Task2 - Arduino board Diagram

On the picture above, i've circled the Rx (digital pin 0) & Tx (digital pin 1) connections.

On the schematic below, they're  pins 0 & 1 on the connector at the bottom right, going to digital pins 0 & 1 on the ATMega chip.
Note the  1kOhm pull-up resistors connecting the Rx & Tx pins on the ATMega chip to (top right of) the USB chip on its left.

This is the Arduino board i currently have, but (hopefully) it won't be the only one.  
Maybe a Uno variation, or something compact..

Task 1 - finding the YouTubes

Simple Arduino Robot - about as simple as you can get: 2 driving wheels, front idler, breadboard mounting - on ours we'd put the H-bridge there..

Easy Arduino Robot - also fairly simple; a bit fuzzy but if you check out the video, it's clearer: this one has an IR sensor (i think) for detecting obstacles so i guess it has software to do this..

Arduino Robot controlled by Neural Network - i threw this one in, because i'm fascinated by Neural Networks & what they can do.  more here..
i have a few very basic C programs @home which i hope to translate into "Arduino-ese"..
This thing actually learns, & it's funny to watch its bumbling first attempts & then see it 'get the idea' & learn to avoid the obstacles.  it also learn how to avoid new obstacles once it knows how to navigate round the old ones..
  PlanMix says:   
" My first attempt in neural networks. I connected
  - 1 adruino mega,
  - 3 servos,
  - 1 analog infrared receiver,
  - 3 contacts and
  - 2 encoders from an old printer.
  I use a genetic algorithm that trains the 5-7-2 neural network
  (5 inputs, 7 neurons in the hidden layer and 2 in output).
  The 5 inputs are the 5 areas that the IR scans using the third servo, and
   the 2 outputs are the speed of each wheel servo."[03 dec 2009]

(Unfortunately for me, his website's in Greek :-?, so that's all i have)

The asynchronous packet in RS232 transmission

The diagram isn't helpfully large but here's a text-type link

Here's a Wikipedia link from which comes the diagram at left.










Note that this one has:
* a start bit
* 8-bit data transmission (limited ASCII may use only 7 bits)
* a single ( the usual) stop bit
* no parity bit (parity can be even or odd).

The RS-232 asynchronous Tx-Rx protocol

Tasks 1-6 -- Automation&Robotics: schedule 1

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Tasks

Please respond to these tasks in your blog using the same reference numbers.

1. Find two Arduino based robot YouTube videos that appeal to you.
   Put the links into your blog
   and be prepared to share the videos with the rest of the class.
2. Find a diagram of our Arduino board or similar
   and indicate with arrows where the Tx and Rx pins are
   on the Arduino I/O pins as well as on the microprocessor itself.
3. Write a program to display the ascii table in the serial monitor.
   Publish a screen shot in your blog.
4. Wind up the baud rate in program 4 and report how fast you could get it.
5. Write a program to take a key press and output the key and its codes
   in binary, decimal in hex.
6. Repeat 5 but this time use another serial monitor, perhaps Bray++.
   Screen shot required

Course info

Lecturer: Peter Brook, peter.brook@op.ac.nz, Principal Lecturer, H100

          Course Dates

Term 3 (7 weeks)	18 July – 23 September
Mid semester break	26 September  – 7 October
Term 2 (9 weeks)	10 October– 21 November

Learning Outcomes

At the successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1.       Discuss comprehensively the range of application areas for robotics, automation and ubiquitous computing.

2.       Understand core electronic and mechanical principles of robotics/automated systems design.

3.       Analyse and select appropriate software development platforms for robotics/automated systems implementation.

4.       Design a simple robotics/automated solution to a specified problem following sound principles of interaction design.

5.       Use an appropriate software development platform to implement simple interactive robotics/automated systems.

Indicative Content

·         Discussion of historical development of automated systems

·         Survey of application areas

·         Robotics simulator work

·         Hardware of robotics/automated/ubiquitous systems

·         Development software – options and issues

·         Interaction design – human factors and machine design principles

·         Project work – Design and construction of interactive robotics/automated systems

Assessment

Assessment Activity	Weighting	Learning Outcomes
Blog, essay, presentations, industry cases	15%	1,4
Exams/quizzes	15%	2,3,4
Project Work	70%	2,3,4,5

Assessment Events

Students are obliged to keep a blog  where responses are made to tasks set in class.  A mark out of 15 will be allocated to this part of the course.  

The blog will include a review of good robotics sites, 

industry examples and a short history of robotics. 

There will be one test at the end of the course. 

This is worth 15 marks too and will take place in the week starting November 8.

There will be four projects required:

                A software investigation                               10 marks              due 13 Aug

                A motor project                                                10 marks              due 20 Aug

                A  minor project                                               15 marks              due 24 Sept

                A major robot project                                    30 marks              due 15 Nov

All the above projects will be negotiated in advance with the lecturer.

The assessment methodology will include 

* peer assessment, 

* self assessment and 

* traditional assessment. 

Here we go again..

Here we go again..

This time it's more about the Arduino (we're up to v22 now) rather than the NXT

Hey - & i've got a camera-phone now so - - more pics & maybe vids (if i can figure out how to do that)