abe the good dwarf

BEAM robotics was something that I came across on Make Magazine’s website and their Podcast. So I figured I would check it out and give it a go.

Once I viewed this video I was under the impression that I could easily build myself a “simple” little robot!

BEAM is a triple acronym which stands for:

Biology Electronics Aesthetics Mechanics
Building Evolution Anarchy Modularity
Biotechnology Ethnology Analogy Morphology

BEAM robotics is a new field of robotics. It uses minimalist electronics to create elegant mechanical creatures that parallel their natural counterparts in many ways.

BEAM robotics basically starts from 3 philosophical tenets:

Use minimalist electronics
This keeps complexity from “snowballing”, and keeps costs down
Recycle & reuse components out of technoscrap
This keeps things cheap, and avoids a lot of trips to parts stores; virtually all the parts required to make a BEAM robot can be found in broken electronics (ovens, walkman’s, CD players, VCRs, pagers…).
Solar power your critter if possible
While less powerful than even a small battery (and, up-front, more expensive), solar cell s last for years; solar-powered BEAMbots don’t require constant battery replacements or down-time for battery recharging.

So I began to accumulate the required materials….from the list on the website.

Quant Part Solarbotics Parts # Notes
1 Pager Motor #RPM2 With weight still attached
1 3v Solar Cell #SC2433 Any 3v cells, such as the 24mm x 33mm ones SB sells
1 4700uF cap #CP4700uF N/A
1 2N3904 NPN transistors #TR3904 N/A
1 2N3906 PNP transistors #TR3906 N/A
1 Flashing LEDs #FLED N/A
1 2.2K-ohm resistors #R2.2k N/A
N/A Heat Shrink Tubing N/A Radio Shack has an assortment in various sizes. You’ll want tubing all the way up to 2″ dia.
1 Medium-Size Paper Clip N/A N/A
N/A Guitar String N/A N/A
N/A Red and Black Hook-Up Wire N/A Used to attach solar cell to SE circuit

But the solar cells were not quite large enough according to the requirements, so I bought a couple of solar powered exterior lawn lights.

Then I thought, gee I don’t have a vibrating pager type motor, I better buy something that vibrates so that I am totally sure this thing is going to work……

Well then I took both the lights and the game controller apart, which was fun!

Then came time for assembly………..but I soon learned that the parts list on the website was not accompanied by a detailed set of instructions, only a schematic and a picture of the finished robot. So I scavenged around and found the physical Make magazine that had that projecd in it. But the project in the magazine required a 1381-G voltage trigger which I didn’t have.

So I began by attempting to read the schematic and free form the circuits. Though I have never had to read a schematic before, so I went to my book, Robot Building for beginners and it had an extremely basic description of how a schematic is meant to be read and two of the very vital components that were on my schematic were not on theirs, the trigger and the capacitors.

Here is the schematic that I was working from, it seems sooooooooooooo simple!

Well, I forgot to mention that I had never soldered before in my life….so it wasn’t pretty……I soldered the first “circuit” together as far as I could read from the schematic and then I started to attach the capacitors directly to the engine as described in the magazine. Well it wasn’t long before my solder connections started to fall off all over the place.

An expert on the subject, Zunk writes “While traditional approaches essentially start with a “brain,” and attempt to build robots “downward” from that, BEAM robotics starts from simple reflexes, in a “bottoms-up” approach. The majority of BEAM robots are non-computerized (although simple CPUs can be used to drive them, in a “horse and rider” sort of way). Unlike many traditional processor-based robots, BEAM robots are cheap, simple, and can be built by a hobbyist with basic skills in a matter of hours.” Almost, but not quite…….

There were some tools that I needed that were not mentioned in the required parts list on the website, maybe they assumed I already had an electronics workshop. To finish I will need a third hand tool, for soldering the joints, poster putty and a dremel.

So unfortunately it is not done…..but I plan on finishing it this week, I spent way too much time and money on it not to finish it, and maybe it will be up on the site next week?

So I finished the robot the other day. It works and I am happy to have finished the project. I think solar power is definitely something I am excited about working with and this is a great way for a beginner to get to know what solar is all about.

Here it is!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 7:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.