Whiskers based Robot

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Naveen Lakkundi

The whiskers are highly sensitive tactile hairs that grow on muzzle of animals, some animals like cats and dogs have these whiskers even on ears, jaws and forelegs. The whiskers when brushed to any object the animals can detect the precise location, size and texture of the object in the dark. This natural type of sensors can be used in robots to detect any obstacle in the dark.

The robot will be having whiskers fixed in the front and sides, these whiskers will act as the sensors which detects the obstacle and can move in the dark avoiding the obstacles. These whiskers are basically switches. Using these whiskers a robot can avoid the obstacles and move in any place.

Project Description:

Arduino Uno: Arduino Uno is a Microcontroller based on Atmea328. It has 14 digital input/output pins and in which 6 of them can be used as PWM outputs, it also has 6 analog I/O pins, and a USB connection, a 16MHz ceramic resonator, a power jack, an IPSC header and a reset button.
L293D Motor Driver: You need motor drivers to drive the motors, as the microcontroller only works on 5V, it can only give signals to the motor but the motor needs more than 5V to run this is why we use motor drivers.
DC motors: Use DC motors to actuate the robots.
Robot Chassis: Build a robot chassis such that the wheels, and all the electronics can be fixed on it and the robot should be able to move stably.
Steel strings: The strings acts as the whiskers and you can use normal guitar strings for this project.
Copper tube: Use copper tube to fix the string to the robot, use 5mm copper tube.
Rubber bush: The rubber bush separates the steel string and the copper tube.

Project Implementation:

Build strong robot chassis, the robot should be able to move stably, and the center of balance of the robot should be in the center and as low as possible.
Take the steel strings, copper tube and the rubber bush and fix the steel string to the copper with the rubber bush at one end of the copper tube, the tube should be 2cm long and the string and the tube should not be in contact when freely placed on the robot, this whisker acts as a switch.
The steel string when touches any object the string touches the copper tube and there is connectivity with string and the tube, by this connectivity we get to know the obstacle presence.
Program the Arduino Uno such that when there is an obstacle present the robot should avoid that by turning in the opposite direction of the obstacle.

Project Brief: The robot when built and the whiskers are fixed, these whiskers when detect the objects the robot avoids the obstacle and moves, basically this robot is an obstacle avoider. The advantage of this whiskers acting as sensors is that the sensitivity of detecting the object is more compared to Ultrasonic or IR sensors.

Software requirements:

Arduino IDE Version 1.8.5 : You will be needing Arduino IDE software for writing and uploading the program into the Arduino Uno board.

Programming language: Arduino programming (C++)

Kit required to develop Whiskers based Robot:

Technologies you will learn by working on Whiskers based Robot:

Whiskers based Robot

Project Description:

Project Implementation:

Software requirements:

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