Automatic protoboard layout from circuit schematics

Abstract

As an important component of the Circuits module of the first Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science course at MIT (6.01), students design and build several circuits over the course of three weeks. When working on the more intricate circuits, an unfortunately large proportion of students' lab time is spent on laying out the circuits on protoboards. This project introduces a new circuit schematic entry tool for 6.01, capable of automatically generating protoboard layouts for circuits that students may design in the course. The tool allows for students to build, analyze, and save circuit schematics through a graphical user interface and automatically generates protoboard layouts that are almost always easy to build and debug. The layout problem is solved by utilizing the A* search algorithm exactly as presented in 6.01.