Controlling the ER1 Robot with Visual Basic Anthony Austin Kenneth Hanson William Lopez
Jan 03, 2016
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