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In this package, you will find:

The author biography

A preview chapter from the book, Chapter 2 'Mechanical Design
of a Service Robot'
A synopsis of the books content
More information on Learning Robotics Using Python

About the Author

Lentin Joseph is an electronics engineer, robotics enthusiast, machine
vision expert, embedded programmer, and the founder and CEO of Qbotics
Labs (http://www.qboticslabs.com) in India. He got his bachelor's degree
in electronics and communication engineering at the Federal Institute of Science
and Technology (FISAT), Kerala. In his final year engineering project, he created
a social robot, which can interact with people. The project was a huge success and
got mentioned in visual and print media. The main feature of this robot was that it
could communicate with people and reply intelligently. It also has some imageprocessing capabilities, such as face, motion, and color detection. The entire project
was implemented using the Python programming language. His interest in robotics,
image processing, and Python began this project.
After graduation, he worked at a start-up company based on robotics and image
processing for 3 years. In the meantime, he learned famous robotic software
platformssuch as Robot Operating system (ROS), V-REP, and Actin (a robotic
simulation tool)and image processing libraries, such as OpenCV, OpenNI, and
PCL. He also knows about robot 3D designing, embedded programming on Arduino,
and Stellaris Launchpad.
After 3 years of work experience, he started a new company called Qbotics
Labs, which is mainly focused on research to build great products in domains
such as wearable technology, robotics, machine vision, green technology, and online
education. He maintains a personal website (http://www.lentinjoseph.com)
and a technology blog called technolabsz (http://www.technolabsz.com).
He publishes his works on his tech blog. He was a speaker at PyCon2013 India,
and he spoke on the topic of learning robotics using Python.

Learning Robotics Using Python

Learning Robotics with Python contains twelve chapters that mainly aims at how
to build an autonomous mobile robot from scratch and how to program it using Python.
The robot mentioned in this book is a service robot, which can be used to serve food
at home, hotels, and restaurants. From the beginning to end, this book discusses the
step-by-step procedure on how to build this robot. The book starts with the basic concepts
of robotics and then moves on to the 3D modeling and simulation of the robot. After the
successful simulation of the robot, it discusses the hardware components required to build
the robot prototype in order to complete the robot navigation.
The software part of this robot is mainly implemented using the Python programming
language and software frameworks, such as Robot Operating System (ROS), Open-CV,
and so on. You will understand the application of Python from the aspects of designing
the robot to the robots user interface. The Gazebo simulator is used to simulate the robot
and machine vision libraries, such as Open-CV and OpenNI. PCL is used to process the
2D and 3D image data of the robot. Each chapter is presented with an adequate theory
to understand the application aspect. The book is reviewed by experts in this field who
are passionate about robotics.

What This Book Covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Robotics, contains basic concepts and terminologies
of robotics. This chapter is a must for beginners who are just starting with robotics.
Chapter 2, Mechanical Design of a Service Robot, discusses the 2D and 3D CAD
designing aspect of the robot using LibreCAD and Blender (free software). This
chapter also demonstrates how to use Blender Python APIs in order to build the
3D model.
Chapter 3, Working with Robot Simulation Using ROS and Gazebo,
takes you through the simulation of the service robot using Gazebo and ROS.
Chapter 4, Designing ChefBot Hardware, explains the hardware designing
of the robot, including block diagram and hardware components required to
build ChefBot.
Chapter 5, Working with Robotic Actuators and Wheel Encoders, covers
interfacing of robotic actuators and wheel encoders using Tiva C LaunchPad.
It also mentions high-end smart actuators like dynamixel.
Chapter 6, Working with Robotic Sensors, discusses interfacing of ultrasonic
distance sensors, IR proximity sensors, and IMU using Tiva C LaunchPad.

Chapter 7, Programming Vision Sensors Using Python and ROS, talks about
the introduction to Open-CV, OpenNI, and PCL libraries and interfacing these
to ROS and programming using Python.
Chapter 8, Working with Speech Recognition and Synthesis Using Python
and ROS, discusses speech recognition and synthesis using various libraries
and interfacing it to ROS programming using Python.
Chapter 9, Applying Artificial Intelligence to ChefBot Using Python, covers
tutorials to build a ChatterBot. This can be used to make the robot interactive.
Chapter 10, Integration of ChefBot Hardware and Interfacing it into ROS, Using
Python, explores tutorials to integrate the complete hardware and essential software
section. It mainly discusses autonomous navigation of the service robot and how
to program it using ROS and Python.
Chapter 11, Designing a GUI for a Robot Using Qt and Python, covers tutorials
on how to build a GUI for the user who operates the robot in a typical restaurant.
The GUI is built using Qt and the PyQt Python wrapper.
Chapter 12, The Calibration and Testing of ChefBot, explores tutorials
on how to calibrate and test the robot for the final run.

Mechanical Design of a
Service Robot
The main purpose of this book is to learn robotics by designing and building robots
and programming it using Python. To learn robotics, we will first look at how to
mechanically design a robot from scratch. The robot that we are going to build is
used as a service robot in hotels and restaurants to serve food and drinks.
In this chapter, we can see various mechanical components used in this robot. Also,
we can see how to assemble its components. We can design and assemble the parts
using CAD tool and also build a 3D model of robot for simulating the robot.
The actual robot deployed in hotels may be big, but here we are intending to build a
miniature version of it only for testing our technology. If you are interested to build a
robot from scratch, this chapter is for you. If you are not interested to build the robot,
you can choose some robotic platforms already available on the market to work with
this book.
To build the robot body, we first need to know the requirements of designing the
robot; after getting the requirements, we can design it and draw the model in 2D
CAD tools to manufacture the robot parts. We can also discuss the 3D model to
simulate the robot for the next chapter.

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

The Requirements of a service robot

Before designing any robotic system, the first procedure is to identify its
requirements. The following are a set of hardware requirements to be met
by this robot:

The robot should have a provision to carry food

The robot should be able to carry a maximum payload of 5 kg

The robot should travel at a speed between 0.25 m/s and 1 m/s

The ground clearance of the robot should be greater than 3 cm

The robot must be able to work for 2 hours continuously

The robot should be able to move and supply food to any table
avoiding obstacles

The robot height should be between 40 cm and 1 meter

The robot should be of low cost

Now, we can identify the mechanical design requirements such as payload, moving
speed, ground clearance, robot height, and the cost of the robot. We will design the
body and select components accordingly. Let's discuss the robot mechanism we can
use to match these requirements.

Robot drive mechanism

One of the cost effective solution for mobile robot navigation is differential drive
systems. It's one of the simplest drive mechanisms for a mobile robot that is mainly
indented for indoor navigation. The differential drive robot consists of two wheels
mounted on a common axis controlled by two separate motors. There are two
supporting wheels called caster wheels. It ensures stability and weight distribution
of the robot. The following diagram shows a typical differential drive system:

[ 18 ]

Chapter 2

Differential drive system

The next step is to select the mechanical components of this robot drive system, that
is, mainly motors, wheels, and robot chassis. Based on the requirements, we will first
discuss how to select the motor.

Selection of motors and wheels

Motors are selected after looking at their specifications. Some of the important
parameters for motor selection are torque and RPM. We can compute these values
from the given requirements.

Calculation of RPM of motors

Assume the required robot's speed as 0.35 m/s. We saw the speed of robot must be
within 0.25 m/s to 1 m/s, as per the requirement. Take the diameter of the wheel as
9 cm because according to the requirement, the ground clearance should be greater
than 3 cm. Using the following equation, we can calculate the RPM of motors:
RPM = ((60 * Speed /(3.14 * Diameter of Wheel)
RPM = (60 * 0.35 )/(3.14 * 0.09) = 21 / 0.2826 = 74 RPM

[ 19 ]

Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

You can also take a look at http://www.robotshop.com/

blog/en/vehicle-speed-rpm-and-wheel-diameterfinder-9786 for computation.

The calculated RPM with 9 cm diameter wheel and 0.35 m/s speed is 74 RPM. We
can consider 80 RPM as the standard value.

Calculation of motor torque

Let's calculate the torque required to move the robot:
1.
2.
3.
4.

No of wheels = Four wheels including two caster wheels.

No of motors = Two.
Let's assume the coefficient of friction is 0.6 and radius of wheel is 4.5 cm.
Take total weight of robot = weight of robot + payload = (W = mg) = (~ 100 N
+ ~ 50 N) W= ~ 150 N, whereas total mass = 15 Kg
5. The weight acting on the four wheels can be written as 2 * N1 + 2 * N2 = W,
that is, N1 is the weight acting on each caster wheel and N2 on each
motor wheel.
6. Assume that the robot is stationary. The maximum torque is required
when the robot starts moving. It should also overcome friction.
7. We can write the frictional force as robot torque = 0 until the robot moves.
If we get the robot torque in this condition, we get the maximum torque
as follows:
* N * r - T = 0, where is the coefficient of friction, N is the average weight
acting on each wheel, r is the radius of wheels, and T is the torque.
N = W/4 ( assuming that the weight of the robot is equally distributed on
all the four wheels)
Therefore, we get:
0.6 * (150/4) * 0.045 - T = 0
Hence, T = 1.0125 N-m or 10.32 Kg-cm

The design summary

After design, we calculated the following values:

Motor RPM = 80
Motor Torque = 10.32 kg-cm
Wheel diameter = 9 cm
[ 20 ]

Chapter 2

Robot chassis design

After computing the robot's motor and wheel parameters, we can design the robot
chassis or robot body. As required, the robot chassis should have a provision to hold
food, it should be able to withstand up to 5 kg payload, the ground clearance of the
robot should be greater than 3 cm and it should be low in cost. Apart from this, the
robot should have a provision to place electronics components such as Personal
Computer (PC), sensors, and battery.
One of the easiest designs to satisfy these requirements is a table-like design. The
TurtleBot (http://www.turtlebot.com/) design is a kind of table-like design. It has
three layers in the chassis. A robot platform called Roomba is the drive mechanism
of this platform. The Roomba platform has motors and sensors inbuilt, so no need
to worry about the designing of robot hardware. The following figure shows the
TurtleBot robot chassis design:

TurtleBot Robot

We will design a robot similar to TurtleBot with our own moving platform and
components. Our design will also have a three layer architecture. Let's see what
all tools we want before we start designing.
Before we start designing the robot chassis, we need to know about Computer-aided
design (CAD) tools. The popular tools available for CAD are:

SolidWorks (http://www.solidworks.com/default.htm)

AutoCAD (http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/overview)

Maya (http://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview)

Inventor (http://www.autodesk.com/products/inventor/overview)

Google SketchUp (http://www.sketchup.com/)

Blender (http://www.blender.org/download/)

LibreCAD (http://librecad.org/cms/home.html)

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

The chassis design can be designed using any software you are comfortable with.
Here, we will demonstrate the 2D model in LibreCAD and the 3D model in Blender.
One of the highlights of these applications is that they are free and available for all
OS platforms. We will use a 3D mesh viewing tool called MeshLab to view and
check the 3D model design and use Ubuntu as the main operating system. Also, we
can see the installation procedures of these applications in Ubuntu 14.04.2 to start
the designing process. We will provide tutorial links to install applications in other
platforms too.

Installing LibreCAD, Blender, and

MeshLab
LibreCAD is a free, open source 2D CAD application for Windows, OS X,
and Linux. Blender is a free, open source 3D computer graphics software used
to create 3D models, animation, and video games. It comes with a GPL license as
per which users can share, modify, and distribute the application. MeshLab is an
open source, portable, and extensible system to process and edit unstructured 3D
triangular meshes.
The following are the links to install LibreCAD in Windows, Linux, and OS X:

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home.html to download LibreCAD

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home/from-source/linux.html to
build LibreCAD from source

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home/installation/linux.html to
install LibreCAD in Debian/Ubuntu

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home/installation/rpm-packages.
html to install LibreCAD in Fedora

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home/installation/osx.html to
install LibreCAD in OS X

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Chapter 2

Visit http://librecad.org/cms/home/installation/windows.html to
install LibreCAD in Windows
We can find the documentation on LibreCAD at the following link:
http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/Main_Page.

Installing LibreCAD
The installation procedure for all operating systems is provided. If you are an
Ubuntu user, you can simply install it from the Ubuntu Software Centre as well.

Installing Blender
Visit the following download page to install Blender for your OS platform: http://
www.blender.org/download/. You can find the latest version of Blender here. Also,
you can find the latest documentation on Blender at http://wiki.blender.org/.
If you are using Ubuntu/Linux, you can simply install Blender via Ubuntu Software
Centre.

Installing MeshLab
MeshLab is available for all OS platforms. The following link will provide you the
download links of prebuilt binaries and source code of MeshLab:
http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/

If you are an Ubuntu user, you can install MeshLab from an apt package manager
using the following command:
$sudo apt-get install meshlab

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Creating a 2D CAD drawing of the robot

using LibreCAD
We can take a look at the basic interface of LibreCAD. The following screenshot
shows the interface of LibreCAD:

[ 24 ]

Chapter 2

A CAD toolbar has the necessary components to draw a model. The following
screenshot shows the detailed overview of the CAD toolbar:

A detailed description of LibreCAD tools is available at the following link:

http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/LibreCAD_users_Manual.

Command Box: This is used to draw figures by only using commands.

We can draw diagrams without touching any toolbar. A detailed explanation
about the usage of the command box can be found at:
http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/A_short_manual_for_use_from_
the_command_line.

Layer List: This will have layers used in the current drawing. A basic
concept in computer-aided drafting is the use of layers to organize a
drawing. A detailed explanation of layers can be found at:
http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/Layers.

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Block: This is a group of entities and can be inserted in the same drawing
more than once with different attributes at different locations, different scale,
and rotation angle. A detailed explanation of Blocks can be found at the
following link:
http://wiki.librecad.org/index.php/Blocks.

Absolute Zero: This is the origin of the drawing (0,0).

Now, start sketching by setting the unit of drawing. Set the drawing unit to
centimeter. Open LibreCAD, navigate to Edit | Application Preference. Set Unit as
Centimeters, as shown in the following screenshot:

Let's start with the base plate design. The base plate has provisions to connect
motors, place battery, and control board.

[ 26 ]

Chapter 2

The base plate design

The following figure shows the robot's base plate. This plate provides provisions for
two motors for differential drive and each caster wheel on the front and back of the
base plate. Motors are mentioned as M1 and M2 in the diagram and caster wheels
are represented as C1 and C2. It also holds four poles to connect to the next plates.
Poles are represented as P1-1, P1-2, P1-3, and P1-4. The screws are indicated as S
and we will use the same screws here. There is a hole at the center to bring the wires
from the motor to the top of the plate. The plate is cut on the left-hand side and the
right-hand side so that the wheels can be attached to the motor. The distance from
the center to caster wheels is mentioned as 12.5 cm and the distance from the center
to motors is mentioned as 5.5 cm. The center of poles is at 9 cm in length and 9 cm in
height from the center. The holes of all the plates follow the same dimensions:

[ 27 ]

Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

The dimensions are not marked on the diagram; instead, it's mentioned in the
following table:
Parts

Dimension(cm)(Length x Height)( radius)

M1 and M2

5x4

C1 and C2

Radius = 1.5

S(Screw)

0.15

P1-1, P1-2, P1-3, P1-4

Outer radius 0.7, Height 3.5

Left and Right Wheel Sections

2.5 x 10

Base plate

Radius = 15

We can discuss more about motor dimensions and clamp dimensions later.

Base plate pole design

The base plate has four poles to extend to the next layer. The poles are 3.5 cm in
length with a radius of 0.7 cm. We can extend to the next plate by attaching hollow
tubes to the poles. At the top of the hollow tube, we will insert a hard plastic to make
a screw hole. This hole will be useful to extend to the top layer. The base plate pole
and the hollow tubes on each pole is shown in the following figure. Each hollow tube
a radius of 0.75 cm and length of 15 cm:

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Chapter 2

Wheel, motor, and motor clamp design

We have to decide the diameter of the wheel and compute motor requirements. Here,
we are using a typical motor and wheel that we can use if the design is successful:

The motor design can vary according to the motor selection; if necessary, this motor
can be taken as per the design and can be changed after simulation. The X value in
the motor diagram can vary according to the speed and torque of motors. This is the
gear assembly of motor.
The following figure shows a typical wheel that we can use with a diameter of 90 cm.
The wheel with a diameter of 86.5 mm will become 90 mm after placing the grip.

[ 29 ]

Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

The motor needs to be mounted on the base plate; to mount, we need a clamp which
can be screwed onto the plate and also connect the motor to the clamp. The following
figure shows a typical clamp we can use for this purpose. It's an L-shaped clamp,
with which we can mount the motor on one side and fit another side to the plate:

Caster wheel design

Caster wheels need not have a special design; we can use any caster wheel that can
touch the ground similar to the wheels. The following link has a collection of caster
wheels that we can use for this design:
http://www.pololu.com/category/45/pololu-ball-casters

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Chapter 2

Middle plate design

The dimension of this plate is same as the base plate, and the screw size is
also similar:

The middle plate can be held above the hollow tubes from the base plate. This
arrangement is connected using another hollow tube that extends from the middle
plate. The tube from the middle plate will have a screw at the bottom to fix the tube
from the base plate to the middle plate, and a hollow end to connect the top plate.
The top and side view of the tube extending from the middle plate is shown in the
following figure:

This tube will connect the middle plate to the base plate and at the same time
provide a provision to connect the top plate.

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Top plate design

The top plate is similar to other plates; it has four small poles of 3 cm, similar to the
base plate. These poles can be placed on the hollow tubes from the middle plate.
The four poles are connected to the plate, shown as follows:

After the top plate design, the robot chassis design is almost finished; let's see the
3D model building of this robot using Blender. The 3D model is built for simulation
purpose and the 2D design we build is mainly for manufacturing purpose.

Working with a 3D model of the robot

using Blender
In this section, we will design a 3D model of the robot. The 3D model is mainly used
for simulation purpose. The modeling will be done using Blender. The version must
be greater than 2.6 because we only tested the tutorials on these versions.

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Chapter 2

The following screenshot shows the blender workspace and tools that can be used to
work with 3D models:

The main reason why we are using Blender here is so that we can model the robot
using Python scripts. Blender has an inbuilt Python interpreter and a Python script
editor for coding purpose. We are not discussing about the user interface of Blender
here. We can find a good tutorial of Blender on its website. Refer to the following
link to learn about Blender's user interface:
http://www.blender.org/support/tutorials/

Let's start coding in Blender using Python.

Python scripting in Blender

Blender is mainly written in C, C++, and Python. Users can write their own Python
script and access all the functionalities of Blender. If you are an expert in Blender
Python APIs, you can model the entire robot using a Python script instead of
manual modeling.

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Blender uses Python 3.x. Blender. Python API is generally stable, but some areas
are still being added to and improved. Refer to http://www.blender.org/
documentation/blender_python_api_2_69_7/ for the documentation on
Blender Python API.
Let's discuss Blender Python APIs that we will use in our robot model script.

Introduction to Blender Python APIs

Python APIs in Blender can do most of the functionalities of Blender. The main
jobs that can be done by these APIs are as follows:

Edit any data inside Blender, such as scenes, meshes, particles, and so on

Modify user preference, key maps, and themes

Create new Blender tools

Draw the 3D view using OpenGL commands from Python

Blender provides the bpy module to the Python interpreter. This module can be
imported in a script and gives access to blender data, classes, and functions; scripts
that deal with Blender data will need to import this module. The main Python
modules we will use in bpy are:

Context Access: This provides access to Blender user interface functions from
the (bpy.context) script.

Data Access: This provides access to the Blender internal data (bpy.data).

Operators: This provides Python access to calling operators, which includes

operators written in C, Python, or Macros (bpy.ops).

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Chapter 2

For switching to scripting in Blender, we need to change the screen layout of

Blender. The following screenshot shows the option that helps you to switch to
Scripting layout:

After selecting the Scripting tab, we can see a text editor and Python console
window in Blender. In the text editor, we can code using Blender APIs and also
try Python commands via the Python console. Click on the New button to create
a new Python script and name it robot.py. Now, we can design the 3D model of
robot using only Python scripts. The upcoming section has the complete script to
design our robot model. We can discuss the code before running it. We hope you
have read the Python APIs of Blender from their site. The code in the upcoming
section is split into six Python functions to draw three robot plates, draw motors
and wheels, draw four support tubes, and export into the STereoLithography (STL)
3D file format for simulation.

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Python script of the robot model

The following is the Python script of the robot model that we will design:.
1. Before starting Python script in Blender, we must import the bpy module.
The bpy module contains all the functionalities of Blender and it can only be
accessed from inside the Blender application:
import bpy

2. This following function will draw the base plate of the robot. This function
will draw a cylinder with a radius of 5 cm and cut a portion from the
opposite sides so that motors can be connected using the Boolean modifier
inside Blender:
#This function will draw base plate
def Draw_Base_Plate():

3. The following two commands will create two cubes with a radius of 0.05
meter on either side of the base plate. The purpose of these cubes is to
create a modifier that subtracts the cubes from the base plate. So in effect,
we will get a base plate with two cuts. After cutting the two sides, we will
delete the cubes:
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=0.05,
location=(0.175,0,0.09))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=0.05,
location=(-0.175,0,0.09))
####################################################
####################################################
#Adding base plate
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.15,
depth=0.005, location=(0,0,0.09))
#Adding boolean difference modifier from first cube
bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='BOOLEAN')
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Boolean"].operation =
'DIFFERENCE'
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Boolean"].object =
bpy.data.objects["Cube"]
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier="Boolean")

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Chapter 2
######################################################
######################################################
#Adding boolean difference modifier from second cube
bpy.ops.object.modifier_add(type='BOOLEAN')
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Boolean"].operation =
'DIFFERENCE'
bpy.context.object.modifiers["Boolean"].object =
bpy.data.objects["Cube.001"]
bpy.ops.object.modifier_apply(modifier="Boolean")
#######################################################
#######################################################
#Deselect cylinder and delete cubes
bpy.ops.object.select_pattern(pattern="Cube")
bpy.ops.object.select_pattern(pattern="Cube.001")
bpy.data.objects['Cylinder'].select = False
bpy.ops.object.delete(use_global=False)

4. The following function will draw the motors and wheels attached to the
base plate:
#This function will draw motors and wheels
def Draw_Motors_Wheels():

5. The following commands will draw a cylinder with a radius of 0.045 and 0.01
meter in depth for the wheels. After creating the wheels, it will be rotated
and translated into the cut portion of the base plate:
#Create first Wheel
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.045,
depth=0.01, location=(0,0,0.07))
#Rotate
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708
#Transalation
bpy.context.object.location[0] = 0.135

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

#Create second wheel
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.045,
depth=0.01, location=(0,0,0.07))
#Rotate
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708
#Transalation
bpy.context.object.location[0] = -0.135

6. The following code will add two dummy motors to the base plate.
The dimensions of motors are mentioned in the 2D design. The motor is
basically a cylinder and it will be rotated and placed in the base plate:
#Adding motors
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.018,
depth=0.06, location=(0.075,0,0.075))
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.018,
depth=0.06, location=(-0.075,0,0.075))
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708

7. The following code will add a shaft to the motors, similar to the motor
model; the shaft is also a cylinder and it will be rotated and inserted into
the motor model:
#Adding motor shaft
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.006,
depth=0.04, location=(0.12,0,0.075))
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.006,
depth=0.04, location=(-0.12,0,0.075))
bpy.context.object.rotation_euler[1] = 1.5708
#######################################################
#######################################################

8. The following code will add two caster wheels on the base plate.
Currently, we are adding a cylinder as wheel. In the simulation,
we can assign it as a wheel:
#Adding Caster Wheel
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.015,
depth=0.05, location=(0,0.125,0.065))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.015,
depth=0.05, location=(0,-0.125,0.065))
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Chapter 2

9. The following code will add a dummy Kinect sensor:

#Adding Kinect
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cube_add(radius=0.04,
location=(0,0,0.26))

10. This function will draw the middle plate of the robot:
#Draw middle plate
def Draw_Middle_Plate():
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.15,
depth=0.005, location=(0,0,0.22))
#Adding top plate
def Draw_Top_Plate():
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.15,
depth=0.005, location=(0,0,0.37))

11. This function will draw all the four supporting hollow tubes for all the
three plates:
#Adding support tubes
def Draw_Support_Tubes():
##################################################################
###########################
#Cylinders
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.007,
depth=0.30, location=(0.09,0.09,0.23))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.007,
depth=0.30, location=(-0.09,0.09,0.23))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.007,
depth=0.30, location=(-0.09,-0.09,0.23))
bpy.ops.mesh.primitive_cylinder_add(radius=0.007,
depth=0.30, location=(0.09,-0.09,0.23))

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

12. This function will export the designed robot to STL. We have to change the
STL file path before executing the script:
#Exporting into STL
def Save_to_STL():
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='SELECT')
#
bpy.ops.mesh.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
bpy.ops.export_mesh.stl(check_existing=True,
filepath="/home/lentin/Desktop/exported.stl",
filter_glob="*.stl", ascii=False,
use_mesh_modifiers=True, axis_forward='Y',
axis_up='Z', global_scale=1.0)
#Main code
if __name__ == "__main__":
Draw_Base_Plate()
Draw_Motors_Wheels()
Draw_Middle_Plate()
Draw_Top_Plate()
Draw_Support_Tubes()
Save_to_STL()

13. After entering the code in the text editor, execute the script by pressing
the Run Script button, as shown in the following screenshot. The output
3D model will be shown on the 3D view of Blender. Also, if we check the
desktop, we can see the exported.stl file for the simulation purposes:

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Chapter 2

The exported.stl file can be opened with MeshLab and the following is a
screenshot of MeshLab:

Downloading the example code

You can download the example code files for all Packt books you
have purchased from your account at http://www.packtpub.
com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit http://
www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files
e-mailed directly to you.

Questions
1. What is robot modeling and what are its uses?
2. What is the aim of 2D robot model?
3. What is the aim of 3D robot model?
4. What is the advantage of Python scripting over manual modeling?

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Mechanical Design of a Service Robot

Summary
This chapter was mainly aimed at robot mechanical designing. It also included the
robot parameter calculation and robot chassis design. In robot designing, we first need
to have the prerequisites ready. Once it's ready, we can calculate the requirements of
the components to be used in the robot. After the component requirements are met, we
design the robot chassis according to the given requirements. The robot chassis design
involves 2D design of all the parts required to build the robot. After 2D designing, we
saw how to build the 3D robot model using Blender and Python script. The 3D model
was built using the dimensions that we used in 2D drawing. We also covered the
Blender Python script to build the entire 3D model. In this chapter, we got the design
of the robot that can be used to manufacture it, and also developed a 3D model for
simulation. In the next chapter, we will discuss the simulation of this robot model and
some popular simulation tools.

[ 42 ]

Get more information Learning Robotics Using Python

Where to buy this book

You can buy Learning Robotics Using Python from the Packt Publishing website.
Alternatively, you can buy the book from Amazon, BN.com, Computer Manuals and most internet
book retailers.
Click here for ordering and shipping details.

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