Learn how to build a two-wheel self-balancing Java robot using Raspberry Pi
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In my last four-part series of articles, I explained how to connect electronic sensors or devices to the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B using various interfaces: Part 1 showed how to use general-purpose input/output (GPIO) interfaces, Part 2 used inter-integrated circuit bus (I2C) interfaces, Part 3 used universal asynchronous receiver transmitter circuit (UART) interfaces, and Part 4 used serial peripheral interface (SPI) interfaces.
This article, which is the first in a new series, focuses on using two types of interfaces, GPIO and I2C, to create a prototype two-wheel self-balancing robot using the following modules:
MPU-6050 sensor, which contains a three-axis gyroscope and an accelerometer. The accelerometer measures linear acceleration and earth gravity vectors and the gyroscope measures angular velocity. The sensor uses an I2C interface at address 0x68h to read a value raw that contains the accelerometer and gyroscope data.
Adafruit PCA9685, which is a 16-channel, 12-bit pulse width modulation (PWM) servo driver that produces pulses at a desirable frequency to control motor speed. It uses an I2C interface at address 0x41h to prevent the Raspberry Pi from producing a software pulse that forces a large delay in CPU response.
L298N dual H-bridge DC motor driver, which controls the speed and direction of the two robot motors. It uses a GPIO interface to produce the direction signal and connects to the PWM module to activate and control the speed of each motor.
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