Controlling the ER1 Robot with Visual Basic

Anthony AustinKenneth HansonWilliam Lopez

The Evolution of the Robotinto the Learning Environment

Anthony AustinCerritos College

Statement of the Problem:

The US is experiencing a decline in the number of college and university graduates in the fields of engineering, computer science and technology.

Addressing the Problem:

Interest students in technology through the use of robotic, computer and electronic engineering.

Provide technical workshops to strengthen teachers’ experience and education in engineering.

Encourage enrollment through articulation between the university, community college, secondary and elementary educational systems

A Robotic Solution:

There has been a resurgence of interest in robotics caused by:

Space explorationMarine explorationEntertainmentAutomation

Objective of the Activity

To Provide a Graphical Interface Using the Visual Basic Language to control the ER1 Robot.

CSULB Research Project

Educational Use of Autonomous Robots– Communication– Control– Programming– Sensor interface– Imaging– Speech recognition– Speech synthesis

The ER1 Robot

Kenneth HansonCerritos College

Capabilities of ER1 Robot

Motion Control-Navigation Speech Recognition and Synthesis Vision-Object Recognition Gripper Control Communication by Wireless and

Internet Communication

Programming the ER1 Robot

The behaviors or activities of the ER1 are controlled by a series of IF, THEN statements.

Controls Screen

Behavior Execution

Examples of IF, THEN Behavior

Behavior 1: IF see a dollar bill THEN say 1 dollar bill.

Behavior 2: IF Detector senses obstacle THEN say obstacle

Controlling the ER1 with Visual Basic

William Lopez Cerritos

College

ER1 Control Screen

Sophisticated

Complex

Proprietary

Disadvantages of Using ER1 Control Screen

Coding of ER1 incompatible with Existing Educational Robots

Limited by Proprietary Coding

Difficult to Modify

Why Use Visual Basic? Provides a Simple Visual Interface

Code is Transparent to the User

Common Programming Language

Versatile

Visual Basic Interface

Visual Basic Code

Similar to Basic Computer Language

Easy to Modify

New Visual Basic Control Screen

Activity Results:

Achieved Control of ER1 Robot using Visual Basic Programming

Gained new programming skills

Evolving the ER1 into the future

Educational Use of Autonomous Robots– Communication– Control– Programming– Sensor interface– Imaging– Speech recognition– Speech synthesis