ARM - Advanced Robotic Mapper

Let's Make Robots Projects Showcase
1

Hi Everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but I wanted to have an update on my senior design project which is a mapping robot.

Here is a breakdown of the hardware in the project:

Motor Driver: 2 Channels (6A/Ch peak) Based on TLE 5206 series H bridge

Main Controller: Cypress PSoC

Power: 7.2V battery, 5V buck regulator, 3.3V buck regulator (LM 25XX series regulator IC)

Battery Charger: NIMh Smart charger (MAX 713 IC base)

Range Sensor: Sharp GP Series IR sensors (20-150 cm range)

The enclosure was custom designed and assembled as well. The motors are in the same series as the GHM-15 except these are made to run from 7.2 V. As far as I know the encoders are the same.

Wireless Communications: Sparkfun BlueSmirf

Other Sensors: Honeywell HMC Series I2C Digital Compass (Sparkfun)

For those who are wondering, the battery is located underneath the LCD panel.

As for mapping below is a test run of my mapping algorithm when the robot was placed in an enclosed shower. I don’t have a digital version of my sketch of the shower dimensions handy but the map is very close. Each square blit on the grid is equal to 10cm X 10cm. The large blue dot is the robot.

There is some ghosting as far as false positives but I’m in the process of writing a software filter to get rid of that. The program you see in the image above allows for the control of the robot from a PC (I drive it with a USB connected gamepad). The PC software is written in Python and WxWidgets.

Here is a video of the robot driving around and also talking about the ARM’s innards:

2

WoW!

That’s some really nice work! Where did you make youre (i guess) custom made PCB?

3

Thanks for the compliment!

I designed the PCB using PCB artist by Advanced Circuits (www.4pcb.com). If you’re a student you can get some really good deals there ($33 for a 2 layer board up to 60 square inches). As far as I know it also outputs gerber files so you could get the board manufactured anywhere.

I’ve found places online that will make boards even cheaper than that but generally you don’t get a solder mask layer or any silk screening.

4

wow, this could really help if someone was trying to create an semi-autonomous robot. Any progress since february?

5

Actually, I have made some progress since the last post. Here is a map I made with the robot of a fairly large room. There is some drift due to the fact that error accumulates in the dead reckoning algorithm from wheel slippage and the like.

If anyone is interested in more information let me know and I’ll be happy to send the specifics to you or post to the board.