Electronics and Robotics Technologies
To avoid an object, it only makes sense that the robot has to know when one is present. In our case, we will use an ultrasonic proximity board. This device transmits ultrasonic pulses and listens for them to be reflected. Using the elapse time between the transmit and receive pulses it is possible to calculate […]
Continue Reading
The reason behind my decision to use the Arduino micro-controller board to control our object avoidance robot was to minimize the builder’s need for a background in coding. The Arduino has a multitude of small pre-programmed routines called Sketches that could allow the user to ease their way into learning coding techniques. A listing of […]
Continue Reading
A battery with a capacity of 1 amp-hour should be able to continuously supply a current of 1 amp to a load for exactly 1 hour, or 2 amps for 1/2 hour, or 1/3 amp for 3 hours, etc., before becoming completely discharged Here are the characteristics of the Duracell line of batteries. This is […]
Continue Reading
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, the assembly of the two-wheel ultrasonic object avoidance robot is pretty well explained by the above cutaway drawing. The first step is to mount the two servos using double-sided foam tape, making sure that the axles are properly aligned with the wheel slots. Next comes mounting the […]
Continue Reading
Most people already know by now that programming is what controls the operation of computerized devices. A program is a list of instructions and must be written in a language that can be understood by the device. In the case of the Arduino, this can be any number of languages such as SQL, Java, Python, […]
Continue Reading
Testing the ultrasonic object avoidance robot is simple enough. Just turn on the Power switch and the blue LED should start blinking. The green LED should light up and the wheels should move the robot forward in a straight line. As the robot approaches a wall or other object, the green LED should go off, […]
Continue Reading