Pia the robot

thingiverse

*UPDATED 10/07/2018 - Added an image showing how Pia is wired up using raspberry pi, circuit playground and batteries* *UPDATED 9/16/2018 - Updated arch_y_manifoldfix.stl in an attempt to resolve manifold issue. Although there isn't a problem printing in Cura, it may be an issue when using Simplify3D. I used blender to identify problem areas and even with that, the manifold issue remains. To resolve this, I recreated the object in sketchup. Perhaps there is an export issue when creating the STL. *UPDATED missing STLs July 4, 2018 and added STLs for battery mount, PI3 and PCA board* Video of Pia in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRn4ZjMaChU After seeing Alonso Martinez's Mira robot on YouTube, I was inspired to create my own version. Unfortunately, it wasn't available anywhere, so I designed one myself and will be uploading STLs and making the software that I've written for it available here or on github. In a nutshell, Pia is two concentric shells with 3 servos controlling x, y and z axis movement. It runs on a raspberry pi zero w, a pi camera and a PWM board from Adafruit. Internal parts are held in place without screws; just 3D printed blocks and strong 1/4" magnets. Currently, I'm not using battery power, but that is in the works. I went through 24 iterations of design and printed many of the parts several times before achieving my desired outcome. This project uses: 1 - Raspberry Pi Zero W (each $5.00 from Microcenter, Tustin CA) 1 - Raspberry Pi camera ($24.95 from Microcenter, Tustin CA) 3 - SG92R MicroServo (each $5.95 from Adafruit) 1 - Adafruit 16-Channel 12-bit PWM/Servo Driver - I2C interface - PCA9685 ($14.95) 1 - Circuit PlayGround Express (each $24.95, mine was free when I bought my 3d printer from Adafruit) 2 - ProMAG Neodymium Magnets (0.25") in a package of 6 ($4.95 from Michael's) *** Update *** Although the model was originally designed for the Pi Zero W, I added support for using a PI 3 because OpenCV software for image recognition runs better on the faster computer. Software: The raspberry pi is running "stretch" lite (no gui) and OpenCV for camera control. I'm writing code to control servos using Python. All source code, STLs and SketchUp model are now available here: https://github.com/BtreeComputingServcies/pia-the-robot Circuit python is running on the Circuit Playground Express and will also be made available when completed. I updated some of the STLs after initially uploading to the site.