[Bithead942’s] love of the ever popular Dr Who series led her to develop a replica of the 4th Doctor’s robotic companion. It’s name is K-9, and was built from scratch in only 4 months. Its shell is made from HPDE – a light and bendable plastic. A custom plastic bender was constructed to get the angles just right, and custom laser cut parts were used in various places.
Its frame consists of aluminum channel, and is packed full of juicy electronics. An arduino with an XBee shield controls the remote voice, frickin’ laser and eye sensors. Another arduino is paired with a motor shield to control the linear actuator for the neck movement. And a Raspberry Pi keeps the LCD screen in order.
We’re not done, folks. Because this puppy is radio controlled, a custom controller is needed. Sparkfun’s Fio paired with another XBee is used along with a 16×2 LCD and various other electronics to keep the robot on an invisible leash.
Be sure to check out the blog site, as it goes into great detail on all the various parts used to construct this complicated but awesome project.
I’m not even a fan and I think this is awesome.
Oh god…I thought it said ‘Robot K-9 scares off the darkies’
Thanks…now I need to clean up my coffee!
Black?
Agreed. Pretty darn cool!
tip it over FTW
K9 = Beloved.
BELOVED!
Is that constant whirring sound made by just those little ears?
What about the tail? You may need to waggle it … you may need to waggle it…
It makes me very, very happy that someone made this comment.
K-9’s tail can definately move up and down, I may be wrong but I don’t think it moves side to side. Just watched ‘The Pirate Planet’ on DVD the other night (one of Douglas Adams’ best Dr Who scripts) and saw this happen.
MOONS OF MADNESS! I’ll have that skull off you! /pirate captain
Does it leave little piles of electronic parts on the carpet?
And oil on your slippers
Great build from the best doctor. She even had the scarf on.
It fun to see a robot with so much detail. It looks great.
I’m a fan a Mecanum wheels and it’s now possible to get a good set of wheels without spend a lot of money. Vex Robotics makes a nice set of Mecanum wheels for $60.
http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex/products/accessories/motion/276-1447.html
They’re about the same size as the $138 set used in the robot.
You can see the Vex Mecanum wheels in action here:
https://hackaday.io/project/4039-mecanum-wheeled-rover-5
The Vex version may be a bit harder to mount but for less than half the price, I think it’s worth the extra effort.
Very nicely put together. Blast from the past.