Programmable autonomous vehicles – Fundamentals, Part I
We are all more or less familiar with the term and use-value of programmable autonomous vehicles (mobile robots). This article explain basic concepts related to mobile robots, covers DC motors selection, H-Bridge explanation and basic interfacing between DC motor driver and microcontroller. Programmable autonomous vehicle architecture Figure 1. shows the block diagram of programmable autonomous vehicles (the mobile robot). The main component is a control unit which represents the "intelligence" of the mobile robot. Regarding mobile robot two additional components are required: sensors and interrupt unit. Sensors are mandatory part in order to gather information from a space in which the mobile robot is currently located. The collected signals are forwarded to the interrupt unit which states the control unit by a certain algorithm (priorities).The decision depends on the current state and type of the sensor signal. These components (control unit and sensors) makes mobil...