Lecture 3,

May 11,
2012
 Review and
Ideas for future
Projects
 Projects with robots for teens.
What we already discussed.
1. Line following robots
2. Y shaped lines for robots that drive to selected locations.
3. Robots following walls on corridors.
4. Algorithms for mazes:
1. Right Wall Following Algorithm (RWFA)
2. Left Wall Following Algorithm (LWFA)
3. Deterministic Switch from from RWFA and LWFA based on mapping the known part of maze
to memory.
4. Variants of searching mazes to find an exit.
5. Deterministic and probabilistic combinational behavior based on input –
output matrix and multiplication of matrix by vector.
6. Combinational and State Machine based Braitenberg Vehicles
 Analysis of a Braitenberg robot with S1 S2
memory
LOGIC
S1
J Q
M1
M1 M2

S2 K Q M2
0= happy
1 =angry

S1 S2 Q
S1 J
S2 K
Q Q+
Q+ M1 M2

0 0 00 00 00 00 0 1
0 0 10 00 01 11 1 0
0 1 00 01 10 0 0 1
0 1 10 01 11 0 0 1
1 0 01 00 10 0 0 1
S1
1 S2
0 Q
11 Q+
00 M1
11 M2
0 0 1
01 1
0 001 11 10 1 1 0
1 1 S1
1 S2
1 1Q Q+
0 0 1

0 0 0 0 0 1
 Analysis
1. Analyze how this behaves
in room with no light.
2. Analyze how this behaves
in room with light on floor,
oriented towards robot.
0= happy
3. Analyze how this behaves 1 =angry

in a maze. S1 S2

4. Draw snaphsots of movie

LOGIC
of robot position ,
M1 M2
orientation and internal
state in time
Maze

exit
Wall is on the
left Robots marks his
motion for Left
Wall algorithm in
blue

exit
Robots maps its position
in memory and now is
back in the same point Robots marks his
motion for Left
Wall algorithm in
blue

exit
 Robot starts left wall
Robot moves to other following algorithm (wall
wall at left)
Robots marks his
motion for Left
Wall algorithm in
crosses

X X

exit
 Robot executes left wall
following algorithm (wall
at left)

X X

exit
 Robot executes left wall
following algorithm (wall
at left)

X X
X

exit
 Robot executes left wall
following algorithm (wall
at left)

X X
X
X

exit
Robot found the solution to exit by changing
the wall in the corridor but still using the left
wall following algorithm (wall at left)

X X
X
X X X
X
X X X
X X X X X X
X
X X X X X X
X
X
exit
 Projects with robots for teens
1. Robot finding cans and bringing them to safe place.
2. Robot attacking or escaping other robots.
3. Robots boxing.
4. Robots shooting one another.
5. Robots fencing.
6. Repeated Prisoner Dilemma for robots.
7. Repeated Chicken for robots.
8. Subsumption Architecture
9. Maze Searching
10. Genetic Algorithm
11. Tree search
Advanced
Line
Following
 SENSOR ARRAY
7 sensors

Observe the
order of
variables from
outside to the
center
MINIMUM DISTANCE BETWEEN SENSORS IS 1cm
 THE PRIORITY ENCODER

Number
of
sensor as
output 7 sensors
as inputs

Problem:
Design such priority
encoder as a circuit
using Kmaps
 THE NO SURFACE LOGIC
A 0
B 0 1 NS signal = no
0 line detected
C
A 0
B 1 0
0
C

NS signal = no
line detected
 INPUTS TO THE MICROCONTROLLER

NS NS GS A2 A1 A0 STATE IN ACTION
signal =
no line
detected 1 X X X X No surface is detected Stop the motors
0 1 X X X No line is detected Execute the no line code
(specially designed
algorithm)
0 0 0 0 0 A detects the line Sharp turn left
0 0 0 0 1 B detects the line Sharp turn right
0 0 0 1 0 C detects the line Turn left
0 0 0 1 1 D detects the line Turn right
0 0 1 0 0 E detects the line Move left
0 0 1 0 1 F detects the line Move right
0 0 1 1 0 G detects the line Go straight
0 0 1 1 1 Forbidden state Software reset the
processor
How this algorithm based on
sensors works?
LINE FIND MODE
 Generalizations
• Wall following
• Vision based Wall following
• Labyrinth problems
• Can collecting tasks
FLOW CHART
 RESULT AND CONCLUSION
1. The robot follows a line as demonstrated.

2. It effectively overcomes problems such as

“barren land syndrome” and line breaks.

3. The hardware and software works as

designed.
 APPLICATIONS OF LINE
FOLLOWING IDEAS

1. Industrial automated equipment carriers

2. Automated cars.
3. Tour guides in museums and other similar
applications.
4. Second wave robotic reconnaissance
operations.
 LIMITATIONS
1. Choice of line is made in the hardware abstraction and
cannot be changed by software.

2. Calibration is difficult, and it is not easy to set a perfect

value.

3. The steering mechanism is not easily implemented in

huge vehicles and impossible for non-electric vehicles
(petrol powered).

4. Few curves are not made efficiently, and must be

avoided.
 …LIMITATIONS
1. Lack of a four wheel drive, makes it not
suitable for a rough terrain.

2. Use of IR even though solves a lot of

problems pertaining to interference, makes it
hard to debug a faulty sensor.

3. Lack of speed control makes the robot

unstable at times.
 FUTURE SCOPE
1. Software control of the line type (dark or
light) to make automatic detection possible.

2. “Obstacle detecting sensors” to avoid

physical obstacles and continue on the line.

3. Distance sensing and position logging &

transmission.
Mechanical
Designs of
robots
 Robot that delivers stuff to
locations
1. We will compare robots A, B, C, D, E, F
2. Robot can be prototyped with Lego NXT
3. Then we can add components from Tetrix
4. It is often faster, cheaper and better to design the robot from
wood, plastic and metal by yourself and only use gears and
motors with encoders from Tetrix.
5. We use this approach in our theatre.
6. Needs:
1. Doll grabbing (lifting)
2. Linear motion How to design
3. Base control mechanically robots
that can grab some
items and deliver to
certain locations?
 Robot A
1. Deliver dolls to locations
1. Grabs an item
2. Releases the item

2. Can be used to deliver little robot actors to

locations in robot theatre

3. Uses line following

Robot takes some object (a doll)
in place X and delivers it to the
location in place Y
 Robot D
• The same as before, robot delivers dolls to
locations
Robot B
 Robot B
• Robot delivers dolls to locations, as before
Robot C- to play volleyball
1. Robot plays volleyball
Robot to play hockey
Robot to play hockey
Robot to play hockey
Robot to play hockey
Robot to play hockey
Philosophy How
to Design a
Robot
 General Design Considerations
• Effectiveness
– Does the robot do what you want it to?
– Speed & accuracy
• Reliability
– How often will it work?
• Ease of Implementation
– Balance complex, effective solutions with simple to build
solutions
– Faster implementation means that you have more time
allowed for debugging,
• and probably, it means less debugging
 Effectiveness
Mechanical • Electrical
1. – Bearing surfaces 1. Multiple stages
2. – Stiffness 2. Efficient use of
3. – Appropriate constraints on
degrees of Freedom inputs/outputs
4. – Gearing 3. Low power usage
5. – Speed
6. – Low mass / moment of inertia 4. Effective Motor
use
5. Sensor placement
/use
 Reliability

Mechanical • Electrical
1. – Stiffness 1. Circuit
2. – Appropriate modularity
constraints on 2. Grounding
degrees 3. Shielding
3. of freedom
4. – Simplicity
 Ease of Implementation
• Electrical
Mechanical
1. Multiple stages
1. Off-the-
2. Board layout –
shelf parts related ccts on 1
2. Simplicity board
3. Design for 3. Circuit modularity
loose 4. Accessibility
tolerances
Grabbing Items
Using some
intelligence
 Tower of Hanoi Problem
1. Write the software for Tower of Hanoi
Problem for a robot, with few pegs only.
2. Write the recursive software.
 Robot
Theatre
 Projects from Lego Robots
A piano-playing robot

The piano-playing robot positions itself correctly in front of the piano (using a camera
following a color target) and then plays with its two-fingered hand.
 Projects from Lego Robots
1. Smiley face also has a small camera that tracks colors so it can follow the orange
target.
2. The mouth and eyebrows move using servo motors.

1. Smiley face robot

chases the moving
orange target.

2. The eyebrows and

mouth move to
show happy and
sad.
 Robots for
Autism Therapy

Teleoperated bear
developed at MU

University of Hertfordshire
UK

Yale University University of Sherbrooke

 Sensors for TigerPlace
to Help Older Adults Age Safely
Basic Sensors
 Detection of Falls

See also http://eldertech.missouri.edu

 hands
head

Personal
computer

PC
Bluetooth
connection

GPU supercomputer

The robot theatre concept

• This generic situation, where the
robot’s behavior is conditioned
upon the input from the feature
detectors connected to the
camera, maps to a constraint
satisfaction problem as described
here.

• The way this would work is that

the human / camera / robot
system would generate
optimization and satisfiability
problems, to determine how the
robot’s effectors should fire, and
these problems can be remotely
solved using Orion.

• For example, you could acquire a

Hansen Robotics Einstein, sit it
him on your desk, train a camera
on your face, use an anger feature
detector that causes the Einstein
robot to laugh harder the angrier
you get.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Programming and Customizing the PIC
microcontroller by Myke Predko
• PICmicro Mid-Range MCU Family Reference
Manual by MICROCHIP
• PIC Robotics, A beginner’s guide to robotics
projects using the PICmicro by John Iovine
 …BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites referred…

• The Seattle Robotics Society Encoder library of

robotics articles

• Dallas Personal Robotics Group. Most of these

tutorials and articles were referred.

• Go Robotics.NET, this page has many useful links to

robotics articles.
 …BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Carnegie Mellon Robotics Club. This is the links page
with lots of useful resources

• This page is called the “Micro-mouse Handbook” and

an excellent tutorial for small scale robotics.

• This is the main website of microchip. Thousands of

application notes, tutorials & manuals can be found
here.