Design of Android Controlled Automobiles Using 8051 Microcontroller

Today, the technology plays a wide role in our day to day life. With the rapid development of technology, everyone is addicted to modern gadgets and internet. Wireless technology has further reduced the human effort and invoked to adopt new, efficient, cost-effective methods, leaving behind the conventional methods. Wireless technologies like Zigbee, Bluetooth, wifi, RF signals are used to control and operate various applications and respond accordingly.

The aim of this project is to make an Android-based smartphone or tablet to control the automobiles. Android is an operating system in Linux language. It was developed from the ground to help the developers to create a mobile application for effective utilization of mobile with touch gestures, voice command etc. It is an open source with Java UI.

Android Controlled Automobile System

An android controlled automobile allows the user to control a battery power automobile wirelessly through an Android device. This system has a Bluetooth module as a medium of data transfer between the automobile and the Android device. The data received by the Bluetooth are processed by 8051 microcontroller which performs the desired action.

Block Diagram

Hardware Requirements

• 8051 Microcontroller
• Android Device
• Robot Body
• Bluetooth Device
• DC Motors
• Motor Driver IC
• Crystal
• Voltage Regulator
• Resistors, Capacitors
• Battery

Software Requirements

• Keil Software
• Embedded C language

Android Controlled Automobile System Operation

The Android device has an application which provides the user with a GUI (Graphic User Interface) to send the commands using their touch gesture. The commands are sent to the automobile through an active Bluetooth device in the form of string variables.

The Bluetooth present in the automobile receives the string data which is then fed to the microcontroller. The microcontroller processes the data and checks for the commands of the user. On recognizing the commands (forward/backwards/left/right) the microcontroller sends the information to the driver IC. Then the driver IC operates the motor to perform the desired action. This system continues with every gesture of the user to control the automobile.

Bluetooth Module

A Bluetooth is a wireless device used to transfer data over a short range. It uses radio signals for communication. It has a capability to communicate with many devices without any interface. It operates with a speed of 2.45GHz.

Motor Driver IC

L293D is a typical motor driver IC. This IC has 16 pins which are used to control a set of DC motor in any directions. This IC works on the principle of H bridge. An H bridge is an electronic circuit that that allows applying the voltage across the load in any direction. This is generally used in robotics to allow DC motor to run forward or backwards.

8051 Microcontroller

A microcontroller is a highly integrated chip or a microprocessor with all peripherals like RAM, ROM, I/O ports, Timers ADC etc. on a single chip. It is a dedicated chip called as single chip computer.

The 8051 microcontroller is a popular 8-bit microcontroller. It is based on 8 bit CISC core of Harvard architecture. It is available as a 40 pin DIP pin chip and works with 5volts DC input.

Block diagram of 8051 Microcontroller

Salient Features of 8051 Microcontroller

• 4KB on-chip program memory (ROM and EPROM).
• 128 bytes on-chip data memory (RAM).
• 8-bit data bus, 16-bit address bit and two 16 bit timers T0 and T1
• 32 general purpose registers each of 8 bits and five interrupts.
• Four parallel ports each of 8 bits with a total 32 I/O lines.
• One 16 bit program counter, one stack pointer and one 16 bit data pointer.
• One microsecond instruction cycle with 12MHz crystal.
• One dual duplex serial communication port.

Pin Description

The 8051 microcontroller is available in 40 pin DIP configuration. Among 40 pins, 32 pins are allotted for four parallel ports P0, P1, P2 and P3, each port occupying 8 pins. The remaining pins are VCC, GND, XTAL1, XTAL2, RST, EA and PSEN.

A quartz crystal oscillator is connected across the pins XTAL1 and XTAL2 with a capacitor value of 30pF. If a source other than crystal oscillator is used, then the pins XTAL1 and XTAL2 are left open.

Serial Communication in 8051 Microcontroller

The 8051 microcontroller has two pins for transferring and receiving the data through serial communication. These two pins are part of a port P3 (P3.0 and P3.1). These pins are TTL compatible and hence they require a line driver to make them RS232 compatible. MAX232 is used as a line driver. Serial communication is controlled by an 8-bit register called SCON register.

Interfacing DC Motor to 8051

A DC motor runs on Direct current and it produces torque using electrical energy and magnetic field. A DC motor requires more torque in the initial stage than in running stage. DC motors require large current to run, which will destroy the microcontroller IC. Hence driving circuit with an optoisolator and an L293 Dual H-Bridge driver is used. The optoisolator provides additional protection to the microcontroller.

Android Applications

The Android operating system provides a platform to develop a variety of applications which run on smartphones to enhance the lives of humans.

• Android is used to develop precise navigation, tracking system
• It is used to develop different social media applications which provide the network of interaction.
• It helps to develop various mobile banking, money transfer apps.
• It facilitates easy shopping.
• It helps to develop various safety and security apps.

This is all about Designing of an Android Controlled Automobile using 8051 Microcontroller which uses driver ICs for the movement and a smartphone for wireless communication through a Bluetooth. For further more, such interesting projects reach us through the comments section below.Testing checking