WC-132 – WheelCommander™ Motion Controller
The WheelCommander™ controller takes the burden of complex feedback
control firmware off of the main robot controller. It provides powerful
closed-loop control of two wheeled robots using simple RS-232 or I2C interface
commands.
Example robot: BoeBot with Bluetooth interface and WC-132
motion controller.
Applications
- Expand the Parallax BoeBot to enable even more interesting
educational activities
- Add on to your existing Sumo robot so you can concentrate
on creating a winning strategy
- Build a complete PC-controllable mobile robot using third-party
wireless serial adapters (such as Bluetooth)
- Relieve your main robot controller of managing the wheels
so you can concentrate on the fun stuff
Features
- Closed loop velocity and rate of platform rotation
- Closed loop position and angle of rotation
- Four general purpose analog inputs
- Four general purpose digital inputs or outputs
- Power and ground pins available for each analog or digital
input/output
- Fully compatible with the WW-01
and WW-11 WheelWatcher™ encoders
for servos
- Compatible with the WW-02 and WW-12
WheelWatcher encoders using separate dual motor driver board
- Code examples for common robot controllers
- Example code and support DLL for wired or wireless Windows programs
- Firmware upgradable using provided Windows configuration wizard and
seperately available RS232 level converter
Description
The WC-132 WheelCommander controller is a powerful yet tiny motion control
module for use with the Nubotics WheelWatcherTM
encoders. Unlike the many servo controllers on the market, the WC-132
uses the Nubotics WheelWatcher encoders to close the loop.
It also provides general purpose digital I/O lines and analog inputs for
interfacing with your sensors.
The WheelCommander controller takes the burden of complex feedback control
firmware off of the main robot controller, and so provides powerful closed-loop
control using simple RS-232 or I2C interface commands.
Further, the WC-132 can be given the dimensions of the robot platform
– wheel diameter and wheel base – and so can accept velocity,
rotation rate, position, and angle commands in real-world units, not arbitrary
encoder clicks.
There are four digital I/O pins for general purpose use, as well as four
analog I/O pins. Servo and logic supply voltages can be measured and compensated
for.
Compatibility
The WC-132 is fully compatible with the WW-01
and WW-11 WheelWatcher encoders and continuous
rotation servos.
The WheelCommander WC-132 controller also supports the WheelWatcher WW-02
and WW-12 encoders and Solarbotics gearhead
motors, or the WW-01 and WW-11
encoder with servos that have had their control electronics removed, using
a third-party dual H-bridge motor driver board, or the future Nubotics
WheelDriver dual motor driver board that stacks right on top of the WC-132.
NOTE: when using the WheelCommander with the WW-11 or WW-12 WheelWatcher encoders, connect them in quadrature mode rather than sign/magnitude, then select quadrature as the encoder type in the Wizard, on the Motor and Encoder Settings tab. This is different from the WW-01 and WW-02 -- they used sign/magnitude by default, which is also the default in the Wizard.
H-bridges that use either sign-magnitude or locked-antiphase control signals
are supported. Single or dual (inverted and non-inverted) direction lines are
also supported, which makes the WC-132 compatible with the Solarbotics "Secret
Motor Driver Kit." The PWM frequency can be adjusted between 2KHz and 64KHz.
The I2C interface requires the use of an I2C master that supports clock stretching,
and supports data transfer rates up to 400Kbits per second.
|
