Introduction: RC Controlled Robot on XLR8! Education Robot

By
About: IoT, chatbot and software developer.

Hi, in this article, will show you how to build a basic Robot. The word "Robot' literally means a "Slave" or a "Labourer'. Thanks to advancements in Artificial Intelligence, robots are no longer just part of Issac Asimov's Sci-Fi novels. Its possible to build a simple robot that can do your bidding at home. Lets see how we can put together few basic parts and make a cool robot at home.

Step 1: Things Needed

Pre-requisites :

1) Basic working knowledge of Electronics.

2) Patience.

Components Required :

1) XLR8 Microcontroller board - 01

2) Motor driver boards - 02

3) DC geared motors - 04

4) HC-05 Bluetooth Module - 01

5) Batteries - either 12V Lead Acid or LiPo battery.

6) Laptop - Micro-USBCable

7) Arduino IDE setup

8) Install USB-UART Driver (CP210x)

Buy a cool robotics kit that houses all these components together from here This awesome kit designed by team Tweak Labs in conjunction with NETRA serves the needs of hobbyists working at an advanced level or even beginners. So what does the kit contain?

XLR-8 ROBOTICS KIT :

1)XLR-8 RAPID PROTOTYPING BOARD -01

2)DC GEARED MOTORS - 04

3)4-WHEEL ROBOT CHASSIS - 01

4)HC-05 BLUETOOTH MODULE - 01

5)CONNECTING WIRES - A FEW.

So if you have got your hands on all these cool components, then its time.

Step 2: XLR-Introduction

The most important part of the robot is the microcontroller unit. A microcontroller is like a brain of the robot that tells the rest of the parts like motors how to run. But a microcontroller by itself doesnt have enough oomph to drive the motors, it needs to have an intermediate "driver board" which is usually referred to as a L298 Motor Driver Board. After a lot of research we decided to come up with our own microcontroller board with advanced capabilities. Since it is suppossed to help you arrive at your prototype at a much faster pace we decide to name it - XLR-8.

XLR-8 is an improvement over existing boards like Arduino Uno and Mega. The board comes with built-in capabilty of driving motors and also allows plug and play compliancy for bluetooth and wifi capabilites. The board is designed to help overcome the redundant activities that take up a lot of time while arriving at your prototype, for example - supplying the right voltage or current.

It helps developer to do any IoT and Robtotics project 10x faster. Try this and let us know your feedback. It's available here. http://xlr8community.github.io.

Attachments

Step 3: Assembly: Interesting Part

1) Assemble the robot chassis kit. The robot chassis is made out of special acrylic material designed to withstand a decent amount of stress. The kit comes with appropriate spacers and screws to put together the chassis.

2) The DC geared motors supplied in the kit will be mounted on one of the robot chassis.

3)Before mounting the motors onto the chassis, take the connecting wires and solder them to the motor's terminals. The usual convention is to follow red for positive and black for negative.

4)After the wires are soldered onto the motor and mounted onto the chassis. We will program the XLR-8 development board. To program the board, download and install the Arduino IDE onto your computer and get a micro usb cable.

5)Connect the microusb cable to the board and connect it to your computer with the newly installed Arduino IDE software open. Go to Tools --> Boards --> Arduino Mega2560.

6) Upload the code.

7)After the code has been uploaded onto the board. Now make the rest of the connections as shown in the figure below.

Attachments

Step 4: Most Interesting: Download App and Bingo!

1) Download this app from the Google Play Store and install it.

2) Now launch the app and pair your phone with the Bluetooth module present on your bot.If it asks for a pass code type either 1234 or 0000.

2) Open App. Go to setting -> Connect to a car -> 3) Bingo! Your bluetooth controlled robot is ready!

Step 5: Conclusion

XLR-8 actually simplifies the whole process of building the robot, because the user doesn't have to bother about buying separate motor driver boards and then struggle to interface them with the micro-controller. The board seamlessly integrates all these features onto a single board.

Hope you enjoyed building one on XLR8. Thanks again for reading this article. Please share your valuable feedback, we're all ears for progressive feedback :)

I thank these two for helping me. Firaz and Adarsh