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Help needed for Delta Robot Project — Parallax Forums

Help needed for Delta Robot Project

Ahmad BilalAhmad Bilal Posts: 15
edited 2014-11-07 06:23 in General Discussion
Hi every one!
I am new to forums. I am working on Delta Robot (3-Axis Parallel Robot) Project as my Final Year project in Mechatronics Engineering.

After project case study and performing search on web, I have concluded that I should select Parallax Propeller Microcontroller for controlling the Delta Robot to drive three servo motors simultaneously as no other microcontroller (talking about PIC and AVR) supports parallel control of servo motors, XMOS Microcontrollers are exception. So I need help and guidance.
I have some queries:

1. Should I select Propeller Microcontroller for Control System of Delta Robot or consider other microcontrollers?
2. I have very good skills in C/C++ so which programming language should I select for Propeller, Spin or C/C++?
3. I have visited 'Object Exchange'. Are there any Robotics libraries for Robot Kinematics and dynamics? There many robotics libraries out there in C/C++, java, python and MATALB.

My first post and so many questions i have asked! :innocent: Thanks for any help :smile:

Comments

  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-11-07 04:28
    Welcome Ahmad. You can certainly control three motors as you need to with the Propeller. As far as language, you will have some options with C/C+ on the Prop, others will be able to advise you there. I love SPIN, and highly recommend you get your feet wet with learning it. I found it to be very intuitive and newbie-friendly. PASM is a great as well. If you do not already have a board, I suggest locating one of the project boards that are available( some may even be locally available) and just dive in with some of the basics like blinking an LED and go from there. Have Fun!
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-07 04:38
    Be aware that C code on the Propeller whilst quicker is larger. You will have to evaluate if that is an issue for your project or not.

    I would suggest you spend a day learning and playing with Spin. If you are are a C++ guy you will find that it is very easy to pick up. Careful though, Spins operators may look like those of C/C++ but some of them behave differently or you need different symbols for the same operation. That catches out many.

    For real speed you will want to use assembler, PASM. This is most easily done in Spin. PASM is built in there. PASM is very easy to pick up.

    I don't know about kinematics libraries, I would worry that any you find in the C++ world will be two large to fit in the Propeller.
  • Ahmad BilalAhmad Bilal Posts: 15
    edited 2014-11-07 05:18
    Thanks for response.
    I have a good experience with assembly language while studying Intel's 8051 Microcontrollers but I have better skills in embedded C/C++. But I am thinking to learn Spin as I have been through some Spin tutorials. Spin is very picky and easy to learn, I think. I have found a number of servo control libraries in OBEX for spin. The only thing I am worried of is the Delta Robot dynamics and path planning.

    I have one more question. Can Prop be interfaced to MATLAB so that I can perform Robot dynamics and path planning on MTALB as it has Robotics Toolbox and use the Prop only for actuating the servos?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-11-07 05:29
    The normal way to interface a Prop to a PC is over a serial UART connection. Mostly using a USB to serial adapter. If you have a Propeller you will probably have a Prop Plug to program it so you have the link already.

    For software, on the Propeller the are a variety of serial drivers. FullDuplexSerial is the daddy of them all. Good for full duplex communication up to 115200 baud.

    On the PC it's very easy to write code to exchange serial data. However I have no idea about MATLAB but it should not be a problem to use with the Propeller. The Arduino community can use MATLAB already http://www.mathworks.se/hardware-support/arduino-matlab.html
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-11-07 05:30
    http://letsmakerobots.com/robot/project/balancing-robot-balance1

    http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/130317-MATLAB-serial-communication-with-Prop

    http://onerobot.org/tag/parallax-propeller/

    A quick google of Matlab Parallax Propeller turns up quite a few hits.

    There are are various serial options that are very simple. I like 4port Full Duplex serial objects as they allow 4 port on one cog.
  • Ahmad BilalAhmad Bilal Posts: 15
    edited 2014-11-07 05:49
    Thank you so much T Chap :smile:
  • Ahmad BilalAhmad Bilal Posts: 15
    edited 2014-11-07 05:50
    Thank you Heater :smile:
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2014-11-07 06:23
    If you are adventurous, you interactively experiment with the prop and the stepper driver etc using FORTH. You would of course have a slight learning curve to get up to speed on FORTH itself, but FORTH is the most fun you can have with electronics and still keep your clothes on. Once you get all the subsystems working ((electronics, circuitry, algoryrythims, mechanicals) you would likely re-write in C for example; but the C step can be much easier if you already have all the rest in place.

    Peter's Tachyeon forth is might be good place to start, he's a whiz at motion control.
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