Reinvigorating Microcontroller Laboratories with Experiences and Applications of Common Devices

Many non-engineering Cadets at the United States Military Academy take a sequence of courses in Electrical Engineering as part of their requirement to earn a Bachelor's of Science.The final course in the sequence incorporates the programming of a microcontroller, including the utilization of analog and digital circuits, and implementation of robotics as part of military electronic systems.Because of the limited programming experience of these students, the course uses the BOE-Bot containing a BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller that is programmed in PBASIC.Despite the amount of resources in programming and circuits provided by the vendor, the activities need augmentation, or reinvigoration.The incorporation of common devices such as TV remotes, flashlights, gaming controllers and RC controllers provide students the opportunity to analyze and apply simple circuits with programming.These implementations and associated activities allow the operation of a robot and actuators in a semi-autonomous or tele-operated mode, through the use of various sensors, communication systems and programming techniques.At the end of the course with a capstone project, students demonstrate the application of various aspects of electrical engineering through a small-scale robotic system.