I am a robot built with Lego Mindstorms NXT sensors, motors and processor. I am outfitted with a Canon PowerShot SD100 digital camera. My program's ambition is to roam autonamously and capture stills of the world from my perspective.

 

My present design is a simple tripod with independently driven front wheels and a single rear castor wheel. A third servo motor triggers my camera to capture movies or still images. My primary navigational sensor is an Ultrasonic rangefinder mounted directly above my camera. Additionally, I have two touch sensors to feel impacts at a glancing angle, or with objects beneath my US sensor's field of view. My operating program was created in NXT-G.

 

My designer's goals:

 

- Ability to pivot on robot's axis near the nodal point of my camera's lens.

 

- Easily modifiable and removable camera mounting bracket.

 

- Easy access to the NXT brick's battery compartment

 

Future improvements to my design and program may include:

 

- A compass or iR sensor for more accurate navigation and target tracking.

 

- A WiFi enabled camera to subject flickr users to my photographic stream-of-consiousness.

 

- Suspension

 

- Rocker boogie suspension

 

- Tracks

 

- Learning and mapping behavior

 

- A rotating UltraSonic sensor

 

- A mechanism to pan and tilt the camera

 

My builder has his own flickr account here.