marto
Experienced Roboteer
Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 5459
Location: Brisbane, QLD
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Given the lack of space and tools you have available you might be better off starting with some ants. They are easily built on a desk with just some simple hand tools. If you want to draw up complex designs you can get them printed as well from Shapeways or some of the guys who have 3D printers around.
If you are still want to do some programming of your bots then maybe look at MeltyBrain or omni directional drive trains. You could also look at adding in gyros and accelerometers to your bot to do some sort of "launch control". These are ideas that I have been considering in normal style bots. You can also do automatic triggering of weapons and stuff like that but as far as any complex behaviour. I think the environment will just be too brutal.
If you really want to do some AI stuff then your really not going to be able to do much onboard these sorts of robots. What I did do a while back was add AR tags to some ant weights and then make in interface to a PC. I was able to track the tags and broadcast the position of the robots over the internet and do remote driving with minimal lag. (Not really possible with video feed) I had always intended to do autonomous competitions in this manner but really its something I haven't had the time to finish off. The thread is called "towards autonomous combat" I think if you want to have a look.
Steve _________________ Steven Martin
Twisted Constructions
http://www.botbitz.com
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