Introduction
On this web site we want to document and present the work and the different projects we have done on our ASUROs. Our main objective is to provide all the relevant informations to reproduce (and understand) the modifications, extensions and programs we have made.
This site is not meant to be a general resource about the ASURO. For more general informations on building the robot, finding errors and C-Programming we recommend the pages listed in the Links section.
What is ASURO?
ASURO is a little, mobile and completely free programmable robot. It was developed for educational purposes by DLR, the german aerospace center. It is mostly based on standard components and sold on various shops as a self-assembly kit for around 40 €. The assembly requires soldering knowledge and a few tools.
The centre part of the robot is an Atmel ATmega8L RISC Processor with 8kB Flash, 1kB RAM and 512Byte EEPROM and 23 I/O Pins. The CPU is very flexible and completely programmable in C, Basic or Asm. ASURO is equipped with various sensors, including 6 button to detect collisions, a line following sensor and 2 photoelectric barriers for odometry. It is possible to attach an extension board, to add any desired type of sensor. The robot is moved by two engines, whose direction and speed can be chosen arbitrary by the CPU.
Why did we chose ASURO?
As computer science students we deal with theoretical aspects and varios mathematics most of our time. Except from a very few lectures we don't get in touch with the actual electronics or circuit boards. As we have only a small amount of spare time, we where looking for a small but manifoldly extensible basis for our experiments. After some while of searching we found the ASURO as the perfect way to get to know more about electronics and a very good basic to gain experiences in the use of micro controllers, which can be used in various projects in the future.
Warning
We have tested all listed modifications and extensions to our own ASUROs. So far, none of them caused any damage or problems.
All Informations on these pages are distributed in the hope that they will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. The use of any informations from these pages happens on your own responsibility.