Author: nathalia

XBee Setup

181214KA

Hello!

I’m working with  2 Series 1 actual-antenna XBees and an Arduino MEGA + MEGA sensor shield.

I’ve worked with XBees before, so I was leaning towards using them… but I wasn’t really sure if I’d be able to send packets of data, and received  suggestions to look into something less long-distance for my applications. Turns out it is possible to send packets with XBees! I talked to a couple of people about suggestions for the long-distance thing, and it didn’t seem too big a deal–XBees can be easily programmed to communicate on a different channel, and there are a huge range of options. More on setting up XBees here. I’ve set up the ones I’m using so both can send + receive.

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CAD v2 + Preliminary Schematic

CAD:

The bottom plate is emphasized here, and the holes along the perimeter are for the HC-SR04 Sensor holders; they will be bolted in. Looking at the bottom view, the four holes in the center are for attachment via spacers to the top plate; this top plate is visible as the gray. Since I didn’t CAD in the spacers, this top plate in the CAD is laying directly atop the bottom one. The large rectangular prisms on either side are stand-ins for the two batteries.

I intend to modify the current designs by adding appropriate holes for wire management in the top plate. This will likely be a second redesign, though. Finally, these plates will be cut out of 3mm-thick plywood via a Laser-Cutter.

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Final Roomba Code

181114KA

Hello!

The first goal in this project was to get the neurorobot_reboot to perform a simple autonomous “Roomba” function, ie. move around without bumping into anything. I accomplished this more or less successfully, so the code is pasted in below. One of the main issues is that I hard-coded in timings, so as the battery depletes, the code works less-well; currently (hehe), I’m looking into using motor encoders to solve this problem.

Here’s a video file of it working (will download): 181114KA_NeuralRobot_Progression

Edit 190122KA:  and here’s a document I just typed up that quickly runs over different parts of the code: A Quick Rundown of Roomba

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Simple Ultrasonic Sensor Code

181019KA

Hello!

As a note, I’m using the HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensors; they’ve got a VIN, GND, TRIG, and ECHO pins. Also, the sensors instantiated here definitely have incorrect pin values… I’ve changed them plenty of times since this code was written, and likely will continue to as this project evolves haha :). Here it is:

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Simple Motor Code (useful for debugging)

181017KA

Hellooooo

This actually took a while to get to (had to rebuild and learn some coolio things) but here’s the tested simple-motor-code. It essentially sets motor speed based on what you type into the Serial Monitor… pretty sweet until I realized I wasn’t going to need that function lol.

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Original NeuroRobot Code

Good day!

This is the original code that I inherited, and that I’ve been using as a reference as I write code for the neurorobot_reboot. In particular, I really wanted to simplify, simplify, simplify, and use shorter (clearer) variables along with comments so the code as a whole is easier to understand. I hadn’t really done much fancy stuff beyond methods before, though, so inheriting this has taught me some cool new techniques, like how to create classes in Arduino. 😀

So I’m just going to paste it in…

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The Reboot

Hello!

I inherited this project a few years after its owners left Mason. Originally, I had only a physical robot, but I later gained access to the previous owners’ final code, and some limited documentation.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the original robot (yes, it’s a PDF): Original Robot_Taken Apart

So this is the original design, and my CAD and subsequent designs are coming soon!