Apologies for the execrable video - it was an old camera, it was dark (heavy gamma correction going on here)... but I thought it time to post something! Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to introduce my little floor-sweeping robot, prototype 1.
At the moment it's rather better at rearranging dust than picking it up - I'd say it's about 50% efficient. It works like those street cleaners - basically a dustpan-and-brush on wheels. It's sensor array is a little crude at the moment, consisting of two bigass bump sensors at the front connected to a bigass 'sensing plate'. It has serious problems with obstacles that taper inwards at the bottom, and since I fitted the dustpan to the bottom it seems to be having a few traction issues, so I guess I need to raise it up a little.
If you look very
very carefully on the last part of this clip, you can see a grey smudge on the floor which disappears when the robot goes over it. That's a big pile of dust that I carefully swept up and put in harm's way, so the robot could eat it. Or just throw it around. Whatever.
The trickiest criteria (apart from getting a sensor array which was doable with available components and fairly reliable) was making the whole thing low enough to fit under the sofa. Which it does, just.
Later additions: I wanna put some sort of edge following sensors on the side - got some limit switches and drinking straws for making little 'antenna' feelers. Also really need to smooth out the ride - as you can tell from the clip, it makes a horrendous noise at the moment. Can't be good. I need to somehow improve the ground clearance without losing any cleaning (or dirt-collecting) ability.
But it kinda works. Enough that, once you add in the entertainment value, it's worth running it.
Enormous thanks go to Debbie, who went back and forth to Radio Shack, bought it for me on spec, and packed and posted it! Got the book yet, Debs?
Obviously it needs a better name than 'protoype 1'. Suggestions, anyone?
Okay - this is Boris...um... Boris VI, I guess. He picks up about 80% of the muck on the floor, and can negotiate pretty much anything on my floor, including the sheepskin rug (the lizards still give him a bit of trouble, though). 
