GlobeBot
This was our high school computer engineering project. The goal of the project was to create a robot that could be controller from anywhere in the world.
The frame of the robot was made of aluminum extrusion. Attached to the frame were 2 DC motor wheels and a swivel wheel. Here is a list of components that we had inside the frame:
- Computer – We didn’t have the resources to buy a smaller computer. This beast was an old Pentium 2 that we insalled Debian on.
- 9 volt car battery – used to power the computer and the H bridge and the PIC. It powered the motherboard through a picoPSU
- H-Bridge – Since we didn’t have the time to research making an H bridge, we used the L298 Kit
- PIC16F84A – This microprocessor wasn’t necessary, but we were planning on using it when we added new features. Two features we wanted to add in the future was the ability to move the web cam through servo motors, and an LCD display to display text sent to the robot. It was powered by the 9 volt battery through a voltage regulator to feed the correct voltage
- Webcam – attached to the computer via USB. Used to provide a live feed of the surroundings
Essentially one could log into a website being served by the web server inside the robot. On the PHP page the user would see a live feed of the surrounding through the robots eyes (updated at the rate of 10 frames per second), and a list of buttons to control the robot. Depending on the button clicked the robot would send a signal to the PIC through the parallel port. To send the signal we created a C script that took command line inputs to send data through the parallel port. When the used clicked a button, it ran a PHP script that would run the C script with the correct parameters.
Once the Pic microprocessor received the data from the parallel port it outputted the correct data to the H bridge which in turn would move the motors. The PIC was programmed in assembly.
All in all the project was a great success. It won the highest mark that year and is still shown at the school fair as a method to attract more students towards technology classes.
Here are some pictures of the robot:
