Penguin Robot
Encyclopedia
It is a precision-machined 4" tall biped with an embedded BASIC Stamp
BASIC Stamp
The BASIC Stamp is a microcontroller with a small, specialized BASIC interpreter built into ROM. It is made by Parallax, Inc. and has been popular with electronics hobbyists since the early 1990s because of its low threshold of learning and ease of use due to its simple to understand BASIC...
2px24 microcontroller. The Penguin walks forward with a tilt-stride action and turns by sweeping both feet on the ground in opposite directions.
Microprocessor
The Penguin brain is based on a BS2PX24 module, which is the highest performing of all the BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, featuring the following technical specifications:- Processor Speed: 32 MHz Turbo
- Program Execution Speed: ~19,000 instructions/sec.
- RAMRam-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
Size: 38 Bytes (12 I/O, 26 Variable) - Scratch Pad RAM: 128 Bytes
- EEPROMEEPROMEEPROM stands for Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory and is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices to store small amounts of data that must be saved when power is removed, e.g., calibration...
(Program) Size: 8 x 2K Bytes ~4,000 Instructions - Programming languageProgramming languageA programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
: PBasicPBASICPBASIC is a microcontroller based version of BASIC created by Parallax, Inc. The language was created to bring ease of use to the microcontroller and embedded processor world. PBASIC is used for writing code for the BASIC Stamp microcontrollers. After the code is written it is tokenized and...
Input/Output devices
The Penguin includes the following I/O devices:- 1 Hitachi HM55B Digital CompassCompassA compass is a navigational instrument that shows directions in a frame of reference that is stationary relative to the surface of the earth. The frame of reference defines the four cardinal directions – north, south, east, and west. Intermediate directions are also defined...
sensor, which enables it to know its exact orientation - 2 PhotoresistorsPhotoresistorA photoresistor or light dependent resistor is a resistor whose resistance decreases with increasing incident light intensity. It can also be referred to as a photoconductor or CdS device, from "cadmium sulfide," which is the material from which the device is made and that actually exhibits the...
for light following/avoidance - 2 Infrared emittersInfraredInfrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
and an infrared receiverInfraredInfrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
for object detection - 1 Blue seven-segment LEDLEdLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
for feedback - 2 Micro servos for tilt and stride
- 1 Piezospeaker in body underneath battery pack
- 1 Expansion port for connecting other input/output components
- 1 Power switch located adjacent to battery pack
- 1 FTDI 232RL mini USB programming port (used to download the software from the PC)
- 1 Blue power indicator LEDLEdLEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
The robot is powered by 2 CR123 batteries.
Assembling and programming
The Penguin Robot is sold in kit, and requires a few hours to be assembled. It is not a pre-programmed toy, but rather a hobbyist robot programming platform, since it operates according to the program that the user downloads in it. However, several ready-to-run programs are freely available, released by the supplier (ParallaxParallax, Inc. (company)
Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells BASIC Stamp microcontrollers, Propeller microcontrollers, microcontroller accessories Parallax Inc. is a privately held company in Rocklin, California. Parallax Inc. designs,...
) and by other users on the Web.
Some of these programs allow it to sing, dance, move autonomously to North or toward the light, avoiding obstacles.