Robotics Robotics Adventure Book Scouter Manual Robotics Adventure Book – Scouter manual – STEM 1
A word with our Scouters: This activity is designed around a space exploration theme. Your Scouts will learn to program the Robot to perform different functions that are useful for exploration in a remote area. In this booklet, you can find sample programs for activities that your Scouts should train the robot for. These are for your preparation so that you can better help your Scouts when they are trying to design their own programs.
Your Mission You will program a prototype robot to search in a pattern, sampling to find water and hydrocarbons. There are no GPS satellites orbiting these far-off worlds. Their magnetic fields won’t be anything like that of Earth, so even a compass is of no use. All you’ll have to go on for position is how much the robot’s wheels have turned.
Getting To Know Your Robot The hardware used for the STEM Robots consists of an Arduino base platform with tracks, drive motors, a microprocessor board, LEDs for signaling, and digital and analog input and output ports (“pins”). The digital and analog input and output ports permit additional instrumentation to be added to the basic unit functionality.
How to Connect Parts of the Robot The robot connects to the computer with the USB cable. The battery is connected through the plug next to the USB port on the robot. The moisture sensor is connected through the plug with blue, red and black wiring. It is then screwed to the moisture arm.
Overview of Robot Electronic Controls Inputs Inputs are used to obtain information about the world.
Data Sheet: Outputs Pin Function 0 -4 (don’t use) Command Parameters 5 Left motor speed Set Analog Pin# 5 Stop=0 to fast=255* 6 Right motor speed Set Analog Pin #6 Stop=0 to fast=255* 7 Left motor direction Set Digital Pin #7 Low= Forward High=Backward 8 Right motor direction Set Digital Pin #8 Low= Forward High=Backward 9-10 (don’t use) 11 Moisture sensor arm Servo (pin# 11, angle) Angle in degrees 12 Blue LEDs Set Digital Pin #12 Low= off High=On 13 Green LEDs Set Digital
Installing the Programming Software (Arduino) and the Robot on the Computer The robot kit comes with a laptop that has all the programs installed, but you can bring in more computers to your meeting so that more Scouts can work on their programming simultaneously. To do this, you need to install the programming software and the robot’s driver on the additional computers. Install the “Arduino” compiler: 1. Open your browser to http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Software 2.
Install the drivers for the Arduino Uno (Robot) : (See also: step-by-step screenshots for installing the Uno: http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUno ) 6. Plug in the robot and wait for Windows to begin its driver installation process. After a few moments, the process will fail, despite its best efforts. 7. Click on the Start Menu, and open up the Control Panel. While in the Control Panel, navigate to System and Security. Next, click on System. Once the System window is up, open the Device Manager. 8.
Programming the Robot- Arduino To program the robot, you can use the Arduino Software and its graphical tool called ArduBlock.
ArduBlocks Programming Tools Control: lets you execute instructions based on certain conditions • Loop – keep running the set of instructions (every program should be written inside a loop). • If – run a set of instructions if the test condition is true. • If else – run one set of instructions if the test condition is true, and another if it is false. • While – run a set of instructions as long as the test condition is true.
Activities to Complete the Mission Like the engineers who’ve sent people to space and rovers to other planets before you, you’ll take a step by step approach, proving each new capability and then adding to it until you have everything you need. What steps do you think you should take to complete your robot programming mission? (The following pages have a list of suggested steps–but you can make up your own plan and design your own activities).
Activity 1 – Blink Blink Objective How does this get used? • Blink the 6 blue LED lights twice in a row. • Blink the 6 blue LED lights 4 times in a row. Your prototype does not include the high gain antenna & transmitter for sending data back to Earth, so we will simulate the short/restricted messages using the LEDs. What you need to know Extend / Challenge • Set Digital Pin block • Can you make it blink a pattern? • Delay block • Decide on a different # of blinks for different sensors & values.
Activity 2 – Learning to Drive Objective How does this get used? • Drive forward for 3 seconds then back. Your prototype will need to explore an area, moving forward and backwards. What you need to know Extend / Challenge • Which pins control the direction of the motors? • Speed up and slow down.
Activity 3 – Learning to Turn Objective How does this get used? • Turn 90 degrees (one side driving) Your prototype will need to turn in a controlled manner to move from one search area to another • Rotate 90 degrees (one forward, one back) What you need to know Extend / Challenge • Pins for track direction • Drive in a square.
Activity 4 – How Far Did We Go? Objective How does this get used? • While driving forward, read the optical encoder. • Be able to drive a known distance and turn accurately to drive a search pattern (stripes or expanding square). What you need to know Extend / Challenge • How does the optical encoder work? • Use the optical encoders to make a more accurate turn or rotate, rather than just using time.
Putting Together the Drive Subroutines Rather than putting all the commands to make up driving, turning, and keeping track of distance into your main loop, you have created a block of subroutines to do those things that you can use over and over. In fact, you have even gone further and made them so that the robot will continue to drive while the program does other things like read a distance sensor or the sensors for moisture and hydrocarbons.
Activity 5 – Sensing Proximity Objective How does this get used? • To be able to detect the presence of an object ahead • • To stop before running into the object You can expect that there will be unknown objects on the planet; your prototype needs to detect and go around them rather than crash and get damaged.
Activity 6 – Sensing Hydrocarbon Objective How does this get used? • Test for the presence of hydrocarbons in a particular location • • Blink blue LED lights according to test results At regular intervals during its exploration, your prototype should test for signs of life What you need to know Extend / Challenge • Pin for hydrocarbon sensor • • How does the sensor work? Determine a message sequence that indicates the strength of hydrocarbon presence • Range of values that would imply some
Activity 7 – Sensing Moisture Objective How does this get used • Lower the arm, and test for the presence of moisture in a particular location • • Blink blue LED lights based on the test results Moisture is a necessity for life. Your prototype needs to sample the ground at regular intervals for the presence of moisture.
Get out there and explore! • Have your robot conduct a search of the test area. • Find the presence of hydrocarbons and moisture and see your robot signal what it finds–all by itself, using your programmed instructions.
Challenge Activity What did you find? • Drive to multiple samples. • Requires you to back up after taking a sample, then drive around an obstacle and resume your original pattern.
