[Project] An Arduino Linkbot Siren System as Police Car, Ambulance, or Fire Truck

Introduction:

Linkbot is a reconfigurable modular educational robot. Arduino board is a popular open-source single-board microcontroller. Barobo Arduino provides a user-friendly solution for making and building in the physical world, and integrating sensors into Linkbot systems using Arduino.

In this project, a Linkbot and Arudino are used to build a police car, ambulance, or fire truck with a flashing light. The robot moves with a blinking RGB LED and siren of police car, ambulance, and fire truck. The entire system is controlled by a program with only 19 lines of code!

(Project Description and Program in PDF File)

Information:

• Grades: 7 – 12

• Duration: 6-20 Hours

• Level: Intermediate (using Arduino)

Products Used in the Project:

• 1 Linkbot Super Kit

• 1 Arduino Uno Starter Kit

• 1 Linkbot Uno Pack

Parts Used in the Project:

• 1 Linkbot-I

• 1 Linkbot Dongle

• 1 Ball Caster

• 2 3.5” wheels

• 2 Snap Connector

• 1 Cube Connector

• 1 Arduino board

• 1 Mini breadboard

• 1 RGB LED

• 1 Bluetooth module

• 1 9V battery holder

• 1 9V battery (16x 9v 600 Amh Li-ion Rechargable Batteries are included in 16 Linkbot Uno Pack Classroom Bundle)

• Some jump wires from Arduno Uno Starter Kit

• Some screws from Linkot Uno Pack

Setup:

The Arduino Linkbot Siren System as a police car, ambulance, or fire truck with a flashing light is shown in Figure 1. The detailed wiring information can be found in section 11 “Adding Sensors to Linkbot Using Linkbot Uno Pack” of the textbook Learning Physical Computing with Arduino for the Absolute Beginner. The Complete PDF files is available to you if you purchase a Barobo Arduno Uno Starter Kit

Figure 1: An Arduino Linkbot Siren System as a police car, ambulance, or fire truck.

Programming the Linkbot Siren System in Ch:

A Ch program linkbotSiren.ch can be used to control this Linkbot Siren System. Details for each robot member function for CLinkbotI can be found in the textbook “Learning Robot Programming with Linkbot for the Absolute Beginner”. How to write a C function can be found in the textbook “Learning Computer Programming with Ch for the Absolute Beginner”. The entire PDF files for these two textbooks are available in C-STEM Studio. The detailed information Arduino functions can be found in textbook "Learning Physical Computing with Arduino for the Absolute Beginner."

/* File: linkbotSiren.ch

Drive a robot and play a siren at the same time

while making an RGB LED blink */

#include <arduino.h>

#include <linkbot.h>

CLinkbotI robot;

double radius = 1.75;

double trackwidth = 3.69;

//Set up pin 3 for output

int ledPin = 3;

pinMode(ledPin, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(ledPin, HIGH);

//Play police car siren while the robot drives forward

robot.driveDistanceNB(45, radius);

robot.playMelody(PoliceCarSiren, 1);

//wait for driveDistanceNB() to finish

robot.moveWait();

robot.turnRight(180, radius, trackwidth);

//Play an ambulance siren while the robot drives backward

robot.driveDistanceNB(45, radius);

robot.playMelody(AmbulanceSiren, 1);

robot.moveWait();

robot.turnRight(180, radius, trackwidth);

//Play a fire truck siren while the robot drives forward

robot.driveDistanceNB(45, radius);

robot.playMelody(FireTruckSiren, 1);

robot.moveWait();