Design of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) for Electrical Integration on the Agile Ground Robot (AGRO)

A custom Printed Circuit Board (PCB) was designed and fabricated to integrate several electrical sensing and actuation components and their communication circuits for the rapid development of robots such as the Agile Ground Robot (AGRO). AGRO is a hybrid wheeled/legged robot designed to be quickly deployed by emergency teams and operate autonomously or by remote control to perform tasks such as reconnaissance, inspection, mapping, or object detection. The central computer for such a robot requires the use of motor controllers, servomechanisms, and sensors such as Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to operate. AGRO in particular requires inter-device digital communication using CAN, RS232, and S-Bus interfaces. The PCB was designed to meet these requirements through component selection, schematic design, circuit layout, and fabrication. The PCB is mountable as a “shield” on top the AGRO's Mbed microcontroller, controlling all on-board components and systems through its firmware. The board also features additional pins, switches, and power breakouts for expanding its capabilities.