A.R.T.I.E. - Autonomous Roving Terrain Investigation Experiment, An ArduBot

By robotguy_pdx
@ October 2, 2009

• Control method: autonomous, ZigBee (XBee) wireless
• CPU: Two Arduinos based on the Atmega328P. The MCP will be a WiseDuino (has an RTC and some EEPROM)
• Operating system: N/A
• Power source: LiquidWare's HiCap Lithium Backpack
• Programming language: C/C++
• Sensors / input devices: wheel encoders, 3 - 5 reflective sensors for line following, Sharp GP2D12, PING, 3-Axis accelerometer.
• Target environment: indoor, table top

Wheel Encoder Set
SPDT Mini Power Switch
H-Bridge Motor Driver 1A
Micro Metal Gearmotor 100:1
XBee 2mW Series 2.5 RPSMA
IWRL-00558 2.4GHz Duck Antenna RP-SMA - Large
ROB-08909 Ball Caster Metal - 3/8"
ROB-09207 Ardubot Bare PCB
ATmega328 with Arduino Bootloader
XBee Explorer USB
Arduino XBee Shield Empty
A BeagleBoard

I also ordered the following from Liquidware ( http://www.liquidware.com )

HiCap Lithium Backpack (for ARTIE's power supply)
Double Wide Extender Shield
4 black mini prototype boards

The last item I ordered is a WiseDuino. This Arduino compatible board also has a battery backed real time clock and some external EEPROM for non-volatile data storage.

I'll probably put the BeagleBoard on ARTIE just because I can. :) It will also allow me to experiment with communication between the BeagleBoard (Linux) and multiple Arduino boards. Only time will tell if I can cram all of this onto a single Ardubot. I will have all the parts for ARTIE sometime next week and will be able to start building him.

13-Oct-2009: I received all the parts to build ARTIE, except for the WiseDuino controller.  However, the ArduBot PCB I got is not going to be suitable for what I want to do with him. I've decided to go ahead and build him up on one of the 5" Pololu chassis. Since I am still waiting arrival of the WiseDuino kit, I will continue working on ARTIE in November. The Pololu chassis also already has mounting holes for most of what I initially want to put on ARTIE - reflective sensors, IR prokimity sensors, the wheels and encoders I already have, and a ready way to mount the WiseDuino.  I've also discovered that the XBee shield I bought is not compatible with the double wide extender shield I got from LiquidWare. I may end up using one of the AdaFruit XBee adapters instead, because there does not seem to be any other option for an XBee shield.