Programming the Mars Rover with Block Coding in PictoBlox

Introduction

Quarky Mars Rover is a miniature version of Mars Rovers sent to Mars by NASA. It has 5 servo motors – 4 in the legs to control the wheel position and 1 in the head. It also has 6 motors to control the motion of the robot which allows it to move forward, backward, left, and right.

The robot is programmable with PictoBlox. PictoBlox is coding education software that uses both graphical block-based coding and Python programming.

With PictoBlox, you can program the Mars Rover for different applications!

If you haven’t installed PictoBlox, please follow the instructions:

Windows Installer (.exe)

STEP 1: Download the Pictoblox Installer (.exe) for Windows 7 and above (Release Notes).

Windows Installer 64-bit

Windows Installer 32-bit

STEP 2: Run the .exe file.

Some of the device gives the warning popup. You don’t have to worry, this software is harmless. Click on More info and then click on Run anyway.

STEP 3: Rest of the installation is straight forward, you can follow the popup and check on the option appropriate for your need.

 

Your software is now installed!

macOS Installer

STEP 1: Download the Pictoblox Installer (.dmg).

macOS Installer

STEP 2: Run the .dmg file.

Mobile App Installer

STEP 1: Open Google Play Store on your Smartphone and and search for PictoBlox or visit the link here to head over to the Google Play Store. You can even scan the QR Code below from your Smartphone to head to the PictoBlox App.

Mobile App Installer

STEP 2: Install the PictoBlox App.

Connecting Quarky with PictoBlox

Let’s begin by first connecting Quarky to PictoBlox. Select your preferred type of device i.e. either the desktop/laptop or your smartphone and follow the instructions.

Desktop

Follow the steps below for connecting Quarky to PictoBlox:

1. First, connect Quarky to your laptop using a USB cable.
2. Next, open PictoBlox on your desktop.
3. After that, select Block as your coding environment.
4. Then, click the Board button in the toolbar and select board as Quarky.
   
5. Next, select the appropriate Serial port if the Quarky is connected via USB or the Bluetooth Port if you want to connect Quarky via Bluetooth and press Connect.
   
6. Click on the Upload Firmware button. This will upload the latest firmware in Quarky.
   

   Note: If your device already has the latest firmware, then PictoBlox will show the message – Firmware is already updated. For learning more you can refer to this tutorial: https://ai.thestempedia.com/docs/quarky/quarky-toubleshooting/updating-quarky-firmaware-with-pictoblox/
7. Once the firmware is uploaded, Quarky starts the Getting Started program. This runs only for the first time. Run through it.

And voila! Quarky is now connected to PictoBlox.

Mobile

Follow the steps below for connecting Quarky to PictoBlox:

1. First, power ON Quarky.
2. Open PictoBlox on your smartphone. Go to My Space and make a new project by clicking the ‘+(plus)’ button in the bottom-right corner.
   
3. Then, tap the Board button in the top-right corner of the toolbar.
   Select board as Quarky.
   
4. Next, tap the Connect button:
   Select your device from the list.
   

And voila! Quarky is now connected to PictoBlox.

Quarky Mars Rover Extension

The Mars Rover extension in PictoBlox allows you to control the robot. It has blocks for specific applications. To add the Mars Rover extension follow the instructions:

1. Click on the Add Extension button and add the Quarky Mars Rover extension.
2. You can find the Quarky Mars Rover blocks available in the project.

PictoBlox Blocks for Mars Rover

The following blocks are available for the Mars Rover:

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_wrapper_link" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/wrapper-link.php on line 194

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_wrapper_link_enable" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/wrapper-link.php on line 196

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_custom_cursor_icon" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/custom-cursor.php on line 350

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_custom_cursor_text" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/custom-cursor.php on line 351

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_custom_cursor_target" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/custom-cursor.php on line 352

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_custom_cursor_css_selector" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/custom-cursor.php on line 353

Warning: Undefined array key "pp_custom_cursor_enable" in /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/powerpack-elements/extensions/custom-cursor.php on line 355

Controls the camera functionality, allowing users to turn the camera on or off and switch to other camera.

Starts the script whenever you press a specified button of the wizbot.

Calibrates wizbot sensors, ensuring accurate readings for line following

Switches the state of the wizbot to Grid mode.

The block takes the motor port, the direction of rotation (forward or reverse) and speed of rotation (between 0 to 100 %) as input from the user and rotates the motor accordingly.

evive has two tactile switches; this block checks if either of them is pressed. The switch whose state you want to check can be chosen from the drop-down menu on this block. It returns “true” if the switch is pressed and “false” if the switch is not pressed.

The block compares the latest string message in the terminal with the data input by the user in the block. If the data matches, it returns the true, else it returns false. 

The block reports either the temperature or humidity (selected from the dropdown menu) from DHT sensor connected to the digital pin selected from the drop-down menu.

The block is used to draw characters and symbols on evive TFT Display. The matrix size for the block is 20 horizontally and 16 vertically. 

This block defines the PWM pins to which each of the servos is connected.

This block defines the PWM pins to which all the four servos of legs(2 servos of legs + 2 servos of feet) are connected.

The blocks turn their sprite the specified amount of degrees clockwise. This changes the direction the sprite is facing.

The block gives its sprite a speech bubble with the specified text — the speech bubble stays until another speech or thought block is activated, or the stop sign is pressed.

The block will play the specified sound, with no pause to its script.

Blocks held inside this block will loop a given amount of times, before allowing the script to continue. If a decimal is put in, the number is rounded up.

Scripts placed underneath this block will activate when the specified key is pressed.

The block checks whether its sprite is touching a specified color. If it is, the block returns “true”.

The block checks if the first value is equal to the other value. If the values are equal, the block returns true; if not, false. This block is not case-sensitive.

The block will change the specified variable by a given amount.

The block enables or disables the automatic display of the box on the human pose or hand detection on the stage. This is useful when you want to see if the detection is happening or not.

The recognize () in image after () seconds block starts the camera and takes an image after the specified time and analyzes it. It then saves the image features in PictoBlox.

The function enables or disables the automatic display of the box on face detection on the stage.

This block is used to analyze the image received as input from the camera, for the handwritten and printed text.

When the block is executed, the recognition window will open and you will get a specified time during which PictoBlox will record whatever you say. Once recorded, the speech will be converted to the text of the language you spoke in and saved locally.

The block opens the recognition window and shows the machine learning analysis on the camera feed. Very good for visualization of the model in PictoBlox.

The block trains the NLP model with the data added with add () as () block.

The block enables or disables the automatic display of the box on object detection on the stage. This is useful when you want to see if the object detection happens during the analysis or not.

The block causes the text in the Text to Speech extension to be spoken using the pronunciation of the given language but does not translate the text.

The block returns the PictoBlox language of the current user. This block can be used with the translate () to () block, to translate to or from the end user’s set language.

All articles loaded

No more articles to load

Activity: Calibrating Mars Rover

In this activity, we are going to calibrate the Mars Rover servo motors. Due to some mechanical assembly errors, there may be some misalignment of the servos which can be handled with set offset to head (), FL (), FR (), BL (), BR () block.

Follow the steps:

1. Open new project in PictoBlox.
2.  Connect Quarky to PictoBlox.
3. Click on the Add Extension button and add the Quarky Mars Rover extension.
4. Make the following code:

Run the code with Green Flag. Now you have to make sure that the robot has the following orientation:

If you find any twist of angle in the robot wheels, edit the value of the servo motor in the set offset to head (), FL (), FR (), BL (), BR () block. If this step is not done properly, your robot may move in an incorrect manner.

Note:  This has to be done only once as the offset values are stored in the memory of the robot.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Quarky Mars Rover is a miniature version of Mars Rovers sent to Mars by NASA. It can be programmed using PictoBlox, where you can program the Mars Rover for different applications. To connect Quarky to PictoBlox, you can use either your desktop/laptop or your smartphone. The Mars Rover extension in PictoBlox allows you to control the robot. You can use the blocks to calibrate the servo motors, allowing the robot to move in the desired orientation. With the help of PictoBlox and the Mars Rover extension, you can now explore the possibilities of programming a small Mars Rover!