This project will show you three different ways to control a robot with an ARDUINO UNO board.

The robot has been built with pieces and motors of a VEX robotics construction set with a shield and an ARDUINO UNO microcontroller board, sensors and leds.

It can be controlled using:

MIT App Inventor app with a bluetooth connection
An IR remote controller
A laser pointer

The goal of this project is to show different programming templates for ARDUINO, you will be able to use to control your own devices.

Supplies

VEX robotics construction set
ARDUINO UNO board
ARDUINO UNO shield
IR remote controller
Laser pointer
Mini breadboard
L293D chip
AT09 Bluetooth Low Energy module
IR receiver sensor
Laser receiver sensor
Buzzer
Leds
Two 9V rechargeable batteries
Wires

Step 1: The Robot

This robot is a simple walking machine with four legs and two motors built using differents pieces of a VEX robotics construction set.

The robot can walk forward, backwards, turn left, and turn right. I have mounted a buzzer and several leds to simulate the R2-D2 sounds with led ilumination .

The robot mounts two circular disk coupled to the motors where the four legs are fixed to produce the movement as you can see in the first image.

The robot is controlled by an ARDUINO UNO microcontroller mounted on a shield and uses an L293D chip to controll the motors

The robot mounts an AT09 Bluetooth Low Energy module, a laser receiver sensor and IR receiver sensor.

Step 2: The Robot Controlled by a Bluetooth Connection

The ARDUINO UNO board controlls the movement of the robot using a L293D chip. The features of the robot are the following:

Fordward movement ("1" string command)
Backwards movement ("2" string command)
Stop ("3" string command)
Left movement ("5" string command)
Right movement ("4" string command)
R2-D2 sound ("7" string command)

You can download the ARDUINO template to controll the robot from here

The robot mounts an AT09 BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) board to be controlled remotely by an external app. This time I have used MIT App Inventor to built it.

Basically the app sends to the AT09 board the string commands listed above whe we push the buttons and the images.

You can donwload the "aia" project from here

Before you import the project you have to install an extension for Bluetooth Low Energy modules.

You can find information about this issue here

Step 3: The Robot Controlled by an IR Remote Controller

This time I have used an IR remote controller with a infrared receiver as you can see in the images.

You can download the ARDUINO template to controll the robot in that way from here

Step 4: The Robot Controlled by a Laser Pointer

I have used a laser receiver and a laser pointer to control the movement of the robot.

When the receiver detects laser irradiation, the robot sounds like R2-D2 and begins to move forward and when it detects again the irradiation, the robot stops.

Again, you can download the ARDUINO template to controll the robot in that way from here