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Bambino by David Buckley 09 August 2011

Bambino PicAxe
  • PicAxe Plan & Circuit
  • Build instructions
  • Setup and use
  • Programs
  • Bambino No.1 Prototype - Gallery @ 5th April 2021
  • Bambino No.3 - Gallery @ December 2011
  • Bambino No.4 - Gallery @ 5th April 2021
  • Bambinos drawing at a Cheshire Open Studios drawing event in 2012
  • Bambino video at the Cheshire Open Studios drawing event in 2012

  • Bamduino - the Arduino version of Bambino

  • All the Bambino pages and files BambinoRobot.zip

    I drew Bambino at lunchtime on 9th August 2011 and that evening had to go into the workshop and make it.
    I named the prototype Woodly but changed it to Bambino after seeing an advert by the side of the motorway as I was driving to an ISA event in Bradford. I don't know what the advert was about but it had Bambino in big letters and I thought it would be a good name for Woodly.

    The Bambinos were unveiled to the public on 22 October 2011 at the Museum Of Science and Industry, Manchester [MOSI] during the Manchester Science Festival. It is was planned to have kits available through the Manchester FabLab where I made the set of six Bambinos to have on show. However, as at October 2014, despite lots of talk by them the FabLab don't seem to be all that interested in creating a web shop.

    The official collective name for Bambinos is 'A Love of Bambinos'.


    It can walk forwards and backwards and turn right or left;
    it walks by lifting its feet off the floor and doesn't use overlapping feet as toy robots do;
    it is driven by two servos;
    it is powered by 3 AA cells in a holder on top or for better walking two 2xAAA cells in holders on each side of the body;
    it is teachable from an Infra-Red handset (Sony TV remote);
    The PicAxe version can be programmed in Basic; and uses a PicAxe 20M2
    the high level program has built in routines to :
    - listen out for commands from the handset;
    - listen out for commands through the programming/serial port (see below)
    - avoid obstacles
    - avoid drop-offs, ie table edges;
    - walk to a light;
    - walk away from a light;
    - (projected are to be able to follow a wall for a distance etc)
    it has :
    - two forward facing optical obstacle sensors;
    - two downward facing optical obstacle sensors to sense drop-offs, ie table edges;
    - a piezo sounder for buzzes and tunes;
    - an indicator LED;
    - two high power LEDs which can be PWM controlled and used for HMI (Human Machine Interface)
    - two other high power LEDs which can be used for HMI;
    - an IR receiver so it can respond to signals from a IR remote handset, or other robots;
    - an IR-LED so it can talk to other robots using the same commands as from the handset, or using extended codes;
    - a connector for an Ultrasonic ranging module;
    - a connector for a compass module;
    - A serial programming connector which can also be used to talk to an add-on higher level processor;
    it can;
    - learn and remember up to 8 sequences from the handset;
    -- each sequence can chain to another sequence or itself so loops can be created;
    -- any sequence can call any Basic subroutine
    -- Basic subroutines can invoke any learned sequence;
    it has : - a complete suit of fortynine programs taking users from flashing an LED to making the robot walk while avoiding obstacle etc. It has lots of code space left for enhancements (the second 2k page of the 20m2 is unused).