Programming Arduino

We will be using the Arduino IDE to program our robot. This system uses a variation of the C language and the Arduino library to make our motors move.

All Arduino programs have a main loop() function that will run continiously. Most programs also have a setup() function that will run only once after the Arduino processor powers up or gets a reset event.

Here are some of the common Arduion functions we will use in our robot.

Setup

pinMode(pin, mode) - used to setup a pin for input and to indicate if the internal pullup resistor is used.

Motor Commands

analogWrite(pin, power) - used to set the speeds of the motor pins

delay(msec) - used to pause the Arduino for a msec milliseconds. delay(1000) will pause for one second

Serial Debugging

In addion to to these we will use a few functions for displaying numbers to the serial port for debugging.

Serial.begin(9600);

Serial.println()

Serial.print()

All of these commands are described on the Arduino web site: