HEATH'S ROBOT "HERO
68 EXPERIMENTS:
FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS.
By
Howard Boyet, Microprocessor Training Inc.
(212) 473-4947
175 pp 49.99
This
manual of 68 experiments covers the fundamentals behind the control of all of HERO's I/Os as
well as applications in many areas of industrial/manufacturing environments
and non-industrial areas such as security, the home, office, "fun and
games", hospitals etc. One of the aims of the manual is to educate the
user to become a robot innovator capable of conceiving and implementing imaginitive programs to control and use robot I/Os in imaginitive ways in a 'variety of practical and real world
industrial and non-industrial applications. It offers a bridge between the
fundamentals behind microcomputer robot control and significant practical
applications.
Chapter
1 covers general HERO information and presents 9 experiments working with
useful and powerful subroutines in HERO's monitor that become tools in
all the experiments that follow, lending real world practicality to them.
Chapter
2 explores in depth machine language microcomputer control of all of HERO's I/Os,
including its 7 stepper motors controlling its 7 degrees of freedom. 14 experiments
in this important area of fundamentals are offered giving the reader a mastery
of I/0 control generally.
Chapter 3 covers Hero’s user
dedicated keys, the monitoring of stepper motor positions, polling of its
8-line interrupt port, working with and servicing motion, trigger, and
experimental board interrupts, its real-time clock, and its special RAM buffer
locations. These matters are covered in 8 experiments.
Chapter 4 goes into an in-depth study of how to
write an interpreter behind any higher robot language. An interpreter program
and experiment are presented which executes and implements user defined robot
language commands. This chapter completely removes any mystery behind
interpreters and higher level robot languages.
Chapter
5 presents 12 experiments covering the fundamentals behind,
and applications with, HERO's light and sound sensors, and speech synthesis
capabilities. Various real world robot activities are programmed as responses
to sound and/or light detection, including speech.
Chapter 6 covers HERO's motion detection and range measuring capabilities using its ultrasonic transmitter-receiver. 8 experiments offer typical robot activities which are programmed as various responses to motion detection or target range measured values.
Chapter 7 goes through all the theory behind a remote
manual control teach pendant. Of the 4 experiments, two present interactive
programs that allow use of the pendant as a remote tele-operator
or as a teach pendant. Two others apply the teach pendant in typical robot
industrial activities in which the robot learns from pendant directed
movements and then replays either what it learned or a keyboard modified
version of same. The teach pendant is studied and used, rather than merely
used.
Chapter
8 is the culmination of the book in which 12 powerful applications experiments
are presented, 9 in industrial/manufacturing areas and 3 in non-industrial
areas: teaching HERO task activities
from the keyboard (MDI: Manual Data Input) at "run time" using HERO's powerful
"motor move indexed" command in a broad generalized interactive
program; a pick and place robot of wide flexibility; choosing from a menu of
robot tasks using HERO's powerful "motor move extended" command; a
two-sensor robot application (filling arriving empty cartons with parts and
waiting for the arrival of other cartons); simulation of camera vision in a
piece treatment and placement operation; robot catch-up with a conveyor belt
to place a part; a 2-bin parts placing manufacturing operation with QC on the
assembled piece and count-up of good/ bad pieces; robot learning from its
environment (sensors) with "on-the-fly" modification of its task; 3
"fun and games" experiments (HERO goes to a dance; HERO sleeps or
works, goes to lunch, returns back to sleep or work; HERO welcomes guests and serves them); and finally HERO
sorts parts coming down a conveyor belt
according to size and places them in appropriate bins.
Two
valuable appendices are included: Appendix A reproduces useful HERO programming and I/O information as well as the 6800/6808
instruction set and 6808 pin-out (courtesy Heath Co. and Motorola). Appendix B
presents a most useful table of motor select/speed/direction bytes needed for
motor move commands as well as distance or position range bytes for each of HERO's 7 stepper motors
and base drive motor, also needed for those commands.