preface  

With the development of science and technology, robots are more and more mentioned. No matter what field they are in, there is a kind of machine called robot. In the media, it is constantly reported that so and so robot competitions - in my opinion, most of them are remote control car competitions. With the development of human science and technology today, it seems that there is a long way to go to make machines into "people". But this does not hinder our exploration and imagination of future things.

Imagination is the driving force for exploring the future. If we want to know where the world's earliest robots came from, it is estimated that many people have never thought about it. In China, as early as in the Warring States Period, Liezi · Tang Wen, written by Lie Yukou, it was recorded that "there was a skilled craftsman named Yan Shi who made a wooden mechanism person who was good at singing and dancing". Of course, we do not need to investigate the authenticity of the event, But as far as records are concerned, they reflect people's pursuit all the time. However, as a visual impact, the earliest feeling that robots brought to the author was the American science fiction film Future World, which was released in China in the 1970s, and the Blood Washing Paradise, which was released more than ten years later. In fact, Future World is the sequel to Blood Washing Paradise, and it is estimated that the environment of that year decided the order of introducing films. In the 1990s, there were more robot films, and the best one was the Terminator series. The biggest difference between the robot in the movie and the robot mentioned above is that it has human "intelligence". Well, let's call it "artificial intelligence". Only when a machine has intelligence can it be called a robot. Otherwise, it can only be called a remote control machine or a humanoid machine at most. Fortunately, we have crossed many mountains and dangerous ridges on the road of artificial intelligence, and are approaching the "robot" we imagined step by step. The microprocessor and various sensors can make some simple judgments and drive the servo mechanism to respond under the control of the program. Such simple robots have begun to be popular, of course, To be able to walk, judge and feel like people, it is rare at present. For example, Japan Honda's asimo, a robot called Asimo, costs millions of dollars. It is better to think about it and have a look. If we want to get close to each other, we'd better take a look at this Vortex toy, which is called "the first robot gift for children".

experience

Although the Vortex is called a robot in various media, in my opinion, this little toy is still far away from "people", right? But; This Vortex is really a good device that can go into the family and let children do robot enlightenment education. Compared with other "robot" education equipment - such as the popular LEGO robot series (the core components alone cost more than 4000 yuan), this is the most "local" robot education equipment.

Like most devices called "robots", Vortex adopts the form of a car, which makes driving much easier. Two wheels can drive it to "walk", so Vortex is only suitable for moving on the flat ground. In the later test, we put it on the outdoor road for a while, and the dust on the ground almost killed it. We will mention this later.

The test article obtained by the author is white. It is reported that consumers can choose products of different colors according to their preferences. Vortex is very compact and can be placed in the palm of the hand. From the appearance, it looks like a half helmet of a robot in a science fiction movie.

There are seven groups of sensors at the bottom, six of which are infrared sensors for detecting the ground. The infrared receiving tube receives infrared light after it is reflected from the ground to judge the ground condition. If you cooperate with the program, draw a black line on the ground, and Vortex can walk along the black line. The other sensor is facing the front, which is used to detect obstacles in the front. However, for obstacles, the author still thinks that ultrasonic radar sensor is much better. There are also two wheels and two steel balls at the bottom. Needless to say, the wheel is a "walking" servo mechanism. The appearance of the steel ball indicates that it is not a balance wheel, but a driven wheel as a support point to achieve universal rotation.

There are also various stickers for decoration and scene setting in the package. There are also two manuals, one is the manual for using APP to control, and the other is the programming guide book. Unfortunately, the current programming environment only supports iOS system. On the Android platform, you can only use your mobile phone to control Vortex through Bluetooth. However, it is believed that the Android platform programming environment will be launched soon.

Vortex does not use built-in lithium-ion batteries as the current popular electronic devices do. The second is to use four No. 5 batteries as the power supply, perhaps due to cost considerations. The battery compartment is on the top. Remove the top cover to see the battery compartment.

Around the battery compartment, there are six RBG tricolor LED beads, which can emit color light under the control of the program.

The battery should be of better quality, which is also our concern. If the battery compartment is on the top, if the battery leaks, it will flow to the circuit board below and cause corrosion. Therefore, if it is not used for a long time, the battery should be removed. If the lithium-ion battery is used, there will be no such concern. Maybe the lithium-ion version will be released in the next generation?

The working voltage of 4 batteries is 6V. If you use them frequently, it is cheaper to use rechargeable batteries, which also avoids the problem caused by leakage.

Turn on the switch at the bottom, and Vortex will send out sound and light prompts. The color of the head, eyes, feet and the V symbol can be adjusted independently. This is the light from the three color LED we mentioned earlier.

The glasses in the front window use two 5 * 5 dots, which can display a variety of patterns. But all the lights, although using three color LEDs, are not full-color. Maybe the memory needs to be saved. If it can glow in full color, it will be cool.

We also noticed a very considerate setting: the light on the top, when the top cover is lifted up, the LED will not light up. Because it is a toy for children, the light is strong, and when there is no top cover, the light may cause damage to children's glasses. Therefore, a set of Hall sensors is set at the right rear to detect the top cover.

The playing method of Vortex has two levels. The low-level playing method is to install APP on the mobile phone and use APP to control the operation of Vortex; The high-level play is to run programming software on the OS system to realize the unique functions of Vortex. Here we will first talk about the control functions on the Android system. As for programming, we will introduce it in another space. Scan the QR code on the instruction manual to download software and install it.

After installation, the APP will prompt you to approach Vortex, and the phone will automatically connect via Bluetooth. After successful connection, Vortex will turn several times to prompt you. After that, we can set some basic states, such as the shape of the eyes, the colors of various lights, and so on.

In particular, more than 30 kinds of glasses can be set to show different looks, and five or four kinds of sound effects can be set for the role status. It is very dazzling at night or in dark environment.

The APP provides a variety of play methods: the best speed car, bumper car, dance shake, robot soccer and leisure golf. Extremely fast cars can use mobile phones to control the movement of Vortex, and use the status sensors of mobile phones to achieve front and rear, left and right, start and stop and other actions. You can use your mobile phone to shake and dance, and Vortex will dance for a period of time.

The bumper car needs more than two Vortex interactions. Football and golf need to set up scenes. The various stickers attached can be used. These small games can make children happy for an afternoon. Of course, they are just preset. If you want Vortex to run according to your idea, you need to program it.

Disassembly

Of course, for electronic equipment, the most attractive thing is the internal structure. Will this curiosity kill Vortex?

First of all, open this and the small cover, remove this screw, and find two interfaces, one is a four core connector, and the other is a MicroUSB interface. Connect the USB cable to the PC, and find that there is an additional 8M flash disk with Mp3 format audio files stored inside.

Turn down the screw at the bottom, and now we can see the result of the outdoor operation we mentioned above. Because there is a lot of dust outside, the dust is collected into the Vortex with the rotation of the wheel, and the sensor of the auxiliary unit is covered with dust. Therefore, it is better to play indoors rather than outdoors.

There are two 3M adhesive strips on the bottom cover, and one 8W 2W speaker. To be honest, this speaker is too thin and can only sound. If you can replace some speakers, enlarge the body, enlarge the resonance cavity, and integrate the functions of Bluetooth speakers and network speakers, you can not only understand, but also speak, sing, broadcast stories on demand, and interact with Q&A, then the playability will be much higher.

The light on the bottom of the PCB of the whole backplane is also a three color LED, which can clearly see the photoelectric sensor.

LED emits blue light.

This is the wheel sensor under the wheel. Both wheels are equipped to detect the state and speed of the wheel.

On the front of the PCB, two DC electrodes drive the wheels, which are matched with the precision gearbox.

Dust can also be seen in this picture.

This is the gear of the reduction gearbox.

Dot matrix LED driver board.

On the front of the dot matrix LED, there are two 3mm LEDs beside it. I don't know whether it is a light-emitting tube or a photosensitive tube. I will study it later.

5 * 5 dot matrix, the displayed graphics are more pixelated, but it's OK to have a look.

LED is installed by means of connector.

This is the interface board.

The wheels are driven by the motor and the gearbox.

in general, Vortex has a simple structure and small appearance. It programs through Arduino to detect the external environment through different sensors, and drives lights, horns and motors to act under the action of the program, laying the foundation for children's robot education and obtaining the first perceptual knowledge. If the combined programming environment can run on Android phones, the application range will be more popular. In addition, As we mentioned above, we have improved some hardware circuits in terms of sound quality and added the function of smart speakers, which not only can be programmed to run, but also can be built with an app similar to "a little more intelligent", so that the playability will be higher.