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DAGU MR. Tidy User Manual

Mr. tidy robotics
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Mr. Tidy is a unique and versatile robotic platform ideal for students and hobbyist alike. The 2DOF arm and
array of sensors make this robot capable of so much more than just line following and object avoidance. An
open framework makes experimentation and expansion quick and easy.

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Summary of Contents for DAGU MR. Tidy

  • Page 1 Mr. Tidy is a unique and versatile robotic platform ideal for students and hobbyist alike. The 2DOF arm and array of sensors make this robot capable of so much more than just line following and object avoidance. An open framework makes experimentation and expansion quick and easy.

  • Page 2: Table Of Contents

    Contents: Main board features Assembly Installing the software Understanding the sample software How it works Trouble shooting Using the diagnostic software Specifications...

  • Page 3: Main Board Features

    Main board Features...

  • Page 4: Assembly

    Assembly Instructions STEP 1: The robot arm comes in two parts that must be joined together before the arm is attached to the base. Start by removing the nuts and spring washers shown in the photo bellow. Do not completely remove the screws.
  • Page 5 STEP 3: Undo the 3 brass spacers and remove the main board. STEP 4: Insert 6x “AA” (UM3) NiMh batteries. Do not use alkaline batteries as they cannot supply enough power for the robot and cannot be recharged. Note how the battery cable is run.
  • Page 6 STEP 5: Re-install the main board being careful to ensure the encoder PCB for the wheels plugs in correctly. Make sure the battery cable is behind the mounting post so it cannot jam in the gears. STEP 6: Mount the arm onto the base with 3x8mm screws as shown. The screwdriver goes between the gears from above.
  • Page 7 STEP 7: Now that the arm is mounted we need to tie the wires to the frame and connect all the wires to the main board. Pay careful attention to the orientation of the plugs.
  • Page 8 STEP 8: Attach the IR receiver to the robot. Pay careful attention to how the cable plugs into the processor board. Incorrect connection may damage the receiver. STEP 9: Check your connections carefully before turning the robot on. When you turn it on it should start by playing a simple tune.

  • Page 9: Installing The Software

    STEP 10: optional sensor alignment rings can be fitted to help maintain sensor alignment when the robot bumps into something. These rings may reduce the sensitivity of the sensors slightly but can improve reliability. Installing the software This robot can be programmed using a free Integrated Development Environments (IDE) from the internet. Depending on your programming skills there are several choices.

  • Page 10: Understanding The Sample Software

    Understanding the sample software The sample software supplied with the robot instructs the robot to locate objects and sort them based on colour. This is only a simple demonstration program but it contains sample code for all the motors and sensors.
  • Page 11 The third tab contains notes on how some of the sensors are used in the software. As you write your own code you may add more information here. This is basically a scribble page. The fourth tab contains a list of constants. Normally these values do not change. They are listed here to simplify program adjustments such as calibration of the RGB sensor.
  • Page 12 The last tab contains a conversion table of musical notes thanks to Brett Hagman. This can be used to simplify generation of melodies for your robot and is used for the initial melody played when the robot begins operation. Program structure: When you break the sample program down the structure is very basic.

  • Page 13: How It Works

    How it works Before you can write your own programs for Mr. Tidy you need to understand how the sensors work and how the motors can be controlled. Front sensors: Each front sensor consists of 1 infrared LED and two infrared phototransistors. The two phototransistors are wired in parallel to increase the range.
  • Page 14 Motor control: Each of the 4 motors on the robot are driven by a “H” bridge. This is a circuit commonly used to control DC motors when direction as well as speed needs to be controlled. Field Effect Transistors (FET) are used on this robot as they are more efficient than Bi-polar Junction Transistors (BJT) thus allowing more power to be delivered to the motors.

  • Page 15: Trouble Shooting

    Troubleshooting: If the robot fails to operate correctly then please check the list below. In many cases it may be necessary to use a 12DC (500mA or better) power supply plugged into the recharge socket. You may also need to install the diagnostic software which is supplied or can be downloaded from our website at: http://arexx.com.cn/en/DownList.asp Note: the robot should not be operated in strong sunlight as this can reduce the sensitivity of the IR sensors.

  • Page 16: Using The Diagnostic Software

    Using the diagnostic program The diagnostic software allows you to test all of the robots sensors and motors. To use the program you must have the Arduino Programming Environment loaded on your computer (version 18 or later). Open the program Mr_Tidy_PCB_diagnostic. Go to the tools menu and select the “Arduino Mega” as your board type.
  • Page 17 Upload the diagnostic program to your robot. You should see the communication LEDs near the USB port light up as the program is uploaded and verified. If this fails then re-check your serial port settings and check that your robot is turned on. It may be necessary to connect 12V DC to the charging socket if your battery voltage is too low.
  • Page 18 You will see the output of the colour sensor in the serial monitor. If there are no objects within range it will say the colour is none. The colour recognition code simply looks at which readings are higher than the average. To calibrate the colour sensor, place a piece of white paper about 20mm in front of the robot.
  • Page 19 To calibrate the front sensors, press “f” and then [Enter]. This will display the readings from the four front sensors. Place the robot so there is nothing within 1 meter of the sensors. All sensor readings should have similar low values. As you move your hand in front of the sensors you should see the readings change. The value “Object Size”...
  • Page 20 The last test is for the “H” bridges that control the motors. As this test runs all motors forward and backward without regard to limits it is recommended that the arm and gripper motors have their drive gears removed before testing and the robot be suspended so the wheels are not in contact with the ground. Below you can see a photo of the gripper motor with it’s drive gear removed.

  • Page 21: Specifications

    Specifications Processor: Atmega1280-16AU Clock Speed: 16MHz Memory: 128K FLASH (2K used by Arduino bootloader), 4K EEPROM, 8K SRAM Communication methods supported: USB, I2C, SPI, TTL serial, IR IR receiver carrier frequency: 38KHz Motor control: 4x FET “H” bridges rated at 4A continuous with current sensing Position feedback: 2x Wheel encoder –...