Abbreviations

Abbreviation

Meaning

ADC

Analogue to Digital Converter. A chip which reads an analogue voltage signal.

ASIC

Application Specific Integrated Circuit.

CAN

Controller Area Network. A 1Mb peer-peer network for vehicles and robots.

CPU

Central Processing Unit. A computer processor which runs software.

CRC

Cyclic Redundancy Check. An algorithm (or output of) for checking the correctness of incoming data.

DAC

Digital to Analogue Converter. A chip which produces an analogue voltage signal.

EC

EtherCAT

EEPROM

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory.

FPID

Feed-forward Proportional Integral Derivative controller. An algorithm used to control something on a robot.

GUI

Graphical User Interface.

I/O

Input / Output

ICD3

In Circuit Debugger 3. A tool used to change the firmware on a PIC microcontroller.

IMU

Intertial Measurement Unit. Sensors used to measure acceleration and rotation.

LED

Light Emitting Diode. A small coloured light.

LVDS

Low Voltage Differential Signal. One of two possible electrical physical layers supported by EtherCAT.

mA

milliamps. A unit of electrical current.

MCU

Micro Controller Unit. A small, usually embedded, CPU.

MIPS

No longer an abbreviation; a word in its own right. A brand of CPU / MCU.

Nm

Newton Meters. A unit of torque.

PC

Personal Computer.

PCB

Printed Circuit Board.

PID

Proportional Integral Derivative controller. An algorithm used to control something on a robot.

PST

Pressure Sensor Tactile. A simple tactile sensor offered as standard.

PWM

Pulse Width Modulation. Digital method used to emulate an analog signal.

ROS

Robot Operating System, created by Willow Garage.

SPI

Serial Peripheral Interface, allowing an MCU to communicate with an ADC.