Based on the original Air Hockey robot, this new Air Hockey Robot EVO is much easier to set-up and deploy. Controlled by your own smartphone using the freely available APP
A challenging robot, perfect to have fun and learn robotics at the same time
It is faster, easily modifiable and shares the electronics and ancillary elements with others jjRobots like the iBoardbot, B-robot EVO. Sphere-O-Bot (and more to come!)
The jjRobots Air hockey EVO robot has been seen in:
WHAT IS THIS AIR HOCKEY ROBOT?
With the idea of using standard 3D printer parts : NEMA17 stepper motors, stepper motor drivers, the jjRobots Brain Shield, belts , bearings, rods, 3D printed pieces … we started to develop the project.The main advantage of using these parts is that they are inexpensive and easily available. We have chosen a medium size Air Hockey table from a well known online seller to deploy the robot on: We wanted something easily transportable but comfortable to play with. The final dimensions of this Air Hockey table are 90x43cm.
The Air Hockey Robot consist in three different parts: The Air hockey table, the Robot itself and your own smartphone.
Your smartphone, running the Air Hockey Robot APP, can detect features on the playing court and make decisions according to the detected objects location and theirs trajectories (and attack/defend in consequence!).
The smartphone will be the robot´s brain. Your own device can defeat you in a real game!.
How it works: The smartphone´s camera (2) is looking at the playing court . The camera´s captured data is processed in real time by the smartphone. Detecting the position of the puck and the “Pusher robot” (and according to the current location of all the elements on the court), your smartphone makes decisions and commands the Robot (3) via WIFI (1).
Your smartphone will become an augmented reality device, showing predicted trajectories and position of all the objects involved in this game.
The Robot is locally controlled by the jjRobots Brain Shield (1) which dictates the speed and acceleration of the robot, sending the appropriate pulses to the stepper motors. Easy!
We have developed an APP to control the Air Hockey Robot. It is freely available in Google Play. The idea was to use the portable computer that you have with you (I am talking about your smartphone) to control the Robot. As the smartphone already has a good camera, why not make the most of it?
The Air Hockey Robot is controlled by your smartphone!
There are two options to control the Air Hockey Robot: Let your smartphone control it (AUTO) or the Manual control: take control of the robot using your finger (move the robot wherever you want!)
BUT…HOW TO CREATE ONE?
If you want to support jjRobots, you can get the OFFICIAL Air Hockey Robot EVO KIT from here. Optionally you can get everything by yourself and manufacture the jjRobots Brain Shield (info available here).
We have published an ASSEMBLY GUIDE here. The FORUM is always available too for everyone who wants to share ideas and ask for help.
In the Assembly guide you will find a lot of info about how to put everything together.
Step by Step. With TONS of videos and Tips
Features of this Robotics project:
- You can use the SAME electronics, motors, cables…to create your iBoardbot, B-robot EVO or Sphere-o-Bot!
- The project is reproducible/ modifiable: Easy to get materials, documentation, open source code and open hardware …
- Android APP available now. iOS APP available in 2017
- There is a Playstation 3 CAMERA version for the robotics enthusiast. This version will allow you to modify the vision system. This version runs in a regular PC and allow you to modify the VISION code
- The robot can be completely removed from table just pushing. So it can be removed to play Air hockey against another human or be transported
- It’s very easy to adjust the level of the robot, for example to play with children, go to the APP configuration menu and set the difficulty.
- You can mount two robots per table, one on each side. Competitions between robots? Comparing different gaming strategies in a tournament? Remember that you can easily change its behaviour via Arduino CODE (Open Source Robot)
- It’s a GREAT and fun project to teach science, robotics, computing, visual recognition and engineering, specially for kids:
- Concepts of Physics: Friction, continuous and uniform motion, rebounds, concepts of position, speed and acceleration
- Mathematical Concepts: Equation of the line between two points, prediction, XY Cartesian System
- Robotics: Motors, Machine Vision, Control, Arduino
- DIY ethic: Build your own Air Hockey Robot
- Hacking: Using 3D printer parts to build something completely different.
- Perfect for the STEM program
