ELWO
ELWO robot system(abbreviation for Electronic Wonder) was developed as a highly flexible robotic platform prototype for multipurpose robot development with minimal cost as possible. The theme of this project was to provide highly useful robot systems so that they can be easily afforded by household users mainly in developing countries like India.
Overview
In developing countries like India, robotics has practically zero significance as household users are concerned. This is due to two reasons. The first reason is that normal robots with its complex hardware are costly piece of apparatus for developing country citizens as their average
income might not allow then afford. Secondly, as far as the people are concerned, it might not be a feasible option for employing a robot for household tasks.
ELWO robotic system was designed around this scenario. To tackle the problem of cost, ELWO was designed with minimum hardware possible and was interfaced to a personal computer which employed purpose built driver software (Daimler) to manipulate the functions of the robot. Personal computers are a common device in now a day home. So the cost of complex hardware is eliminated by using the PC to do this additional job also. So the cost of the system phenomenally reduces.
Daimler driver software was programmed using Microsoft Visual Basic .net and hence it provided easy programming and communicability. By just switching the driver’s function and with minor changes to the arm of the robot, it can be switched from one function to another hence it can be feasible to be used for a variety of household jobs.
History
ELWO robotic system was designed during 2008 by four Engineering students Bharath Sudev, Shanawaz, Shahin and Lijuraj from Kerala state of India as part of the final project work of their
Electronics and Communication Engineering course under Anna University.
ELWO project was guided by Mr. P.B Sudharmadev and Dr. P.B. Sudev who were Bharath’s father’s elder brother and Bharath’s father respectively.
The mechanical hardware designed by were not easy to be implemented as foretasted. Even for making the wheels, no metal workers at Trivandrum(capital of Kerala State) were ready to do the lathe work as they were not interested to do such silly jobs.
Just to make the wheels, the team had to go and stay at a place called Varkala(about 60 km from Trivandrum) for two days so that an old friend owning a workshop could do the job in short intervals he got in between his heavy schedule of work.
Finally the work was finished with some delay.
Initially after the completion of the project, the ELWO team suffered physiological set backs from the part of the college as it was totally neglected and the team were not even allowed to make the preview of the project stating that they were too late to report the proceedings of the project work to the department.
Situation drastically changed when a news of ELWO robotic system along with photo were published on a Malayalam daily news paper ‘Kerala Kaumudi’ and a documentary about the system was telecasted by a Malayalam News Channel ‘INDIAVISION’.
Later news followed in another Malayalam News channel “Manorama News” and about five Tamil news channels.
Reports about ELWO were later published on other five Malayalam Daily News papers and more than five Tamil Daily News papers.
(to see documentary on ELWO at Indiavision channel on youtube click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzcLKgCCZ9c])
Operating modes
ELWO has three operating modes
Automatic mode : In this mode, all the working of robot is automatically controlled by the computer on pre programmed basis. In this mode, no human intervention is needed, and it works precisely on the function for which its programmed for.
Manual mode : This mode is entirely dedicated to real time human input. It can be made to operate by using a joystick or the keyboard of the PC by direct visual reference or by the aid of two onboard cameras.
Man-o-matic Mode : This mode enables human users to dictate a specific job to the robot to perform. Once dictated by using the joystick or keyboard, then ELWO can be switch to work on the same pattern as dictated before for any number of times as needed.
Automation Software
The driver software for ELWO namely ‘Daimler’ named after Gottlieb Daimler due to admiration for him on his contributions on the development of petrol engine design.
Daimler v1.0 was programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic .net and was designed to be a user friendly prototype so as to inspire interested researchers on developing more advanced operational driver software so that ELWO can be more practical a choice.
Daimler v1.0 was rather a basic design, just incorporating the three mode selectors and various displays of parameters and a display for the on-board CCD camera. As it was programmed in Visual Basic .net, it could be easily reprogrammed or upgraded for more complex operations. .net being a powerful platform, it was possible to easily program ELWO to work from the input from internet and thus work online.
Overview
In developing countries like India, robotics has practically zero significance as household users are concerned. This is due to two reasons. The first reason is that normal robots with its complex hardware are costly piece of apparatus for developing country citizens as their average
income might not allow then afford. Secondly, as far as the people are concerned, it might not be a feasible option for employing a robot for household tasks.
ELWO robotic system was designed around this scenario. To tackle the problem of cost, ELWO was designed with minimum hardware possible and was interfaced to a personal computer which employed purpose built driver software (Daimler) to manipulate the functions of the robot. Personal computers are a common device in now a day home. So the cost of complex hardware is eliminated by using the PC to do this additional job also. So the cost of the system phenomenally reduces.
Daimler driver software was programmed using Microsoft Visual Basic .net and hence it provided easy programming and communicability. By just switching the driver’s function and with minor changes to the arm of the robot, it can be switched from one function to another hence it can be feasible to be used for a variety of household jobs.
History
ELWO robotic system was designed during 2008 by four Engineering students Bharath Sudev, Shanawaz, Shahin and Lijuraj from Kerala state of India as part of the final project work of their
Electronics and Communication Engineering course under Anna University.
ELWO project was guided by Mr. P.B Sudharmadev and Dr. P.B. Sudev who were Bharath’s father’s elder brother and Bharath’s father respectively.
The mechanical hardware designed by were not easy to be implemented as foretasted. Even for making the wheels, no metal workers at Trivandrum(capital of Kerala State) were ready to do the lathe work as they were not interested to do such silly jobs.
Just to make the wheels, the team had to go and stay at a place called Varkala(about 60 km from Trivandrum) for two days so that an old friend owning a workshop could do the job in short intervals he got in between his heavy schedule of work.
Finally the work was finished with some delay.
Initially after the completion of the project, the ELWO team suffered physiological set backs from the part of the college as it was totally neglected and the team were not even allowed to make the preview of the project stating that they were too late to report the proceedings of the project work to the department.
Situation drastically changed when a news of ELWO robotic system along with photo were published on a Malayalam daily news paper ‘Kerala Kaumudi’ and a documentary about the system was telecasted by a Malayalam News Channel ‘INDIAVISION’.
Later news followed in another Malayalam News channel “Manorama News” and about five Tamil news channels.
Reports about ELWO were later published on other five Malayalam Daily News papers and more than five Tamil Daily News papers.
(to see documentary on ELWO at Indiavision channel on youtube click this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzcLKgCCZ9c])
Operating modes
ELWO has three operating modes
Automatic mode : In this mode, all the working of robot is automatically controlled by the computer on pre programmed basis. In this mode, no human intervention is needed, and it works precisely on the function for which its programmed for.
Manual mode : This mode is entirely dedicated to real time human input. It can be made to operate by using a joystick or the keyboard of the PC by direct visual reference or by the aid of two onboard cameras.
Man-o-matic Mode : This mode enables human users to dictate a specific job to the robot to perform. Once dictated by using the joystick or keyboard, then ELWO can be switch to work on the same pattern as dictated before for any number of times as needed.
Automation Software
The driver software for ELWO namely ‘Daimler’ named after Gottlieb Daimler due to admiration for him on his contributions on the development of petrol engine design.
Daimler v1.0 was programmed in Microsoft Visual Basic .net and was designed to be a user friendly prototype so as to inspire interested researchers on developing more advanced operational driver software so that ELWO can be more practical a choice.
Daimler v1.0 was rather a basic design, just incorporating the three mode selectors and various displays of parameters and a display for the on-board CCD camera. As it was programmed in Visual Basic .net, it could be easily reprogrammed or upgraded for more complex operations. .net being a powerful platform, it was possible to easily program ELWO to work from the input from internet and thus work online.
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