microcontrollers and robotics

Micocontrollers have revolutionized the robotic world in a significant way. Early robots made use of analog technology. This means that as the robot moved, some switches could be pushed to make electric current to flow in a certain direct and hence change the behavior of the robot. Today's robots make use of microcontroller technology (digital technology). A computer program is written and stored in the flash memory of the microcontroller and several sensors are connected to the pins of the microcontroller. For example, connect a temperature sensor to pin 1 of the microcontroller which is programmed that if temperature goes above 45 degrees, pin 2 should be high. That means current will flow out of pin 2 when temperature goes beyond 45 degrees and if pin 2 is connected to electric springs, then it means that when temperature goes beyond 45 degrees, the robot jumps high up.

Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a compact integrated circuit (IC) designed to govern a specific operation in an embedded system. A typical microcontroller includes a processor, memory and input/output (I/O) peripherals on a single chip.

The most common example of a microcontroller used by students for projects is PIC18f4550 shown in the picture below.

PIC18f4550 microcontroller

The user will interact with the micocontroller by use of the pins that are connecting to the inside of the microcontroller.
Before a microcontroller can be used, it has to be connected to a computer then a computer program is written and stored in the memory of the microcomtroller. To connect a microcontroller to a computer one will make use of another device called a programmer.

connecting microcontroller to pc

That means that you need additional hardware to fit in your micocontroller then connect it to your computer vie USB for programming. To solve the issue of additional hardware, we now have gadgets like Arduino and Raspberry pi.

Arduino

Arduino uno

There are several types of Arduinos. The one shown above is Arduino uno. It has got a micontroller called ATmega 328P fitted on the board. To program the microcontroller you just plug USB cable to the board and then to your computer.

Arduino connected to PC

The mictrocontroller can be plugged out and used elsewhere if you so wish but again it can can be used while plugged in the board.

Raspberry pi works the same way as Arduino but it is manufactured by a different company.

Raspberry pi