Crafting a Cricket Batsman Robot

The creation of a cricket batsman robot is part of a larger research project within collaborative robotic behaviour. The ultimate goals are complete robot cricket teams working and playing together in a simplified form of cricket. The demands of such robotic units are not only the limitation in resource availability but also the need of being simple, robust and easy to duplicate. It is a journey into the world of microcontrollers, where mechanics, electronics and software come together forming a miniature robotic cricket player. Presented with a basic circuit for microcontroller programming, a plastic gearbox from Taima and a few hundred dollar budget the voyage starts. Mechanical construction is done in the art of scrap heap construction, using only what is available in the local workshop. Electronic components, beside considered standard, include the PIC18F452-microcontroller, GP2D02 range sensors and ZD1901 photo interrupters. They together cost less than 50 Australian dollars. Software is produced using MPLAB and Microchips own student c-compiler. Considering development cost is zero, the robot design landed greatly below budget. Two robots where produced. One to be kept at the department of electrical engineering at Monash University Clayton Australia and the other to be shown at my home university in Luleå.Validerat; 20101217 (root