Amjad Fakhri Abu Salem
Terra Sancta College, Amman, Jordan
The main idea of this project is the integration of computer, electrical and mechanical sub systems in order to construct an artificially intelligent device having the ability to cut things like wood in a specific shape designed by the user and to be a multi-purpose designing machine that can be used to:
1.Design accurate and small objects (which allows it to be used in a lathe).
2.Hemstitch the clothes (allowing it to be used in a weaving factory).
3.To drill objects (used for a carpenter).
In order to achieve this project three main issues were taken into consideration, the first issue is to program the software in the computer to give the user the ability to draw, the second issue is to send the coordinates of the drawing throw the parallel port to the hardware and the third one is to program a microcontroller (PIC 16F876) in order to get those coordinates and give the orders to drive the stepper motors as wanted.
The program in the computer was programmed using VB (Visual Basic) and the coordinates were given to the hardware by calculating all of the coordinates in a drawn design and sending them to the parallel port using (io.dll). Finally the PIC microcontroller was programmed using assembly language and a PIC programmer bought from AL – Baheth Center.
So the following can summarize the whole operation of the project:
The user draw a shape on a program in the computer and the hardware does cut a piece of wood the same shape as in the program or does other things from the 3 purposes mentioned above.
But what is important to mention is that my prototype doesn`t cut, doesn`t drill and doesn`t hemstitch at the moment, rather it does draw the drawn design over a paper.