Build Your Own Combat Robot

FIGURE 12-1
From top left
to bottom right,
LEGO RCX brick,
Handy Board,
Basic Stamp 2,
BrainStem, Lineo,
OOPic, traditional
R/C receiver,
and the Pontech
servo controller.
Chapter 12: Robot Brains 261
which then converts this data into commands the servos and speed controllers understand.
Other controllers, such as the Handy Board, take programs that can be
used to alter output results based on input results. Users download a piece of code
to the controller, and the code then runs on the Handy Board to control the robot.
Still other microcontrollers offer reactive mechanisms that automatically
manage outputs based on inputs—such as the thermostat in your house, which
senses its environment and controls the furnace to keep your house at a comfortable
temperature, and sometimes adjusting for times of the day when you are not
home or asleep, to conserve energy. The OOPic and BrainStem controllers affect
this type of control, called virtual circuits and reflexes, respectively. Some controllers
can exhibit more than one type of control, and some can even perform
multiple tasks at the same time.
You may have robots in your lives that you may not have thought of as robots.
Consider a bread maker that knows the time, can mix various bread recipes, can
sense heat, and can create auditory output with beeps and displays to inform you
what is happening at all times. Some cars have anti-lock brake systems (ABS) that
can sense each wheel’s rotation and adjust the braking pressure so the wheels
don’t lock and skid, even “pumping” the brakes for maximum stopping power on
wet and slippery roads.
The details of how to design electronic circuits using microcontrollers, how to
write programs, and how to implement the microcontroller is beyond the scope of
this book. You’ll find many different books that have been written about various
types of microcontrollers and programming techniques to help you. Appendix B
lists some excellent books on microcontrollers. Some microcontrollers are simple
to get started with, and some are so powerful that they require prior
microcontroller experience to use them properly.