The ATMEGA 328 microcontroller is the heart of the project. The main board on which it is attached, is a clone based on Arduino Pro designed by me. I chose the Arduino system because of its Modular's hardware structure which allows connecting other boards to the motherboard, as if they were Lego pieces; so it was easy to add a board that I designed for controlling the servos. In addition, Arduino IDE also offers the power and versatility of language "C". The motion mechanism consists of a standard and full rotation servo motors. To maximize the torque of the servo I used an additional reduction's gear mechanism, formed by pulleys (made of wood), levers (made of wood) and tensioners, which enables smooth and precise movements even in the case of large structures. For this reason, the mechanics of the structure is based on principles used in ancient times by Leonardo Da Vinci for the design of the Robot knight, by the Japanese with their Karakuri dolls, and by Pierre Jaquet Droz with his three automata. The angular positioning of the elbows is achieved by the microcontroller and analog encoder. In the case of the shoulders, it was achieved by a counterweight system so it can run accurately to microcontroller instructions. The structure of the robot consists of an articulated skeleton made of balsa wood, covered with a cardboard model that emulates the famous T800. The artistic part is based on the technique of Papercraft, so the model was easy to find on public websites. The ATMEGA 328 Microcontroller was chosen as the project's MCU because of the advantage that offers the ATMEL AVR company by using "OPEN HARDWARE " and " OPEN SOFTWARE" for the architecture and design of their components, allowing the free development of: circuit boards (to include their microcontrollers), controlling peripheral, reading and digitization of analog values provided by sensors, etc. As well the possibility of a free access to a various programing environments such as: Atmel Studio, Arduino IDE, graphical interfaces, etc., thus avoiding the payment of excessive amounts of money to obtain the licenses of others programming environments, compilers and programing platforms. From the technical point of view, the ATMEGA 328 provides an excellent alternative due to its RISC architecture, processing the information in only 1 MIPS per MHz, so that it can process up to 20 MIPS, working at a clock frequency of 20 Mhz (20 Mhz = 1 D MIPS/20 IPS / clock cycles per second), with a Harvard architecture memory, all this coupled with a minimalist structural logic oriented to an improvement in the work done, making the ATMEGA 328 the best and the most powerful option when talking about 8-bit microcontrollers. One of the obstacles to the development of the animatronics or androids, is represented mainly by the high costs and its complexity. Although today there are tools that facilitate the task, as the case of 3D printers, the high costs and availability are still a problem in many places like my country. In attention to this topic, my project could be offered as an educational kit, which includes: model printed in sheets of cardboard and wood to cut and assemble (for the construction of the structure and the mechanical parts), the microcontroller, and servomotors. The kit could be designed to build an individual part, for example a hand, an arm, or a head, or even the robot torso including arms and head. The artistic design could vary as shown in the images of following link
arduinot800.blogspot.com/p/proyecto-antiguo-robot-sn1.html. This simple kit is based on low-cost construction materials, easily molded, and the usage of a reduced number of servos that do not require high torque, due to the implementation of a mechanical multiplexer environment and an additional reduction system, to provide to the mechanical structure with stability and precision in the execution of smooth or fast movements. The product could have the name of: PROJECT ROBOT PAPER ATMEL- AVR. Visit:
http://arduinot800.blogspot.com
