Robotics on the QL 3 - David Buckley
15 February 2007
Previously we looked at the history of Zero2 then data format of the signals to control Zero2. As we said before this time we will look at the program. Like all programs which work the Zero2 control program started small and grew as more facilities were required. The first requirement was to get Zero2 to move around with simple Turtle style commands, FD BK RT LT. For correct control of the two stepper motors for the wheels, four command bytes in a particular sequence must be sent, one sequence for Forwards another for Backwards another for Right turn and yet another for Left turn. Swapping from one direction to another means jumping from one sequence to another. As explained before these sequences are:
FD = 5, 0,10,15 BK = 10, 0, 5,15 RT = 6, 0, 9,15 LT = 9, 0, 6,15One run through a sequence moves each wheel 2mm, ie 4 0.5mm steps. By limiting the resolution to 2mm I didn't have to worry about where in each sequence Zero2 was, they always ended on 15 which was always the right place to start another sequence.
eg FD 2mm, Bk2mm, RT2deg, LT2deg is 5,0,10,15,10,0,5,15,6,0,9,15,9,0,6,15Now since it is necessary to send a sequence of bytes to control the stepper motors it is important to know when one byte command has been done before sending the next one. Unfortunately it is not possible to ask Zero2 'have you finished the byte command' so there had to be a way for the controlling computer, in this case the QL, to wait a little before sending the next command. This could have been done with a 'ForNext' loop or similar but then the timing would depend on the speed of the QL, GoldCard-QL, SuperGoldCard-QL etc. One fixed delay when sending commands by RS232 is the time to transmit each byte with its Start and Stop bits. At Zero2's baud rate of 4800 it takes about 2ms to transmit each byte. By sending the same command byte repeatedly 'n' times before sending the next desired command we can ensure a fixed delay of n*2ms between different commands. The individual sequences are stored in $trings. So for an overall delay of 4ms per command byte each byte is sent twice and the $tring for FD is.
FD 5,5,0,0,10,10,15,15At the start of the program the user is asked for a speed factor, in practice 4 is the fastest, and 20 really slow. The facor is just the number of time the byte is repeated. The resulting $trings are stored in an array mtrcmd$.
Instead of writing a user interface it seemed reasonable to continue to use the SuperBasic User interface and have all commands as SuperBasic Procedure and Functions.
After the initial set of commands to control Zero2 had been writen it was then decided to have the moves drawn on the screen.
Each of the robot commands has a call to
PROCedure processing_link (cmnd$,cmnd_code,cmnd_value)which in turn calls all the procedure necessay for updating the screen before handing back control to the robot command procedure.
At present the program has several levels:
1. initialise variables and build the motorcmnd$ array etc 2. Turtle robot control commands FD,BK etc 3. procedures to update the screen 4. high level robot and map commands 5. learned lists of robot commands 6. user written commandsFurther levels were planned which would allow Zero2 to:
Volunteers welcome.
100 REMark ============================================= 110 REMark *** ZERO_2 Control program *** 120 REMark ver1.0, copyright David Buckley, 11/1/86 121 REMark ver2.0, copyright David Buckley, 31/1/86 122 REMark ver2.2, copyright David Buckley, May 1988 130 REMark ver2.6 see below after CLEAR 140 REMark History 150 REMark ------- 160 REMark 2.4 2-6-94 penmtrcmd$ introduced, <20 too fast 161 REMark 2.5 7Aug06 get_cmnd_val gave 0 for cmnd_val$>'999' 162 REMark 2.6 9Dec06 get_cmnd_val test >9999 removed, range test put in FD,BK,RT,LT 163 REMark homing$, unwinding$ flags added, maxTurn, maxRange added 164 REMark PROC ErrorMsg added 170 REMark --------------------------------------------- 180 REMark * PROGRAM * 190 : 200 CLEAR 210 prog_version$ = '2.6' 215 REMark directory$ ='win1_zero2_' 216 directory$ ='dos2_QL_Z2_' 220 coldinit 230 : 240 REMark * END PROGRAM * 250 REMark ============================================== 260 : 270 REMark Area for USER procedures 310 DEFine PROCedure demo 530 DEFine PROCedure wiggle 690 DEFine PROCedure squarish (d) 860 DEFine PROCedure test 890 REMark ============================================== 900 REMark *** Start of SYSTEM PROCEDURES AREA 910 REMark ============================================= 920 REMark *** INITIALISATION PROCEDURES *** 930 REMark --------------------------------------------- 940 DEFine PROCedure init_globals 1630 DEFine PROCedure coldinit 1760 DEFine PROCedure zinit :REMark USER entry 2180 REMark ============================================= 2190 REMark *** ERROR RECOVERY *** 2200 REMark ---------------------------------------------- 2210 DEFine PROCedure oops :REMark USER entry 2460 REMark ============================================= 2470 REMark *** USER ASSISTANCE *** 2480 REMark --------------------------------------------- 2490 DEFine PROCedure QUIT :REMark USER entry 2550 DEFine PROCedure help :REMark USER entry 2760 DEFine PROCedure exit_help 2820 DEFine FuNction fn_wait_key$(msg$) 2930 DEFine FuNction strip_spaces$ ( word$ ) 3040 DEFine PROCedure alert :REMark USER entry 3100 DEFine PROCedure buzz :REMark USER entry 3150 REMark ============================================= 3160 REMark *** PROCESSING LINK *** 3170 REMark --------------------------------------------- 3180 DEFine PROCedure processing_link (cmnd$,cmnd_code,cmnd_value) 3190 REMark link robot control procedures to other processes 3270 REMark ============================================= 3280 REMark *** ROBOT-CONTROL PROCEDURES *** 3290 REMark --------------------------------------------- 3300 DEFine PROCedure robot_whereabouts (cmnd_code, cmnd_value) 3310 REMark calculate robots new co-ordinates 3450 REMark --------------------------------------------- 3460 REMark * USER PROCEDURES * 3470 REMark --------------------------------------------- 3480 DEFine PROCedure home :REMark USER entry 3780 DEFine PROCedure unwind :REMark USER entry 3940 DEFine PROCedure ihome :REMark USER entry 4050 DEFine PROCedure sb(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 4130 DEFine PROCedure jc :REMark USER entry 4430 DEFine PROCedure FD(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 4560 DEFine PROCedure BK(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 4690 DEFine PROCedure RT(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 4820 DEFine PROCedure LT(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 4950 DEFine PROCedure peninit :REMark USER entry 5100 DEFine PROCedure pd :REMark USER entry 5190 DEFine PROCedure pu :REMark USER entry 5280 DEFine PROCedure rl(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 5440 DEFine PROCedure ll(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 5600 DEFine PROCedure ls(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 5720 DEFine PROCedure hl(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 5880 DEFine PROCedure hh(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 6040 DEFine PROCedure ho :REMark USER entry 6130 DEFine PROCedure hn(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 6250 DEFine PROCedure wt(cmnd_value) :REMark USER entry 6330 DEFine PROCedure hoot( cmnd_value ) :REMark USER entry 6510 DEFine PROCedure flsh( cmnd_value ) :REMark USER entry 6690 DEFine PROCedure flht( cmnd_value ) :REMark USER entry 6840 REMark ============================================= 6850 REMark *** SHORT-TERM-MEMORY PROCEDURES *** 6860 REMark --------------------------------------------- 6870 DEFine PROCedure learn :REMark USER entry 6950 DEFine PROCedure nolearn :REMark USER entry 7030 DEFine PROCedure forget :REMark USER entry 7110 DEFine PROCedure remember_move (cmnd$) 7190 DEFine PROCedure rlist :REMark USER entry 7240 DEFine PROCedure ralter :REMark USER entry 7460 DEFine PROCedure rfix :REMark USER entry 7550 REMark ============================================= 7560 REMark * SHORT-TERM MEMORY TESTING * 7570 REMark --------------------------------------------- 7580 DEFine PROCedure replay :REMark USER entry 7630 DEFine PROCedure bplay :REMark USER entry 7680 DEFine PROCedure do_steps ( direction ) 8140 DEFine PROCedure rstep :REMark USER entry 8600 DEFine PROCedure unlearn :REMark USER entry 8750 REMark ============================================= 8760 REMark *** GENERAL MEMORY PROCEDURES *** 8770 REMark --------------------------------------------- 8780 DEFine PROCedure mlist :REMark USER entry 8900 DEFine PROCedure list_cmnds (title_msg$, cmnd_list$) 9250 DEFine PROCedure exec_cmnd (cmnd_string$) 9670 DEFine FuNction get_cmnd_num ( cmnd$, name_len ) 9820 DEFine FuNction get_cmnd_val (cmnd$,cmnd_num,name_len) 9970 DEFine PROCedure exec_reverse_cmnd (cmnd_string$) 10330 REMark ============================================= 10340 REMark *** LONG-TERM-MEMORY PROCEDURES *** 10350 REMark --------------------------------------------- 10360 DEFine PROCedure mnames :REMark USER entry 10410 DEFine PROCedure mexec :REMark USER entry 10650 DEFine PROCedure exec_routine (cmnd_num) 10790 DEFine FuNction get_routine_start ( cmnd_num ) 10910 DEFine FuNction get_routine_length (cmnd_num ) 10980 DEFine PROCedure mget :REMark USER entry 11130 DEFine FuNction get_cmnd_list$ (name$) 11290 DEFine PROCedure rsave :REMark USER entry 11660 DEFine PROCedure get_routines 11840 REMark ============================================= 11850 REMark *** DISPLAY PROCESING PROCEDURES *** 11860 REMark --------------------------------------------- 11870 DEFine PROCedure init_windows 12820 DEFine PROCedure display_moves(cmnd$) 12890 DEFine PROCedure learning_screens (state) 13140 DEFine PROCedure learning_msg 13230 DEFine PROCedure no_learning_msg 13290 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn 13360 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn_1 13620 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn_2 13850 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn_2a 14000 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn_3 14190 DEFine PROCedure help_scrn_3a 14440 DEFine PROCedure imap :REMark USER entry 14720 DEFine PROCedure cmap :REMark USER entry 14920 DEFine PROCedure drg_scrn 14980 DEFine PROCedure draw_move (cmnd_code, cmnd_value) 15110 DEFine PROCedure print_robot_position 15280 DEFine PROCedure draw_robot 15605 DEFine PROCedure ErrorMsg(errortxt$,errorval) :REMark [2.6]
RF mL mR only left wheel moves forward 2mm, ie rotation of 1deg. LF mL mR only right wheel moves forward 2mm, ie rotation of 1deg.