would like Info on Multi chip robots

[amakusa]

Howdy, Just wondering if anyone has any info on Multi chip bots actually built, not the theoretical ones google seems to give me links to. I have a great idea but I want to know if anyone has tried it before or am I a pioneer?

[JonHylands]

My AUV has 3 PIC micro-controllers plus a PDA (now a gumstix) running the higher level functions.

http://www.huv.com/uSeeker
http://www.huv.com/roboMagellan

- Jon

[amakusa]

very cool, so how do you separate out the tasks? or do you pool resources for one big processor?

[Admin]

I almost did a multi chip robot. The plan was to have two 'half' brains. The left chip controlled the left side of the bot, and the 'right' chip controlled the right side. They would both get the same program too, but a jumper on an output pin would tell one chip to invert its sensing and ouput. No communication would be needed between them.

If you cut a human brain in half (between both lobes), a person will still have 99% of their functions.

Its kind of hard at first to see how this will work, but it would . . .

[JonHylands]

The high level single-board computer is the brain of the robot - it decides where to go and what to do. It talks to the master micro-controller, in this case a PIC 16F877 over a RS-232 serial connection.

The master talks to each slave over a private comms channel (if I was doing it again, I would just use a shared bus like I2C).

The bus master handles motor speed (using hardware PWM), depth (analog input from pressure sensors), and talking to the other PICs.

The second PIC (a 16F876) handles controlling the two servos (rudder & dive planes). The third PIC (also a 16F876) handles talking to the compass (Honeywell HMR3300).

- Jon

[amakusa]

That is awesome! you have a capt, steersman, and navigator. That is exactly how I would have separated out the tasks. Is your micro seeker completely autonomous?

[JonHylands]

Yes, it is completely autonomous.

- Jon