Belvedere - A Butler Robot

Step 4 SOFTWARE

Belvedere's "brain" is the Arduino MEGA microcontroller.  It has an incredible amount of inputs/outputs and memory for such a low-cost controller.  For more details on the Arduino MEGA and other Arduino boards, follow this LINK.   Belvedere uses almost all of the 54 digital pins on the Arduino MEGA.  Details of Belvedere's pinouts can be found at this Google Document.

CONNECT ARDUINO MEGA TO iROBOT CREATE

Most people that add a microcontroller to the iRobot Create use the iRobot Create Command Module.  iRobot engineers supply example code with the Command Module so that it can communicate with the Create over the serial connection.  I needed many more inputs/outputs and more memory than the Command Module could offer, so I decided to connect the Arduino MEGA to the Create.  I wired the serial communication pins between the two and converted the Command Module code to Arduino code (very similar since they are both written in C).  The main change I made to iRobot's example code was that I didn't want to use the same timers to control sensor updates.

VOICE AND MUSIC

Belvedere's audio clips are pre-recorded and stored on an SD card.  The Arduino can access any one of the clips as needed.  Belvedere has at least 50 different audio clips that are in different categories (offer food, move obstacle, joke, comment, music).

Belvedere's voice was generated by the text-to-speak software at AT&T's Natural Voices website:

http://www2.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php#top

You can choose gender and various accents. This website was convenient because I could directly export the file to .wav format.

SOURCE CODE

I have attached the Arduino source code below.  It is three files zipped together.  Two of the files are header files that support the main .pde file.

Comments

[sourcer]

around how much did the whole project cost?

[robotmaker]

ebay can cut down some costs on parts

[D5quar3]

The create is 129+ tax and shipping,
The Mega is around 65+ tax and shipping,
The compass is around 30+tax and shipping,
The wave shield is 21+ tax and shipping,
The lcd screen is 12+ tax and shipping
The servo is around 10+tax and shipping
various parts <20
so the whole thing is around $315

[CCOTTER247]

Can I use the arduino Duemilenove or does it not have enough pins?

[wolffan]

The Arduino Duemilenove does not have enough pins or memory for this specific project. But, you could remove some of Belvedere's features and it may work. For instance, the LCD panel takes up 6 digital lines, and it isn't necessary (but, great for debugging!!). I used almost every one of the Arduino MEGA's 54 digital pins. I also used a lot of memory (SRAM) because I stored the map of the house in a matrix variable. To better answer your question, I have added a link to my Google document that details the pinouts for Belvedere. Please see STEP 4 for the link.