ROBOTICS SYSTEMS AND PROGRAMMING
1. Overview: The Main Pieces
a. The Robot, cRio, and wireless bridge. (gaming adapter)
b. The drive station (D/S) and wireless router.
c. The USB hub, USB Joysticks, and D/S I/O board.
d. The network, TCP/IP (v4) addresses.
e. The Development station and NI’s LabView.
f. Exercise: Wire up the network components of the robot and make it work.
2. LabView: A Multi-Tasking Software Development System
a. Tasks: one-shot, continuous, and periodic.
b. VI’s and the Watchdog Timer.
c. How to make a simple Robot Program.
d. Autonomous mode versus Operator Controlled Mode.
e. Exercise: Create a simple robot program to run our robot, using all the correct
addresses, file names, and VIs.
3. Some Common Elements
a. Joystick Input, x, y, z, triggers and buttons.
b. Drive Motor Control (Jaguars and Victors)
c. The Digital Breakout. Board and basic wiring connections.
d. Exercise: Extend your simple robot program to respond to a trigger pull or button
press on the joystick. (e.g. Apply the brakes.)
4. Making things move: Motors
a. Spike Relays for Controlling Motors.
b. Servo Motors.
c. More on Jaguars and Victors.
d. Shaft Encoders, measuring movement.
e. Gears, gear ratios, gearing for power, gearing for speed.
f. Exercise: Use a joystick button to actuate a servo motor.
g. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to start a Spike driven motor for fixed amount of time.
h. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to run a jaguar driven motor for a distance measured
by the shaft encoder.
5. Making more things move: Pneumatics
a. Compressors, solenoids, storage tanks, pistons and actuators.
b. Spike Relays to control solenoids, versus the pneumatic breakout.
c. Moving really heavy loads with pneumatics.
d. Exercise: Use a joystick button to extend a pneumatic piston, and then use a second
button to retract it.
e. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to extend a pneumatic piston when pressed and retract
it when released.
6. Sensors: How the Robot ‘sees’ the world around it.
a. String Potentiometers to measure distance.
b. Gyroscopes (gyros) measure changes in angle or heading.
c. Accelerometers measure changes in acceleration.
d. Limit switches measure specific points.
e. Optical Sensors detect objects.
f. Exercise: Use a limit switch to turn off a joystick driven jaguar motor.
g. Exercise: Use an Optical Sensor to extend and retract a pneumatic piston.
h. Exercise: Use a string potentiometer to measure the length on your hand.
i. Exercise: Really advance: Use a gyro to follow a heading.
7. Autonomous Mode: Putting it all together…
a. No operator intervention.
b. Only can know things based on game rules, and what the Robot can sense.
c. Exercise: Create an autonomous mode program to drive the robot a short distance,
slowly.
d. Exercise: Create an autonomous mode program to extend a pneumatic piston, wait for
a few seconds and then retract the piston.
8. Driver Station Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Input / Output (I/O)
a. Controls and Indicators.
b. Communicating between the robot and the driver station.
c. Obtaining and controlling additional driver station I/O, the extended I/O board.
d. Exercise: Create a program that uses a button on the driver station I/O board to move
a servo slowly. Use a different button to move it in the opposite direction.
e. Exercise: Create an indicator on the driver station to show the current location of the
servo motor being controlled.
1. Overview: The Main Pieces
a. The Robot, cRio, and wireless bridge. (gaming adapter)
b. The drive station (D/S) and wireless router.
c. The USB hub, USB Joysticks, and D/S I/O board.
d. The network, TCP/IP (v4) addresses.
e. The Development station and NI’s LabView.
f. Exercise: Wire up the network components of the robot and make it work.
2. LabView: A Multi-Tasking Software Development System
a. Tasks: one-shot, continuous, and periodic.
b. VI’s and the Watchdog Timer.
c. How to make a simple Robot Program.
d. Autonomous mode versus Operator Controlled Mode.
e. Exercise: Create a simple robot program to run our robot, using all the correct
addresses, file names, and VIs.
3. Some Common Elements
a. Joystick Input, x, y, z, triggers and buttons.
b. Drive Motor Control (Jaguars and Victors)
c. The Digital Breakout. Board and basic wiring connections.
d. Exercise: Extend your simple robot program to respond to a trigger pull or button
press on the joystick. (e.g. Apply the brakes.)
4. Making things move: Motors
a. Spike Relays for Controlling Motors.
b. Servo Motors.
c. More on Jaguars and Victors.
d. Shaft Encoders, measuring movement.
e. Gears, gear ratios, gearing for power, gearing for speed.
f. Exercise: Use a joystick button to actuate a servo motor.
g. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to start a Spike driven motor for fixed amount of time.
h. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to run a jaguar driven motor for a distance measured
by the shaft encoder.
5. Making more things move: Pneumatics
a. Compressors, solenoids, storage tanks, pistons and actuators.
b. Spike Relays to control solenoids, versus the pneumatic breakout.
c. Moving really heavy loads with pneumatics.
d. Exercise: Use a joystick button to extend a pneumatic piston, and then use a second
button to retract it.
e. Exercise: Use a joystick trigger to extend a pneumatic piston when pressed and retract
it when released.
6. Sensors: How the Robot ‘sees’ the world around it.
a. String Potentiometers to measure distance.
b. Gyroscopes (gyros) measure changes in angle or heading.
c. Accelerometers measure changes in acceleration.
d. Limit switches measure specific points.
e. Optical Sensors detect objects.
f. Exercise: Use a limit switch to turn off a joystick driven jaguar motor.
g. Exercise: Use an Optical Sensor to extend and retract a pneumatic piston.
h. Exercise: Use a string potentiometer to measure the length on your hand.
i. Exercise: Really advance: Use a gyro to follow a heading.
7. Autonomous Mode: Putting it all together…
a. No operator intervention.
b. Only can know things based on game rules, and what the Robot can sense.
c. Exercise: Create an autonomous mode program to drive the robot a short distance,
slowly.
d. Exercise: Create an autonomous mode program to extend a pneumatic piston, wait for
a few seconds and then retract the piston.
8. Driver Station Graphical User Interface (GUI) and Input / Output (I/O)
a. Controls and Indicators.
b. Communicating between the robot and the driver station.
c. Obtaining and controlling additional driver station I/O, the extended I/O board.
d. Exercise: Create a program that uses a button on the driver station I/O board to move
a servo slowly. Use a different button to move it in the opposite direction.
e. Exercise: Create an indicator on the driver station to show the current location of the
servo motor being controlled.
