Autonomous Wall-E

posted Oct 28th 2008 2:55pm by
filed under: robots hacks

[djsures] went crazy on his Interactive Wall-E toy. Wall-E just didn’t have enough bounce in his step, so [djsures] decided to give him an overhaul. He went through the entire robot and replaced most of the joints with servos, giving much more control and adding head tilt. All of this was wired to a microcontroller housed in Wall-E’s body. The distance sensor was mounted in Wall-E’s neck, so when he turns his head, he’s actually surveying his surroundings.  Check out the video after the break.

There’s lots of great info in this instructable, from specifics on how he did certain parts to links about how servos and microcontrollers work. Great job [djsures].



24 Responses to Autonomous Wall-E

  • Bryan Thielbar says:
    October 28, 2008 at 4:06 pm

    Dude that is so awesome… I want to build one asap… send me info spdexl@gmail.com…

    I would buy this for you if you wanted to build another.

    Bryan

    Reply Report comment
  • johannes says:
    October 28, 2008 at 5:35 pm

    One word: kickass!

    Reply Report comment
  • Teyson says:
    October 28, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    It’s very cool!!! Good work!

    Reply Report comment
  • Neolin says:
    October 28, 2008 at 7:21 pm

    whoever has done this to poor wall-e is a terrible person. at first sight of this horrific scene i could tell that this was clearly the work of a mad man.

    Reply Report comment
  • rasz says:
    October 28, 2008 at 8:37 pm

    looks cool, but the robot is a little dump :(
    plus its missing something, hmm maybe making his hands operational so he could pick stuff up

    Reply Report comment
  • ross maclean says:
    October 28, 2008 at 9:00 pm

    that is really impressive.

    Reply Report comment
  • sarsface says:
    October 28, 2008 at 9:23 pm

    That’s pretty cool, but it definitely needs a paint job. Tonka yellow doesn’t suit him.

    Reply Report comment
  • sancho says:
    October 28, 2008 at 9:41 pm

    very well done.

    Reply Report comment
  • tseitz says:
    October 28, 2008 at 10:09 pm

    absolutly amazing good work

    Reply Report comment
  • DJ Sures says:
    October 29, 2008 at 12:14 am

    Thank you every much everybody! It’s nice to feel supported and hear wicked feedback… I’m working on another robot pet right now.. There will be pics in a week. it’s a furry fun loving giggly monster!

    ps: chicks will dig it ;)

    Reply Report comment
  • Sammy says:
    October 29, 2008 at 12:45 am

    Man, I would soooo buy that.

    when i watched wall-e (wich wasn’t so long ago cause i live in australia). i loved it. a great movie 5 out of 5 stars.

    waaaaaallllllleeeeeeee

    Reply Report comment
  • Grovenstien says:
    October 29, 2008 at 1:44 am

    A brilliant way to enter the world of robotics!

    Reply Report comment
  • ACalcutt says:
    October 29, 2008 at 6:32 am

    nice

    Reply Report comment
  • drew says:
    October 29, 2008 at 1:23 pm

    that is the first thing i thought when i saw that toy come out

    Reply Report comment
  • andrew says:
    October 29, 2008 at 3:58 pm

    VERY nice hack !!

    Reply Report comment
  • Lilx says:
    October 29, 2008 at 7:05 pm

    Nice work.. now I dare you to build an Eva.

    Reply Report comment
  • Shompol says:
    October 29, 2008 at 7:53 pm

    Awesome! This is probably as close to the
    original cuteness as one can get!

    Reply Report comment
  • strider_mt2k says:
    October 30, 2008 at 1:17 pm

    he has this _AND_ a K-9 a freaking k-9!!!

    you sir, rock.

    Reply Report comment
  • captain says:
    October 31, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    Excellent work!

    Turning a toy robot into a real robot. Priceless.

    The Hack-A-Day Hackcard with the Mastercard Logo.

    :)

    Reply Report comment
  • skinner says:
    November 3, 2008 at 10:59 am

    That’s amazing!

    but, what did it do before? just talked?

    Reply Report comment
  • DJ Sures says:
    November 10, 2008 at 12:45 pm

    Here’s my latest robot .

    http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?t=2609

    Reply Report comment
  • Sammy says:
    November 11, 2008 at 12:54 am

    Yer, build Eve
    Floating and everything

    Reply Report comment
  • david says:
    November 21, 2008 at 4:25 pm

    awesome!! this is exactly what i have been working on for my son. i want to add some way for it to follow him around (RFID detection maybe, not face recognition).

    2d mapping won’t be useful, because he will be picked up and moved all the time, but i do want it to follow him and if he’s not there, look for him.

    probably need a self-righting mechanism, and also would need to add some stair detection so he doesn’t go for a fall. return to base for charging would be good, too.

    was this based on the U-Command wall-e with the remote control??

    Reply Report comment
  • Roman says:
    April 30, 2009 at 2:00 am

    Good work, but I do not see any sensors.
    How could it be called autonomous?

    Reply Report comment

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