National Robotics Competition (NRC) 2012 - Robot Connecting People SK2A ...

ALEXANDER & ALEXANDRA
THE HOME SECURITY DOG

Vision
To produce the cost effective robot that protects the human.

Mission
1. To make a robot that can protect and watch over the human and their properties.
2. To encourage people to use the latest technology that is cost effective if compare to human guard.
3. To produce the robot that employ vision technologies like human eyes.


Objectives
1. To build the Robotic Security Dog that can navigate by itself and can watch and alert its master when there is an intruder.
2. To produce the Robotic Security Dog that threatens the intruder when they come closer.
3. To program the Robotic Security Dog that has artificial intelligent that has the vision ability to do the scanning like radar.
4. The Robotic Security Dog also can be wireless controlled by human.

Introduction about the project in detail
The crime rates are up, and you’re afraid at home, at the office, around the neighborhood and in the car. How would you like to increase your safety with the help of a companion who has superhuman abilities, cares selflessly about your welfare, and will adore you even when others reject you? With some effort, you can find such companions – they’re dogs.

One of the earliest duties of the domestic dog was guarding the property of its owner, whether that property is land, livestock or his owner’s home.

There is a distinction between guard dogs and watch dogs.

A watchdog simply watches the home and alerts others to the intruder by bark vigorously at the presence of an intruder or in most situations they experience as out of the ordinary. Many small and toy dog breeds, which would not qualify as guard dogs are excellent watch dogs, as their only duty is to alert their owners with their barking.

Our project is to build the Robotics Guard Dog not only watches and alerts but also able to threatens the intruders when they come closer. This robotics guard dog has the ability to do the radar scan like human vision and controlled by human through Bluetooth connection.

Synopsis of the project
(a) Background
We used ideas we got from many online sources such as Wikipedia, Youtube, Google, etc to get ideas for the design of the robot. We also substituted the ideas from the pictures when building our robot.

A guard dog not only watches and alerts but also threatens the intruder to the point of retreat. Most guard dogs will instinctively do anything possible to protect their human family and the area they consider as their territory, ranging from dissuasion towards potential intruders until, eventually, attack. Fortunately, their intimidating appearance and low voice often is enough of a deterrent to any would-be intruder. Nevertheless, the trainability of a guardian dog should be on the top list of the qualities required of a guard dog. It is this quality that will ensure that the natural sense of territoriality and protectiveness of a guard dog remains within the limits set by the law.

It is important to understand that these dog breeds are typically very confident, with a dominant nature. They require early, consistent training and proper socialization from an experienced owner or from a professional dog trainer.

They are great guard dogs; they are very loyal and affectionate with their human families. They’re also one of the smartest breeds in all dogdom. The German Shepherd is now one of the most popular family and guard dogs. Their work as police dogs is legendary, as is their performance as a search and rescue dog. Also, some German Shepherds are very animal aggressive, so socialization is also important.


(b) Robot functionality
1) It can navigate in the house by itself. It will follow voices or noises made by thief. It also will avoid wall and navigate without hitting the object.

2) With Bluetooth connection, we can control the robot by using another NXT. The robot can move straight, reverse, turn left and turn right. The power or the speed of the robot also can be increased or decreased.

3) The robot can stop and do the radar scanning like human vision. It can detect objects up to 30 inches. When the object comes closer, it will make the sound louder. When the object goes far, the volume of the sound will be softening.



(c) Uniqueness and interactive behavior
1) The robot can navigate like human guard by itself.
2) The robot can be controlled by Bluetooth connection. We can control the direction and the speed of the robot.
3) The robot has artificial intelligent that has the vision ability to do the scanning like radar.


Designing and Building Process
(a) Concept and Implementation
With combination of all the motors and sensors, we have divided our robot, our robot to have the feature features like below:-

1. Robotic Security Dog that can navigate by itself and can watch and alert its master when there is an intruder.
2. To program the Robotic Security Dog that has artificial intelligent that has the vision ability to do the scanning like radar.
3. The Robotic Security Dog also can be wirelessly controlled by human.
4. The robot dog that can bark like real dog.

(b) Brainstorming and solution to the problem
1) If we do the radar scanning without the gear structure, some of the programming would not be easily done caused by the turning angle is small. So, we have used the 8t gear to drive the 40t gear. This will turn up to 5 times slower and the detection by the ultrasonic will be smooth.
2) The head gear will get stuck sometimes, we have tried out several design to make the turning of the gear become smooth.
3) It was the problem initially on the movement of the robot because of the weight of the robot. The front castor wheels on this robot work OK now on smooth hard floors because this robot has less than half of the total robot weight over the drive wheels.


(c) Engineering and stability of the structures
1) Two NXT Motors connected to port B and C is use for the movement action.
2) NXT Speaker -Allows the robot to make the bark sound.
3) NXT Motors connected to the port A for Neck Moving.
4) Sound Sensor - To detect the sound level and hearing the voice commands from the human.
5) Ultrasonic Sensor - For detecting the distance to objects to avoid them.
6) Touch Sensor – Used as remote control to control the movement of the robot.
7) NXT Buttons - Used to control the speed of the robot.

Programming
(a) Concept
After brainstorming with the group, we have gathered some programming techniques from the sample program we found from the Internet to program our robot.

1) Self-Navigating - The robot will go straight for 1 second or it founds something in front less 12 inches, the robot will stop. The neck of the robot will turn left. If it hears something, the robot will turn to left direction. If no sound is detected, it will turn its neck to right. If it hears something at this position, it will turn to right direction. If no, it will check if distance from the left direction if greater than right direction. Bigger distance value means more space. The robot will turn to that direction.
2) Remote Control – The robot can be remotely control using Bluetooth. Three NXT buttons are used to control the power or speed of the robot and the forward/reverse direction of the robot. The first two touch sensors are used to control the movement and the last touch sensor is used to start the radar scanning.

The Wiring, functionality and used in which mode of the input / output of the NXTs are listed in the table below.

NXT on the Home Security Dog

Port	Input / Output	Functionality
B	NXT Motor	Motion Movement.
A	NXT Motor	Neck Movement.
C	NXT Motor	Motion Movement.
2	Sound Sensor	Detect the sound level of the voice.
3	Sensor Ultrasonic	Detect the object in range.

NXT on the Remote Control

Port	Input / Output	Functionality
1	Touch Sensor	Movement.
2	Touch Sensor	Movement.
3	Touch Sensor	Radar Scanning.
NXT Left/Right	NXT Buttons	Increase / Decrease the power of the robot.
NXT Enter	NXT Buttons	Forward / Reverse direction of the robot.

(b) Brainstorming and solution to the problem
1) The initial program of this robot is that there is no barking sound. To make it like a real peg, we have found the dog barking sound on the internet. But the sound is in wav format. So, we are using a program call wav2rso.exe to convert the wav file into rso sound file which is recognized by the NXT.

2) Programming also a big challenge for us as we want to make an artificial intelligent robot. Luckily we get lot of guidance from our Mentor especially how to use the variables.