Introduction of micro- controller in Autonomous Robot system

               Dear friends, as a part of experiment I have created a tab on upper side of the page naming the section Robotics. I have given an information of sensor part of Autonomous Robotic system. By clicking on it, you can get the knowledge of that part. Okay let's come topic.

               An micro-controller is considered as a computer on the development board. A micro-controller ranges from 8-, 16-, 32-, and sometimes 64- bit depends upon the requirement of the system. Today I would like to introduce one of the popular micro-controller development board that is Arduino. Please note that Arduino is not an micro-controller, it is an development board with ATmega series. Since the image that I have shown in previous post have 8051 development board, even though I am purposefully giving information about Arduino . Arduino have several advantages over an 8051 board, like inbuilt ADC ( analog to digital converter ) . In absence of Arduino one must have to use an comparator IC LM 324, 318, 358, or so on . This increases circuit complexity of the system. There is an thumb rule in electronics control design , which simply implies minimum complexity maximum performance. You can get Arduino IDE on 

                                                       http://arduino.cc/   

 This website is totally dedicated for the information of the Arduino board system. We have to learn embedded C- programming for any micro-controller programming. Since I have provided an link for the detail information for Arduino, I won't touch programming part there. Here is an picture of the Arduino board.

This is an one of the type of Arduino. Each and every resource is provided on the link that I have shared there. Now I will present an algorithm part of an Autonomous Robot system. Since you have to do it yourself, I won't post the actual programming part :-) .

 You may find that this algorithm is very common. I will start with some detailed explanation of each block.
  Initialization : In this part , I will go through some basic points.

1. We have to initialize IO pins of micro-controller board with some variables.
2. Some variables that will be useful for mathematical computations.
3. Initialization of separate functions. For ex, suppose I want to drive my bot in forward direction, so I will have to give specific output to toy motors in a such a way that my robot will move in forward direction. ( At this moment forget about actuator part I will come to that part, probably in the next post) 

Master loop : In case of Arduino, there is by default a function loop (void / int / float / char). So this function is also called as an master loop. For an micro controller, for repetition for instructions again and again an master loop is required. It works in a such a way that, when an controller is powered with supply until the power on , the controller works with repetition of the instruction through a loop.

Condition Checking : In this part we have to check various condition according to the sensor value , for a change in output of sensor we have to instruct an response in terms of program so that our system will respond properly for various change in sensor value. As a case of line follower robotic system, I will point out few things as below,

1. As I have shown the diagram of sensor position of system in the last post ( post under robotics tab), whenever its position changes, give instructions in a such a way that robot will move in respective direction. For ex, If my left sensor will change its position with respect to original position and right remains in original one, then turn robot in left direction. Please note that the sensor position matters in programming , so refer the post under robotic tab.
2. Use the initialized functions so that you will find that main program is just an arrangement of small blocks in terms of functions.

Due to vast possibilities with sensor position I have done only an generalized discussion here, So If you are planning to prepare instructions with respect to sensor position you can leave comments on the box, so that I will be able to discuss with particular things. In the next post, I will upload how to deal with actuator part of robot. Thank you again.

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God will always bring the right people into your life, but you have to let the wrong people walk away. 

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