Beginner Help needed with robot

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi -

My 11 year old daughter and I are trying to build a basic robot and are following an online tutorial. Before starting we walked through all the Example circuitry sketches so that we have some basic understanding of how to compile code and read some of the commands.

With our robot - we have it all put together and wired but are stuck with how the coding part works. We have an Arduino Uno, Arduino Motor Shield R3, a Distance Sensor and a Blue Tooth Slave attached as well as the batteries but would be happy if we could just get the wheels to roll.

I went to github and found what seemed like the library to match our tutorial (miguelgrinbergs michaelino robot). I downloaded and unzipped it and tried to cut and paste it into the Example folder but that didn't seem to do anything (it doesn't appear when I try to access it via Arduino. The Robot sketch examples that exist by default all give me compile errors when I try to use them.

Can anyone steer me to Robot Code 101?

Thanks!
Joanie

2

Hi,
To install the library you need to find the library directory.
In MyDocuments there should be an Arduino directory.
In that there should be a Libraries directory.

The copy the directory into it that has the library files in it.
When you find the library directory you will see how it is structured.
When you have placed the directory there, reboot the IDE so it can locate it.
The name of the library directory you will have copied must match the name of the library included in your sketch.
Rename the directory name if you have to, not the include name in the sketch.

Hope it helps...Tom.... :slight_smile:

3

Welcome...

I think you need to link us to the tutorial you're using.

It's usually easiest to do projects a section at a time. I'd go with a phased approach perhaps like this:

  • Motor shield runs the motors with the on/off and (maybe) speed commands hard-coded into the Arduino sketch
  • Distance sensor sends its findings to the serial monitor
  • Motor shield runs ala phase 1 but stops if distance sensor value is too close, perhaps reverse straight out of there
  • Then get the BT working by itself: I've never used BT but a tutorial like this seems easy enough and I'm sure there are others around. Just get it to on and off an LED to start
  • Then and only then, get the BT to send the commands to the Arduino to actually drive the motors

That approach makes it sooooo much easier to troubleshoot, since you limit the number or areas where errors can be made.

4

Thanks for the replies! I'll see if we can make some headway with the advice provided thus far.

If it helps further, we are following the tutorial here:

We seemed to be following along with the exception of the programming part where there is a knowledge gap on our side.

Because the tutorial recommends using a different motor from the one in the tutorial, I went to github and think I found everything we need here:

But again, I am missing the explanation on how to do the actual programming. So far, any programming we have done has been simple sketches that just work directly with the Arduino.

Thanks!
Joanie