Robotics for Embedded Systems Education Joseph Zambreno 101606

Robotics for Embedded Systems Education Joseph Zambreno 10/16/06

Motivation n n Investigate robotics platforms that might be used for 288/388/488 sequence Can we do better than… ¨ …microcontroller on a breadboard? ¨ …simulator? n Requirements: ¨ Flexibility to conduct multiple labs ¨ Ability to explore concepts like memory addressing and I/O, interrupt handling, ADC/DAC, etc. ¨ C programming interface

Common Uses n Robotics typically not being used in introductory Cpr. E courses ¨ Slightly more ¨ Also found in common in introductory Com. S courses 300/400 level courses in robotics, AI, embedded systems, mechatronics n n Most common usage in K-12 outreach programs Some available resources: ¨ NASA Robotics Alliance – http: //robotics. nasa. gov ¨ Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy – http: //www- education. rec. ri. cmu. edu ¨ Iowa State University Robotics Club (ISURC) – http: //nukelab 1. student. iastate. edu

Academic Projects n Stiquito (http: //www. stiquito. com) ¨ Developed at Indiana University in 1992 ¨ J. Conrad, “Stiquito for Robotics and Embedded Systems Education”, IEEE Computer, vol. 38, no. 6, pp. 77 -81, June 2005. ¨ Hexapod robot n n n Six legs glued to a simple PCB TI MSP 430 microprocessor 4 Kb of flash memory ¨ Small, inexpensive (comes with the textbook!) ¨ Limited ability, flexibility

Academic Projects (2) n n n Palm Pilot Robot Kit (http: //www. cs. cmu. edu/~pprk) Developed at CMU in 2000 Three-wheeled robot ¨ Palm n n n Pilot or other PDA controls the system More functional than Stiquito Fairly expensive (PDA, sensors not included) PDA requirement complicates programming interface

LEGO Mindstorms n n http: //mindstorms. lego. com Mindstorms RCX ¨ ¨ ¨ n Renesas/Hitachi H 8 microcontroller Graphical programming model (Lab. View) Third-party modifications for C, other languages Mindstorms NCX ¨ ¨ ¨ ARM 7 microprocessor Atmel AVR microcontroller USB/Bluetooth connectivity n D. Cliburn, “Experiences with the LEGO Mindstorms throughout the Undergraduate Computer Science Curriculum”, ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2006. n Very popular, lots of resources available Targeted for grades 4 -8? Limited to LEGO parts? n n

Other Systems n Parallax, Inc. makes several robotics kits (http: //www. parallax. com) ¨ Boe-bot ¨ Hexcrawler n All built on BASIC stamp microcontroller ¨ PIC 16 C 57 microcontroller ¨ BASIC interpreter

Other Systems (2) n Vex Robotics Design System (http: //www. vexlabs. com) ¨ Two PIC 18 F 8250 microcontrollers ¨ 16 I/O ports ¨ Programming kit with C compiler n S. Cass, “Getting Vexed”, IEEE Spectrum, May 2006. n RC controlled but can be autonomous Less limitation on design n

Next Steps n Is this the direction we want to go in? n Best bets: Vex system or LEGO Mindstorms ¨ LEGO is fairly well-established in this area ¨ Vex systems more flexible and are a bit more serious than LEGO n Team-up with ISURC group to gain further insight into the different choices