Substitution Box Capacitor

These small robots were built in 2003 as an Individual Research Assignment (BSc thesis project) at CE (later RaM) and have subsequently been the subject of a number MSc student projects. The robots are almost entirely constructed from PCB material (which at the time could still be manufactured in-house). The basic module contains two Atmel ATmega16L controllers: one for PD control of the wheels and one for basic behavior (based on MIT Brook's Subsumption Architecture). On top of this, a PCB is placed with two IrDA transceivers (4Mb/s data transfer) and 4 separate multiplexed IR diodes. This makes it possible to detect obstacles through reflection, but also to communicate with other robots. Stickers with black and white stripes have been applied to the wheels to serve as an incremental encoder for PD control.

This is the world's first (and possibly only) Furby with an IP address (claim to fame: https://hackaday.com/2009/08/31/internet-enabled-furby/). A first generation Arduino board was used to take over a number of functions from the Furby brain, and to control them from a web page hosted by the Arduino itself. Sensor information (e.g. the amount of ambient light) is displayed on the web page as a background color. The furby was built at RaM as part of the exploration of IoT for education during the Creative Technology course.

These robots, made at CE (later RaM) on behalf of the LeerlingLab in 2007 (pre-arduino era) heve been used there for 10 years for various workshops and events. The robots are designed from laser-cut and folded aluminum, are controlled by their own PCB with an ATmega32 and programmed via an RS232 serial port. The wheels have a sticker with a stripe pattern on the inside that can be read as an incremental encoder in quadrature mode. Under the slide there are two analog optical reflection sensors for detecting a track. Two Sharp PSD distance sensors at the front (range 30 cm) serve to detect other robots.

The Teachmover robot arm is a micro-processor controlled, six-jointed mechanical arm designed to provide an unusual combination of dexterity and low cost. The TeachMover arm can be used in teach mode and serial interface run mode.

Substitution box with operational amplifier and potentiometer.

Potentiometer 100 kΩ

Potentiometer 10 kΩ

Substitution box resistor