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MANaTRON Humanoid by Mike G. Otis

MANaTRON Humanoid by Mike G. Otis

HOW TO BUILD a Humanoid Robot!!!

It took 2 years to build my humanoid robot, named MANaTRON, which is the first humanoid robot in my Tron series of robots. I began with a kit of parts from Parallax Inc., and added more parts (computers, controller board, batteries, servos, mechanics, electronics, speech board, tilt inclinometer, hardware, and lots of computer programming).

MANaTRON can walk, move arms, see, and speak in various languages. Some of the exciting things he can do, in the most simple forms, are Chinese Tai Chi, dance and speaking languages. At one time, during development, MANaTRON was only a couple legs dancing to a love song. See http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toddler_robot/files/Walking_Legs/. I can be reached at email mikegotis@yahoo.com

Zylatron
http://www.robotics.com/robomenu/zylatron.html
Son of Zylatron (SOZ)
http://www.robotics.com/robomenu/soz.html
AutomaTron
http://www.robotics.com/robomenu/automatron.html
BUGaTRON (da-Chong)
http://www.robotics.com/robomenu/bugatron.html

MANaTRONs SPEECH CENTER

Manatrons speech center is based on the SPO256 General Instruments alophone speech generator chip. The popular chip from the 1970s was sold by Radio Shack and electronic parts stores. If you can't find this chip for some reason, they are sold, along with a new chip version at http://www.speechchips.com/shop/. You can still find the SPO256 at surplus centers and on ebay. Using a printed circuit board can simplify operation of this chip and is recommended. This chip has the best sounding robot voice.

You can program this chip in any language. I've worked on a small MANaTRON humanoid database of several languages including English, Russian, German, Chinese, Japanese and Sioux Indian. Manatron is a proof of concept humanoid.

MANaTRON CONSTRUCTION

Manatron sports a suit of aluminum called an exoskeleton. Underneath are mechanics to make the robot walk and move its head, arms and torso.

Manatron has batteries and is fully programmable by several onboard computers. Motion is accomplished using hobby servos and a special controller board (SSC).

If you are looking for tiny computers or want to gather information to assemble your own, please check out the Parallax Inc. website for a ton of information at http://www.parallax.com. This is one of the best companies in the world.


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