OmniWheeler

By sud_dus

This project educates various concepts like micro controller programming, communication of a PDA with the BlueTooth technology, etc. I coined this project a Robo development. The circuit for this Robo is designed such that different motors (Stepper or Servos) can be connected, it has analog port wherein various sensors like light, object and temperature sensors can be connected.

The Robo is controlled my PIC18F6720 and the commanding is through PDA (Sony Ericsson P800). The application in the PDA is written in Appforge Mobile VB. The communication between the Robo and the PDA is through BlueTooth. The Robo is having 3 Standard Servo motors for movement, where in omni-directional wheels with polyurethane rollers are fixed to the motors. The Robo can move in any of the 3 directions freely with help of these wheels. Sending commands from the PDA application can control the movement of each motor. There are 3 IR Sharp sensors with detecting distance of 20 to 150 Cms. The Robo will transmit a data packet to the PDA indicating that an object has been detected, with the help of these sensors. The distance at which the Sensor should detect can be configured. This detection will help the Robo to stop, in case any object comes as an obstacle.

Power source for this kit is through a 9.6 V rechargeable battery. An LED indication is made when the battery power goes low. Also the battery power indication is showed constantly in the PDA application. As my further development I would like to enhance this Robo by fixing a camera, for precise object detection, where the color of the object can be detected.

The code for this is written in "C" language, with Microchip MPLAB IDE and an In-Circuit debugger is used to program the micro controller.