Phoenix II

Phoenix II comes completely assembled and tested. Just pop in 4 AA cells (included) and it's ready to run right out of the box! This is a good starter robot if you're interested in the field but unsure of your hardware skills or simply don't want to spend time building and debugging a vehicle. Moreover, Phoenix II is programmable in standard C and comes with a comprehensive library of I/O routines. There is no need to learn assembly and no worrying about which port bits to twiddle. You can start investigating AI and control ideas right away! Or, if you really like to design hardware, Phoenix II can be used as a convenient, hassle-free base for testing out new sensors or actuators.

Phoenix II is a tightly integrated system. The basic vehicle is small (6" long, 4.6" wide, 4.1" high) and agile, with dual wheel drive (10"/sec) that can turn in place. It will run for 45 minutes on NiMH cells (rechargeable batteries not included). The vehicle is controlled by an onboard 2 MHz 68HC11E0 microprocessor with a full 32K bytes of battery backed up static RAM. Included are an assembler, compiler, demo programs, and serial download software (with cable) for IBM compatible PC's. Phoenix II also has a carefully engineered suite of sensors (see below) and facilities for user customization. All this, and at a highly competitive price!

Features

• IR Tracking - Three sector (center 30 deg., left, right) IR LED source detection
• Obstacle Detection - Three sector, 4 range (center 12", sides 9") diffuse reflectance sensing
• Light Sensing - Wide (60 deg.) overhead, narrow (20 deg.) forward
• Collision Sensor - Responds to impact, rough terrain, and vehicle rollover
• User Controls - Pushbutton and potentiometer input, dual LEDs and beeper output
• Expandable - 3 spare analog inputs, 1 timer input, 2 timer outputs
• Programmable - includes C compiler, downloader, libraries, and sample code

Price: $379

ORDERING INFO

Additional Information:

General

• Big picture - higher resolution shows boards better (98KB JPG)
• Instruction sheet - tells how to run the software and adjust the hardware controls
• Knobs - a diagram showing the location of all onboard user controls
• Hardware Expansion - pinouts of connectors and suggestions for additions
• Software Ideas - a brief list of some interesting controllers to try writing
• C compiler - this downloadable freeware compiler (ICC11 v0.50 = "icc11fre.zip") is included with robot
• ImageCraft - an upgraded version of the compiler (ICC11 v5.0 for DOS, currently $100 - Linux also)

Software

• Behaviors, policies, and activities - short description of a high-level programming style
• wander.c - very simple control program for wandering around while avoiding obstacles
• wander2.c - similar wandering program implemented using behaviors and basal package
• virtual.c - a higher-level interface written on top of basal using behaviors
• stalk.c - a complex controller for "hide and pounce" using activities and virtual interface
• Control library source code - cord.h, cord.c, basal.h, basal.c, virtual.h

Contact the folks at Johuco (support@johuco.com) if you have any questions.

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Last updated 8/27/04