Topics from Meeting (November 3)

Attendees: Jason Holmes, Scott Stack, Kin Chin Chua, Michael Piercy

Group worked to get the PWM driving the DC motor circuit to work. Also finished design review topics.

Design Review Topics

• Objective:
  • Collaborate with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to develop a vehicle control system using the internet.
  • Each team is building a vehicle that is capable of receiving commands from the internet via WI-FI. Each team is also creating their own website that is capable of controlling both vehicles. This way, we will have to work with Hong Kong to develop a protocol that will enable the websites to communicate with both vehicles.
  • Applications of this technology:
    • Virtual Presence – having a physical presence in a room across the world and being able to interact with that environment. Useful in areas like business meetings etc…
    • Remote Exploration – Being able to log into a website and remotely survey an area without being physically present. Display information such as GPS location, orientation (accelerometer, temperature, etc… to the user.

• Completed Tasks
  • hold teleconference to communicate with HKUST on deciding the protocols, processors, vehicle control options, vehicle platform.
  • designed a block diagram to explain the basic idea of the control system.
    • include the diagram in slides
  • created a poster for and participated in VIP poster session.
    • include the poster in slides
  • did research and chose the appropriate parts such as:
    • vehicle platform (tank)
      • big enough to be able to get everything mounted inside the vehicle
      • low speed so that it will not crash
      • low cost
    • microcontroller board (Keil MCBSTM32EXL)
      • Arm M3 Cortex processor
      • sufficient documentations and software libraries
      • includes all the peripherals we need such as A/D, PWM, SPI, UARTS and so on
    • wireless transceiver ()
    • IR sensors
      • to detect the objects in certain range (20 cm to 150 cm)
      • to prevent crash
    • pushbuttons
      • due to the IR sensors only functioning above 20 cm, it prevent crash into objects in the range of 20 cm.
  • tried simple programs on the microcontroller board
  • picture taken
  • made a list of everything that needs to be interfaced with the processor and which kind of interface each one needs.
    • refer to rhea (Oct. 25 documentation)
  • dissembled the tank and found out how the control works
  • attach picture
  • tried designing a separate circuit to control the motor by using the chosen microcontroller board.

• Future Tasks
  • Wireless Transceiver interfacing
    • Acquire the wireless transceiver
    • Successfully configure it to interface it with a development board to send/receive data to some source.
  • Camera interfacing
    • Acquire the camera and materials
    • Figure out how read the image data coming from the camera
    • Interface to it with a development board and use the LCD on the development board to display the camera image.
  • Peripheral interfacing and Website Development
    • Write code to initialize the I/O ports to make use of the IR voltages and pushbutton signals.
    • Interface to the motors on the tank and write code to control them
    • Begin development of a website that will be able to communicate with the vehicle.

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