Meet the Swiss
Army Knife of
Robotics: the
Cerebot 32MX7
by Fred Eady
As a young Boy Scout, my prized possession was my Swiss Army knife. There
was no can or bottle that I could not open, and nothing existed that could not
be screwed down, clipped, cut, bored, or sawed. These days, the tents,
specialized knives, and mosquitoes have been replaced by soldering irons,
microcontrollers, and C compilers.
The Swiss Army knife we are about to discuss has no blades, saws, screwdrivers, or can openers. The numerous blades that make up a typical Swiss
camping knife have been replaced by microcontrollers,
specialized ICs, EEPROMS, transistors, LEDs, voltage
regulators, resistors, capacitors, crystals, and firmware in
nonvolatile memory. With a little help
from a suitable mechatronic device, our
silicon Swiss Army knife “blades” can
also open a can, drill a hole, or drive a
screw.
An FR- 4 Glass/
Epoxy Swiss
Army Knife with
Silicon Blades
The Digilent Cerebot 32MX7
illuminated by Paul C. Buff flash units in
Photo 1 is based on the 32-bit
Microchip PIC32MX795F512L
microcontroller. The abundance of right-angle female connectors, jumpers, and
male headers suggests that every
peripheral subsystem contained within
PHOTO 1. Whether it be robotics, remote
control, telemetry, Internet services, CAN
networking, or an I/O intensive application,
the Cerebot 32MX7 is designed to plug
physically and logically into the center of
the action.
38 SERVO 07.2011
