A Think-tank Solution For Monitoring Radioactive Water Storge Tanks

August 31, 2013 by Mike Szczys 46 Comments

SONY DSC

When we hear reports of radioactive water leaking into the ocean from the [Fukushima Dai-Ichi] plant in Japan we literally have to keep ourselves from grinding our teeth. Surly the world contains enough brain power to overcome these hazards. Instead of letting it gnaw at him, [Akiba] is directing his skills at one solution that could help with the issue. There are a number of storage tanks on site which hold radioactive water and are prone to leaking. After hearing that they are checked manually each day, with no automated level monitoring, he got to work. Above is the wireless non-contact tank level sensor rig he built to test out his idea.

A couple of things made this a quick project for him. First off, he just happened to have a MaxSonar MB7389 waterproof sonar sensor on hand. Think of this as a really fancy PING sensor that is water tight and can measure distance up to five meters. [Akiba’s] assumption is that the tanks have a hatch at the top into which this sensor would be positioned. The box next to it contains a Freakduino of his own design which includes hardware for wireless communications at 900 MHz. This is the same hardware he used for that wireless toilet monitor.

We really like seeing hacker solutions to environmental problems. A prime example is some of the cleanup hacks we saw around the time of the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

A Robotic Turtle Platform To Buy Or Build

August 9, 2011 by Jeremy Cook 5 Comments

This electric turtle bot instructable describes a fairly simple turtle-style robot meant to be laser cut out of acrylic (although other materials such as aluminum, MDF, or polycarbonate should work just as well). This frame is also optionally for sale, which should appeal to those that would like a mechanical robotics platform to play with, but don’t have access to machine tools. The build instructions include a detailed bill of materials which should come in handy.

As displayed in the video after the break, the robot uses a sonar sensor to navigate. This sensor is set up on a servo in order to scan the terrain, and, depending on how it’s programmed, hopefully avoid obstacles. As of when the video was taken, the little robot appears to sense an obstacle then scan with the servo left and right to see what the best way to turn is.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA_kIY3MvTE&w=470&h=349%5D

If this little turtle robot doesn’t have enough power for your taste, check out this autonomous ATV sentry.

Autonomous Rover Roams The Halls

September 19, 2010 by Mike Szczys 11 Comments

[ESylin] built an autonomous rover that roams the vacant halls of his school. On the hood of the vehicle he’s mounted two Maxbotix sonar sensors that do a great job of keeping the vehicle centered in the hallway. It will follow a wall around a corner (favoring its left side because of the left-facing sensor) and it will stop to correct itself if it gets off course. That’s because when you’re not driving a dsPIC33 is, with a Traxxas XL-5 speed controller and a hobby servo for steering. But this little guy hasn’t lost all his pep. Manual control and be switched on from from an R/C controller so you can burn up the floor tiles. Take a look at the demo after the break, with the manual control demo shown at about 4:10. Continue reading “Autonomous Rover Roams The Halls” →

Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day One Report

June 5, 2010 by Gerrit Coetzee 19 Comments

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is the precursor to the DARPA Grand Challenge, and in many ways it is just as difficult. We have the pleasure of being at the competition this year with the Tennessee Technological University Autonomous Robotics Team. The teams at the competition pull off some amazing home-brew robotics, so we’ve decided to do a short section on some exemplary robotic hacking each day of the competition.

Today’s robot comes from the York College of Pennsylvania. The robot, dubbed “Green Lightning”, features an impressive set of custom made hardware.

We interviewed the team, and got a pretty thorough rundown of their robot with pictures after the jump. Continue reading “Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition 2010 Day One Report” →

Rotating Radar Visualization

November 16, 2009 by Jakob Griffith 32 Comments

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/peplop/4106571163/]

We ask, who wouldn’t want a rotating motion and distance tracking radar? Sure in today’s day and age anyone could purchase a wide-angle sonar or IR solution that achieves the same goal, but [LuckyLarry] took it old school and made his own rotating radar. He used an Arduino, servo, and ultrasonic sensor as a base to gather data, and the open source programming language Processing to draw the data on the screen. He says it’s a little inaccurate currently, but will try out some other sensors in the future.

Distance Detecting Pc

March 26, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 55 Comments

distance

Reader [Joshua] sent in his latest project. using a sonar rangefinder, an Arduino, and some clever programming, he’s made is computer react to his distance from it. As you can see in the video after the jump, he has programmed it to change text size and background color depending on his distance from the screen. While he admits that his implementation doesn’t seem immediately useful, there’s lots of potential there. We can actually think of several uses. What would you use it for?

Sonar Navigation Jacket

November 20, 2008 by Caleb Kraft 15 Comments

sonar_jacket

[Lynne] had this crazy idea to build a piece of clothing that would give you feedback about your surroundings using sonar. She started with a carefully selected thrift store jacket. She wanted something that looked good and also provided plenty of places to hide electronics. She used the LilyPad system, with a vibration pad and a sonar range finder. When the system detects an object within a certain distance directly in front of the wearer, it warns them with some vibration. Not only is it practical, it looks pretty cool too. Did we mention she designs clothing?

She notes, in the comments section, that while it can detect an obstacle, it cannot detect a void. How could she detect a drop in the floor or a step down?