Page 164 - Robots Androids and Animatrons : 12 Incredible Projects You Can Build

Speech-controlled 7

mobile robot

SPEECH IS AN IDEAL METHOD FOR ROBOTIC CONTROL AND
communication. The speech-recognition circuit we will outline in
this chapter functions independently from the robot’s main intelli-
gence [central processing unit (CPU)]. This is a good thing because
it doesn’t take any of the robot’s main CPU processing power for 143
word recognition. The CPU must merely poll the speech circuit’s
recognition lines occasionally to check if a command has been is-
sued to the robot. We can even improve upon this by connecting the
recognition line to one of the robot’s CPU interrupt lines. By doing
this, a recognized word would cause an interrupt, letting the CPU
know a recognized word had been spoken. The advantage of using
an interrupt is that polling the circuit’s recognition line occasionally
would no longer be necessary, further reducing any CPU overhead.
Another advantage to this stand-alone speech-recognition circuit
(SRC) is its programmability. You can program and train the SRC
to recognize the unique words you want recognized. The SRC can
be easily interfaced to the robot’s CPU.

Most voice recognition systems on the market today are software
programs that require a host computer [usually an IBM personal
computer (PC) or compatible] and a sound card. The speech-
recognition system is still software-based even though it requires
hardware (a sound card). These programs typically run in the back-
ground of a DOS or Windows environment, stealing themselves a
portion of memory and CPU processing power while allowing other
programs like Lotus or Word to run concurrently. The concurrent

Team LRN Speech-controlled mobile robot

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