The goal of the thesis was to develop and implement a control device for a Boebot robot, which can be used mainly for the computer engineering course on „Introduction to the speciality” (IXX0510) in Tallinn University of Technology.
The existing solution using BASIC Stamp 2 control device does not fulfil all goals for the course and it cannot be used in other courses. The device is currently programmed using wired connection and frequent connecting/disconnecting is ruining the contacts fast. For programming of the current control device Basic programming language is used. From teaching perspective, C programming language would offer more opportunities. Also, the device cannot be used to teach how to configure the control device by using a hardware description language.
To overcome these shortcomings a completely new solution was developed. The XuLA-200 development kit was chosen for teaching a hardware description language to change functionalities of the device. An embedded system was created for the kit based on Microblaze soft-core processor that enables programming the control device using C. To overcome problems coming from wired connection a wireless connection was chosen using Bluetooth technology.
To operate the system a bootloader was written for management of the device allowing users to load a program to the device memory. The bootloader enables also using all possible functionalities for communication between the robot components. The thesis also includes creation of a graphical user interface allowing users to compile and upload a new program to the control device.
As a result a fully functional prototype for controlling the Boebot robot was created. To help carrying out practical works user manuals and examples for teachers’ and students’ how to use different sensors in their practical works were created.
To be sure that the created system meets all the requirements, practical works with students were carried out. The test showed that the created device meets the requirements of the course and can be used also in other courses.
The thesis is in estonian and contains 55 pages of text, 6 chapters, 28 figures, 8 tables.
