Z80 Home


Z80 Multitasking Robot
By Rick Chalfant


Download Robot Docs Ziped
Download Robot Sources Ziped

Key features:

SERIAL RADIO LINK, 49Mhz FSK modulated, 2400 baud.
DIRECTION OF SOUND DETERMINATION, with three microphones.



The following documentation contains design objectives which were written before work was begun. It also contains detailed descriptions of completed functions.
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION Rather than one very powerful CPU controlling everything, several smaller CPU's will be integrated into a network. This allows the individual CPU's to be more closely matched to their particular functions. It also allows construction to proceed in a modular fashion. MAIN CPU This CPU is responsible for determining what actions to take. It must be constantly aware of exact vehicle position in relation to surroundings, including temporary obstacles. It accepts and interprets encoded speech commands from the speech processor CPU and sends encoded speech responses to the speech processor for utterance. The main CPU issues motion commands to the base CPU and requests reports on motion progress and vehicle status. It also accepts asynchronous notification of emergency events. Initially, the main CPU will be located off-board. It will communicate with the vehicle via a serial link, either radio or umbilical cord. BASE CPU The base CPU is responsible for all hardware on the vehicle base, except the speech components. This CPU controls the stepper motors and DC drive motors and monitors their position. It monitors all bumper and limit switches. When a switch closes, the corresponding motor is stopped first, then the main CPU is notified of the aborted command. The battery charge level is monitored, and charging operations proceed under its control. Distance-to-object and direction-of-sound are calculated by the base CPU. The radio link to the main CPU, and the LED link to the platform CPU are maintained by the base CPU. A parallel port connects it to the speech CPU. Base CPU memory is used for message buffering. SPEECH CPU The speech CPU interprets sounds and encodes them into word- codes. These word-codes are passed to the main CPU (through the base CPU's radio link) for interpretation of actual meaning. The speech CPU receives word-codes from the main CPU, which it utters via the speech synthesizer. PLATFORM CPU The platform CPU is responsible for all components mounted on the rotating platform, except the video digitizer. It communicates with the base CPU via LED's mounted in the support shaft. Rotation of the platform is performed by the base control CPU, upon request of the platform CPU. VIDEO CPU The video CPU captures digitized images, evaluates them, and encodes the information it can discern. It makes lens movement and focus requests to the platform CPU. It accepts image-related requests from the main CPU via the base and platform CPU's. DETAILED ORGANIZATION BASE and PLATFORM CPU's HARDWARE DESCRIPTION The same design is used for each of these CPU's, since they perform very similar functions. This CPU uses a 4MHz Z80 processor with 16K or 64K of memory. The memory is divided between RAM and ROM (EPROM). A Z80 SIO or DART provides two serial channels. Two Z80 CTC's handle timing tasks. Three Z80 PIO's are used for limit switch input and general bit oriented control functions. One of the PIO ports is a high-speed bi- directional parallel link to the speech or video CPU. Eight "dumb" output ports are used for stepper motor control, allowing up to 16 four-phase steppers to be attached. The processor board contains all the components that must use the data and address busses, as well as address-decode and clock generation chips. Two stepper motor driver boards may be connected to one CPU board. Each stepper motor board controls eight four-phase motors. All timing and sequencing is handled by the CPU board. The stepper board only provides output drive amplification. The support boards contain miscellaneous circuitry specific to the base or platform hardware. Both support boards house the reset circuit and auto-reset one-shot, limit switch buffers, and LED strobe conditioners. In addition, the base support board contains FSK timing and radio link support, including transmit solenoid and walkie-talkie board. The power board attached to the base CPU contains the DC motor drivers and direction control, battery monitor and charge circuitry, and voltage regulators. The +12VDC from the battery is regulated to +5VDC by a swithced-mode regulator. A small linear regulator provides +9VDC for the walkie-talkie. AUTO-RESET A primary design requirement states that the system will stop all motion in the event of an unexpected error. In this case, "unexpected" means any error that the CPU does not monitor or for which it does not have a recovery routine. This will prevent damage to the vehicle and to its environment, as well as limit unnecessary battery drain. To accomplish this requirement, an "auto-reset" mechanism is employed. A 74LS123 retriggerable monostable is gated to the system-reset circuit. Its output pulse is initiated by the system-reset line. It is kept active by retriggering the one-shot via a parallel port bit. If the pulse ever times out, the system will perform a hardware reset. If a software or hardware error prevents the program from toggling the trigger bit within the allotted time, the resulting reset will stop any motor activity and cause system diagnostics to be performed. The one-shot design was chosen because it runs independently of the CPU. A counter circuit running from the system clock, for example, would fail to function if the CPU quit because the system clock failed.


Download Robot Docs Ziped
Download Robot Sources Ziped

The Downloaded programs assembles with M80 and runs, but the timer interrupts use 
up most of the processor time on a 4-mHz Z80.  Instead of using what 
is essentially a software timer with a 1-msec interrupt, I need to 
use the Z80-CTC as a hardware timer with a programmable down-counter 
and a 1.04-msec period.  Of course, this means adjusting all the 
other routines that use the timer, as well as the CTC circuitry.  
I became involved in other projects and never finished this one.

I'm only including this source code as an example for the 
multi-tasking article, anyway, so the user can work out the timer 
details on his own.

The DOC files are a combination of design ideas and descriptions of 
actual code.  The code doesn't necessarily match the design ideas.

Rick.C

Article about the multitask system used in this robot