Back to: Fusion Robot Fun – Converting from blockly to Python.
Either (Print Build Instructions):
Modern Robotics provides instructions for building your Fusion Robot, click here to see them. If you prefer to build your Fusion Robot from a paper copy of these build instructions, for most browsers I have tried (Chrome, FireFox, Opera, Brave, Bing) there will be a little printer image on the “build instructions” screen on which you can left-mouse-click to print these instructions. If you are using the Internet Explorer browser, you may have to left-mouse-click towards the bottom of the “build instructions” screen , and the window below will appear:
Click Here to Print Fusion Build Instructions.
Click where my arrow points to print out these build instructions. Errata? (January 2019) Note that on the second-last page of these instructions, “Step 11” should presumably be “Step 13”, and “Step 12” should probably be “Step 14”.
Or (Video Build Instructions):
Modern Robotics has not yet (January 2019) provided a YouTube video demonstrating a Fusion build. However, their Spartan Robot has a similar chassis to the Fusion Robot, and thus their YouTube video of a Spartan build can provide some assistance if you want more help than is provided by the printed Fusion build document. Modern Robotics’ Spartan Robot YouTube build video can be found by clicking here. Portions of this Spartan video that correspond to steps in the printed Fusion build document are listed below. We will re-use these steps to illustrate the Fusion build.
- Fusion Step 1: Assemble base plate. Video
- Fusion Step 2: Add battery mount and back “wheel”. Video
- Fusion Step 3: Place the standoffs in the hole locations shown in the Fusion build document step 3, NOT the hole locations visible in the Spartan video. Later, in Step 14 of this Fusion build, your Fusion controller will be mounted on the top of these standoffs. The Fusion controller is physically bigger than the controller used in the Spartan, this is why different positions for the standoffs are needed. Video
- Fusion Step 4: Add motors. Don’t worry about the Spartan controller shown in the video – we will add Fusion’s controller later in Step 14. Video
- Fusion Step 5: Assemble the front plate. Video
- Fusion Step 6: Attach the front plate to Fusion. Note that, compared with the Spartan build, the Fusion Build document reverses the 5×13-hole flanged plate so that it is “concave” when viewed from the front of the Robot. We don’t know why Modern Robotics have made this change. We don’t like it. We would prefer that this plate to be mounted in a “convex” position when viewed from the front, just as it is in the Spartan build. This will allow us in the “Wall Follow tutorial” to mount our Optical Distance Sensor sideways on the front plate, to demonstrate how to teach our Fusion Robot to follow a wall. Video
- Fusion Step 7: Add the wheels. Video
- Fusion Step 8: Add the battery. Video
- Fusion Step 9: Add the touch sensor. Video
- Fusion Step 10: Build the touch sensor sub-assembly. Video
- Fusion Step 11: Attach the touch sub-assembly to Fusion. Video
- Fusion Step 12: Viewing from the front of the Robot, Fusion’s single Optical Distance Sensor is mounted on the right side of the Fusion robot. Video
- Fusion Step “13”: Viewing from the front of the Robot, Fusion’s single Gyro Sensor is mounted on the left side of the Fusion robot, in the same place as the left sensor in this video. Video
- Fusion Step “14”: Attach the Fusion controller to the standoffs we added in Step 3. Video
- Fusion last page: Next carefully connect the cables in to the Fusion controller, as shown below.
Charging Fusion’s Battery Pack.
It is unlikely that there will be sufficient power in Fusion’s battery pack to allow you to experiment with your Robot. Turn Fusion off, because the battery will not charge when Fusion is turned on. Connect the charger supplied as part of your Fusion kit in to your building’s power supply, and plug the other end in to Fusion’s slot CHRG. The black wire can be either to the right or to the left, both positions will charge Fusion’s battery. If the battery is flat, the light on the charger will glow red. It may take up to about an hour to charge Fusion’s battery pack. When the battery is charged, the light on the charger will change to a green glow.