TTTThhhheeee RRRRoooobbbbooootttt BBBBuuuuiiiillllddddeeeerrrr''''ssss CCCCooooooookkkkbbbbooooooookkkk CBprelim Tuesday, 19 June 2007 16:11 page 1 Black This page intentionally left blank TTTThhhheeee RRRRoooobbbbooootttt BBBBuuuuiiiillllddddeeeerrrr''''ssss CCCCooooooookkkkbbbbooooooookkkk OOOOwwwweeeennnn BBBBiiiisssshhhhoooopppp AMSTERDAM (cid:127) BOSTON (cid:127) HEIDELBERG (cid:127) LONDON (cid:127) NEW YORK (cid:127) OXFORD PARIS (cid:127) SAN DIEGO (cid:127) SAN FRANCISCO (cid:127) SINGAPORE (cid:127) SYDNEY (cid:127) TOKYO Newnes is an imprint of Elsevier CBprelim Tuesday, 19 June 2007 16:11 page 3 Black Newnes is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP 30 Corporate Drive, Burlington, MA 01801 Copyright © 2007, Owen Bishop. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved The right of Owen Bishop to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science and Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax: (+44) (0) 1865 853333; email: [email protected]. Alternatively, you can submit your request online by visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material Please Note: Although every care has been taken with the production of this book to ensure that the projects contained herein operate in a correct and safe manner, the Publishers do not accept responsibility for the failure of any project to work correctly or for any damage to any other equipment it is connected to or used in conjunction with, or in respect of any other damage or injury that may be so caused. The Publishers do not accept responsibility in any way for the failure to obtain specified components. Notice is also given that if equipment that is still under warranty is modified in any way or used or connected to home-built equipment then that warranty may be void. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record of this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN: 978-0-7506-6556-8 For information on all Newnes publications visit our web site at www.newnespress.com Printed and bound in UK 08 09 10 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 CBprelim Tuesday, 19 June 2007 16:11 page 4 Black CCCCoooonnnntttteeeennnnttttssss Introduction Making a Robot 1 1 Robot Behaviour 9 2 Robot Mechanics 25 3 Robot Electronics 53 4 PICs in Control 105 5 PIC Programming 133 6 Projects 165 The Scooter 166 The Android 209 A robotic toy 246 The Quester 258 The gantry 297 Index 364 CBprelim Tuesday, 19 June 2007 16:11 page 5 Black AAAAbbbboooouuuutttt tttthhhhiiiissss bbbbooooooookkkk This is a book of practical robotics written for beginners but also catering for those who have progressed a little further beyond that stage. It describes the mechanics of robot construction, how to build the electronic circuits, and finally goes into the details of programming robotic systems. The first half of the book is a cookbook of information, ideas, tips, and suggestions for the first-time roboticists and others. Much of the content will be of interest and practical use to students in Further and Higher Education who are working on a micro-controller- based project (though not necessarily a robotic one). The second half of the book describes the designing, building and programming of five robots of varying degrees of complexity. The specifications are flexible and essential features are emphasised so that the designs are readily adaptable to whatever materials and parts the reader can obtain. Each description points the way to more advanced development of the project, resulting in a wide range of fascinating and often unique robots. The programs are listed in the PICs MPASM assembler, which allows them to be modified, fine-tuned and extended. The listings are fully annotated and are accompanied by detailed flowcharts. These are intended to provide ample guidance for those who wish to program in one of the dialects of BASIC, or in the C language. CCCCoooommmmppppaaaannnniiiioooonnnn wwwweeeebbbbssssiiiitttteeee This website carries downloadable files of the MPASM versions of all the programs and subroutines listed in the book. In addition there are files of programs for the Quester and the Gantry that are too long to be included in the book. All downloads are free of charge. The site also carries the same programs in the form of hexadecimal files. The URL of the companion site is: http://books.elsevier.com/companions/9780750665568 vi CBprelim Tuesday, 19 June 2007 16:11 page 6 Black Making a Robot Making a Robot What sort? 2 Getting down to detail 4 Controlling the robot 5 Programming a PIC 6 Simulating the PIC 8 1 CB00 Friday, 16 March 2007 06:12 page 1 Black The Robot Builder’s Cookbook What sort? The first question is — ‘What sort of robot do we want to make?’. When they hear the word ‘robot’, many people immediately think of the R2-D2 or the robots of the film I, Robot. These are robots similar to humans in some ways, but not in all. There are many kinds of robot, one major group being the mobile robots, sometimes called mobile platforms. Examples of mobile robots include the human-like robots mentioned above and a wide range that mimic animals. Some walk about on six legs, like insects, and others jump around like frogs. Then there are the more useful mobile robots that run about the house, sweeping the floor, and those that find their way around a factory, delivering parts to the work-stations. These rarely look like humans — they just run around the place and do things. Someone just starting in robotics, might begin with a low-cost mobile robot. Project 6.1, the Scooter (pp.166-208), gives the details. Humans are capable of a wide range of tasks, but most robots are not so versatile. In industry, robots are designed to perform a very limited number of tasks, and to perform them precisely for hour after hour without getting tired or bored and without making mistakes. In this category come the robot arms (opposite). These are usually not mobile. Robot arms are particularly useful for the heavy, unpleasant or repetitive tasks in industry. They can be used in A mobile robot looks only vaguely human – and many do not look human at all! environments in which it is harmful or dangerous for humans to work. 2 CB00 Friday, 16 March 2007 06:12 page 2 Black Making a Robot This robot has welding gear at the end of its arm. The arm is bolted to the floor but the welding torch can be manipulated so as to act at almost any location in the workshop. Other tools can be fitted to it when required. Really heavy (in the sense of weight-lifting) tasks, need a gantry robot. Gantry robots are good at picking up massive items at one place and depositing them accurately at another place. Their main drawback is that they are not usually mobile, so the distance that they can transport the load is limited. In this book we use a gantry robot for light-weight tasks, such as picking up a playing-piece from a game board and moving it to the winning square. Our gantry robot needs brain rather than brawn. So what shall it be? A mobile robot or a gantry robot? Whichever the chosen type, the design process follows very much the same steps, as outlined in the remainder of this chapter. This gantry robot at a printing works stacks up blocks of printed pages, ready for packing. As it stacks the blocks, it counts them and builds up a batch of definite size. Note one of its sturdy supporting columns in the foreground. 3 CB00 Friday, 16 March 2007 06:12 page 3 Black