Page 39 - PDA Robotics Using Your Personal Digital Assistant to Control Your Robot

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Robotic

System

Overview

PDA Robot consists of a robotic body and a PDA (handheld computer)
brain. This book will guide you through the creation of PDA Robot.
The project consists of mechanical, electronic, and software compo-
nents. Figure 2.1 shows PDA Robot roaming autonomously through
the house, capturing images when any motion is detected. The PDA
sitting on top is the machine’s main controller, receiving, analyzing,
and sending data to the robot body. The PDA is connected to a desk-
top computer that is monitoring the system, interpreting both data and
the video stream. The personal computer (PC) also acts as a control
station where the robot can be controlled remotely, based on the video
that is displayed.

The block diagram in Figure 2.2 is a high-level conceptualization of
PDA Robot. It doesn’t show the PDA connected to the wireless network.

Major Electronic Parts

Microchip MCP2150 IrDA
Standard Protocol Stack Controller
The MCP2150 is a cost-effective, low pin-count (18-pin), easy to use
device for implementing Infrared Data Association (IrDA) standard
wireless connectivity (see Figure 2.3). The MCP2150 provides support
for the IrDA standard protocol “stack” plus bit encoding/decoding.

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