help you build your own version of Donatello.

The first diagram of the robot. (top view). NOTE: The second marker has been replaced with a wheel.

The robot drawing a line.

An early attempt at drawing lines. (one of many)

View the code here. 

The electrical diagram of the robot.

What the robot sees. (the small window near the mouse is the computer’s view of what is blue)