Dharma Bot is a sophisticated quadruped robotic dog featuring 12 degrees of freedom (DOF) for dynamic motion. The system includes a custom-designed remote control and smartwatch, which collectively offer seamless user interaction, control, and monitoring capabilities.
Dharma Bot is composed of three primary, electronically independent subsystems:
- The Bot: The robotic dog, with core control and motion capabilities.
- Smart Remote: The main control interface for the bot, featuring a Raspberry Pi, touchscreen, and long-range communication.
- Smartwatch: A peripheral control and monitoring device equipped with sensors and ESP-32-based communications.
- Turret System: The turret system is a rotating module mounted on the bot, designed to carry cameras and sensors. It provides 360-degree horizontal rotation and adjustable vertical tilt, enabling the bot to monitor or track targets in multiple directions.
The smartwatch incorporates:
- ESP-32 WROOM microcontroller:The SoC of the embedded hardware.
- OLED screen: Displays real-time status, bot location, connectivity, and enemy detection data.
- Pulse-meter sensor and GPS: For monitoring the wearer's health and position.
- Geotagging: Logs location of deployed tags for tracking.
- Heartbeat Monitoring: In "Military Mode," it locks if the wearer’s pulse reads zero for over 30 seconds.
- FailSafe Mechanism: Notifies the remote of the current location upon triggering specific emergency conditions.
- ESP-NOW Communication: Provides secure data exchange between the smartwatch and the smart remote.
Serving as the primary control hub, the smart remote includes:
- Raspberry Pi and 7-inch HDMI Touchscreen: For intuitive control of the whole system architecture.
- LoRa and ESP-NOW Modules: Enabling long-range communication up to 10 km in LoRA and about five meters of communication with ESP-NOW protocol
- GeoTag Integration: Displays tagged locations on a map for rescue and tracking.
- Video Streaming: ESP-32 S3 CAM streaming for real-time surveillance.
- Manual Controls: Joysticks, potentiometers, and switches for bot locomotion and firing systems.
- GUI: The remote’s GUI interface provides a user-friendly experience, offering control over various modes, video feeds, and sensor data
PoC Bot 🐕
The main bot integrates:
- Teensy 4.1 Microcontroller: Manages core functions, including servo control and scheduling of Tasks
- ESP 32 S3 Development Board: Controlling the Peripheral Electronics like GPS, ToF Sensors and Gyroscopic Readngs.
- MG99R Servo Motors: 12 servo motors for precise locomotion.
- ESP-32 S3 Camera System: A esp camera system for live video feed.
- LIDAR and GPS Modules: For navigation and environmental awareness.
- Communication: Local esp aceess network and long-range LoRa for data exchange between subsystems.
The turrent has:
- Raspberry Pi: Runs a local ML image recognition model and manages peripheral hardware.
- ESP 32: Controls the Servo motors
This project was developed as part of RoboFest, held in 2024, organised by Gujarat Council on Science and Technology(GUJCOST).