Freescale Semiconductor's two-legged robot (FSLBOT) and a controller board lets engineers, students, and even hobbyists experiment with the robot's four servos and many sensors. Under software control, the robot will move and respond to touch, motion, vibration, tilt, and other external stimuli, depending on the sensors attached to it.
The four servos let the robot tilt over a bit on one foot and then rotate on that leg. Then when the robot moves back to the vertical position, software repeats the process on the other leg. Thus, the robot "walks" across a surface. Four AA batteries underneath the TWR-MECH controller board provide power, and the board's 32-bit MCF52259 ColdFire MCU handles the sensor inputs and servo-control PWM outputs.
Freescale Semiconductor's 2-legged robot (FSLBOT) and controller board lets engineers, students, and even hobbyists experiment with the robot's four servos and many sensors. (Source: Freescale)
Users can add four more servos if they want to position sensors, actuate a home-made grabber, or do something else. The TWR-MECH board will work in a Freescale Tower "stack," and its position on the robot lets you add other Tower-compatible boards above it. Add-on boards provide analog-to-digital converters, displays, keyboards, Ethernet, wireless communications, and so on.
A robot costs $199 and comes with a dialect of BASIC provided by CPUStick. Before you say, "Good grief, not BASIC," let me explain. Programmers use a PC as a terminal to write code that uses the StickOS editor, compiler, debugger, and memory "flasher" already installed in the robot. I have a robot so I can put it through some tests and then report on my experiences in another Mechatronics Zone blog entry. Of course, if you don't like BASIC, you can use Freescale's CodeWarrior tools to program the MCU in C/C++.
Jack, that's a really interesting concept--parts specified and installed so they can be swapped out to update the robot or try out different technologies. Jon, was there any hint of this possibility from Freescale?
Hi, Jack. You probably want to keep the TWR-MECH board for all experiments because it provides eight servo outputs and can accept two add-on sensor boards. I have the LFDA7455 3-axis accelerometer board and the LFDA3110 magnetometer board inserter on my robot, so it can provide accurate magnetic headings. The TWR-MECH board has an edge connector that ensures compatibility with other Freescale Tower boards, so you can "stack" on other boards you want to experiment with or test. The TWR-MECH board has touch-sensor inputs and plenty of digital I/O pins, too. I'll have more to report later this week.
Good comment about the Parallax BoeBot. I just saw the new board for Arduino shields. That gives students and teachers much flexibility in what and how they teach.
My wife had daVinci robotic surgery this past January and was walking about within a day. Using teleoperating machine control techniques and haptics, doctors are able to perform surgeries that are less invasive because of these highly accurate robotic machines. In addition to Parallax offering BoeBot kits that are great for STEM projects, they also provide a BoeBot shield that can be attached to an Arduino as well.
You're right mrdon. This would be especially useful if you could swap out the parts as they become obsolete or to learn different current technologies.
Ann, one of the many challenges facing engineers is staying current with new and emerging technologies. The Freescale TWR Robotics development platform is a cost effective training tool for learning evolving technologies.
I agee Ann. With all of the embedded products currently available and new ones on the drawing board, a familiarity with programming is important for technology literacy in our society. A robot like this one is a good way to experiment and explore key technologies such as sensors and microcontrollers used in an abundant products like smart phones, dishwashers, washers and dryers, to name a few. The $199 price makes it a good buy to explore robotics and Mechatronics technologies as well!
Thanks very much Jon for featuring the Freescale FSLBOT in your column. I'm really looking forward to hearing about your experience with this kit. For anyone interested, there's more information on the product page www.freescale.com/mechbot . And of course, we'd love to introduce you to FSLBOT (or the team behind the bot) at the Freescale Technology Forum in San Antonio, June 18-24.
Thanks for the new references, Ann. Good sites. A friend had surgery with a da Vinci robot and said it was an interesting experience to have a machine working inside him. Of course he was anethesized!
I'm sure Freescale will have the robots at the Technology Forum. They might even have some robots available so people can try simple programs and learn more about how the Tower Mechatronics board works. I did see many Tower-related hands-on sessions on the Freescale Techonolgy Forum Web site: http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/overview.jsp?code=FTF_2012_AMERICA_TECH_SES_OV.
Because the robot uses BASIC, I agree with Nancy that it would offer a good way to introduce kids to STEM topics and have them do things with a real-world device that includes motor controls and sensors. It wouldn't take much to increase the size of the metal mounting plate so people could add an ultrasonic distance sensor, limit switches, IR detector, and so on. I'll also add a pitch for Parallax, a company that sells many robot kits and plenty of add-ons. The company also has many good reference books and manuals with experiments. Look at the BoeBot, for example. www.parallax.com.
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