The Robotic Forklift

I built this forklift shortly after we got our first NXT set.  It was my first original robotics project, even if the rover part was built using the instruction manual.  :)  For a long time, I had a long and awful unedited version on my YouTube channel, but I finally got around to recording a new narrative and shortening the clip to something more tolerable.

The algorithm for following the oval track is something I've used repeatedly and probably deserves a little explanation.  I made a great slide show that talks about it, which I plan to link to soon.

Detecting when a block gets loaded was pretty tricky, since the blocks were too light to extert enough pressure on the touch sensor's button.  I had to get a little clever with levers, to increase the sensitivity.

You'll note at the end of the video how the robot was unable to recover when it missed a block.  I might have been able to use an ultrasonic sensor (or two) to guide the prongs of the forklift more accurately.  As it was, I had to place the blocks around the track just right, in order for the robot to get to them.

In the coming weeks, I'll be adding more fun videos of projects past.


Here is a recently posted video of a guy in Brazil, who uses a real-life forklift to perform the extremely delicate task of dropping a coin into a bottle.  Extremely impressive, but it makes me wonder what's next?  Washing dishes with a back-hoe?