The date is: Fri Jan 29 13:47:50 MST 1999 Group #3: Jonathan Cross, Clint Ayler, Greg Zolas First after forming our group and exchanging e-mail, we started discussing materials we owned or could borrow for use in the project. Myself, I brought a book on C programming, a multimeter, HC11 and manuals, and some shielded cable, as well as offering to buy some materials out of my own pocket if need be. The other members of my group also had a variety of materials to bring along, including the rear wheel drive-train from an RC car, RC servo motors, info about an IR sensor, and were willing to find and purchase some items. We've met twice before the start of lab to discuss design features such as what type of chassis and drive-train to use. We thought to use some other material than aluminum sheet for structural components and I came upon the idea to use perforated wire-wrap board which is easy to cut and is bolted or glued together easily, as well as being very lightweight. We also made some discussion about the control system and what items we would need to implement it, coming up with a rough idea about how the system will function as is designed. We plan to have a working chassis by next week. Lastly, we did discuss what tasks each of us felt capable doing. We were not highly specific in deciding that one person would design and build H bridges, another would work on the chassis and drive train, and another working on the computer programming for sensor control, but thought to work on subsystems in pairs or singly if the completion of one of the components does not postpone the completion of other components or if the completed components need integrating, in which case we will work together, finding materials and working out ways to implement or construct things. I think everyone in my group is flexible enough that they'll be willing to help each other and contribute to each other's designs, to consider alternatives and each others opinions, and to give up or take on some responsibilities in order to help or allow to be helped in doing some task, yet still not becoming to dominant in one area. As well, myself at least, we believe we should know fully how each component is beings design and be able to rotate into another task as needed. For instance, since we all think that programming will be the biggest single task, we decided to split this responsibility up as much as possible. One specific task though--I'll be the budget/materials-ordering person. Next week, after lecture ends, we'll probably start meeting on Saturdays as a day where we can all work jointly on our tasks. The date is: Fri Feb 5 22:23:47 MST 1999 2/5/99 This week we hooked up the relay circuit for the RC to one of the motors provided and observed the way it oper- ated on the O-scope which shows a somewhat different variation of pulse width modulation. The thing worked well with the motor but we may need a full 24V battery pack. I borrowed some items for use on the project, such as a multimeter. We also started to discuss various ways to implement control schemes and programming. I inquired about having a key to the design lab which one of the groups could borrow at various times of the week, just to improve access when the digital lab is closed. I'd also talked with two people from last years design lab just to find out how they split tasks up iin their group and which of the subprojects were difficult to implement. We'll be meeting tomorrow afternoon at 2 and will try to reach some consensus on some of the initial design features that we've considered thus far. Hopefully we'll at least a partly complete chassis prepared by they with which we can start experimenting with. Also, over the weekend we will be doing some more web searches for needed electronic items. One good possible source is Analog Devices. I have access to various tools at my workplace on campus which will allow us to more easily complete work here during the weekends. Hopefully, we'll have a list of supplies which I'll make an order for by next friday. The date is: Mon Feb 15 23:02:30 MST 1999 This past week we met before each lab session to discuss our plans for each of Tues and Thurs. On Tuesday, Greg and I worked together and discussed how to implement an algorithm for control of the of robot in the maze, focusing, in particular, how to navigate the maze. We discussed and thought about several options, finally deciding to implement a scheme where, at first, the robot would do left-wall following, eventually reaching the home base, then switching to right wall following to search the room isolated in the center of the maze. This seemed like the simplest way to have the robot search the maze. While Greg and I worked on this, Jon and Clint worked on the chassis and motor control. On Thurs, more work was done on the chassis and motor control, we discussed design, and then brought out the sensors to start experimenting with them. I tried the GD12 distance sensor which we set up. Some data we looked at that was produced by one of last years groups helped give us an indication of the range they could be used practically, which I figured to be about 3 to 10 inches. I felt that this would be adequate for wall sensing to the sides of the robot, but not ahead of the robot. We then made plans to meet that coming Sat. On Saturday we met for breakfast and discussed how we would divide up tasks. I offered to work on sensors, Clint would work on how to use the HC11, Jonathan would finish off the wheelbase, etc. Also, we started to discuss what we needed to produce for the design presentation on Thurs. Clint made mention about resources he had gathered and also brought along an Analog Devices catalog. I brought up concerns about whether or not our vehicle as designed would be able turn in the 18" hallways adequately and if our planned wheelbase would be hard to control. After breakfast, Jon and Clint worked on the chassis, now nearly done; Greg was feeling sick; and I looked at specs for Analog Devices. This next week we'll do a little bit of work on Tues, but presumably we'll be mostly concerned with preparing for the design presentation on Thurs. The date is: Sun Feb 28 23:39:34 MST 1999 During the prior week of feb.14-19 my group and I prepared for the design review (tues)which we then gave that weds. I think we could have done better by merely highling important aspects of our design (we should have planned better time management) but I did think we covered most of the essential details. Last weekend Clint and I met to discuss and do work on A/D input to the hc11 from the several sensors. The 8 input-lines of port E will be adequate for this. Before deciding to use the A/D of port E we were considering using an external A/D converter in the hopes of reducing the number of lines used up on the input lines to the hc11 ports. But we then decided this would be an unnecessary complexity which did not provide any real advantages. Jon returned home from the weekend with improved pieces for the chassis cut from aluminum. So during this past week Clint started work on the control routine, Jon continued with chassis work and Greg and I worked on using port E A/D conversion for (temporarily) making sensor measurments. As far as sensors go, we will be using the GP2D12's for side-looking sensors over a range of 5 to 10 inches. The Sharp sensors with analog output will be used for forward looking, and another Sharp sensor, directed down, will be used with either a digital or analog output for the white-line sensor. I figure that some of the outputs from the sensors with need to be scaled (amplified) and maybe also offset before going to the HC11 A/D converter. This coming week Greg and I will be continuing to work on both making a little program to read the analog outputs of one or more sensors going to the A/D coverter through one or more of the input lines of port E, and also work to setup the necessary LED IR sources to pair with the Sharp sensors. I'll have remember how to do a lot of the things I did in microcontrollers lab as much as possible and to read up from the manuals for the hc11. The analog circuits should pose little problem. The date is: Tue Mar 9 10:03:27 MST 1999 March 1 - 5, 1999 This week I was more involved in finding (or failing to find) and order various items than in actually designing or implementing any designs. I ordered and received an Altera Max 7064 PLD which we will use for PWM, taking some of the burden off the hc11. I found out that the IR LED's which are paired with the GPU1 IR sensors are (supposedly) available at Radio Shack. Last Wednesday, I'd called there and was told there were some left. When Jon and I went there to buy some they had been sold out (I should have kept it a secret!), but I did manage to find and buy wire wrap board and a decade divider which will pulse at 1/10 the rate as the output from the emitter-source pair in the motor, giving us speed sensory-input. After these purchases there will now be just over $55 dollars remaining for our budget. I helped Jon and Clint by finding aluminum L bar to use for mounting a server motor onto our chassis. Also this past week, Jon worked on chassis and motors, while Clint and Greg did work on a C algorithm for controlling the robot. Jon would also find two of those LED's while he's in Abq over the weekend. This next week (Mar. 8-13) I will be working on setting up the GPU1 sensors and getting sensor input from them into the hc11 in order to collect some data on their operation. We intend to use three of these sensors for fire detection, white line sensing, and as a forward-looking distance sensor. Also to be done by our group should be more chassis work and additions, as well as some work with the hc11 and programming. We also have the Altera chip to start work on. The date is: Tue Apr 6 14:37:40 MDT 1999 Report for the weeks of 3/22 to 3/26 and 3/29 to 4/2 During the week following spring break we were to show our progress made in fire, distance, and white line sensors; PWM for motor control; motor chassis/wheelbase; and program coder for control. During the week of spring break we had been working on all of these subprojects and had them almost ready for demonstration the following tuesday. The GPD12 sensors were ready to use as distance sensors as is, no adaptions needed, but had the drawback of limited range under two feet. We felt this would be adequate. For the fire sensors I used a simple resistor and photodiode circuit, but because the response of it to ambient light was large, it also required light-filtration which I did by putting a tube with film from a static-sensitive bag at the end to block most of the visible light. The white line sensor I made using the Sharp GPU1D2X with the analog output tapped using a length of wire wrap soldered to one of its surface mount cap terminals. The IR LED emitter required to be pulsed at 38kHz for this sensor to respond. This was done by switching the IR LED on and off at that frequency with a FET controlled by the pulse output of an LM555 timer setup to output a 38kHz square wave-form with variable duty cycle. This did work for white line sensing, but the difference in output changed only 0.1V at an offset of 2V which was weak and which would require this output to be offset and amplified before being usable. It was challenging to find a properly working op-amp circuit which could deal with this problem and run on 0 and 5V supply. On tuesday 3/23 we demonstrated that every one of our systems worked most nearly adequately, except the white line sensor was judged to have too weak an output and the PWM as was implemented on the Altera PLD needed some more debugging. We were to fix these problems by the following tuesday of 3/30. I continued to work on the white line sensor over the following thursday and weekend, before we thought to try using a simple resistor and phototransistor circuit coupled to an always-on IR LED emmitter. This was very simple but more effective. I adapted this configuration by adding short pieces of plastic tubing to the ends of the phototransistor and LED to act as light-guides. This was judged to be quite acceptable when demonstrated. Clint debugged the PWM and demonstrated that it operated properly. Later in the week Clint would spend many hours trying to figure out a problem related to glitches/loading on its output, trying various configurations with bypass caps to eliminate this problem. Poor guy! On thursday 4/1 we, as a class, cast our votes for how we would divide transportion between groups which wished to attend the competition in Conn. two weeks following. My group does wish to get a chance to go to this event and I hope we can make considerable progress toward this. This week we plan to make as much progress as we can. I will finish off work on the sensors by putting buffers or schmitt triggers on their outputs for either A/D or direct digital input to the HC11, respectively. I will also etch boards for circuits and then, hopefully, mount them onto the chassis before the end of this week so that we can make sure that the HC11 works with them properly during this coming weekend. The following week (and this week as well) we had really work hard if we want to get our robot to the competition. The date is: Tue May 4 12:40:26 MDT 1999 Report for the week of 4/26 to 4/30 During this past week I worked most entirely on making an audio tone decoder circuit for the 3.4kHz input. I used a microphone from Sony walkman headphones which Greg had. This was a dynamic microphone which produced an output without the need of a supply voltage. It did, however, need a large amount of amplification (some gain of 100+) before anything could be done with it. The output from the amplifier then went to an LM567 tone decoder which (supposedly) could be configured to change from a logic level high to a low output when the frequency of the input from the amp was within some bandwidth about some frequency. The external circuitry for the LM567 could be adjusted/configured to give a certain center frequency and bandwidth about which the tone decoder would respond. I almost got this workin in time for the final presentation this Saturday, but I wasn't able to find the problem (I think the problem comes as a result of some small amount of offset in the output from the amplifier, where the LM567 requires 0 volts bias.) I also helped find supplies/tools for other group members. We really didn't start into preparing for the presentation on saturday seriously until that friday. Friday afternoon we discussed what material we would discuss or exclude from our presentation and gave a very informal presentation to John Sinnot, who gave us some helpful criticism. On thursday afternoon Jon showed Greg, Clint, and I some work in PowerPoint he had for the presentation. Jon's prior experience using powerpoint would be crucial when the real work came of putting our presentation into words and diagrams using the program. We stayed up for much of the night doing just that. Although our presentation on this past saturday was not perfect (we ran out of time for questions) I certainly felt we did do a good job of it. We were all quite exhausted from that weeks work. This week I will make another atempt at getting the tone decoder working so that I will be able etch and populate etc a PC board for it so as to present a finished piece for final project review. All other sensor systems are working and ready for use/demonstration. This coming weekend I'll get together with the rest of the group to grind out our final report for tues. 5/11. The date is: Sat May 8 21:49:23 MDT 1999 Report for the week of 5/3 to 5/7 After the presentations given on the previous saturday we started to focus on getting ready to show our robot in its final state. Clint and Greg managed to get the robot to wall follow for the first time during a first ever trial. That day I finished my work on the tone decoder but ran out of time to put into final form with it mounted on a pc board. On tuesday, we all worked on doing some improvements to the robot as far as mounting electronics to the chassis. The various pc boards were remounted with standoff onto pieces of 1/8" acrylic sheet. I adjusted the white line sensor and mounted it onto the front of the wheelbase by cutting inward from the edge of the aluminum sheet and mounting the sensor on 1" stand-offs for the appropriate height above the floor. Much of tuesday I worked on disconnecting the electronics and remounting them onto the piece of acrlic sheet which Greg had bought and cut and which Clint drilled holes into. I also trimmed the pc boards to size to make them fit better in the space provided. Finally, after improving and then reassembling/reconnecting parts on the robot an attempt was made to reattain wall following capabilities. This was not accomplished until after the final design review was done; however we did receive credit for this feat. We made plans to meet at 12 on saturday to discuss content and format of the final report. Greg and I will be doing much of the editing, but each of will need to provide his own work, including writing and figures. Tomorrow Greg and I will meet at 11 to assemble the paper and all of us provide updated versions of our respective duties in the project report.