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Tele-Operated Robot Platform
The FAM-BOT was built as an experiment in tele-robotics. It is completely controlled and operated through a long range wireless LAN bridge and all control is through TCP/IP packets using standard protocols (HTTP / TELNET/ and streaming MJPEG). As a result it can be controlled at a distance over the internet using the wireless bridge as the final data link. A brief summary of features:
Control Panel Control is all via an onscreen panel controlled by mouse or stylus. Click are converted to telnet commands to operate servos. Video is through a web web embedded ActiveX component or Java component to display MJPEG and control camera selection.  Detailed Views The FAM_BOT is quite large standing nearly five feet tall. Ten feet to the top of the antenna. The arms are driven by linear actuators and as a result are very strong. At full extension they can exert a force of over 20 pounds. 
 Control is via dedicated wireless bridge operating at 1 watt through a pair of amplifiers feeding 15db omnidirectional high gain antennas. This setup provides extraordinary range and signal quality. 
It rides on an articulated chassis with four independent drive motors and automotive style steering with closed loop feedback. It is equipped with two different robotic arms. A six
degree of freedom “clamshell” arm allows for
excavation and for heavy operations. A very dexterous
“manipulation” arm provides an amazing nine
degrees of freedom with three fingered gripper as an end
effector. All arm operations are open loop and controlled through visual feedback provided by the cameras. The motors are controlled through a series of H-Bridges controlled using RC servo signals. These are controlled through a Yost Engineering Servo-Center 3 controller that is fed by the dedicated telnet server. The drive motors and steering require more amperage and faster switch rates and are controlled through a custom made H-Bridge using Crydom D1D40 optically isolated DC SSRs. As currently configured all operations are throttled to be controlled effectively via visual feedback through the cameras.  Power is supplied by an onboard generator or can be operated through an umbilical for very long duration operations. 
Construction costs Discounting the many hundreds of man-hours involved in the fabrication of all of the components, wiring, programming, and test and refinement, the cost to construct was quite substantial. The total cost for components alone is summarized in the table below:  Component References Below are links to some of the components used in constructing this rover. This is provided as reference material. Yost ServoCenter Servo Controller http://tech.yostengineering.com/servoFolder/ The ServoCenter™ family of embedded controllers allows any serial RS232, USB, or MIDI-capable device to control RC servo motors. ServoCenter is also available as an integrated circuit, in DIP, TQFP, and PLCC packages.  Each ServoCenter module allows simple, logical control of the seek position and seek speed of up to sixteen connected servos independently and simultaneously, and up to 16 (32 for MIDI version) ServoCenters may be chained together to control up to 256 RC servos (512 for MIDI version), with completely independent movement, from only one serial, USB, or MIDI port. This independent control scheme allows one servo to move to a position slowly, while another is moving to a different position at a faster speed. The independent control of both servo position and speed makes the ServoCenter controllers especially useful for applications such as robotics, animatronics, motion control, automation, retail displays, and other areas where independent or coordinated fluid servo motion is desired. The ServoCenter controller can be programmed using a simple raw packet protocol or can be programmed using the included ActiveX control or Win32 DLL. ServoCenter boards also include:
Sample programs illustrating all programming methods are included in the documentation and examples CD. The ServoCenter Command Protocol allows complex servo movement commands to be issued by constructing and transmitting simple command packets. Code examples are included.
Site-Player Telnet Server http://www.siteplayer.com/telnet/index.html SitePlayer Telnet is an Ethernet to RS232 adapter. It allows you to connect to RS232 devices using TCP/IP. Once connected you can send and receive data to SitePlayer's serial port at various baud rates. SitePlayer Telnet can be configured using a standard web browser.  Features:
Crydom D1D40 (drive motor control) http://www.crydom.com/products/productFamily.aspx?id=39  Features:
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