Report on “Firebird Robot” Workshop

The e-Yantra Robotics Team of Electronics & Telecommunication Department of DBCE organized a Three Day Workshop on Firebird Robot for the students of TE and BE ETC, on the 25th, 26^th & 28^th of June 2019. The purpose of the Workshop was to spread education in Embedded systems and Robotics.

The Workshop would also ensure better Final year projects in this area.

The students were divided into 7 teams with 4 members to work on the Firebird V Robot.

Day 1: 25th June 2019

The first session was taken up by Prof. Yeshudas Muttu on Introduction to Robotics that included Major Components such as Sensors, Actuators, Control system, Intelligence, Power supply, Communication, Indicating Devices of a Robot and Introduction to Firebird V ATmega 2560.

The second session by Prof. Yeshudas Muttu introduced the various Input-Output Ports and Registers in ATmega 2560 and how they can be accessed. Subsequently, the the students were given hands-on exposure in Embedded C programming for interfacing the Buzzer, Boot Switch and Bar-graph LED using the Atmel-6 Studio.

In last session for the day was taken up by Prof. Flavia Leitao on interfacing the LCD with the Firebird V Robot. The Students were briefed on the LCD operation and were then asked to interface the LCD and the Boot Switch for a given application.

Day 2: 26th June 2019

The First session by Prof. Flavia Leitao was on interfacing the Motors. The students were briefed on the Motor Driver IC L293D and the different Motions and were then given a small task of how to interface the Motors and device an application to make the Robot move in a defined direction.

The second session was taken up by Prof. Deron Rodrigues on Counters and Timers for calculating time delays.  Subsequently Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) was introduced followed by hands-on program to control the Velocity of the Motors.

The last session by Prof. Deron Rodrigues was on Analog sensor interfacing using Analog to Digital conversion. The session included overview on the sensors like Sharp IR sensors, Proxity Sensor, etc, interfaced to the different channels of ATmega2560 followed by Programming.

Day 3: 28th June 2019

The day started started with introduction to White Line sensors by Prof. Mathilda Colaco. The students were given in-depth understanding of the concept of the While Line Follower.

Post lunch students were given different tasks to do, such as the Speed Control of the Robot with respect to the Boot Switch and the White Line Follower.

The Students had an amazing learning experience and showed great enthusiasm executing the given challenges. They suggested that such workshops should be conducted in future that would provide learning beyond curriculum.