Steps to install Eclipse IDE:

1.Download Eclipse from for C/C++ developers as shown below:

2.Now Extract the package:
Right click the package and open with Archive Manager and extract it to home directory as shown below:

3.Open the eclipse executable to the folder that you have extracted ~/eclipse/ as shown below:

If it displays the error than there is no JRE in your system, you will need to install it. Follow the steps given to install JRE or else skip the step.
4.Run the following command on the prompt to install JRE as shown below:
1.Open Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2.Execute the command given below:
thinklabs@thinklabs:~$ sudo aptitude install default-jre

This will take some time to install.

Now start eclipse again an Eclipse IDE will start as shown below:

Steps to install AVR Eclipse plugin:

Now close the Eclipse IDE and download the AVR Eclipse plugin from the link given below:

http://avr-eclipse.sourceforge.net/

Now go to download section and select direct download as shown below:

Once you have selected Direct download it will go to the sourceforge where plugin can be downloaded as shown below:

Be careful while extracting the zip files to the ~/eclispe folder.

1.Open with the Archive manager and drag features folder and plugins to the eclipse folder individually as given below:

1.1.Inside the Archive Manager you will see “.” folder, double click it and go to the features folder and select the folders as shown below and drag it to eclispe/features folder:

1.2.Similarly inside the Archive Manager, go for the plugins folder and select the folders/files as displayed  below and drag it to eclispe/plugins folder:

Steps to write down AVR programs on Eclipse IDE.

1.Open the eclipse executable as a root user, issue the command on the prompt as shown below:
1.Open Applications > Accessories > Terminal
2.Execute the command given below:
thinklabs@thinklabs:~$ sudo ~/eclipse/eclipse

3.It will popup the page as shown below:

2.Create a new project go to file menu > New > C Project

NOTE: If it doesnot display this “AVR GCC Toolchain plugins” than there AVR Eclipse plugin is missing, try to install it as given in the above section steps to install AVR Eclipse plugin.

3.Write a new project name and click on next
4.It will ask for selection of CPU name and its frequency and click on finish.

4.Goto file menu > new > c source file and save it
5.write down the code given below

6.select the active build configuration as Release
Project menu > Build configurations > set active > 2 Release

7.Now goto the project menu > Build All
You can see that inside release folder executable binary is generated as shown below:

Steps to burn your program on uNiBoard v 1.1

Now if you want  to load the executable on uNiBoard v 1.1, you will need to setup the avrdude programmer.
1.Goto the properties window of the project by right click on project and properties.

2.Select AVR>Avrdude tab it will display window as shown below:

3.Click on Edit and follow the steps given below:
1.Configuration name as uNiBoard
2.In programmer Harware select USBasp.
3.In override default port -P   USB.
4.Click on OK button to save the configuration.

4.Select programmer configuration as uNiBoard and click on Apply  button and OK button.

5.Now you can burn the program by selecting AVR menu > Upload project to Target Device.

Step 1: Port Settings

Port Number: Select the serial communication port of your PC to which the target device is connected. Most present day IBM compatible PCs have a single serial communication port with an address of COM1.

Speed: Select the burning speed. (Preferably 9600)

Step 2: Device Settings

Select the target device. (The TRI ISP – Beta version supports only P89v51RD2.)

Step 3: Load Hex File

The Hex File can be loaded either by clicking the ‘Browse’ button and selecting the Hex File or directly typing its path.

Or

Step 3: Burn

Once the Hex File is loaded, click the ‘Burn’ button and reset your target device. The burn status will be displayed on the progress bar and once the progress bar indicates that the process is completed, reset the target device.

To Download TRI ISP Click Here : http://www.triindia.co.in/download/TRI ISP.MSI

Conductivity Test

In order to detect the presence of conductors,the simplest test is the Conductivity Test. Conductivity of a substance is defined as ‘the ability or power to conduct or transmit heat, electricity or sound’. Here what we use is the ability to transmit electricity. When an electrical potential difference is placed across a conductor, its movable charges flow, giving rise to electric current. We would be using this property of conductors to complete the circuit connections as shown below. The material being a conductor completes the circuit and the LED glows.If the material is an insulator, the circuit will not be completed and the LED would remain off thereby indicating presence of an insulator.

Work Done By- Pranav Ramkrishnan, Std.12th

Objective:

This is an extremely simplistic, yet interesting application using the i-Mach kit to make something that can do real and useful work. The basic aim of this task is to build and program an autonomous robot that can detect objects within its surrounding environment and having detected the object, the robot must push the object out of the arena. However the robot must at all times remain within the arena, just as a bull must remain within the bull fighting arena. Imagine if the bull left the ring, it would result in chaos!

This problem statement adapted in this task is one that has been used in several international robotic competitions and events at high school and college levels , however it has never been attempted with the i-Mach kit, hence giving us opportunity to explore the boundaries of this kit.

To make a robotic application, we shall be using metal cans, as objects and design an arena which is black and has a white boundary around it.

Description of the Robot:

The structure of this robot was made using the mechano parts provided in the i-Mach kit. It was important to design a framework which is both sturdy and compact. Before going into the explanation of the physical structure, here is a list of sensors used to make this particular version of the “Bull”:

· 3 Obstacle Sensor – used to detect the metal can (object), the arrangement of these sensors has been discussed below.

· 2 Line sensors – used to sense the edge of the arena (white) so that the robot does not go out of the arena.

Here is a picture of “Bull” and the design as been explained below:

Figure 1. “The Bull”

Explanation:

Obstacle Sensors:

Sensor2, Sensor3 and Sensor4 are all obstacle sensors, that are used to detect the presence of the object, in close proximity to the robot. In order to make sure that the robot is able to read an object from all angles, the sensors are placed, one facing forward – so that if an object(metal can) is in front, the robot will charge towards it and then push it out. Two more obstacle sensors were placed on the two sides of the robot (left and right) so that if the robot as no object in front of it, but one on either sides, it must be able to detect it, turn to the respective side and then charge forwards to push the can out of the arena.

Line Sensors:

Sensor6 and Sensor6 are line sensors.The placement of line sensors is fairly obvious. The sole purpose of the line sensors is to give a feedback (HIGH) when the sensor is over a white surface and a LOW feedback when the sensor is over a black surface. It is interesting to consider why only two line sensors were placed, one front and back and why no more line sensors were place on either sides of the robot. Well, the answer to this is that the robot will be only pushing the metal can from the front. So Sensor6 is the main line sensor that will be detecting the edge. Sensor5 is an extra sensor, which is used so that in case the robot reversing and moves towards the line, it detects the line so that the robot can move forward. So since the robot will not be moving sideways, there is no need to place anymore line sensors on the side, like we placed obstacle sensors on the side as well.

Now coming to the Physical design:

Figure 2:

In order to build a stable robot, one must keep the robot as low as possible, also since this has a specific function to push an object, the robot must have a grabbing mechanism. Shown in Figure 2, this particular robot can only hold a specific size of obstacle, although is the object is bigger then the robot could still push it forward (of course, provided the motors used can support the load!). While building this grabbing mechanism, one must also remember to protect the sensors from impact with the object. One can make the grabbing mechanism longer and wider, but if that is done, the robot is going to start leaning forward, and may not be as stable as before (centre of gravity will shift forward). Further, the robot will become a lot slower, and generally speaking bulls are fast animals!!

Figure 3: “The Bull” at work

Algorithm:

The algorithm logic used to program this robot is fairly easy to comprehend.

Points to keep in mind while reading this algorithm:

Ø Line sensor is ON over a white surface and OFF over a black surface

Ø Obstacle sensor is OFF when an object is in front of it and ON when there is no object in front of it.

So the algorithm logic is as follows:

1. Move forward.

2. If Sensor6 is ON, then go back, turn around and move forward (this is detecting a white line and then moving away from it)

3. While moving forward check if Sensor2 is OFF, if Sensor2 is OFF continue going forward, until line.

4. While moving forward check if Sensor3 is OFF, if Sensor3 is OFF, then stop and keep turning to the right until Sensor2 is OFF (this means the object is now in front of the robot). Then move forward with the metal can to the edge.

5. While moving forward check if Sensor4 is OFF, if Sensor4 is OFF, then stop and keep turning to the left until Sensor2 is OFF, then move forward.

6. If Sensor5 is ON, then move forward (white edge is behind the robot and it has to move forward).

PROGRAM:

BEGIN

{

FOREVER

{

IF(SENSOR6 IS ON) // Forward Line Sensor detecting a white edge.

{

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Inspite of detecting the white edge the robot

continues forward for 250 milliseconds to ensure

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // that the object has been completely pushed

out of the arena.

WAIT(250);

RIGHTMOTOR(0,0); // Stops for 500 milliseconds

LEFTMOTOR(0,0);

WAIT(500);

RIGHTMOTOR(BACKWARD,100); // then comes backward for 1 sec, to avoid

the line

LEFTMOTOR(BACKWARD,100);

WAIT(1000);

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // takes a differential right turn (turning on the

spot) for 1.5 seconds,

LEFTMOTOR(BACKWARD,100); // this is approximately 180 degree on full

batteries.

WAIT(1500);

}

IF(SENSOR6 IS OFF) // Case when the robot is in the arena, that is on a black

surface, the robot moves forward.

{

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

IF(SENSOR2 IS OFF) // Conditions while moving forward

{

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Case 1 – Object in front of the robot, the

robot continues forward, until the white

edge.

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

}

IF(SENSOR4 IS OFF)

{ // Case 2 – Object on the left side.

RIGHTMOTOR(0,0);

LEFTMOTOR(0,0);

WAIT(500);

WHILE(SENSOR2 IS ON)

{

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Turning differentially to the left while

Senso2 reads the object

LEFTMOTOR(BACKWARD,100);

}

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Pushing the object out after turning.

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

}

IF(SENSOR3 IS OFF)

{

RIGHTMOTOR(0,0); // Case 3 – Object on right side

LEFTMOTOR(0,0);

WAIT(500);

WHILE(SENSOR2 IS ON)

{

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Once again turning differentially until

Sensor2 reads the object

RIGHTMOTOR(BACKWARD,100);

}

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100); // Pushing the object out of the arena.

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

}

}

IF(SENSOR5 IS ON) // Behind line sensor detects the white edge. The robot

moves forward to avoid edge. No pushing from the back.

{

RIGHTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

LEFTMOTOR(FORWARD,100);

}

}

}

END

Here is the Video link to have a glimpse of what the bull in the ring is exactly upto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSl5xa6xDNM

Further Development (Food for Thought):

Although this robot is successful in accomplishing its task, that is to push away the metal cans from the arena without leaving the arena, there are possibilities for development and enhancement:

Physical/ Structural:

1. One can think about making a lifting mechanism instead of a gripping mechanism, something like a crane or a forklift.

2. The Robot can be used as a arena cleaner if can be made faster and stronger, so that it can even clean bigger areas.

3. Design an arm such that the robot can lift objects of different dimensions.

Abilities:

1. One could program the robot to pick up an object, come to a particular spot and drop it.

2. Instead of picking up every single object from the arena, the robot can be programmed in such a way that it only selects a particular type of object.

3. This can be further expanded into thinking about sorting out random objects in an enclosed arena into sorted groups.

More over robotics and embedded systems, an aspect that obviously concerns all of us as citizens of a developing nation is the purpose of education. Do we as knowledge donors or seekers comprehend what education has to offer? More than an article, this is meant to be an open discussion to reaffirm the fact that we understand simple but long forgotten goals of the education system and in the process also discover a few which need to be addressed given the current situation. The views presented in this article are not personal and have been influenced by varied personalities and scenarios.

Being unbiased: Mr. Yashwant Kanetkar, the author of many popular C programming books, was once asked in a seminar, “What made your programing skills so strong?” to which he replied, “My mechanical engineering background”. Yes, unlike what you might presume, intellects are not a result of their academic background, but a consequence of pursuit of what they felt might be appropriate for them. Mr. Kanetkar further justified his words by saying that, him being from a mechanical background gave him an edge over all his fellow colleagues (from an IT background) who would fear asking certain questions which they felt would make the audience doubt their past learnings. It is truly the presence of such an educational system which allows choice and provides exposure to experiences that helps the students realize a life-long career path for themselves.

Being enterprising: Being enterprising is more about being responsible, questioning the obvious, challenging long-established practices, existent processes and tools rather than floating a business. I have heard many students saying, “After I graduate, I would like to pursue research….”, whereas the truth is that once you are an employee you cannot afford to research amidst busy work schedules and prolonged delivery deadlines. Your formative years of education are also the most conducive years for innovation which can be exemplified from the fact that the Linux operating system or the Google search engine were all academic projects once upon a time.

Being the change: The country at this point needs technocrats but we seem to encounter bureaucrats more often. Bureaucracy is a complex beast to deal with, since most of the times it is introduced in the process of being systematic, consciously or unconsciously. It is these challenging issues that education teaches us to counter by inculcating values like patience and analysis. Enabling you to view things in a broader perspective is also something that education strives to achieve. As a matter of fact, understanding the way an OS kernel manages hardware resources may help you manage resources in your company though it doesn’t sound that obvious. At the same time applying management practices like six sigma to your software project can help make your software defect free.

Linus Torvalds (needless to say, author of Linux OS), in his book “Just for fun” has put forth a three point philosophy for the purpose of life (which I feel applies cut-copy-paste to education as well), which constitutes,

Survival: Education, directly (formal education) or indirectly (by means of exposure and experience) empowers us to survive in this world with cut-throat competition. All other goals can be addressed only after this primary goal is met, since without survival everything else would be null and void. In a way, it would be correct to say that education means enabling yourselves to live in a world that works on the Darwin’s theory of “Survival of the fittest”.

Social order: Very few of us would deny the fact that the best of friends that we have made during our lifetime are within our academic years, who also become an integral part of our social circle. We seldom realize that things that bind us together are too trivial. At times, these might also be negative things like hatred towards a common subject. Whether it be these negative things or positive things (like the GNU project, which happens to be the largest collaborative project ever), the social bonds that result have to be attributed to education.

Entertainment: This one might raise many an eye-brows but education does bring in entertainment and vice-versa. As an organization with the philosophy, “excite-entertain-educate” we have observed that it is very much possible for education and entertainment to go hand in hand (a trend which can be marked in our workshops); its just that at times education becomes the cause while entertainment becomes the effect and vice versa.

At this point you might wonder what we are trying to arrive at, but the fact is that the purpose was never to conclude; it was to make you “think”.  So, if you have  started thinking already, we would love to hear your viewpoint.

References: http://ideaforge.blogspot.com/

LCD or Liquid Crystal Display is nowadays fast becoming a preferred choice for an interface device due to its ease of use,cheap rates and value for money performance.
They are available in various specs 16X1 16X2 20X2 etc�
The first number denotes the number of characters/line and second denotes the number of lines.

The most widely used LCDs are based on the HITACHI HD44780 controller.
It has 16 pins arranged in the following configuration:
1 � Vss
2 � Vcc

3 � Vee
4 � RS
5 � R/W
6 � EN
7 � DB0
8 � DB1
9 � DB2
10- DB3
11 � DB4

12 � DB5
13 � DB6
14 � DB7
15 � LED+
16 � LED-

* DB0-DB7: Data Pins
* RS: 1 � Data 0 � Command
* R/W: 1 � Read 0 – Write
* EN: To be Pulsed when to execute any operation

* Vee: Contrast Adjust Pin

We will be using the LCD in 4 bit mode. This amounts to using 7(3 control signals and 4 for data) bits for controlling the

LCD instead of the normal 11.
In 4 bit mode the DB4-DB7 data lines are used for writing data. The upper nibble of data is sent first and then the lower

nibble of data is sent. In 8 bit mode the whole byte is sent at once.

LCD command library (Courtesy Team TRI):

LCD_INIT()
Initializes the LCD in 2 line 4 bit mode with blinking cursor.

LCD_WRITE(�X�)

Used to write any character X to the LCD.

LCD_STRING(�Xplore Robotics�)
Used to write a string on the LCD (max 16 characters in length)

LCD_CMD(X)
To give commands to the LCD. X can be as follows
PUTLINE1 � Places cursor on line1
PUTLINE2 – Places cursor on line2
DISPON � Turns display on

To place the cursor on a particular character box it is addressed as follows:

Command = LCD_CMD(0b1XXX XXXX);
where xxx xxxx is the address of character in binary.

Note: LCD row 1 address starts at 0×00 and row 2 starts at 0×40

Eg: To put cursor on 3 character line 1
LCD_CMD(0×83);
To put cursor on 5 character line 2
LCD_CMD(0xC5);

LCD_CLEAR()
Clears LCD screen.

Sample Program:
#include”REG52MOD.h”
#include�LCD.h�

void main (void)
{
LCD_INIT();
LCD_STRING(�Hello World�);
while(1){}
}

No prizes for guessing what THIS program is supposed to do!!!!

Let�s move onto something higher

#include”REG52MOD.h”
#include�LCD.h�

void main (void)
{
LCD_INIT();
LCD_STRING(�USING�);
LCD_CMD(PUTLINE2);

LCD_STRING(”LCD”);
delay(100);
LCD_CLEAR();
LCD_CMD(0×83);
LCD_STRING(”IS”);
LCD_CMD(0xC5);
LCD_STRING(”COOL”);
while(1){}
}

Having fun aren�t we???

I think I should end this tutorial here and leave you with things to experiment .Some good pages to visit for inside

information about the working of an LCD are

http://www.myke.com/lcd.htm
http://www.geocities.com/dinceraydin/lcd/index.html (you�ll find a nice cool LCD simulator on this page)

Work Done By-SANDEEP GILL

Wanna build your first simple solar roller using discrete and easily available electronic components(R,C,diodes etc.). Here is where you begin. Solar Roller is a beam-dragster robot that utilizes sunlight as a source of energy. Mostly in all solar competitions this being quite a popular event, wherein two solar bots are placed side by side on a track and they have to travel a distance of 1 meter in shortest time using light source coming from overhead high watt bulbs. So, let’s try and build a simple solar roller.

Check out these links for problem statements of the solar roller competitions

http://techfest.org/nexus/photoroller/

http://www.robotgames.net/robotgames/pdf/2002%20solar%20roller.pdf

Component List:

1 Solar Panel- 4 V, 90 mA

1 Storage Capacitor 0.047F, 5.5V

1 3V3 Zener diode

1 mini DC motor with sleeves

Two Transistors –2N2222A & 2N2907A

1 Resistor- 50 K

Two small wheels (taken from mechano parts) without rims

A foam board body design

Construction Details:

1. Body design: Cut a piece of foam board in a rectangular shape and attach two small wheels at the front side. The wheels are screwed to the foam board via 90degree clamps with an axle passing through them.

2. Attaching the Motor

Mini DC motor

Put on a sleeve onto the motor and attach it to the rear side of the foam body with the help of a mechano strip bended at an angle of 45-60 degree to touch the ground so that it is as close as possible to centre of body.

This is how the whole body will look:

3. Solar Engine:

Working: This is a Zener based SE. This design uses a Zener diode as means of determining the trigger voltage. The reverse bias operating voltage of the Zener is used as means of triggering point in the circuit. You can also use LED’s or diodes in series to accomplish the same trigger voltage. For further readings:

http://www.beam-wiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Zener-based_Solar_Engines

http://faq.solarbotics.net/oscillate.html.

You could veroboard the circuit like this:

Attach the solar engine to the centre of foam body with help of a double sided tape and connect the motor to the berg terminals.

4. Attaching the Solar panel

Take out two wires from the solar panel for giving the supply to the solar engine.

Just place the solar panel at the rear side of the foam body with help of a rubber band or a double sided tape.

5. Complete Solar Bot:

Results: Testing our newly built solar roller under light gave us quite good results. The solar roller was working in longer bursts – less frequent rate mode i.e. travelling a distance around 25-30 cm during his burst cycles of 3-4 sec occurring every 15-20 seconds. The solar bot was placed on a table and driven by a source of 100W light bulb from a distance of 20-30 cm from the table. We took 3-4 readings holding the light bulb at varied distances from the table and the approximate time to travel a distance of 1meter varied from 47 seconds to a little more than a minute.

Further Modifications:

Mechanical design modifications: Though this design is quite light weight, there is a little problem with the roller it slightly keeps deviating from the straight track i.e. because of the front wheels are not properly locked and also the motor shaft is little offset from the centre (motor tilt angle is changed). So you could try building a design where in the motor is attached to an axle driving two idler wheels and you attach a third pint of contact via a skid or and idler wheel. Also try using even smaller wheels to cut down the torque even further.

Circuit modifications: 1. Try varying the trigger voltage by using a Zener of higher or lower value which will decide duration of bursts as well as their rate of occurring.

2. Try varying the storage capacitor value. Since we have already used a large capacitor you could test the circuit a smaller cap around 4700-10000 microfarad and work with shorter bursts – more frequent rates.

3. Try varying the feedback resistor will help in making the bot tolerant to motor variants & inefficiency, it also helps in decreasing the charge time of capacitor little bit.

4. Try varying the size or current ratings of solar panel. Higher current ratings will help in giving in more current for motor runs but the solar panel size is going to increase.

Further readings:

http://www.solarbotics.com/assets/documentation/solarbotics_solarspeeder2_kit_may022007.pdf

http://library.solarbotics.net/apocrypha/pix/solaroller_mechanics.gif

http://library.solarbotics.net/apocrypha/pix/solaroller_circuits.gif

http://www.robotgames.net/RobotGames/Event_Rules/2002-BEAM-solaroller.html

http://www.beam-online.com/Robots/Galleria_other/solarollers.html