PC Controlled Robot
In this tutorial we will discuss a simple PC controlled robot. The Robot PC link will be a RS232 serial line. The robot will have only five commands. Move forward (RS232 char ‘F’ or ‘f’) Move backward (RS232 char ‘B’ or ‘b’) Turn Left (RS232 char ‘L’ or ‘l’) Turn Right (RS232 char ‘R’ or ‘r’) Stop (RS232 char ‘S’ or ‘s’) To keep things as simple as possible, in this example we will use terminal software RealTerm for sending commands to the robot. Later on a dedicated software can be written on PC end to control the robot. The Robot’s Hardware The robot’s hardware will be a simple differential drive using two 200RPM DC Gear motor mounted on a HQ Metal Chassis with a front castor wheel. On the back motors we have mounted plastic wheels. More about differential drive is explained in this tutorial. Gear Motors Wheels Metal Chassis Remove motor’s nut Insert the motor Fasten the nuts again Both motors installed Front Castor wheel Installing the front castor Mounting hole for wheels screw Mounting the wheels Chassis is ready! The Electronics The robot is controlled using xBoard v2.0 which has ATmega32 as main CPU and integrated motor drivers. We have connected xBoard v2.0 with PC using […]