Cookbook for Mobile Robotic Platform Control: With Internet of Things And Ti Launch Pad

By Dr. Anita Gehlot, Rajesh Singh, Lovi Raj Gupta and Bhupendra Singh

This book provides a platform to the readers, where they can understand the applications of ‘Internet of Things’ to control the robotic platform. It covers the basic knowledge of the mobile apps with their designing steps and programming. The objective of the book is to discuss various applications of robotic platform where ‘Internet of things’ can play an important role. This book comprises of total seventeen chapters for designing different independent prototypes for the various control methods. It covers introduction to IoT and basic components to design a robotic platform. The system demonstration is done with the help of Ti Launch Pad and other interfacing devices. The control of robot with different mobile apps like Blynk, Virtuino, Cayenne, Thingspeak, Firebase are included for vast coverage of scope.

It would be beneficial for the people who want to get started with hardware based robotic prototypes with IoT. This book is entirely based on the practical experience of the authors while undergoing projects with the students and industries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BPB Online LLP
• Release date: Jul 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9789388511698

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Introduction

1.1 Introduction to IoT

The meaning of the Internet is the large systems of connected computers around the world that allows people to share information and communicate with each other. Things is used to refer in an approximate way to objects.

The required data can be collected by the IoT enabled device from the existing wide variety of technologies and it can send the data, as and when required, to the identified device. In the present market, smart ACs and heaters act according to the requirements of a Wi-Fi system’s user. Old mobile phones, TVs, and house dustbins are becoming smarter. According to one statistical analysis, IoT enabled devices will reach up to 31 billion in number by 2020. IPv6 is a version of Internet protocol, which provides identification for computers on the network and routes the traffic over the internet. IPv6 has 128-bit Hex numbers.

Features

The basic architecture of the Internet of Things comprises sensors, actuators, and their enabling machine language. Artificial Intelligence, alongside connectivity and active engagement, can be used by small devices.

Artificial Intelligence: Artificial Intelligence is mathematically developed manmade machine intelligence. It was created in order to use the natural environment so that it can achieve a target. The Internet of Things enabled Artificial Intelligence to develop a smart algorithm in order to collect data and communicate with other connected devices through their networks. For example, in the smart bin system of a production line, if the material moves over, then data will be transferred to an ERP system. This will then be followed by an order received by supplier from ERP, which will refill the intelligent smart bin.

Connectivity: Connectivity is a major issue in most places. Previously, industries had connectivity. At present, XBee, RFID, RX/TX 433MHz, and Wi-Fi are the devices used to provide network connectivity in order to realize the IoT’s applications.

Sensors: Devices, in the form of sensors/transducers, are required to detect physical parameters; these then communicate its data to the destination through an embedded system.

Active Engagement: The Internet of Things is an active engagement with technology that makes a paradigm shift over today’s passive engagement which exists in service and product management.

Advantages

Disadvantages

Although IoT addresses so many meritorious things, it also has some challenges as well:

The Internet of Things is the integration of sensation, communication, and analytical capabilities created within conventional technologies. The IoT promises to help the automotive industry by directly managing their existing assets in different places. This allows information from the supply chain and after sales services, as well as dealers and customers, to be collated in order to help them to understand and access the data/information as and when required.

IoT in Society

Society is becoming smarter by using the IoT ecosystem in day-to-day activities; this has enriched the lives of human beings. Its application began with the smart dustbin and has progressed to operating the garage door. In the near future, the IoT could become a multi-trillion dollar industry. CISCO revealed that the use of IoT enabled devices may increase to 50 billion devices used by 7.6 billion people.

1.2 Industry Revolution

The industrial era focused on change in every aspect of life and this has now moved on to the digital era, where every dimension of life is changing rapidly.

The term Industry 4.0 was used by the German government; it refers to the use of the Internet of Things in the manufacturing industry. The term Industry 4.0 relates to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Sometimes it is also known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Fig. 1.1 Four Phases of Industrialization

Industry 4.0 is based on the technological concepts of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things, and the Internet of Services. It facilitates the vision of the Smart Factory. The IoT focuses on convenience for individual consumers, whereas Industrial 4.0 is strongly focused on improving the efficiency, safety, and productivity of operations with a focus on return on investment. Although Industry 4.0 is more particular to industry, the two terms do refer to similar movements. Industry 4.0 represents a paradigm shift from centralized to decentralized smart manufacturing. BMW adopted the Industry 4.0 manufacturing strategy in order to obtain greater efficiency and flexibility in their factories. Previously, automotive parts were assembled by robots and human beings (technicians) and, indeed, most of the insignificant assembly tasks were performed by human hands. However, in Industry 4.0 technicians/engineers work with interactive robots.

The Advantages of Industry 4.0

Robots have the interactive nature required to work with humans; this makes them much safer and user friendly.

Robots can perform hard physical labor instead of humans, which leads to an increase in production and the general efficiency of the plant.

Robots can use their energy and mechanical accuracy to support the human workforce and maintain long-lasting healthy conditions.

1.3 IoT Protocols

The architecture of the Internet of Things (IoT) consists of a collection of active devices/things, digital and analog sensors, linear and rotational actuators, communication protocols, and developers. Table 1.1 shows the enabling technologies for Internet of Things. These enabling technologies––such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LRWPAN, Bluetooth, and LoRA––are differentiated by standard, frequency, data rate, transmission range, energy consumption, and cost.

Table1.1 IoT Protocol

Table 1.2 IoT supported platform

Table 1.2 shows the IoT supported platform with its parameters. It shows that IoT enabled devices are controlled through various platforms: Electric Imp 003 Raspberry Pi BC, Intel Galileo Gen 2, Intel Edison, Beagle Bone Black, Arduino Uno, Arduino Yun, ARM embed NXP LPC1768, and TelosB. These platforms have been identified using the following parameters: general-purpose unit, clock, voltage requirements, Flash memory, system memory, integrated development environments, programming languages, input and output connectivity, and the type of processor.

1.4 IoT Components

The system used by the Internet of Things (IoT) comprises of many functional blocks to facilitate various utilities such as, sensing, identification, actuation, communication, and management.

Fig. 1.2 IoT device components

Fig. 1.2 shows the various components of IoT devices such as the connectivity, processor, audio/Video interfaces, input-output interfaces, storage interface, memory interface, and graphics.

1.5 IoT Architecture

The IoT has protocols with layers like the existing OSI architecture model. The protocols used in the different categories are as follows:

Fig. 1.3 shows the IoT protocol architecture model for various applications.

Fig. 1.3 IoT protocol architecture model

Fig. 1.4 shows the architecture of the IoT. It contains the perception layer, Network Layer, and application layer.

Fig. 1.4 IoT architecture

Perception Layer: In this layer the collection of the data is taken from the environment: such as, air pressure, altitude, and temperature, as well as humidity from various homogeneous or heterogeneous devices. Intelligent sensors in the wireless sensor network (WSN) collect and process the data for different applications. Devices, such as linear/rotational actuators, cameras, intelligent sensors, and GPS, communicate with each other through various protocols, such as XBee, 2.4 GHZ RF modem, 433MHz RF modem, Bluetooth, nRF modem, Wi-Fi, and so on, in order to achieve a different range of communication.

Network Layer: The network layer establishes a link between the perception layer and the application layer. The network layer collects the information from the perception layer and sends it to the application layer for further processing.

Application layer: The application layer bridges the gap between the application and users.

Fig. 1.5 IoT Communication Protocols Stack

Fig. 1.5 shows other ways of representing the architecture/communication protocol stack of the Internet of things. The communication protocol stack of the Internet of Things has a physical layer, data link layer, network layer, transport layer, and application layer with its associated protocol.

Fig. 1.6 Architecture of the IoT

Fig. 1.6 shows another way of representing the architecture of the Internet of Things. The radio frequency identification devices (RFID) tags and sensors are an important part of the IoT system and these are responsible for collecting the raw data. It has sensors, connectivity, and a network layer at the bottom of this layer and has RFID tags (or a barcode reader), sensors/actuators, and then the communication network.

Fig. 1.7 shows the gateway and network layer. This layer is responsible for providing the route to the data; it comes from the sensor, connectivity, and network layer and then passes on to the next layer, which is the Management Service Layer. This layer has a large storage capacity to store the data from the sensors, RFID tags, and so on. This layer also integrates various network protocols because different IoT devices work on various types of network protocols. The gateway at the bottom of Fig. 1.7 contains an embedded OS, signal processors, micro-controllers, and so on. The gateway networks contain Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), and so