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EENG 350 Robot Details

Robot general description:

The Robots used in the EENG 350 lab were custom designed in the summer of 2001 and consist of a microcontroller circuit board, a 24 character by 2 line LCD display and a wheeled platform. The robot changes course by varying the speed of each drive wheel. There is a castor at the rear of the robot for stability. The robot has a large area for building motor drive and sensor circuits.

Complex behavior is possible by using the on-board PIC16F877/18F452 microcontroller and associated resources to create an analog/digital hybrid system.

Key elements:

PIC16F877/18F452 Chip - The controller can be programmed in C or assembly language. Programs are downloaded from the PC using the programming interface box and cable at each workstation in labs C045 and C048. Sample programs are on each workstation.

These programs can be modified and used to create custom functions on the robots.

Motors - A 200 RPM gear motor is used on each wheel. Each wheel's speed can be varied by building and programming a PWM control.

Battery - A +12V Sealed Lead Acid battery is used to power the robot. This will give several hours of operation before needing to be recharged.

LEDs - LEDs can be wired to the ports on the microcontroller board.

LCD display - A 2 line by 24 character LCD display is available to display status information. It uses parallel communication.

Controls - A reset button is provided to reset the PIC16F877/18F452.

Power - An ON/OFF switch is located on the right side of the chassis.

The care and feeding of your robot:

When testing a robot program, use a block to lift the wheels off of the bench until ability to control motor speed is proven.

Recharge the robot when the battery voltage falls to 11V or less. Using a resistor voltage divider and the A/D converter, a low battery alarm can be included in your program.

Guide to Robot Hardware

Guide to Robot Programming

Using Mplab to Program the Robot (16F877 Only)