It is time for another giveaway. This time you can win an IMU sensor from Dexter Industries. It is the same sensor DI sent me for evaluation purposes. I got it for free, and now you can! It probably is the best tested sensor available.
Do you have a nice application for this sensor? Submit your plan in a reply to this blog. The most original or inspiring idea will be rewarded with this advanced sensor. I am to judge the submitted idea’s and to point out the winner. If you like a particular submission very much you can respond to this. You might be able to influence my decision.
Dexter Industries currently has a dIMU week. They to give some IMU’s away. So, you can increase your chance of winning one on their site.
NXT time 
Interesting sensor. Currently I use HT Gyro and Acceleration sensors for my Segway like robot called NXJWay, It has two wheels. dIMU has 3-axis gyro that allows to create one-wheeled balancing robot. But it does not have a case. It can be dangerous to use this sensor in a fall-prone robot.
Max, you’ll see Laurens’ design that has essentially boxed out the sensor, protecting it from a fall.
[…] second way to win a dIMU this week . . . Another way to win a dIMU this week! Visit Guy NXT Door’s website to enter! Aswin wants ideas, and if you submit the best one, he’ll send you a free dIMU. Do […]
I only have the HT Accelerometer sensor. Ive always wanted to build my first Segway robot using a gyro. This would also be an AWESOME addition to my library of sensors :-D. So….I want to build my very first Segway using some kind of gyro sensor.
Joey “jojoguy10” Kelly
I’d like to enhance the Segway application to shoot colored golf balls into color-specific basketball hoops using the color sensor to detect the ball color and hoop, and the ultrasonic sensor to determine the distance from the hoop. I’d like to use the third motor to catapult the ball from behind the Segway. I’m curious to see how the software and robot design will have to be modified to account for and balance the extra weight of the shooter motor.
I think this would be an excellent project to do with my FLL kids in the offseason.
Create a mimic, one that will follow the sensor;
turn when it turns, tip when the sensor tips.
With the 3-axes, won’t someone please make a tight-rope walking robot?
If I had one of these I would use it to see if I could track and mimic arm movement. The sensor could be attached to your arm and then feed back movement of your arm when it rises, twists etc. My plan is to have a few of these with some Dextar flex sensors and build a full blown working arm/hand that fully tracks your moments
I want to built a Little John in Tights-rope robot!
[…] And be sure to visit his site with your fantastic dIMU idea and enter to win a dIMU! […]
What comes to my mind first is a segway-like robot but we all have seen this too often. I’d like to build quite the opposite. The robot can move freely on the ground and is balancing a long arm, something similar to this:
With this sensor, one could even try to do this in 2 axis.
Where would the sensor be?
It would have to be at the top of the arm
If I had an advanced IMU sensor, I would create an ultra-rough-terrain NXT vehicle. The NXT would use the sensor to detect when the robot is tilting. Because the dIMU has a three-axis gyroscope, the robot could detect tilt in any direction! The NXT could then shift a weight to balance the robot and keep the robot from falling over. The IMU’s unique abilities would allow my NXT to traverse extremely hostile terrain safely and reliably.
I would like to make a one-wheeled bike, where the whole construction is inside a large wheel. Instead of resting on the bottom of the wheel as a conventional one-wheeled bike, it will be suspended as a pendulum from the center point of the wheel (since this is easier to do with Lego).
To move forward, the pendulum turns towards the direction you want. I suspect it might actually be able to gain quite some speed this way.
The interesting part however would be to tilt the wheel, so you could turn instead of just driving forward/backwards. This requires the wheel to have a rounding (like the balloon tires) which is going to be a bit tricky to do in Lego, but I hope I will be able to do this without having to use non-Lego parts. (Wheel size about 30 cm in diameter I guess.)
I’m currently working on my Mars Rotacaster Rover (http://www.rjmcnamara.com/?p=4571), based on the latest NASA Rovers sent to Mars. Currently I’m using a HiTechnic Accelerometer to keep the Chassis Horizontal at all times, independent of the ‘Roker-Bogie’ Suspension.
With access to the Dexter Industries IMU sensor, I could not only control chassis alignment, but also regulate the heading of the robot travels. The drive/power from the wheel motors could be controlled, in order to keep the robots direction of travel constant, even if the wheels on one side are forced to travel further due to uneven terrain.
With a dIMU, a dGPS and a NXTBee-PRO I’d go airborne. Build myself a three rotor flying machine with full autonomous capability, levelling and flight control with remote control capability using the NXTBee-PRO. Just for fun I’d try and squeeze in a live video camera feed over NXTBee-PRO link to gain a bird’s eye view of the action down below.
Mind you I may have to break a few LEGO rules to get the job done but I feel it is about time LEGO Mindstorms got airborne.
Sorry if you don’t like non-entry comments, but I’m not sure if you are aware that you appear not to have announced the winner of this giveaway yet: https://nxttime.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/488/
You said that we had until November to enter. Just letting you know that you haven’t announced it yet since you’ve started yet another giveaway.
I’ve always enjoyed watching tightrope walkers.
It would be so cool to build a 2 wheeled dIMU controlled bot to carefully run on a tightened rope using a balance pole with the shift on the pole adjusted by the dIMU for counterbalance.
(of course, a safety net would be used….as cruelty to bots is both counter productive and downright inhuman, lol)
Dexter, provide a dimu sensor to FLL teams to experiment with in the offseason! We will add you as a sponsor and demo the robot at our booth in competition.
[…] of the dIMU 8 December 2011 // 0 I am proud to announce the winner of the dIMU giveaway. And the winner is Ray McNamara with his Mars Rotacaster rover. This is what Ray is going to do […]
If i had the precision of a dIMU, the first thing i would do, is a self-feedback system, to learn with it own erros. Basicaly, it would “learn” how to equilibrate, or do anything else, given a pattern to compare with “what is good”. With time, the algorithm get’s improved, and actualy “learns” how to, for eg. equilibrate (a segway) or stabilize a plane, or anything else. It’s an artificial inteligence sistem, called “reiforced learning”. You can’t do that with a sensor that has lots and lots of error. That would be perfect!
And with the project, comes a vídeo like this:http://youtu.be/7BDjZYGHupE
Thanks!