The first generation...

The Midnight ProwlerBot is based on a hexapod kit available from Lynxmotion, but with additional sensors and programming written in VB.Net using Bluetooth to communicate with the robot.

The original kit consisted of 18 servos, the robot structure, an SSC-32 servo control board, and an Atom Bot Board main control board with a Basic Atom 28 module doing the logic processing.

The original programming provided with the kit is based upon inverse kinematics, which provides smooth motions that can execute simultaneously and sometimes look creepily life-like.

Unfortunately most of the memory of the Basic Atom 28 module was used for the motion control although there was space available to add some simple sensors. However, space quickly ran out as more sensors were added and more logic was added based upon feed back from the sensors. As a result, the Basic Atom Pro 28 was purchased and installed.

The Basic Atom 28 Pro module provided plenty of space for most things, but adding video processing pushed memory requirements to the limits. Besides, there simply wasn’t enough memory to store a large number of motion sequences, in addition to the “praying mantis” and the “flying” sequences included with the original program.

By using Bluetooth to communicate with a laptop and offloading the processing to a custom program on the laptop, it became possible to store a nearly infinite number of motion sequences as well as add complex logic based on sensor values and combinations. The resulting VB.Net program, Midnight ProwlerBot Control, obtains sensor values and data from the Basic Atom Pro 28 and sends motion sequences to the SSC-32 servo controller.

The Midnight ProwlerBot Control is basically a port of the original Basic Atom 28 BASIC code to VB.Net with some added features.

The ability to switch from Bluetooth/laptop control back to Basic Atom Pro 28 control is provided and allows the Midnight ProwlerBot to also be used with a wireless PS2 controller without a laptop. This feature is available to provide the ability to do quick, easy demonstrations of the features that the robot originally came with, although the more advanced features in the original code had to be removed to allow for additional sensor support.