The Parallax Propeller is a pretty powerful MCU as [Dino] recently discovered in his latest Hack a Week installment. He wanted to develop a simple robotics platform that he could use for testing out various sensors, as well as he figured he might as well learn about a different type of micro controller in the process.
He pieced together his robot using a pair of old Roomba motors he had sitting around, mounting them on a standard RadioShack project box. A Propeller MSR1 control board runs the show, as well as a Propeller PING sensor is used to get an idea of what the robot’s surroundings look like. He is an admitted newbie when it comes to using Propeller micro controllers, however [Dino] was able to give his robot some rudimentary object avoidance abilities fairly easily. A few small bugs aside, he had the robot up as well as running in short order, a testament to how easy it is to work with the Propeller platform.
Stick around to see a short video covering the robot’s construction we have embedded below.