Project 16 : Mentor Robot

Left side view

Right side view

Motor driver circuit

Visual basic SCADA interface video

Description

Mentor robot is actually outdated. But for some purpose, it can be modified to do some simple jobs. Some may use it as a demo robot in school/university. The pictures above show how we can control the mentor robot using computer interface. Visual basic software is used as SCADA system to get data send from robot or send the data from user back to robot meaning that we can build 2-way communication system.

This old robot has 5 DOF with 1 gripper. It uses DC motor to move and each motor is attached with a potentiometer that can be used to send feedback data (motor position). This is not an accurate way to sense motors position but it may help. PIC mictrocontroller is programmed to read the position data from robot and receives commands from visual basic. It is between computer keyboard and motor. Motor driver L293/L298 may drive the robot right or left, forward or backward, up or down. 

Prinsip operasi

Sebuah projek robotik yang dikawal oleh keypad/komputer. Robot ini dari jenis picking robot utk mengambil dan meletakkan item pada lokasi yg boleh dikawal menggunakan komputer. Robot ini mempunyai  5 DOF(Degree of freedom) iaitu 5 paksi yg boleh dikawal oleh motor DC. Program PIC dibangunkan utk membaca kod keypad/komputer dan menghantar data ke litar driver motor yg telah dibina. Dengan menekan button2 yg telah diprogram, robot ini boleh dikawal utk fungsi pick and place item2 tertentu.

Jenis driver yg digunakan adalah L293D/L298 utk memacu motor secara forward/reverse atau atas/bawah atau kiri/kanan. Program visual basic boleh dibangunkan utk memeta kedudukan semasa robot dan ini memungkinkan robot berfungsi secara automatik (autonomous). Robot juga boleh dikawal dari jauh jika RF transmitter/receiver digunakan ke dlm sistem.