Norris Labs

Norris Labs Robots with a Mission

Welcome to Norris Labs. My name is Steve Norris. This is my personal web site. Here you will find a collection of robot projects that I have built over the past few years. You are free to use the schematics, diagrams and source code to build your own version for non-commercial use.

What's New!

You can read my latest feature article "CoolerBot - A Nature Photography Robot" in the March/April 2010 issue of Robot Magazine.

Building a robot that can operate in a harsh outdoor environment proved to be most challenging. After several months of work, CoolerBot is the result of taking that challenge. To handle the weather it was built both rugged and completely waterproof. Primarily a telepresence robot, CoolerBot can be operated from a nearby remote location using an RF link and a night vision camera. Since CoolerBot is to be operated outdoors and interact with nature it needed to have a small carbon footprint and be truly “green”. Using a pair of solar panels to recharge its batteries CoolerBot can stay outdoors for long periods of time, possibly up to weeks at a time, obtaining sustenance from nothing more than the sun.

Follow Norris Labs on Twitter. I'm now logging status updates and new information about my robots and other projects on Twitter. Be sure to follow my account @norrislabs.

Hi-Res Photos Available - Looking for hi-res pictures of my robots? You can download them from my Flickr account. Once there simply click on the photo you want and then click "All Sizes" and "Original" to download the full size image.

In the Lab: CoolerBot - A Telepresence Nature Photography Robot

CoolerBot is built as an outdoor telepresence robot that is used for nature photography and surveillance. It is both rugged and waterproof and designed to stay outdoors for long periods of time. It was built using a 48-quart Coleman cooler and sports an infrared video camera, a Nikon digital SLR camera and two solar panels used to recharge the motor and logic batteries.

CoolerBot uses a tail-dragger design with 14” wheels in front and a 10” castering wheel in the rear. The caster wheel is mounted using PVC pipe. The robot is capable of moving in either direction. CoolerBot uses two NPC-41250 motors powered by a 10 amp hour 12 volt SLA battery. The logic is powered by a separate 10 amp hour 12 volt SLA battery and both batteries are recharged by the two onboard solar panels. The motors are driven by two Parallax HB-25s are which are controlled by a Propeller. Currently the robot is remote controlled through a 912 MHz Transceiver.

You can read more about CoolerBot and get source code and schematics here.