Exportable development of the 2.007 control system

Abstract

2.007: Design and Manufacturing I is a mechanical engineering class at MIT that teaches the fundamentals of engineering design in the context of a robotics competition. The control system for the students' robots has evolved during the history of the class and now encompasses a full multi-channel wireless control network. In this thesis, the control system has been further developed with the primary goal of making the technology more easily replicated and exported to other venues. The development of new USB radio adaptors with reliable and inexpensive ZigBee radio modules allows the control system to be run from any desktop or laptop computer, minimizing the amount of custom hardware required to set up a competition network. Control is accomplished with standard USB input devices such as joysticks or video game controllers. The USB radio modules can also function as powerful standalone development tools. The control box hardware has been adapted to use the new radio modules and repackaged into a compact single circuit board design. The new circuit board is fully documented for automated assembly and the new enclosure is designed for simple, low-cost manufacturing and assembly. A set of software tools has been developed to accompany the new hardware. The new control architecture has been implemented successfully as of the spring 2008 2.007 class.