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.