Radio Shack Mobile Robot manual

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Revision D 11/17/2005 ARobot Mobi le Robot T able of Conten ts I ntrod uction Introduction ....................................................1 About ARobot ................................................1 What You’ll Need ..........................................2 Feature List ....................................................2 Specificatio[...]

T able of Conten ts Co ntinued Connectors Battery Connector ..........................................36 Body Connector .............................................36 Serial Port Connector .....................................36 RC Servo Motor Connectors ..........................37 DC Motor Connector .....................................37 Powerf[...]

Introduct ion Congratulations for pur chasing t he ARobot mobile robot . This manual should answer all o f your questions. We sugge s t that you rea d and understand all of it before using your n ew robot. If y ou h ave any questions, please view our web site at w ww. robotics.com/arobot The software provided is desi gned for use with IBM-st yle pe[...]

2 Feature List The following list of featu res will help you get aquatinted wit h ARobot.  Safe, low voltage s ystem.  Dimensions: 10" x 10", 5" tall, 2-1/4 lbs. Whis kers extend beyond these dimensions.  High quality machin ed aluminum frame (no plastic or wood).  Dual front whisker senso rs.  Maxi mum [...]

3 T echnical Specif ications  Body: .062 aluminum - cut, punched, and formed.  Configuration: 3-wheel, front wheel drive, r ear wheel steer.  Dimensions: 10" x 10", 5" tall, 2-1/4 lbs.  Payload capacity: 1 lbs.  Wheel size: 3.25" diameter.  Drive Motor: 12 volt DC gear moto r, 74 full load RP M, 1.6 amp full lo[...]

Precautions F a i l u r e t o o b s e r v e t h e s e precautions may r e sult in los s of life, d amage to p roperty and/or damage to the robot. The following precautions must be taken to insure trouble free oper ation of ARobot. The orde r that these prec autions are listed does not indicate their importance. Failure to observe t hese precaution [...]

Componen t Locator Use the following diagrams t o familiarize yourself with ARobot' s various compo nents. 5 Red LED Controller Steering Motor Steering Linkage Controller Whiskers 5V Volta ge Regulator RC Servo Motors Body Connector Serial Port Speaker Drive motor Connector Green LE D Battery Connector Powerful Output H-bridge Expansi on Conne[...]

Glossar y of T erms 6 Analog Sign als – Signals that have values between on and off (1 and 0). Android – A robot t hat has a human-like form. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – A computer program that simulates intelligence like that found in biological systems. Artificial Life – Behavi or that is simulated by a com puter program or other m ach[...]

Fractals – A geometric pattern i n which an object looks the same regardless of the viewin g scale. Fractal concepts can be u sed in AI programming. Fuzzy Logic – Logic in which boundaries between sets are not crisp. Th is concept i s often us ed to control systems that would be too complex to model with traditi onal sequential programs. Geneti[...]

Mechatronics – A comb ination of mechanical and electric al devices to create a s ystem. Natural Langua ge – Language used by humans to communi cation. Neural Network – A network of processing elements that are connected to gether t o si mulate t he intelli- gence created b y biological brains. Often us ed to perform pattern reco gnition. Ope[...]

Assembly O verview 9 ARobot’s assembl y norm ally takes about 2 ho urs or less excluding time f or painting. Chil dren as young as 10 can bui ld ARob ot with the help of an adult. The controller board and cables are pre -built, s o sol- dering is not required. During assembl y you will do these things:   Sand and paint the metal robot b ody[...]

Parts 10 ARobot i s easy to put together. Make su re y ou have all of the p arts lis ted below befor e beginnin g. If something doesn’t look right, send us s ome email at inf o@robotics.com Quantity Description Used For 1) Robot Body Sheetmetal Body 2) Motor Brackets Mounting front drive wh eel assembly 1) Encoder wheel Encoder assembly 7) Screw,[...]

Parts continued 11 Screw, 4-40 x 3/8 Screw, 4-40 x 3/16 Screw, 6-32 x 1/4 Nut, 10-32 Nut, 4-40 Spacer, 4-40 x 1/4 Encoder Wheel Encoder Sensor Washer, #4 star Washer, #10 star Steering Arm Washer, #6 plastic Washer, #6 shoulder Drive Motor Front Axle Rear Axle Steering Motor Collar Coupling Spacer, 1” plastic Horn Motor Brackets Robot Body Here a[...]

Drive Motor 12 Parts continued Motor Bracke ts Body Cable Battery Cable Battery Holder Controller RC Servo Steering Motor Body Encoder Wheel Whisker Wires 4-40 nuts Steering Linkages Steering Arms Rear A xle s 10-32 nuts Encoder Sens ors Controller Spacers Whisker Spacers Whisker Shoulder Washers Front Axle 4-40 x 3/8 4 -40 x 3/16 Whisker Plastic W[...]

13 Painting ARobot' s paint job is y o ur first ch ance t o be creati ve and have a little fun. W ho wants ever y ro bot to look alike an yway? Five pa rts are candidates for paintin g: The robot b ase, 2 motor brackets, en coder wheel, and the motor co upling. Or if you prefer, si mply leave these parts unpainted. Here' s the process: ?[...]

Whiskers Two whisker wires are mounted on the front of the robot to detect obstacles. Locate the 4 whisker mounting holes near the front center of the robot body. Scratch off paint around the two smaller holes. Next, bend each whisker wire using the drawing as a full scale pattern. Locate the body cable and find the ground lu g. Mount t he 2 whisk [...]

Whiskers continued 15 3” 4” 1-1/2” Small Loop Attaches to W hisker Spacer Full Scale Whisker Wire Pattern 8-3/4” Total Len gth Bend both whisker w ire s using this pattern Whisker Detail[...]

16 Drive Motor and Brackets Locate the two motor b rackets – a left side and a right side. Locate the drive m otor. Mount the drive motor to the left motor bracket using 2 or 3 screws according to the drawing. Next, att ach the motor brackets to the robot ’s b ody usin g 3 screws, 3 star washers, and 3 nuts per motor bracket. Minor bend- ing ma[...]

Encoder Sensor The encoder sensor counts the teeth in th e encoder wheel us ing invisible IR (infrared) light to mea sure the dis tance trav eled. The encoder whe el has tee th that interrupt th e be am of li ght. Locate the encoder sensor and noti ce the dot s pl aced on it (see t he drawing). Mount the sensor using 2 sc rews, 2 sta r wash- ers, a[...]

Front W heel Assembly 18 A p icture is worth a thousand words – so t ake a look at the drawings below before starting to building the front whe el assembl y. First locate the front whee l which has a threaded b ore and a red ma rk on the hub. Screw the threaded front axle into the wheel s o th at one side of the axle p rotrudes about 1/2 inch fro[...]

19 Steering of th e robot is accomplished using a standard RC servo motor attached to t he rear wh eels. Read the assembl y summary while viewing the drawings. Summary:   Bend both 4” wires into s teering linkages with pli ers using the drawing as a pattern.   Attach the horn to the steering motor with a screw. Turn the ho rn in both [...]

Steering Motor Mounting Steering System 20 S t eering Motor and Rear Whe els continued Wheel and Axle[...]

21 Controll er Board ARobot’s controller boar d is the brains of the s ystem. I t accepts a Basic Stamp II controlle r chip w hich can be programmed from a personal computer. The controlle r board con tains electronics used to drive the motors, sound th e speaker, control the L EDs, read whiskers, etc. An expansi on port allows addi- tional circu[...]

Battery Pack Don’t install batteries y et. Power is s upplied to ARobot using a battery pack that contains 8 AA size batteries. Locate the battery cable whi ch has a b atter snap on on e end and a 2-pin MTA connector on the other. P in 1 has th e red wire and is +12 volt s, P in 2 i s t he bla ck wi re and is ground (0 vol ts). P lug the MTA conn[...]

Body Cabl e 23 The bod y cable connects the controller to t he enco der sensor, whiskers, and ground lug. The bod y cable will already be att ached to the robot because w e have alread y inst alled the whi skers and ground lug. Route the body cable up through the rectangular h ole in the robot’s bod y. Plu g the bod y cable into the controller’[...]

Finishi ng Up You’re almost finished bui lding ARobot. Finish up b y doing these thin gs:   Route the steering moto r cable up though the rectan gular hole in the robot bod y. Connect the steering mot or cable to the 3 pin connector on the cont roller board near the body connector (see the co ntroller drawing). Align the white (som etimes y[...]

About the Control ler Board 25 The Controller board i s the brains of AR obot. I t contains circuitry to control the steerin g and drive mo- tors, read the whiskers, con trol LEDs, speaker, buttons, etc. The controller board has a socket that ac- cepts a Basic Stamp II co ntrol computer chip designed b y Parallax Inc. www.p arallaxinc.com The Basic[...]

Cable to your PC 26 ARobot’s controller b oard is p rogrammed by con necting it to an Personal C omputer (PC) runni ng Mi- crosoft Windows. Th e serial port (9 pin male co nnector) will be used for this. A 9 pin male-female ca- ble is included to connect your P C’s serial port to AR obot. It ma y b e necessar y to remov e your modem or other de[...]

Programs 27 The ARobot package incl udes programs to:   Test Program to test m otors, buttons, whiskers, speaker, LEDs, etc.   Steering adjustment program t o set the straight posi tion of the steering motor.   Wander program will move around avoiding obs tacles. Other programs and projects for ARobo t are available at our websit [...]

About the Control ler Board 28[...]

Batteri es 29 ARobot’s controller board requires 9 to 12 volt s s upplied by 8 AA size batteries. We’ve found that the best batteries are DuraCe lls. You can also use AA size rechargeable batt eries. First turn the contr oller board off and remove the battery pack from the battery cable. Install the 8 batt eries observing pol arit y + - which i[...]

Whiskers 30 Whisker wi res are used to detect objects while the robot is moving. There is a left and right w hisker which can be read separatel y to determine the l ocation of t he object. The left whi sker is conn ected to the P0 pin and the ri ght whisker is connected to t he P1 pin. W hen an object is detected, these pins return a logic zero (lo[...]

Push Buttons and Jum pers (swi tches) 31 Two general purpose buttons and jumpers (also called switches) are pro vided on the controller card which can be read by the Ba s ic Stamp II . Buttons are m omentary – after you press them the y retu rn to the off state. J umpers can be l eft in the on or off posit ion using the jum per plug or wired to e[...]

32 The steerin g i s an R C (rem ote control) st yle servo mo tor that is commonly used on model race cars and airplanes. The coproc essor can control 4 R C servo m otors - #1 is used for steering. Wh en the Basic Stamp II n eeds to control an RC servo motor, it si mply sends a command to the coprocessor which han- dles the task. This frees up the [...]

Coprocessor Command Sum mary 33 This section describes how the coproc essor works and how each command i s constructed. The controller board contains a copro cessor that i s used to cont rol the driv e motor, po werful output, en- coder senso r, and the 4 RC servo motors (#1 is used as th e steering motor). This frees the Basic Stamp II for other t[...]

Coprocessor Command Sum mary cont inued 34 RC Servo Motor and Steering Motor Control: Example: !1R380 This command begins with “!1R” and is followed b y a chara cter indicatin g the R C servo motor number (3 in the ex ample), follo wed b y the position in hexadecimal (80 in the example). Possible pos ition val - ues are “01” through “FF?[...]

Hexadecim al, Binary , Byt es, W ords, et c. 35 Most com mands require parameters in the form of hexadecimal values and man y commands return hexadecimal values. Sometimes the bits i n these values wi ll represent certain things. We’ll use th e term “hex” to refer to hexadecim al. Hexadecimal Hex num bers are eas y for computers to work with [...]

Battery Connector ( J9) 36 Serial Port (J12) Body Connect or (J8) Usage: Supplies batter y power to all systems. Type: 2 pin, MTA, .1” Pinout: 1 – +12 volts 2 – Ground Usage : Connects controll er to PC‘s serial port. Connector: 9 pin femal e D-sub connector. Cable: Use a 9 pin straight throu gh cable for connection to PC serial ( COMM) por[...]

37 RC Servo Motor Con nectors (J2- J5) Powerful Connector (J1 1) Usage: Connects controller to R C servo motors. J2 is used for the steering mo tor. J3, J4, J5 are user defined. Controlled b y t he coprocessor Connector: 3 pin, .1”, 4 tot al Pinout: 1 – Control Pul se 2 – +5 volts 3 – Ground Drive Motor Connector (J10) Usage: Connects H-Bri[...]

Expansion Connector (J1) 38 Pinout: 1 – Ground 2 – Ground 3 – +5 volts, 200ma max 4 – +5 volts, 200ma max 5 – P0 of Basic Stamp II, Left whisker 6 – P1 of Basic Stamp II, R ight whisker 7 – P2 of Basic Stamp II, to b ody conn. 8 – P3 of Basic Stamp II, to b ody conn 9 – P4 of Basic Stamp II 10 – P5 of Basic Stamp II 11 – P6 of[...]

Expansion Port Circuit Examples 39 ARobot' s expansion connector provides access to the Basic Stamp II’s I/O pins, to the R C servo motor signals, and to the wheel encoder’s si gnal. These signals can be used to con trol accessories and to read sensors. +5 v olts is made available to p ower accessories. Observe current specifications to pr[...]

Expansion Port Circuit Examples contin ued 40 Digital Inpu ts - Basic Stamp input si gnals can be used to read TTL level signals such as switch es or sensors. The input signal should not exceed +5 volts DC or go below 0 volts. Each input pin has a pull-up resistor to +5 volts. Switch Inpu t Example: This example shows how to interface a mechanical [...]

Analog Inputs - Analog inputs are inputs that can vary from 0 to 5 volts. While the Basic Stamp II doesn ’t have a true analog input, analog signals can be r ead usin g a little trick. This is done b y adding a capacitor to gr ound on a digital I/O pin and a resistive sensor to +5 volts. The sensor value can b e read by first setting the digital [...]

Coprocessor Network Expansion 42 The complete application note for coprocessor expansion can be found o n our website at: www.rob otics.com/arobot/projects.html A coprocessor is on e of t he most powerful ex pansions that can be add ed to ARo bot. A coprocess or can remove time consuming tasks from the master processor, leavin g it for higher level[...]

Using O ther Controllers 43 ARobot’s control ler board is designed to accept the Basic Stamp II controll er chip made by Parallax ( www.p arallaxinc.com) . Parallax makes ot her Basic Stamp II compatible controllers which offer more memory and greater speed. Other manufacturers also make controllers that are com patible with the Ba- sic Stamp II [...]

Suggested Reading 44 PC AI Magazine Knowledge Technolog y, Inc. 3310 West Bell Rd., S uite 119 Phoenix, AZ 85023 (602) 971-1869 Periodical covering PC-based A I topics. Robot Science & Techn ology Magazine Dedicated to Real Robots. 2351 Sunset Blvd. Sui te 170 Rocklin, CA 95765 http://www.robotmag.com 1-888-510-7728 Robotics Digest Practical Ap[...]

Componen t Suppliers Ampro Computers 990 Almanor Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 522-2100 Manufactures a wide va riety of computers and controller boards including PC /104 based systems. Boston Gear 14 Hayard St. Quincy, MA 02171 (800) 343-3352 A g ood selection of me dium and large g ears, pulleys, gear reducers and s haft components. DU-BRO Produc[...]

SAVA Indus tries 70 Riverdale Rd. Riverdale, NJ 07457 (201) 835-0882 Manufactures cables and pul leys. Small Parts 6891 N.E. 3rd Ave. P.O. Box 381736 Miami, FL 33238-1736 (305) 751-0856 This company stocks a b road range o f precision parts such as screws, tubi ng, and tools. Stock Drive Products 2101 Jericho Turnpike New Hyde Park, NY 11040 (516) [...]

Internet Robot Resources 47 The Internet cont ains a wide variety of resourc e pertaining to robot s. Virtually all Univ ersities provide research do cuments and files on the I nternet for t hose interested. Man y cont ain i nformation about robot programming, navigatio n and control issues. T his information can be obtained us ing a W eb browser s[...]

comp.robot ics.misc All aspects o f robots a nd their applic ations. comp.ai Artificial intelligence discuss ions. comp.ai.alife Research about artificial life. comp.ai.fuzz y Fuzz y s et theor y, aka fuzzy logic. comp.ai.genetic Genetic algorithms in com puting. comp.ai.jair.announce Announcements of the Journal of A I Research. comp.ai.jair.paper[...]

T roublesh ooting 49 The following list describes the most common problems and their remedie s. Check our FAQ (Frequen tly Asked Questions) at ww w.robotics.com/arobot/f aq.html Problem: Turning the power switch ON does not result in an y a ctivity. Remedy: ARobot is not getting power. Insure that the batteries are good and ins talled correctly. In[...]

W arrant y Informat ion ARRICK ROBOTICS warrantees this product to be in good working order for a period of on e (1) y e ar from the date of purchase. Shou ld thi s product fail to be in good working order at an y time during this period, ARRICK ROBOTICS will, at it s op tion, repair or replace t he product at no additional charge except as set for[...]

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