Publisher Description

Robot Programming: A Guide to Controlling Autonomous Robots takes the reader on an adventure through the eyes of Midamba, a lad who has been stranded on a desert island and must find a way to program robots to help him escape. In this guide, you are presented with practical approaches and techniques to program robot sensors, motors, and translate your ideas into tasks a robot can execute autonomously. These techniques can be used on today's leading robot microcontrollers (ARM9 and ARM7) and robot platforms (including the wildly popular low-cost Arduino platforms, LEGO® Mindstorms EV3, NXT, and Wowee RS Media Robot) for your hardware/Maker/DIY projects. Along the way the reader will learn how to:

• Program robot sensors and motors
• Program a robot arm to perform a task
• Describe the robot's tasks and environments in a way that a robot can process using robot S.T.O.R.I.E.S.
• Develop a R.S.V.P. (Robot Scenario Visual Planning) used for designing the robot's tasks in an environment
• Program a robot to deal with the "unexpected" using robot S.P.A.C.E.S.
• Program robots safely using S.A.R.A.A. (Safe Autonomous Robot Application Architecture) Approach
• Program robots using Arduino C/C++ and Java languages
• Use robot programming techniques with LEGO® Mindstorms EV3, Arduino, and other ARM7 and ARM9-based robots.

Author Biography

 
Cameron Hughes is a computer and robot programmer. He holds a post as a Software Epistemologist at Ctest Laboratories where he is currently working on A.I.M. (Alternative Intelligence for Machines) and A.I.R. (Alternative Intelligence for Robots) technologies. Cameron is the lead AI Engineer for the Knowledge Group at Advanced Software Construction Inc., a builder of intelligent robot controllers and software-based knowledge components. He holds a staff appointment as a Programmer/Analyst at Youngstown State University. Tracey Hughes is a senior software and graphics programmer at Ctest Laboratories and Advanced Software Construction Inc. where she develops user interfaces and information and epistemic visualization software systems. Her work includes methods of graphically showing what robots and computers are thinking. She is on the design and implementation teams for the East-Sidaz robots at Ctest as well.
Both Cameron and Tracey Hughes are members of the advisory board for the NREF (National Robotics Education Foundation) and members of the Oak Hill Collaborative Robotics Maker Space. They are project leaders of the technical team for the NEOACM CSI/CLUE Robotics Challenge and regularly organize and direct robot programming workshops for the Arduino, Mindstorms EV3, LEGO NXT, and RS Media robot platforms. Cameron and Tracey are two of the authors of Build Your Own Teams of Robots with LEGO® Mindstorms® NXT and Bluetooth, published by McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics, January 2013. They have written many books and blogs on Software Development and Artificial Intelligence. They've also written books on multicore, multithreaded programming, Linux rapid application development, objectoriented programming, and parallel programming in C++.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1 Robot Programming Boot Camp
2 Ready, Set, Go! No Wires or Strings Attached
2 Boot Camp Fundamentals
3 Core Robot Programming Skills Introduced in This Book
4 BURT-Basic Universal Robot Translator
4 BRON-Bluetooth Robot Oriented Network
6 Assumptions About the Reader's Robot(s)
6 How Midamba Learned to Program a Robot
7 1 What Is a Robot Anyway?
9 The Seven Criteria of Defining a Robot
10 Criterion #1: Sensing the Environment
11 Criterion #2: Programmable Actions and Behavior
11 Criterion #3: Change, Interact with, or Operate on Environment
11 Criterion #4: Power Source Required
11 Criterion #5: A Language Suitable for Representing Instructions and Data
12 Criterion #6: Autonomy Without External Intervention
12 Criterion #7: A Nonliving Machine
13 Robot Categories
13 What Is a Sensor?
16 What Is an Actuator?
17 What Is an End-Effector?
18 What Is a Controller?
19 What Scenario Is the Robot In?
23 Giving the Robot Instructions
25 Every Robot Has a Language
25 Meeting the Robot's Language Halfway
27 How Is the Robot Scenario Represented in Visual Programming Environments?
30 Midamba's Predicament
30 What's Ahead?
32 2 Robot Vocabularies
33 Why the Additional Effort?
34 Identify the Actions
38 The Autonomous Robot's ROLL Model
39 Robot Capabilities
41 Robot Roles in Scenarios and Situations
42 What's Ahead?
44 3 RSVP: Robot Scenario Visual Planning
47 Mapping the Scenario
48 Creating a Floorplan
49 The Robot's World
52 RSVP READ SET
53 Pseudocode and Flowcharting RSVP
56 Flow of Control and Control Structures
60 Subroutines
64 Statecharts for Robots and Objects
66 Developing a Statechart
68 What's Ahead?
72 4 Checking the Actual Capabilities of Your Robot
73 The Reality Check for the Microcontroller
76 Sensor Reality Check
79 Determine Your Robot's Sensor Limitations
81 Actuators End-Effectors Reality Check
84 REQUIRE Robot Effectiveness
87 What's Ahead?
89 5 A Close Look at Sensors
91 What Do Sensors Sense?
92 Analog and Digital Sensors
95 Reading Analog and Digital Signals
97 The Output of a Sensor
99 Where Readings Are Stored
100 Active and Passive Sensors
101 Sensor Interfacing with Microcontrollers
103 Attributes of Sensors
107 Range and Resolution
108 Precision and Accuracy
108 Linearity
109 Sensor Calibration
110 Problems with Sensors
111 End User Calibration Process
112 Calibration Methods
112 What's Ahead?
114 6 Programming the Robot's Sensors
115 Using the Color Sensor
116 Color Sensor Modes
118 Detection Range
119 Lighting in the Robot's Environment
119 Calibrating the Color Sensor
119 Programming the Color Sensor
120 Digital Cameras Used to Detect and Track Color Objects
124 Tracking Colored Objects with RS Media
124 Tracking Colored Objects with the Pixy Vision Sensor
128 Training Pixy to Detect Objects
129 Programming the Pixy
130 A Closer Look at the Attributes
134 Ultrasonic Sensor
135 Ultrasonic Sensor Limitations and Accuracy
135 Modes of the Ultrasonic Sensor
139 Sample Readings
140 Data Types for Sensor Reading
141 Calibration of the Ultrasonic Sensor
141 Programming the Ultrasonic Sensor
143 Compass Sensor Calculates Robot's Heading
153 Programming the Compass
154 What's Ahead?
157 7 Programming Motors and Servos
159 Actuators Are Output Transducers
159 Motor Characteristics
160 Voltage
160 Current
161 Speed
161 Torque
161 Resistance
161 Different Types of DC Motors
161 Direct Current (DC) Motors
162 Speed and Torque
165 Motors with Gears
167 Motor Configurations: Direct and Indirect Drivetrains
177 Terrain Challenge for Indoor and Outdoor Robots
178 Dealing with Terrain Challenges
179 Torque Challenge for Robot Arm and End-Effectors
182 Calculating Torque and Speed Requirements
182 Motors and REQUIRE
183 Programming the Robot to Move
184 One Motor, Two, Three, More?
185 Making the Moves
186 Programming the Moves
186 Programming Motors to Travel to a Location
191 Programming Motors Using Arduino
198 Robotic Arms and End-Effectors
200 Robot Arms of Different Types
201 Torque of the Robot Arm
203 Different Types of End-Effectors
205 Programming the Robot Arm
208 Calculating Kinematics
212 What's Ahead?
216 8 Getting Started with Autonomy: Building Your Robot's Softbot Counterpart
219 Softbots: A First Look
222 Parts Section
224 The Actions Section
224 The Tasks Section
224 The Scenarios/Situations Section
224 The Robot's ROLL Model and Softbot Frame
225 BURT Translates Softbots Frames into Classes
227 Our First Pass at Autonomous Robot Program Designs
239 What's Ahead?
240 9 Robot SPACES
241 A Robot Needs Its SPACES
242 The Extended Robot Scenario
242 The REQUIRE Checklist
245 What Happens If Pre/Postconditions Are Not Met?
248 What Action Choices Do I Have If Pre/Postconditions Are Not Met?
248 A Closer Look at Robot Initialization Postconditions
249 Power Up Preconditions and Postconditions
251 Coding Preconditions and Postconditions
252 Where Do the Pre/Postconditions Come From?
257 SPACES Checks and RSVP State Diagrams
262 What's Ahead?
263 10 An Autonomous Robot Needs STORIES
265 It's Not Just the Actions!
266 Birthday Robot Take 2
266 Robot STORIES
268 The Extended Robot Scenario
269 Converting Unit1's Scenario into STORIES
269 A Closer Look at the Scenario's Ontology
271 Paying Attention to the Robot's Intention
282 Object-Oriented Robot Code and Efficiency Concerns
304 What's Ahead?
306 11 Putting It All Together: How Midamba Programmed His First Autonomous Robot
307 Midamba's Initial Scenario
307 Midamba Becomes a Robot Programmer Overnight!
308 Step 1. Robots in the Warehouse Scenario
310 Step 2. The Robot's Vocabulary and ROLL Model for Facility Scenario #1
312 Step 3. RSVP for Facility Scenario #1
313 Visual Layouts of a Robot POV Diagram
315 Midamba's Facility Scenario #1 (Refined)
316 Graphical Flowchart Component of the RSVP
317 State Diagram Component of the RSVP
324 Midamba's STORIES for Robot Unit1 and Unit2
325 Autonomous Robots to Midamba's Rescue
338 Endnote
342 What's Ahead?
342 12 Open Source SARAA Robots for All!
343 Low-Cost, Open-Source, Entry-Level Robots
344 Scenario-Based Programming Supports Robot Safety and Programmer Responsibility
345 SARAA Robots for All
346 Recommendations for First-Time Robot Programmers
348 Complete RSVPs, STORIES, and Source Code for Midamba's Scenario
349 A BURT's Gotchas
351 TOC

Long Description

Start programming robots NOW! Learn hands-on, through easy examples, visuals, and code This is a unique introduction to programming robots to execute tasks autonomously. Drawing on years of experience in artificial intelligence and robot programming, Cameron and Tracey Hughes introduce the reader to basic concepts of programming robots to execute tasks without the use of remote controls. Robot Programming: A Guide to Controlling Autonomous Robots takes the reader on an adventure through the eyes of Midamba, a lad who has been stranded on a desert island and must find a way to program robots to help him escape. In this guide, you are presented with practical approaches and techniques to program robot sensors, motors, and translate your ideas into tasks a robot can execute autonomously. These techniques can be used on today's leading robot microcontrollers (ARM9 and ARM7) and robot platforms (including the wildly popular low-cost Arduino platforms, LEGO

Feature

The ONLY complete, up-to-date beginner's guide to robot programming: learn through easy examples! Make your robot (or your team of robots) do exactly what you want! Program robot sensors and motors, and discover the latest robot automation techniques Covers both ARM9 and ARM7 micro-controllers, including the newest LEGO Mindstorms and Wowee RS Media Robots Unleash the power of Java for LEGO and the Linux-based OS for LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Learn practical skills

Details