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Our friend Muris from Elektronika.ba has been developing a Robot Navigation Platform. This system will include everything you could wish for on a single board for navigating your robot. Like all complex project there are bound to be some bumps in the road and this project is not immune to that fact. Read the build details to see what issues came up and how they are being resolved.
"I always had this idea of making my own GPS guided RC car. The hardware should not be very complicated but the software could get pretty messy. After some planning I came up with the hardware design (my robotic platform) that has integrated:
- Atmega328P (Atmega48P/88P/128P/328P series)
- HM55B digital compass module from Parallax
- PING))) ultrasonic range finder from Parallax
- Two MC33886 H-bridge controllers from Freescale
- Voltage converters to 5V and 3.3V for all electronics on board
- GPS receiver chip - Venus634FLPx from SkyTraq (bought from SparkFun)
- External LNA for more GPS RF amplification
- On-board small chip scale antenna (now you know why external LNA)
- ISP programming port for Atmega uC
- Three push-buttons with input pins accessible for additional external devices (more sensors)
- Three status LEDs with three output pins accessible for additional external devices (servos)
- Debugging with UART port for Atmega uC and GPS receiver chip"
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June 2nd, 2009
brilliant
June 2nd, 2009
Where can I buy one?
June 3rd, 2009
Great idea, but perhaps divide-and-conquer methodology would help avoid the problems with GPS and compass author stated on his site. Bundle each sensor with own small, cheap microcontroller, keep GPS chip bundled with antenna and micro, then strategically place each sensor module at most favorable places on chassis and connect them all with supply and serial comms lines to the central “brain”. It would also scale well for larger robots and allow for easy “brain” upgrade without remaking all the sensors.
June 4th, 2009
Parallax has the “motherboard” that allows modular use of all this and more….provisions to handle the power drains too.