The Orangutan robot controller is a complete control solution for small robots. It includes an 8-character x 2-line liquid crystal display, two bi-directional motor ports, a buzzer, three pushbuttons, and up to 12 user I/O lines, yet the compact module measures only 2.00" x 1.85" and weighs less than 1 ounce. Because of the complete feature set, very few additional components (such as sensors or motors) need to be added to complete the electronic portion of a small robot. The small package allows for greater flexibility in incorporating the electronics into the mechanical design of a robot.

The Orangutan is based on Atmel’s ATmega168 AVR microcontroller, which features 16 Kbytes of flash program memory, 1024 bytes of SRAM, and 512 bytes of EEPROM. Up to 8 channels of 10-bit analog-to-digital conversion are also available. Because the user has direct access to the microcontroller, any development software for Atmel’s AVR microcontrollers, including Atmel’s free AVR Studio and the WinAVR GCC C/C++ compiler, is compatible with the Orangutan. An in-circuit programmer, such as our Orangutan USB programmer, is required for programming the Orangutan.

The Orangutan input voltage is 5-10 V, making it well-suited for use with small DC motors and 5- to 8-cell NiCd or NiMH battery packs. The motor driver can supply up to a maximum of 1 A per motor channel, subject to power dissipation requirements. Total power consumption (with motors and buzzer off) is under 15 mA.

Specifications & On-Board Hardware

• overall unit dimensions: 2.00" x 1.85"
• input voltage: 5-10 V
• 2 bidirectional motor ports connected to LB1836M motor driver (1 A maximum per channel)
• programmable 8 MHz Atmel ATmega168 AVR microcontroller (16 kB flash, 1 kB SRAM, 512 bytes EEPROM)
• 12 user I/O lines, 10 of which can be used for digital I/O and 8 of which can be used as analog input channels
• 8-character x 2-line LCD
• buzzer
• 3 user pushbutton switches
• 1 user LED
• user potentiometer tied to ADC7