A specialised open-architecture microcontroller expansion set for an educational robotic manipulator, for students of grade 5 and above studying microcontroller programming, speech recognition, machine vision and control systems.
The LABOTRIX OPENMCU R7 is a specialised expansion set for an educational robotic manipulator, intended for in-depth study of microcontroller programming, the fundamentals of artificial intelligence — speech recognition and machine vision — and the design of control systems. The set is built on a modular open-source architecture: students connect the controller board to peripheral modules and external sensors themselves, write their own programs for it, and integrate the controller into a single robotic system together with a compatible manipulator. It is used in computer science, technology and robotics lessons and in club and project work, for a step-by-step move from the simplest training programs to control of a moving manipulator.
The control board of the set is based on an 8-bit AVR microcontroller with a clock frequency of 16 MHz, 256 KB of program flash memory, about 8 KB of which is taken by the bootloader, 8 KB of RAM and 4 KB of non-volatile data memory. It provides 54 digital inputs/outputs, 15 of them with hardware PWM, 16 analogue inputs with a 10-bit analogue-to-digital converter and 4 hardware serial ports, and supports the UART, I2C and SPI communication interfaces. The maximum current of a single pin is 40 mA, the logic operating voltage is 5 V, and the board is powered either from the USB port of the computer it is connected to or from a separate 7–12 V direct current source. The board communicates with the computer over USB as a virtual serial port and with the manipulator over the manipulator’s 10-pin communication interface, in full compatibility with its serial port protocol. The expansion board is installed on the controller board without soldering and carries separate sockets for the manipulator, the camera module and the speech recognition module, ten 3-pin and four 4-pin sockets for electronic modules and four additional pin headers. The set works with educational manipulators with 4 degrees of freedom and a standard 10-pin communication interface.
The voice command recognition module works with a fixed set of 22 commands; it detects one of the pre-recorded commands in the speech stream and passes only its number to the controller, while the controller program defines the resulting action. The module is supplied in one version to order, either English or Chinese. The camera module is a separate machine vision computing module with an I2C interface: it processes the image itself and passes data on recognised objects to the controller, so the controller is not loaded with video processing. Button modules, LED modules and a joystick module fixed on a common mounting plate are used for initial setup and indication, a suction cup driven by the air pump of the manipulator serves as the end effector, and 16 semi-rigid foam cubes in four colours are supplied as objects for recognition. Free sockets of the expansion board, unused digital and analogue pins of the microcontroller and the multiplexed inputs/outputs of the manipulator allow third-party sensors and actuators to be connected, which extends the functionality of learning projects. The controller is programmed either in a development environment with a graphical block interface for the entry level or in C/C++ text code in an open-source development environment for the advanced level, with ready library functions for peripheral and motion control at the high level and direct work with pins and microcontroller registers at the low level.
The set includes the controller board with the expansion board — 1 set, a cable for connecting the controller board to the manipulator, a voice command recognition module (English or Chinese to order) with its cable, a camera module with a bracket for mounting on the manipulator — 1 set — with its cable, button modules — 3 pcs, LED modules — 3 pcs, a joystick module, a fixing plate for mounting the modules, digital module cables — 12 pcs, 3-pin adapter cables — 4 pcs, 4-pin adapter cables — 4 pcs, a USB cable, a Micro USB cable, socket head cap screws for fastening the camera — 2 pcs, nylon rivets for mounting the modules — 18 pcs, a suction cup, semi-rigid foam cubes in four colours as objects for recognition — 16 pcs, the access right to the online course with the language model assistant, the passport with the warranty card and individual transport packaging. The educational manipulator, its power supply unit and air pump are not part of the set and are supplied separately as an independent product; without the manipulator only those training programs run that do not address its control. The product is supplied assembled and requires no assembly beyond installing the expansion board on the controller board and mounting the modules on the fixing plate.
The product is supplied with the access right to an online teaching support course of 70 academic hours hosted in a learning management system and compiled for the current curricula of general secondary education institutions of Ukraine. The materials are grouped into research modules in physics, biology, chemistry, STEM and robotics, and every topic contains a lesson plan, a list of the required equipment, a scenario of the experiment, a step-by-step laboratory work instruction with an explanation of the expected result, a video demonstration of the working techniques, and interactive exercises and tasks for independent work suitable for both individual and group study. All modules are compiled for this same equipment and tested on it, so the course follows a direct chain from the equipment through the teaching method to the learning outcomes. The kit includes an AI assistant built into the learning management system on retrieval-augmented generation. It selects research tasks and experiments matching the topic of the lesson, describes the procedure of the experiment step by step, identifies typical student errors and gives personalised recommendations for correcting them, adapts task difficulty to different levels of student preparation, supports students in compiling reports on research results and in structuring the conclusions drawn from experiments, and works on a localised knowledge base aligned with the national curriculum of Ukraine. The licence for the course and the software is valid for 12 months; content, interface and learning materials are in Ukrainian.
The program loaded into the controller drives the manipulator on its own and motion can start right after power-up or a restart of the controller, so before power is applied the working area of the manipulator is cleared of objects, tools and hands, and a return to the home point is performed before any program that controls motion is debugged. All modules, cables and the camera are connected and disconnected only with the manipulator power off and the USB cable disconnected from the computer, boards and modules are held by their edges or bodies to protect them from static electricity, and each cable is inserted into the socket of the expansion board intended for it. Powerful loads such as motors and relays are connected only through a separate driver or switch, and the rated pin current and logic voltage are not to be exceeded. Boards and modules are cleaned from dust with a dry soft brush or compressed air, module bodies and the mounting plate are wiped with a slightly damp cloth, and the camera lens is cleaned only with a dry optical wipe. The product is intended for educational work in general secondary education institutions under the supervision of a teacher; the recommended age of students is from 10 years, that is grade 5 and above. Service life is 5 years and the warranty period is 12 months from the date of sale.
