Introduction: How to Make an Arduino Robot

About: I love arts and crafts And Please Follow Me!!!! Constructive criticism is welcome!!!!!

In order to make this you need the Arduino kit which is called the Arduino Robot (really simple name). It might be really pricey because it ranges from $300 to $400. And if you want to use the instructions online or in the kit go ahead but this is my way of making it.

Step 1: Step 1: Getting to Know the Parts

There are lots of parts in this kit because there are two different boards on this robot the Control Board (top) and the Motor Board (bottom). Just a idea that you may want to tinker with the Motor Board.

The Robot library is included with Arduino IDE 1.0.5 and later.
The Robot has a number of built in sensors and actuators. The library is designed to easily access the robot's functionality. The robot has two boards, a motor board and control board. Each board has a separate programmable processor. The library allows you to interface with the various sensors and peripherals on the control board : potentiometer5

momentary switches160x120

pixel color screen512Kbit

EEPROMspeakercompass3

I2C connectors8

TinkerKit input connectors

The library also enables you to do a number of things with the motor board :


control motor speed and direction

sense the current used by each motor

read the state of the 5 floor sensors (also known as line detection sensors)

access I/O pins on the board

control an I2C port

read the state of 4 TinkerKit inputs

Step 2: Step 2: Setting Up the Robot

First, you'll need to insert the SD card into the slot on the backside of the TFT screen, and then insert the screen into the socket on the control board of the robot. The screen should be oriented so that the blue text with the text "SD Card" is close to the buttons and speaker. Once that's in place, you'll need to attach the protective cover for the bottom board. This will help prevent any objects on the ground from damaging the motor board. Attach the protective covering to the underside of the robot as shown below.

Step 3: Step 3: Connecting It to You Computer

Each board on the robot has a microcontroller, which is programmed independently of the other. It is recommended that you should only program the control board (the top board) until you are familiar with the robot's functionality. The motor board (the bottom board) has a stock firmware that fulfills most general purpose applications. Connect the control board to your computer with a USB cable. After you have connected the board, the green LED labelled as PWR on the Control Board will be on. LED1 beneath it will flash a few times. On the Motor Board, the red LEDs labelled as LED1 to LED5 (opposite side to the power switch) should be on as well. If the LEDs on either board do not turn on, check if the flat 10-pin communication cable next to the power switch is connected to both boards.

Step 4: Step 4: Installing the Software

If you know how to do this skip this step if you don't you might want to read this step. Follow the instruction of your computer type.

OSX:

- The first time you plug a robot into a computer running the "Keyboard Setup Assistant" will launch. There's nothing to configure with the robot, so you can close this dialogue.

Windows:

- The following instructions are for Windows 7. They are valid also for Windows XP, with small differences in the dialog windows. Plug in your board and wait for Windows to begin its driver installation process. If the installer does not launch automatically, navigate to the Windows Device Manager (Start>Control Panel>Hardware) and find the Arduino Robot listing. Right click and choose Update driver. At the next screen, choose "Browse my computer for driver software", and click next and then you click the Browse... button. Another dialog appears: navigate to the folder with the Arduino software that you just downloaded. Select the drivers folder and click OK, then click next. You will receive a notification that the board has not passed Windows Logo testing. Click on the button Continue Anyway. After a few moments, a window will tell you the wizard has finished installing software for Arduino Robot, press the Close button.

Step 5: Step 5: Turning on Your Robot and Starting It

The Arduino Robot comes with a preloaded application that will ask for your name, what you want to name the robot, and where you are located. Look at the screen on the robot for information on how to input your information using the buttons and potentiometer. You can power the robot by with 4 AAA batteries, or connect a USB cable to either the motor or control board.

Step 6: Step 6: Installing Test Sketch to Your Computer

To program the robot, connect the Control Board to your computer via USB. Open the Arduino IDE, and load the sketch located in File > Examples > Robot_Control > learn > Motor Test.

You need to tell the IDE which Arduino board you are targeting with your software, so open the Tools > Board menu and choose Arduino Robot Control. The Arduino IDE must know which of your USB ports the robot is connected to. The Tools > Serial menu lists the available ports. if only one item is shown, click on that one. If two or more are shown, you can disconnect the Control Board and re-open the menu; the entry that disappears should be the robot. Reconnect the board and select that serial port.Click the "Upload" button in the top left of the IDE window. Wait a few seconds - you should see the RX and TX leds on the board flashing. If the upload is successful, the message "Done uploading." will appear in the status bar of the software. Once this appears, you can disconnect the robot from the USB cable.

With batteries in the robot, turn on the power switch and put it on the ground. The robot should show you a few basic moves. Congratulations! You've gotten the robot up and running.

If the robot is not moving, turn the power switch off. Connect the motor board to the computer with a USB cable. Load the File > Examples > Robot_Motor > Robot_Motor_Core sketch in the IDE, and select Arduino Robot Motor from the Boards menu. Upload this sketch, disconnect from the computer and try turning it on again. Note: If no Serial port shows up after you plug in the robot, and restarting the IDE/unplug-replug the robot does not help, follow the steps below: Open a very simple sketch, like Blink or Bare Minimum Press the upload button When the status bar shows "Uploading...", double press the reset button on the Control Board The Serial port should appear as normally.

Step 7: Step 7: Coding the Robot and Making It Move

This sketch moves the robot back and forth repeatedly.

Whenever you're writing code for the robot, make sure to include at the beginning of the sketch. This imports the necessary libraries to control the robot. There's no need to initialize the Robot object. To get the wheels to move, call Robot.motorsWrite(). motorsWrite() requires 2 arguments, the speed of the left motor, and the speed of the right motor. These values range from -255 to 255, where -255 is full reverse, and 255 is full speed forward. If you pass a value of 0, the motor will stop spinning the wheel. Once you've uploaded the sketch, unplug the USB cable for the robot. Whenever the USB is connected, the robot's motors are disengaged. Turn on the power and watch it move around! Here is a cheat source of the coding you may need to tweak it a little:

#include // import the robot library

void setup(){ Robot.begin(); // initialize the library }

void loop(){ // move forward for one second Robot.motorsWrite (255,255); delay(1000);

Robot.motorsWrite(0,0); // stop moving delay(1000);

// move backwards for one second Robot.motorsWrite(-255,-255); delay(1000);

Robot.motorsWrite(0,0); // stop moving delay(1000); }

Step 8: Step 8: the Rest of the Coding

Read the buttons

You'll be writing a sketch that prints the button presses to the screen. First, you need to include the Robot library.

In setup(), start the robot and the screen.

void setup(){ Robot.begin(); Robot.beginTFT();}

[In loop(), every 100ms, read the state of the buttons. If one is being pressed, write the name to the screen. void loop(){ Robot.debugPrint(Robot.keyboardRead(), 10, 10); delay(100);}

In the explore folder of the robot examples, there is a sketch called Logo, which incorporates this example with the robot movement from above. Change the motor speed with the potentiometer This lets you control the speed at which the robot moves in a straight line. By turning the knob and mapping the values to -255 to 255, you will set the speed and direction (forward or backwards) of the robot. First, you need to include the Robot library.

In setup(), you must call Robot.begin() to initialize the robot's functions. Also call Robot.beginTFT() to initialize the screen. void setup(){ Robot.begin(); Robot.beginTFT();}

In loop(), read the value of the potentiometer with Robot.knobRead(). Map its value (a number between 0 and 1023) to -255 to 255. Print this value to the screen, and use it to change the speed of the motors.


The robot's motor is disengaged when plugged in via USB. After programming the robot, unplug the USB cable and add batteries. Turn on the power switch and watch the robot move. Catch the robot, and change the knob to change its speed. Making some noise The robot has two different means of producing sounds. There's simple beeping, but the robot can also create more complex sounds by reading sequenced music off the SD card. In this example you'll start with the beeping. To learn about the more complex playback, see the Melody example in the learn folder. First, you need to include the Robot library.

In setup(), you must call Robot.begin() to initialize the robot's functions. Also call Robot.beginSpeaker() to initialize the speaker.

void setup(){ Robot.begin(); Robot.beginSpeaker();}

In loop(), you can call Robot.beep() to create a beep. There are three different kinds of beeping; a simple beep, a double beep, and a long beep.

void loop() { Robot.beep(BEEP_SIMPLE); delay(1000); Robot.beep(BEEP_DOUBLE); delay(1000); Robot.beep(BEEP_LONG); delay(1000);}

Step 9: Step 9: Getting It to Do More Things

If you follow me you can learn how to make it do more things including:

Logo - tell your robot where to go through the on-board keyboard

Line Following - draw a racing track and get your robot to run on it

Disco Bot - turn your robot into an 8-bit jukebox and dance to the beat

Compass - plan a treasure hunt with this digital compass

Inputs - learn how to control the knob and the keyboard

Wheel Calibration - tune the wheels to perform even better

Runaway Robot - play tag with your robot using a distance sensor

Remote control - reuse that old tv-remote to command the robot on distance

Picture browser - want to use your own images?

Rescue - train your robot to look for hidden pearls in a maze

Hello User - hack the robot's welcome demo and make your own

Sensors Contest 2017

Participated in the
Sensors Contest 2017

Microcontroller Contest 2017

Participated in the
Microcontroller Contest 2017