This chapter used the infrared IR LED/receiver pairs for simple distance detection, to make a BOE Shield-Bot shadow vehicle. Now-familiar skills combined with some new concepts got the job done:
Electronics
- Looking at the IR receiver’s peak sensitivity
- Exploiting the IR receiver’s sensitivity curve properties with a frequency sweep to detect distance
- Changing series resistor values to match up the sensitivity of two IR LED receiver pairs—making an adjustment in hardware
Programming
- Writing a routine with an indexing for loop to generate a frequency sweep
- Writing a sketch that uses proportional control loops
- Using const int to set up a proportional control loop’s set point and proportionality constants
- changing a control loop’s proportionality constants to fine-tune the control system—making an adjustment in software
- What sampling rate and sampling interval are, and how they relate to each other
Robotics Skills
- Setting up a closed-loop proportional control system with a processor, sensors and actuators for autonomous shadow vehicle navigation
Engineering Skills
- Reading a block diagram for a simple closed loop proportional control system, with a summing junction and operator blocks
- Understanding and using a closed loop control system’s set point, error, proportionality constant, and output value
- More subsystem testing and troubleshooting