Making Robots
With The
You can construct a fully autonomous programmable robot for less than
the cost of dinner and a movie for two. Mind you, I’m not suggesting one
over the other — just pointing out that robots don’t have to be expensive
or difficult to build. It might have been true in the past, but it’s not now.
That’s the idea behind the ArdBot shown in Figure 1. It’s a low cost, expandable, and easy to build mobile robot based on the popular Arduino microcontroller. Total cost
of construction is under $85, and even less if you already have
some of the common components, like RC servo motors
modified for continuous rotation and a solderless breadboard.
The past two installments of this series introduced the
Arduino controller and the ArdBot chassis. Part 1 covered the
Arduino and why this $30 board is fast becoming a favorite
among experimenters the world
over. Part 2 detailed the mechanical
construction of the ArdBot — a
seven inch diameter desktop rover
powered by replaceable or
rechargeable batteries and twin RC
servo motors.
This time, you’ll learn more
about the Arduino and its
programming. The Arduino leverages a
number of well supported open source
projects, and mashes them into a
convenient integrated development
environment (IDE) that’s simple to
install and easy to use. In future
articles, you’ll apply what you learn
here to the ArdBot, including
60 SERVO 01.2011
writing your own motor control functions, responding to
sensor feedback, and more.
A Closer Look at the Arduino
Arduino is more a concept than it is a specific product.
Since its introduction in 2005, the Arduino microcontroller
board has gone through many permutations, and even
today there are over half a dozen “official” Arduino boards
that vary in size, shape, and
capabilities — add to this literally
dozens of clone Arduinos that go by
other names like Freeduino,
Boarduino, and many others.
Figure 2 shows the Uno — one
of several Arduino boards — but one
that encapsulates the core set of
Arduino functionality. It’s the latest
version of the most popular Arduino
design which features a low cost
Atmel ATmega328 microcontroller
mounted on a handy “stackable”
development board. There are other
FIGURE 1. The ArdBot, with Arduino
microcontroller and mini solderless
breadboard for experimenting.
