do-it-yourself

Wireless Gesture-Controlled Robot

aquib javed khan systems and robots. An accelerometer
is used to detect the tilting position

I
mar
n this project we are going to con- of your hand, and a microcontroller Nitin Ku
trol a robot wirelessly using hand gets different analogue values and
gestures. This is an easy, user- generates command signals to control
friendly way to interact with robotic the robot. This concept can be imple-
mented in a robotic arm used for bilities, 1kB EEPROM, 2kB SRAM,
welding or handling hazardous 23 general-purpose I/O lines, 32
materials, such as in nuclear general-purpose working registers,
plants. The author’s prototype three flexible timers/counters with
is shown in Fig. 1. compare modes, internal and exter-
nal interrupts, serial programmable
Circuit and working USART, a byte-oriented 2-wire serial
The block diagram of the wire- interface, SPI serial port, 10-bit A/D
less gesture-controlled robot converter, programmable watch-dog
is shown in Fig. 2. The circuit timer with an internal oscillator and
diagram of the transmitter sec- five software-selectable power-saving
tion of the wireless gesture- modes.
controlled robot is shown in Fig. The device operates between 1.8
3 and of the receiver section in and 5.5 volts. It achieves throughputs
Fig. 4. approaching one MIPS per MHz.
Fig. 1: Author’s prototype ATmega328. ATmega328 is An alternative to ATmega328 is AT-
a single-chip mi- mega328p.
crocontroller from ADXL335. This is a complete
ACCELERO− MICRO− 433MHz
METER CONTROLLER ENCODER
TRANSMITTER
Atmel and belongs three-axis acceleration measure-
HT12E
ADXL335 ATMEGA 328 MODULE to the mega AVR ment system. ADXL335 has a mini-
(A) : TRANSMITTER series. The Atmel mum measurement range of ±3g.
8-bit AVR RISC It contains a poly-silicon-surface
433MHz
DECODER
MOTOR based microcon- micro-machined sensor and signal-
RECEIVER DRIVER
MODULE
HT12D troller combines conditioning circuitry to implement
L293D
(B) : RECEIVER
32kB ISP Flash open-loop acceleration measure-
memory with read- ment architecture. Output signals
Fig. 2: Block diagram of the wireless gesture-controlled robot while-write capa- are analogue voltages that are pro-
portional to accelera-
IC1 3
tion. The accelerom-
1
7805 eter can measure the
R2 LM1117−33
2
10K 7 20
R3
750K 15 16 18 TP1 ANT.1
static acceleration of
Vcc AVcc
1
PC6/RESET AVREF 21 2
IC3 3 OSC2 OSC1 Vcc 1 gravity in tilt-sensing
A0
C3
0.1u
C4
0.33u
2
3
PD0/RXD PC5/SCL 28
27
17
DOUT
2
TP3 applications as well as
PD1/TXD PC4/SDA A1
4 PD2 IC2 PC3 26
1
14
TE 3
dynamic acceleration
5V A2
C5
S1 5
PD3 PC2
10u
25 GND resulting from motion,
POWER 6 PD4ATMEGA328PC1 24 TP2 13
AD11 A3
4
16V IC4 shock or vibration.
DATA

ON/OFF
GND

ANT

R1 9 23
Vcc

PB6/XTAL1 PC0
Y HT12E 5
1M 10 PB7/XTAL2 PB5/SCK 19 X 12
AD10
A4
1 2 3 4 The sensor is a po-
11 18 CON2 6
12
PD5 PB4/MISO
17 ADXL335
A5
TX1
ly-silicon-surface mi-
PD6 PB3/MOSI 11 7
CON1
9V PP3
X TAL1 13
PD7 PB2 16 AD9 A6
433MHz cro-machined structure
14 15 8
BATT.1 16MHz
8
PB0 PB1
22 10
AD8
A7 TRANSMITTER built on top of a sili-
GND AGND MODULE
C1 C2 GND
9
con wafer. Poly-silicon
22p 22p GND
TP0 springs suspend the
structure over the sur-
Fig. 3: Transmitter section of the wireless gesture-controlled robot face of the wafer and

78 January 2015 | Electronics For You www.efymag.com

 do-it-yourself

ger on HT12D decoder further

RX1 RIGHT LEFT enhances the application flex-
TP5
ANT.2
433MHz RECEIVER 1
A0
18 M1 M2 ibility of 212 series of encoders.
Vcc
MODULE R8 11 14 6 3
The HT12D also provides a
2 16 47K OUT3 OUT4 OUT2
A1 OSC1 OUT1

3 15
15
IN4 GND 4
38kHz carrier for infra-red

DATA
DATA
A2 OSC2 10 IC6 5
GND
GND

GND
GND
systems.
ANT

IN3
Vcc

Vcc
7 GND 12
4 17 IN2 L293D
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 A3
IC5
VT 2
IN1 GND 13 Transmitter. The transmit-
5
A4
HT12D DIN
14 VCC2 VCC1 EN1 EN2
ter consists of ATmega328 mi-
S2 8 16 1 9
POWER
GND 6
A5 D11
13 crocontroller (IC2), ADXL335
ON/OFF 7
A6 D10
12 accelerometer, HT12E en-
8 11 R4 R5 R6 R7
coder (IC4) and 433MHz RF
TP6 A7 D9
CON3
9 10
220E 220E 220E 220E transmitter module (TX1).
4.5,1.5Ah GND D8
BATT.2 TP4 In this circuit, two analogue
LED1 LED2 LED3 LED4
outputs from ADXL335 pins
(x, y) are connected with
Fig. 4: Receiver section of the wireless gesture-controlled robot input pins (23, 24) of the
microcontroller. Analogue sig-
Parts List nals are converted to
Table I digital signals through
Semiconductors:
IC1 - 7805, 5V regulator
Movement of Robot and Decoder Outputs the microcontroller.
IC2 - ATmega328 microcontroller
IC3 - LM1117-33, 3.3 voltage
Robot Input 1 Input 2 Input 3 Input 4 Digital outputs from
regulator
(accelerometer) (D11) (D10) (D9) (D8) pins 16, 17, 18 and 19
IC4 - HT12E, 212 series encoder Forward (-Y) 0 1 0 1 of the microcontroller
IC5 - HT12D, 212 series decoder
IC6 - L293D, dual H-bridge motor Backward (+Y) 1 0 1 0 are directly sent to
driver Right (+X) 1 0 0 1 pins 13, 12, 11 and 10
LED1-LED4 - 5mm LED
Resistors (all 1/4-watt, ±5% carbon): Left (-X) 0 1 1 0 of encoder IC4. This
R1 - 1-mega-ohm data is encoded and
R2 - 10-kilo-ohm
R3 - 750-kilo-ohm
amplitude is proportional to accelera- transmitted via RF module TX1.
R4-R7 - 220-ohm tion. Phase-sensitive demodulation Receiver. The receiver part con-
R8 - 47-kilo-ohm techniques are then used to deter- sists of 433MHz RF receiver module
Capacitors:
C1, C2 - 22pF ceramic disk mine the magnitude and direction of (RX1), HT12D decoder (IC5) and
C3 - 0.1µF ceramic disk the acceleration. L293D motor driver (IC6) to run the
C4 - 0.33µF ceramic disk
C5 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic L293D. This is a 16-pin DIP pack- motors. Here, receiver module RX1
Miscellaneous: age motor driver IC (IC6) having four receives the transmitted signal, which
CON1, CON3 - 2-pin connector input pins and four output pins. All is decoded by decoder IC to get the
CON2 - 6-pin connector
XTAL1 - 16MHz crystal four input pins are connected to out- same digital outputs. Four outputs
TX1 - 433MHz transmitter module put pins of the decoder IC (IC5) and of IC6 drive two motors. The robot
RX1 - 433MHz receiver module
M1, M2 - DC-geared motor, 100rpm the four output pins are connected to moves as per tilt direction of the ac-
S1, S2 - On/off switch DC motors of the robot. Enable pins celerometer in the transmitter. The
Batt.1 - 9V PP3 battery
Batt.2 - 4.5V, 1.5Ah lead-acid battery are used to enable input/output pins direction of the robot movement is as
ANT.1, ANT.2 - 17cm long single-strand wire on both sides of IC6. per logic listed in Table I.
antenna
Encoder (HT12E) and decoder
(HT12D) ICs. The 212 encoders are Software program
- ADXL335 3-axis
accelerometer
a series of CMOS LSIs for remote- The software program is written in
provide resistance against accelera- control system applications. These Arduino programming language.
tion forces. Deflection of the structure are capable of encoding information We programmed a fresh ATmega328
is measured using a differential ca- that consists of N address bits and microcontroller with the help of Ar-
pacitor that consists of independent 12 N data bits. Each address/data duino IDE 1.0.5 and an Arduino Uno
fixed plates and plates attached to input can be set to one of two logic board.
the moving mass. states. Programmed addresses/data First, we have to load bootloader
Fixed plates are driven by 180° are transmitted together with header code into the microcontroller. For
out-of-phase square waves. Accel- bits via an RF or infra-red transmis- that, we used Arduino Uno for in-sys-
eration deflects the moving mass and sion medium upon receipt of a trigger tem programming (ISP) given in the
unbalances the differential capacitor, signal. The capability to select a TE IDE, by selecting File → Examples
resulting in a sensor output whose trigger on HT12E or a data (DIN) trig- → Arduino ISP. Once the bootloader

www.efymag.com Electronics For You | January 2015 79

do-it-yourself
Fig. 5: An actual-size PCB layout of the transmitter circuit
Fig. 6: Component layout of the transmitter circuit
Table II
Test Points
Test point Details
TP0 0V (GND)
TP1 5V
TP2 3.3V
TP3 Train of pulses
TP4 0V (GND)
TP5 4.5V
TP6 Train of pulses
efy Note
The source code of this project is
included in this month’s EFY DVD
and is also available for free down-
load at source.efymag.com
is uploaded into the microcontroller,
gesture.ino code of this project can be
uploaded.
Construction and testing
An actual-size, single-side PCB layout
of the transmitter circuit is shown
in Fig. 5 and its component layout
80 January 2015 | Electronics For You
Fig. 7: An actual-size PCB layout of the receiver circuit
Fig. 8: Component layout of the receiver circuit
in Fig. 6. An actual-size, single-side
PCB layout of the receiver circuit is
shown in Fig. 7 and its component
layout in Fig. 8.
The transmitter section can be
held in your palm or on the other
side (refer Fig. 9). The receiver mod-
ule is mounted on the robot.
Mount all components on the
PCBs shown here to minimise as-
sembly errors. Fix the receiver PCB
and 4.5V battery on the chassis of
the robot. Fix two motors, along with
wheels, at the rear side of the robot
and a castor wheel on the front. Af- Fig. 9: Transmitter module mounted on the back
ter uploading the main code into the of the palm
microcontroller, remove it from the
Arduino Uno board and insert it into zontal, parallel to the Earth’s surface.
the populated transmitter PCB. For troubleshooting, first verify
Now, switch-on the power sup- that voltages at various test points
plies in the transmitter as well as re- are as per Table II. 
ceiver circuits. Attach the transmitter
circuit to your hand and move your
hand forwards, backwards and side- Aquib Javed Khan is
pursuing B.Tech from
ways. Directions of the robot move- Orissa Engineering College,
ment are given in Table I. The robot Bhubaneswar. He is
interested in mechatronics
will stop if you keep your palm hori- systems
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