RadioShack Mobile Robot - Manual

Precautions Failure to observe these precautions may result in loss of life, damage to property and/or damage to the robot. The following precautions must be taken to insure trouble free operation of ARobot. The order that these precautions are listed does not indicate their importance. Failure to o...

Component Locator Use the following diagrams to familiarize yourself with ARobot's various components. 5 Red LED Controller Steering Motor Steering Linkage Controller Whiskers 5V Voltage Regulator RC Servo Motors Body Connector Serial Port Speaker Drive motor Connector Green LED Battery Connector Po...

Glossary of Terms 6 Analog Signals – Signals that have values between on and off (1 and 0). Android – A robot that has a human-like form. Artificial Intelligence (AI) – A computer program that simulates intelligence like that found in biological systems. Artificial Life – Behavior that is simulated ...

Assembly Overview 9 ARobot’s assembly normally takes about 2 hours or less excluding time for painting. Children as young as 10 can build ARobot with the help of an adult. The controller board and cables are pre-built, so sol- dering is not required. During assembly you will do these things: Sand an...

Parts 10 ARobot is easy to put together. Make sure you have all of the parts listed below before beginning. If something doesn’t look right, send us some email at [email protected] Quantity Description Used For 1) Robot Body Sheetmetal Body 2) Motor Brackets Mounting front drive wheel assembly 1) En...

13 Painting ARobot's paint job is your first chance to be creative and have a little fun. Who wants every robot to look alike anyway? Five parts are candidates for painting: The robot base, 2 motor brackets, encoder wheel, and the motor coupling. Or if you prefer, simply leave these parts unpainted....

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 c...

Whiskers continued 15 3” 4” 1-1/2” Small Loop Attaches to Whisker Spacer Full Scale Whisker Wire Pattern 8-3/4” Total Length Bend both whisker wires using this pattern Whisker Detail

16 Drive Motor and Brackets Locate the two motor brackets – a left side and a right side. Locate the drive motor. Mount the drive motor to the left motor bracket using 2 or 3 screws according to the drawing. Next, attach the motor brackets to the robot’s body using 3 screws, 3 star washers, and 3 nu...

Encoder Sensor The encoder sensor counts the teeth in the encoder wheel using invisible IR (infrared) light to measure the distance traveled. The encoder wheel has teeth that interrupt the beam of light. Locate the encoder sensor and notice the dots placed on it (see the drawing). Mount the sensor u...

Front Wheel Assembly 18 A picture is worth a thousand words – so take a look at the drawings below before starting to building the front wheel assembly. First locate the front wheel which has a threaded bore and a red mark on the hub. Screw the threaded front axle into the wheel so that one side of ...

19 Steering of the robot is accomplished using a standard RC servo motor attached to the rear wheels. Read the assembly summary while viewing the drawings. Summary: Bend both 4” wires into steering linkages with pliers using the drawing as a pattern. Attach the horn to the steering motor with a scre...

Steering Motor Mounting Steering System 20 Steering Motor and Rear Wheels continued Wheel and Axle

21 Controller Board ARobot’s controller board is the brains of the system. It accepts a Basic Stamp II controller chip which can be programmed from a personal computer. The controller board contains electronics used to drive the motors, sound the speaker, control the LEDs, read whiskers, etc. An exp...

Battery Pack Don’t install batteries yet. Power is supplied to ARobot using a battery pack that contains 8 AA size batteries. Locate the battery cable which has a batter snap on one end and a 2-pin MTA connector on the other. Pin 1 has the red wire and is +12 volts, Pin 2 is the black wire and is gr...

Body Cable 23 The body cable connects the controller to the encoder sensor, whiskers, and ground lug. The body cable will already be attached to the robot because we have already installed the whiskers and ground lug. Route the body cable up through the rectangular hole in the robot’s body. Plug the...

Finishing Up You’re almost finished building ARobot. Finish up by doing these things: Route the steering motor cable up though the rectangular hole in the robot body. Connect the steering motor cable to the 3 pin connector on the controller board near the body connector (see the controller drawing)....

Programs 27 The ARobot package includes programs to: Test Program to test motors, buttons, whiskers, speaker, LEDs, etc. Steering adjustment program to set the straight position of the steering motor. Wander program will move around avoiding obstacles. Other programs and projects for ARobot are avai...

Batteries 29 ARobot’s controller board requires 9 to 12 volts supplied by 8 AA size batteries. We’ve found that the best batteries are DuraCells. You can also use AA size rechargeable batteries. First turn the controller board off and remove the battery pack from the battery cable. Install the 8 bat...

Whiskers 30 Whisker wires are used to detect objects while the robot is moving. There is a left and right whisker which can be read separately to determine the location of the object. The left whisker is connected to the P0 pin and the right whisker is connected to the P1 pin. When an object is dete...

Push Buttons and Jumpers (switches) 31 Two general purpose buttons and jumpers (also called switches) are provided on the controller card which can be read by the Basic Stamp II. Buttons are momentary – after you press them they return to the off state. Jumpers can be left in the on or off position ...

32 The steering is an RC (remote control) style servo motor that is commonly used on model race cars and airplanes. The coprocessor can control 4 RC servo motors - #1 is used for steering. When the Basic Stamp II needs to control an RC servo motor, it simply sends a command to the coprocessor which ...

Coprocessor Command Summary 33 This section describes how the coprocessor works and how each command is constructed. The controller board contains a coprocessor that is used to control the drive motor, powerful output, en- coder sensor, and the 4 RC servo motors (#1 is used as the steering motor). T...

Coprocessor Command Summary continued 34 RC Servo Motor and Steering Motor Control: Example: !1R380 This command begins with “!1R” and is followed by a character indicating the RC servo motor number (3 in the example), followed by the position in hexadecimal (80 in the example). Possible position va...

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, Right whisker 7 – P2 of Basic Stamp II, to body conn. 8 – P3 of Basic Stamp II, to body conn 9 – P4 of Basic Stamp II 10 – P5 of ...

Expansion Port Circuit Examples 39 ARobot's expansion connector provides access to the Basic Stamp II’s I/O pins, to the RC servo motor signals, and to the wheel encoder’s signal. These signals can be used to control accessories and to read sensors. +5 volts is made available to power accessories. O...

Expansion Port Circuit Examples continued 40 Digital Inputs - Basic Stamp input signals can be used to read TTL level signals such as switches 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 Input Example: This...

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 read using a little trick. This is done by adding a capacitor to ground on a digital I/O pin and a resistive sensor to +5 volts. The sensor value...

Coprocessor Network Expansion 42 The complete application note for coprocessor expansion can be found on our website at: www.robotics.com/arobot/projects.html A coprocessor is one of the most powerful expansions that can be added to ARobot. A coprocessor can remove time consuming tasks from the mast...

Using Other Controllers 43 ARobot’s controller board is designed to accept the Basic Stamp II controller chip made by Parallax ( www.parallaxinc.com) . Parallax makes other Basic Stamp II compatible controllers which offer more memory and greater speed. Other manufacturers also make controllers that...

Suggested Reading 44 PC AI Magazine Knowledge Technology, Inc. 3310 West Bell Rd., Suite 119 Phoenix, AZ 85023 (602) 971-1869 Periodical covering PC-based AI topics. Robot Science & Technology Magazine Dedicated to Real Robots. 2351 Sunset Blvd. Suite 170 Rocklin, CA 95765 http://www.robotmag.co...

Component Suppliers Ampro Computers 990 Almanor Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 522-2100 Manufactures a wide variety of computers and controller boards including PC/104 based systems. Boston Gear 14 Hayard St. Quincy, MA 02171 (800) 343-3352 A good selection of medium and large gears, pulleys, gear r...

Internet Robot Resources 47 The Internet contains a wide variety of resource pertaining to robots. Virtually all Universities provide research documents and files on the Internet for those interested. Many contain information about robot programming, navigation and control issues. This information c...

comp.robotics.misc All aspects of robots and their applications. comp.ai Artificial intelligence discussions. comp.ai.alife Research about artificial life. comp.ai.fuzzy Fuzzy set theory, aka fuzzy logic. comp.ai.genetic Genetic algorithms in computing. comp.ai.jair.announce Announcements of the Jou...

Troubleshooting 49 The following list describes the most common problems and their remedies. Check our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) at www.robotics.com/arobot/faq.html Problem: Turning the power switch ON does not result in any activity. Remedy: ARobot is not getting power. Insure that the batte...

Warranty Information ARRICK ROBOTICS warrantees this product to be in good working order for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase. Should this product fail to be in good working order at any time during this period, ARRICK ROBOTICS will, at its option, repair or replace the product at ...