On February 12th, our team gathered to assemble the Eddie.  We thought the 6 hours the instructions suggested would be required to build the robot would be conservative ... it was not.  After unpacking the components, the first major challenge was assembling the differential drive wheels.  This seemingly simple task took quite a bit of time.


Assembling the  Wheels

 Once the wheels were together, the IR and Ping sensors went much more quickly.  We found the on-line video quite helpful and had these together in just a few minutes.


All the major components

With all of the major components assembled, installing them on the base was fairly straightforward although it took a little time to sort out which screw went where as many were close in size.  But the sensors and controller mounted easily to the base, and after making all of the electrical connections, we were ready to install the struts that would be used to mount the Kinect.


Assembling the base



Base assembled and ready to install the Kinect

With the final assembly complete, we were ready to power it up for the first time.

Ready for first power