Microcontrollers and ROVs
Welcome
to “Microcontrollers and ROVs”. This
online workshop will introduce to you to the uses of microcontollers
in a hands-on format with an ultimate goal of having
you design an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle that you will program to
complete a mission. To take this course
you do not need to have any prior programming or electronics skills. You do, however, need to have a keen sense of
adventure and stick-to-it-ness.
A
microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit with
programmable input/output peripherals.
Physicists are interested in microcontrollers as these tend to be a main
tool we use to collect data from the universe and to
the control the devices that make up our experimental apparatus.
There
are many microcontrollers on the market.
For this class we have chosen the Arduino Uno microcontroller. The advantages of the Arduino Uno include a
large global Arduino community with whom you can share work, its low cost, and
its small size.
Download
the full curriculum in Tegulu -- తెగులులో పూర్తి పాఠ్యాంశాలను డౌన్లోడ్ చేసుకోండి.
There are 10 course checkpoints to get from your miniROV
kit full of what looks like random electronic spare parts to a functional miniROV. Each check
point below takes 2-3 hours each. At my
college, this one-credit class runs for 10 weeks meeting 3 hours per week. Remember, the kit that you are purchasing is
not a toy; rather it contains the tools you need to be able to create a
prototype of what could later become a scientific tool of exploration.
My students, after completing this 1-credit course, go on to create
full-scale ROVs that are used to explore underwater volcanoes or payloads that
get launched aboard NASA rockets or take part in microgravity experiments. The main goal of working through this
curriculum is for you, by the end of the last checkpoint, to be able to dream
up your own uses for microcontrollers in scientific discovery and engineering
implementation.
When you are done with your miniROV, feel
free to take a photo of it and we will post it on our webpage.
You can download the full miniROV workbook
up above in either English or Spanish, or, access one chapter at a time below.
Checkpoint 1: Download software from http://arduino.cc.
Checkpoint 2: Make the light blink.
Checkpoint 3: Read someone else’s blinking light.
Checkpoint 4: Graphically display the data collected from
your light sensor.
Checkpoint 5: Read a pressure sensor.
Checkpoint 6: Learn to run a motor using PWM and an
H-Bridge.
Checkpoint 7: Learn to control the motors via feedback from
the pressure sensor.
Checkpoint 8: Learn to waterproof motors (optional)
Checkpoint 9: Put together your mini-ROV
Checkpoint 10: Test your ROV designed to achieve and
maintain a specified depth.