Introduction: Arlo: Motion Sensing Robot Featuring 4Duino-24 and ULCD

By http://4dmakers.net/
About: 4D Makers is a group of curious engineers and enthusiasts who finds great satisfaction in creating and building anything from electronics.

Arlo is a module which features two µLCD-220RD as eyes which can be control via serial connection. A 4Duino-24 is used as a mouth to make it like a face. The 4Duino-24 acts as a host which receives data from the ultrasonic sensor and sends commands to the servo motor attached with Arlo. This project senses any object within the range of the ultrasonic sensor and faces the detected part. Arlo will then blink the eyes and then open and close the mouth. Then it will wait until another ultrasonic sensor detects an object.

Step 1: Components

  • 4D Systems 4Duino-24
  • 4D Systems uLCD-220RD
  • Servomotor
  • Ultrasonic Distance Sensor
  • uSD Card
  • Jumper Wires
  • 5V Power Supply
  • Micro USB Cable

Step 2: Build

Build the circuit as shown in the diagram.

Step 3: Program

Download the project file here.

Open this file using Workshop 4. (1st image)

Click on the “Compile” button.

Note: This step could be skipped. However, compiling is essential for debugging purposes.

Connect the 4Duino to the PC using uUSB cable. Then navigate to the Comms tab and select the Comms port to which the 4Duino connected. (2nd image)

Go back to “Home” tab. This time, click on the “Comp’nLoad” button.

Workshop IDE will prompt you to select a drive to load the image. Choose a uSD card drive and click OK. Insert the uSD card to your 4Duino-24 to finish the loading of the project. After uploading, 4Duino will start running the code.

Step 4: Uploading Arlo's Eyes

Open these files with Workshop IDE (1st image)

See that these files use the Visi Environment. Compile the project by clicking the "Compile" button.
After compiling, you can now upload the program to the uLCD-220RD. Make sure that your display is connected to the right port. Go to Comms pane and select the correct communication port.

Next, you have to Compile and Load the program to uLCD-220RD. Workshop IDE will prompt you to select a drive to load the image. Choose a uSD card drive and click OK.

Lastly, insert the uSD Card to µLCD-220RD. Do the same thing on the other uLCD-220RD.

Step 5: Application

You can customize how Arlo will look like, you can also enclose him into a nice body so it will be cool as what you want to.