Seminar on Embedded Systems and Robotics at ASCET, Gudur, Andhra Pradesh

On March 26, 2014, I delivered two sessions of my seminar "Embedded Systems and Robotics using 8-bit and 32-bit Microcontrollers". Each session had an audience of about 200 students of Electronics and Communications Engineering (ECE) stream of Bachelor of Engineering (BE) program. These were all either 3rd year or 4th year students.

The seminar started with a discussion on what are Embedded Systems and where we can find them in our daily life. 

After that a brief analysis of generic Embedded Systems and their application areas was presented. After this a brief introduction to Robotics was given.

A demo of an simple obstruction sensing robot was given. This robot detects obstructions closer than 50 cm or less. If the robot detects an obstruction it stops, reverses for some time and then turns left while going forward and starts looking for the next obstruction.

The demo was followed by an explanation of the robot's components and its working.

Then the most interesting section, How to learn Embedded Systems was delivered. This section covered both Hardware and Software areas of learning.

This was followed by a brief introduction of 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers and their advantages & disadvantages. The seminar concluded with a discussion on skills and knowledge that Embedded Systems industry is looking for in its future employees.

The second and final demo was of the HID USB Mouse implemented using ARM9 based NXP2148 microcontroller. Here's a link to the video of the HID-Mouse. 

 

About the college - ASCET is part of the Audisankara Group of Institutions, Gudur, that has many colleges and around 8000 students in its rolls. Their website - http://www.audisankara.ac.in/

 

If you are interested in organizing such seminars in your college, contact us.

Generating HEX files in Keil uVision IDE

If you are new to Keil uVision IDE, you may have noticed that whether you use ASM code or C code, the HEX files are not generated when you compile your programs. This is because Keil does not generate the HEX file by default. In case you are wondering what HEX file is, HEX file is the output of Keil that is generated after compilation and linking of your application and this is the file that is 'burned' or programmed into your microcontroller or microprocessor.

So, to enable generation of the HEX file follow these steps:

Step 1) Create the Keil project by adding your ASM and/or C source files

Step 2) Open the project options. Use any of the three methods given below:

- Click on Project->Options for Target  (Fig. 1) 

OR 

- Right-click on the Target 1 in the project window on the left side of the IDE   (Fig. 2) 

OR 

- Simply press ALT-F7 to open the project options:

Fig. 1

 Fig. 2

Step 3) Once the project options window is visible, first click on the Output tab and then click on the empty check box next to Create HEX File. The Output tab should look like Fig. 3. Click on OK and then click on Files->Save All.

  

Fig. 3

Step 4) Now if you build your target, you will see the associated HEX file in the output directory.

IMPORTANT - You must repeat this process for each new project that you create.