F14: Team5-Self Driving Car - AUG

Self Driving Car

Fig 1a. Finished Car - view 1

Fig 1c. Finished Car - view 3

Fig 1b. Finished Car - view 2

Objective and Scope

Fig 2. System Block Diagram

This project is aimed at building a self-driving car with obstacle avoidance and to steer to the GPS location pointed by the android application with the help of multiple controllers communicating using CAN bus. CAN(Control Area Network) is a communication protocol used widely in automotive application developed by BOSCH in 1986. The self-driving car consists of 6 different controllers for GPS,Sensor,Central,Motor,IO and Communication. The controllers communicate with each other using CAN bus. We have implemented broadcast algorithm to broadcast all the data from each controller using different message identifiers. The controller parses the data using the 29 bit identifier which has destination and source address.

Team Members & Responsibilities

Sl. No	Task	Team Members
1	Sensor Controller	Bailey Wu Rishabh Sareen Rishab H
2	Motor Controller	Abhraham Ruiz Arpit Amin Sree Harsha
3	I/O Controller (LCD Display)	Yoni Klein Tejeswar
4	Communication Bridge + Android	Shaw Ken Chang Arnold Bajet Jr. Thomas Pantels
5	Geographical Controller	Himanshu Saini Divya Kamath
6	Central Controller	Divya Kamath Tejeswar Sree Harsha
7	Car design and wiring	Bailey Wu Himanshu Saini Sree Harsha Karthik Vadiraja Akash Ayare
8	Git Setup	Akash Ayare

Introduction

The goal of this project was to design and implement a self-driving car. The team consisted of 15 people, divided into 6 teams corresponding to six controllers. The aim of this class was to understand the CAN protocol that is used extensively in vehicles. The self-driving car houses six controllers, all of them communicating using CAN. Each controller performs a unique task such as:

1. Sensor Controller: Interfaced to the front and back sensors. Periodically sends sensor data to the central controller. Crucial for obstacle detection and avoidance
2. Motor Controller: Controls the motors and steering of the car, based on commands received from central controller.
3. Geographical Controller: Interfaced to GPS and compass. Periodically sends location, heading and distance from destination. crucial for autonomous navigation of the car.
4. Communication Controller: Acts as a bridge for Android. Android app is used to set destination, calculate path to destination, start and stop the car. Data is sent to central and geographical Controller based on user input.
5. Central Controller: The brain of the car. Uses sensor and geographical data to steer the car in the right direction. Uses sensor data to detect and avoid obstacles. Uses geographical data to move towards desired location
6. Display Controller: Interfaced to an LCD screen which displays status of the car (reached/ not reached), CAN bus utilization, sensor data, bearing, heading etc.

Detailed explanation of the project is provided here: Car Demo

Schedule

Geographical Controller

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	1-Oct-2014	14-Oct-2014	Order Components and Make a schedule	Completed	14-Oct-2014
2	8-Oct-2014	14-Oct-2014	Decide commands that Geographical Controller will support	Completed	14-Oct-2014
3	7-Oct-2014	14-Oct-2014	Complete CAN RX task and subscription handling. Verify communication with other controllers	Completed	21-Oct-2014
4	14-Oct-2014	24-Oct-2014	Interface GPS module and Compass and develop drivers if needed	Completed	28-Oct-2014
5	24-Oct-2014	30-Oct-2014	Design and develop algorithm to calculate heading and bearing from GPS coordinates	Completed.	30-Oct-2014
6	24-Oct-2014	5-Nov-2014	Work on calibration of compass and heading calculation	Completed	11-Dec-2014
7	1-Nov-2014	10-Nov-2014	Test with the central and Bluetooth controller	Completed	14-Dec-2014
8	10-Nov-2014	25-Nov-2014	Begin testing with fully assembled car	Completed	1-Dec-2014
9	25-Nov-2014	10-Dec-2014	Final Testing and changes as needed	Completed	19-Dec-2014

Sensor Controller

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	10/3/2014	10/10/2014	Order ultrasonic sensor parts and develop simple test code for the sensors	Done	10/10/2014
2	10/10/2014	10/17/2014	Wire the ultrasonic sensors, develop and implement the sensors using analog to digital converter	Done	10/17/2014
3	10/17/2014	10/24/2014	Collaborate with the other sub teams to finish the CAN bus communication and allow the self driving car to drive autonomously	Done	10/24/2014
4	10/24/2014	11/1/2014	Develop, implement and test the ultrasonic sensors using the pulse width modulation and universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter	Done	11/1/2014
5	11/2/2014	11/9/2014	Develop, implement and test the front and back infrared sensors using analog to digital converter	Done	11/9/2014
6	11/10/2014	11/17/2014	Develop, implement and test the current/voltage sensor for the battery packs of the self driving car using I2C	Scheduled	Removed
7	11/18/2014	11/25/2014	Collaborate with the other sub teams to make sure that the sensors are in working condition	Done	11/25/2014
8	11/26/2014	12/5/2014	Collaborate with the other sub teams to debug any problems that may encountered	Done	12/5/2014
9	12/6/2014	12/13/2014	Prepare for demo	Done	12/19/2014

IO Controller

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	10/7/2014	10/14/2014	Research and order LCD appropriate for this project	Done	10/11/2014
2	10/7/2014	10/17/2014	Implement CAN RX/Subscription task	Done	10/13/2014
3	10/7/2014	10/17/2014	Finalize Task Architecture	Done	11/1/2014
4	10/18/2014	10/21/2014	Interface and test LCD	Done	10/20/2014
5	10/21/2014	10/28/2014	Implement auto scrolling feature	Done	11/18/2014

Communication Bridge + Android

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	16-Sep-2014	23-Sep-2014	Test bluetooth module using computer serial port and an android app(simple bluetooth terminal app downloaded from google play). Test the real life range and stability of the bluetooth module (HC-06). Modify the bluetooth chat example to work with the bluetooth module.	Done	20-Sep-2014
2	28-Sep-2014	12-Oct-2014	Draw UI design layouts for a basic android application that can view Google map as well as send GPS data through bluetooth by clicking on the map. Study google maps API and make a simple app that will post a short toast that shows the GPS location after a long press event.	Done	12-Oct-2014
3	7-Oct-2014	11-Oct-2014	Interface bluetooth module with SJSUOne board and able to verify that the connection is stable and that transaction via the bluetooth is accurate. This is done by adding a test button where if you press the button it send a command to the board. After receiving the command, the board should react with a response (LED light and/or text response to the android phone)	Done	19-Oct-2014
4	11-Oct-2014	19-Oct-2014	Integrate Google Maps and Bluetooth component together in Android app. After a long press on the map, the user should be prompted to start the car and set the location as the places the user selected. Add a textView to display the location selected by pressing on the map. Add a button for sending location to the car.	Done	27-Oct-2014
5	19-Oct-2014	26-Oct-2014	CAN infrastructure implmentation: Use our team's common CAN infrasturcture code and modify it specifically for our controller. First created the CAN communication table and then modify the infracturacture code to implement the broacasting as well as filtering of neccessary data. This only focuses on broadcasting a stop/start command and the destination GPS data (set by android) as well as getting car's current location data from the geological controller.	Done	07-Nov-2014
6	26-Oct-2014	1-Nov-2014	Test and implement car information reading as well as other functions of Android app	Done
7	2-Nov-2014	4-Nov-2014	Iterate UI design	Done
8	5-Nov-2014	16-Nov-2014	Implement 2nd UI design	Done

Motor Controller

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	10/1/2014	10/8/2014	PWM2 (used to control motors) and PWM3 (used to control servo) interface with the car servo and motor. Write a test code to operate the servo and motor from the terminal command.	Completed and Tested	10/11/2014
2	10/9/2014	10/18/2014	Design and code CAN receive task for subscription. Check for basic CAN message commands for throttle and steer control.	Completed and tested	10/26/2014
3	10/19/2014	10/28/2014	Design the CAN message table for motor control and servo control	Completed and tested	10/26/2014
4	10/29/2014	11/07/2014	Design acceleration Vs steer control function for smooth run. Check for other factors involved.	Completed and tested	11/22/2014
5	11/08/2014	11/14/2014	Research on RPM sensor. Interface the RPM sensor to calculate the Speed. Test the RPM sensor by running the car at different speed	Completed and tested with a hall sensor	11/22/2014
6	11/15/2014	11/21/2014	Fine tune motor control code and integrate with all the controllers for proper working.	Completed and tested	11/22/2014
7	11/22/2014	11/28/2014	Test and check if more features can be added to improve performance. Completed and tested	Completed and tested	11/28/2014
8	11/29/2014	12/05/2014	Testing and Debugging.	Completed and tested	12/05/2014
9	12/06/2014	12/18/2014	Final Testing and getting the car ready for Demo.	Completed

Central Controller

Sl. No	Start Date	End Date	Task	Status
1	16-Sep-2014	23-Sep-2014	Develop API for CAN bus communication.	Done
2	11-Oct-2014	15-Oct-2014	Develop communication table for all controllers.	Done
3	15-Oct-2014	20-Oct-2014	Broadcast message and target message setup.	Done
4	21-Oct-2014	28-Oct-2014	Co-ordinate all controllers and take major decisions.	Done
5	28-Oct-2014	11-Nov-2014	Complete Building and fine-tuning of RC car.	Done
6	21-Oct-2014	11-Nov-2014	Develop coordination mechanism to ensure controllers are initialized and ready	Done
7	21-Oct-2014	28-Oct-2014	Develop kill switch	Done
8	14-Oct-2014	21-Oct-2014	Build external power distribution circuit	Done
9	28-Oct-2014	04-Nov-2014	Coordination algorithm between steering and throttle for smooth turns	Done
10	04-Nov-2014	11-Nov-2014	Collision avoidance algorithms	Done
11	04-Nov-2014	11-Nov-2014	Intermediate unit and functional tests	Done
12	11-Nov-2014	25-Nov-2014	Functional tests and algorithm adjustments	Done
13	25-Nov-2014	02-Dec-2014	Fine tuning and stretch goals (headlights, parallel parking, etc.)	Done
14	02-Dec-2014	09-Dec-2014	Prepare for demo	Done

Parts List & Cost

Description	Qty	Price
LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 High Performance Ultrasonic Rangefinder	2	49.90
Analog Distance Sensor	1	Free
1/10 Scale 4x4 Truck with Brushed Motor	1	217.33
2 ft 12-Gauge Power Cables	3	22.80
Pair Power Socket	2	2.16
Standard Size Body Clips	12	2.16
4-pack AA Batteries	1	3.45
50-pack M3x15mm Stand-Off Spacer Female-Male	1	11.19
100-pack 18-8 Flat Steel Washer	1	2.54
100-pack M3x20mm Hex-Drive Screw	1	6.47
100-pack M3 Steel Hex Nut	1	4.66
2-pin JST Connector Right Angle	10	6.84
4-pin JST Connector Right Angle	10	6.84
2-pin Female JST Cable (20 cm)	10	7.39
4-pin Female JST Cable (20 cm)	10	7.39
5 Volt Relay Breakout Board	1	4.95
5 Volt Voltage Regulator	1	1.07
Sharp Analog Distance Sensor 4-30 cm	1	9.95
3-pin Female JST PH-Style Cable (30 cm)	1	0.92
Double Sided Mounting Tape - 3 feet	1	4.35
AC Adapter (LiPo Charger)	1	15.16
IEC Power Cable (LiPo Charger)	1	5.38
4mm Bullet Plugs to Universal Plug	1	13.38
Acrylic sheet + Sharpe mini	1+1	11.72
Molex Pin Header, Connector, wires and 100 zip ties	10+4+1	17.13
2 x 90 degree pin header, 2 x straight pin header	2+2	3.65
uni-polar hall sensor for tachometer feedback	2	2.18
Heavy Duty magnets	2	4.18
INA219 Voltage sensors 26V +/-3.2A	2	19.9
20x4 Serial LCD Module	1	29.99

Backup Parts & cost

Qty	Description	Manufacturer	Part Number	Total Cost
1	LV-MaxSonar-EZ1 High Performance Ultrasonic Rangefinder	MaxBotix Inc	MB1010	Free
1	Analog Distance Sensor	Sharp		Free

Design & Implementation

Fig 3. Hardware Design

Motor Controller

Summary

This module takes command input from central controller and steers the car to its destination; in addition, It has two main controlling parameters : Throttle and Steering. Throttle input moves the car forward and backward. Steer input turns the wheel left and right. The central controller takes feedback from the sensors and makes decision to move the car. Accordingly, it sends CAN commands accepted by the motor controller for navigation, and real time RPM signal to the controller.

Motor and Steer control : Technical Information

Sl.No	Controller	Signal Type	Frequency	Functionality
1	Motor Control	PWM signal	50 Hz (20000us)	1000us (Full throttle forward) - 1500us (Stop) - 2000us (Full throttle backward)
2	Steer Control	PWM signal	50 Hz (20000us)	1000us (Turn left max) - 1500us (Center) - 2000us (Turn right max)

Block Diagram

The following Block diagram shows an overview of the connection between the SJOne board, ESC, and the Hall sensor:

Fig 4. Motor Control Block Diagram

Fig 5. Motor Control Flow Diagram

Working

The car initially accepts the start command to begin navigation. Commands can then come to move the car forward or backward, steer left or right depending on intelligent decisions made by the central controller. The motor control has intelligence to avoid jerks and ensure smoother transitions between commands. The central controller gets the data from the sensors for obstacle avoidance. The car has a communication controller which gets the GPS data from the android application, the android application sets the destination latitude and longitude. The car decides the heading direction by the gps points and the compass and if it finds obstacle it will be controlled by the obstetrical avoidance and steer to the destination according to the algorithm below.

Kill switch

The remote control and receiver module pair up to provide a signal coverage of more than 100 meters. We make use of this to design our kill switch. When a constant PWM signal of 1000us is received from the remote, the car is in 'ARMED' state and moves the car according to CAN commands. The user has to hold the trigger gun for this state constantly and the car moves. When the user releases the trigger gun, the car stops receiving the PWM signal of 1000us and the car goes to 'DISARMED' state. In short, pull the trigger gun - ARMED, release the trigger gun - DISARMED.

RPM

The RPM sensor is based on a hall sensor switch which detect the North and South pole of a magnet located in the main shaft in the car. The hall sensor part number is 3177, and it has three pin. This sensor is uni-polar which give an output high signal when the sensor captures the North pole of the magnet; subsequently, the sensor give output low signal when the sensor captures the South pole of the magnet. Therefore, by using a the 3177 and a magnet in the shaft. the SJOne board can capture the output signal from the hall sensor as it toggles per shaft revolution. It is important to notice that the output signal of the 3177 is an open collector; therefore, we need a 10 Kohm resistor connected to Vcc.

Pinout Table

The following table shows the pinout of all component that are connected to SJONE board.

No	Description	Component Pin	Output Pin Source
1	Hall Sensor (3177) Vcc ( 4.5 V to 18 V)	Source	SJOne P1_22
2	Hall Sensor (3177) Ground	Ground	SJOne
3	Hall Sensor (3177) Output	Output	SJOne P1_22 with a 10 KOhm
4	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 1 TX	SJOne P0_1(Tx)
5	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 2 GND	SJOne GND
6	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 3 VCC	SJOne 3.3v
7	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 4 RX	SJOne P0_0(Rx)
8	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 6 CANL	CAN Bus
10	CAN Transceiver	Pin # 7 CANH	CAN Bus
11	Servo	VCC	5V Power Rail
12	Servo	GND	GND Power Rail
13	Servo	Signal	PWM 2.1
14	Electric Speed Control (ESC)	VCC	5V Power rail
15	Electric Speed Control (ESC)	GND	GND Power Rail
16	Electric Speed Control (ESC)	Signal	PWM 2.2

Sensor Controller

Sensor Controller Hardware Design and Architecture

The figure below shows how all the sensors are inter-connected to the SJOne board and CAN bus. The sensors are connected to +5V to achieve the highest beam pattern that is available. The back infrared sensor is also connected to the +5V power source to obtain the longest range detection possible. Most important, the SJOne board is connected to the CAN bus to broadcast the available data to the rest of the controllers in the system.

Fig . Sensor Controller Hardware Design

When using multiple MaxSonar sensors, it is required to configure the sensors in Sequential Operation mode to obtain the best optimal performance in obstacle detection. On the other hand, if the sensors are left in continuous free run operation, which means the RX pin (Pin 4) are unconnected then at start-up the sensors will range at exactly the same time. Thus, the sensors are not synchronized and eventually result in frequency drifts that would likely cause interference between sensors for most applications.

Fig . Single Sensor in free run operation mode - MaxBotix 2012

The figure to the above shows a single MaxSonar ultrasonic sensor operating in continuous free run operation detecting an object at 96 inches. The signal of the ultrasonic sensor observe under the oscilloscope shows that the sensor is operating at its finesse performance without any interference.

The figure to the below shows that multiple MaxSonar ultrasonic sensors are operating in continuous free run operation. As you can see, the signal of a ultrasonic sensor observe under the oscilloscope shows that the signal has multiple spikes due to the interference of other sensors. Thus, the sensor becomes unsynchronized and the range reading become unstable.

Fig . Multiple Sensors in free run operation mode - MaxBotix 2012

To achieve the most optimal performance using multiple MaxSonar ultrasonic sensors, the figure below shows the implementation of all the sensors operating in sequential mode. The sensors can be started by pulling the RX pin (Pin 4) high for at least 20 uS and then for each reading this can be done as often as every 50 ms. This method would toggle each sensor when the user like to obtain an reading at any given moment. Thus, there will be no interference between each sensor.

Fig . Multiple Sensors Configuration

There are many other method to implement multiple MaxSonar ultrasonic sensors in a single system. This information can be obtained in the sensor datasheet.

Sensor Controller Software Design

The sensor controller interfaces three ultrasonic sensors using pulse width and one infrared back sensor using ADC. The pin mappings are shown in the Sensor Controller Hardware Design figure above. Each of the front sensors were connected to two GPIO's, one to check the pulse width and one for toggling the sensors individually to minimize beam interference.

Fig . Sensor Pulse Width Software Design

We configured the GPIO's used to calculate pulse width for the falling and rising edge interrupts as shown in the figure above using the API available from the eint header file available with the source code provided as the part of the class package. The functions associated with the rise and fall interrupts were used to calculate the time of flight(ToF), which was the time required for the ultrasonic beam to reach back to the sensor. The final distance value was calculated using the following equation:-

                                               ultraSonicSensorVal = ToF/147;

Fig . Sensor Pulse Width Software Design Part 2

The figure above shows the software implementation of the equation mentioned above. At the same time, the equation was used from the sensor datasheet attached in the references section at the end of the report. The values were sampled and averaged to reduce the effect of incorrect readings.

The infrared back sensor has a range of 10-80 cms and was interfaced using the on-board ADC. The back sensors value(in inches) was derived using the following equation:-

                                                 backSensorReading = 4800/(ADCVal- 20))/2.54);

The CAN messages were updated periodically with the new values at 20Hz frequency. The updates took place inside a critical section to avoid corruption in values due to task switching or other unseen causes. These values were broadcasted on the CAN bus and used by the central controller to make driving decisions based on other inputs and to command the motor controller accordingly.

Central Controller

The central controller is the brain of the car. It receives information from all the other controllers and decides which direction the car must move. The central controller periodically sends commands to the motor regarding the throttle, steering, steering angle and speed.

In order to decide which direction to move, the central controller uses sensor data and geographical data. The current design uses a state machine. The car is initially in idle state. When it received a START command from the communication controller, the central sends the start motor command to the motor controller. After the start state, the central controller can be in one of the two states: avoid obstacle or adjust heading. The central controller uses the sensor data to detect obstacle. If there are no obstacles, then the central controller uses geographical information to adjust car heading.

Once the heading and bearing match, the car moves straight ahead till the destination is reached. When the geographical controller sends a command indicating that the car has reached the destination, the car will stop.

At any point during its course, if the car receives a STOP command from the communication controller, the car will stop

Fig. Central Controller State Diagram

Geographical Controller

The geographical controller is one of the six controllers mounted on the car. This controller provides the location and heading information to the central controller of the car. It also stores the destination (way-points). By calculating the distance from the current location to the destination or intermediate waypoint, the geo controller can determine if the car has reached its destination. When the car reaches the destination, the geo controller sends a message to the central controller indicating that destination has been reached.

The devices connected to this controller are: 1. Magnetometer (digital compass) 2. GPS Logger

The compass communicates via I2C and the GPS via UART.

Parts Used

Geographical Control - Parts Used

Part Number	Purpose
SparkFun Triple Axis Magnetometer Breakout - HMC5883L	Compass
SparkFun Venus GPS Logger - SMA Connector	GPS
Antenna GPS Embedded SMA - GPS-00177	Antenna
ET-318 GPS Engine Board	GPS

Design

Heading - The compass provides the heading. The heading is the direction in which the car is headed. The value is typically an angle from 0-360 degrees measured clockwise from North. The heading is calculated from the x-axis and y-axis values provided by the magnetometer. To use all 3-axis values, a tilt sensor must be used with the magnetometer for tilt compensation.

GPS Module - The GPS module provides the time, latitude, longitude, direction and if the GPS data is valid. This latitude, longitude corresponds to the current location of the car.

Destination - The destination is set by Android application/communication controller. The destination could be a single point or a list of waypoints, each being a latitude, longitude pair.

Bearing - Using the destination lat,lon pair (set by the communication controller) and the current lat, lon pair (received from the GPS module), the geographical controller calculates the bearing. This angle, like the heading, is also typically between 0-360 degrees measured clockwise. Bearing represents the angle between the destination and current location.

Both the heading and the bearing are sent periodically to the central controller. The central controller uses this information combined with the sensor data to steer the motors in the right direction.

Example: If the current heading is 10 degrees ( car is travelling in a direction 10 degrees) from north. The bearing is 50 degrees ( the car is at an angle of 50 degrees away from the desired direction), the central controller must steer the car 40 degrees to the right.

The geographical controller also calculates the distance between the current lat, lon and the destination lat, lon. This is used to determine if the car has reached the intended destination. When the car has reached the destination, geographical controller sends a message to the central controller to stop.

Tasks

Geographical Control - Tasks

Task Name	Purpose
Compass Task	Updates the compass heading. Runs every 100ms and obtains compass data over I2C
GPS Task	Updates the current latitude and longitude by reading GPS data sent over UART. GPS has been configured to run at 10Hz and sends data at a baud rate of 38400.
CAN Rx Task	Handles data received over CAN. Task gets blocked if can receive queue is empty.
CAN Periodic Msg Task [1 Hz]	Periodic CAN message to send current lat,lon and destination lat, lon to central and display controller
CAN Periodic Msg Task [20 Hz]	Periodic CAN message to send compass heading and destination bearing to central controller.

GEO CAN Controller Communication Table

Geographical Controller Communication Table

Message Number	Message Type	Purpose	Data layout
0x0301	Get Geo Data	Request for GPS Data (lat,long)
0x0302	"	Request for current compass heading and destination heading
0x0304	"	Request Time
0x0601	Response to 0x3xx request	GPS Data (lat,long)	dword[0] : [32-bit latitude] dword[1] : [32-bit longitude]
0x0602	"	Compass heading and destination bearing	dword[0] : [32-bit compass heading] dword[1] : [32-bit destination bearing]
0x0504	"	Time	dword[0] : [32-bit time 0x00hhmmss]
0x0501	Periodic Message	GPS data, broadcast periodically	dword[0] : [32-bit longitude] dword[1] : [32-bit latitude]
0x0502	"	Current and destination heading broadcast periodically	dword[0] : [32-bit compass heading] dword[1] : [32-bit bearing]

Challenges and Lessons Learnt

1. Start Geo work early : Most of the tasks of the geo controller can be done independent of the progress on the rest of the car. Start working early, test the GPS outside as much as possible.
2. Compass calibration : Most compasses need calibration. During the course of our project, we used to magnetometers (since we accidently burned the first one). The first one was off by 5 degrees and the second one was off by about 20 degrees. Take care that the compass is mounted away from motors and other devices that can create a lot of noise for the compass
3. GPS speed : We started by using the default speed of 1Hz on the GPS module. The data was sent to the central controller at 1 Hz. As we started testing we realized that this can be too slow and the car may go off course before the new data arrives. Using the commands in the datasheet, we configured the GPS to have an update rate of 10 Hz and a baud rate of 38400. While the datasheet said that the GPS can be configured for 20Hz and baud rate of 115200, we were unsuccessful in achieving that. For some reason, the SJOne board crashed every time we set the GPS for 115200. We did not successfully debug the issue. But changing the speed from 1Hz to 10Hz did make a lot of difference to the performance of the car steering.
4. Picking the right GPS and compass : Both the compass and the GPS that we used served the purpose well. On sunny days, the GPS worked indoors too. Even though we used a 3 axis compass, we used only 2 axis readings from it to calculate the heading. A 3 axis compass paired with a tilt sensor would probably give better readings. But 2 axis readings served our purpose.
5. GPS Drift : We noticed that the GPS values for the same locations drifted over time. There could be a 6 foot jump every few hours. The datasheet offers configurations to pin or unpin the gps values. We did not use the feature. But we did notice that because of the GPS drift, our car traveled differently on the same path at different times during the day. If we had more time, we could have fixed this and achieved a straight path for the car, instead of always veering to the left of right.
6. Android App : The Android app is crucial since it provides the destination waypoints to the geo controller. We need to ensure that the dataset used by the android app is similar if not same as the values reported by the GPS. If the values differ a lot, then the car will not move along the intended path. The Android team and the GPS team must work closely and complete their testing well ahead, so that once the GPS and communication controllers are mounted it is only a matter of improving the behavior.
7. Multiple Setups : Having multiple setups can be very helpful to debug issues, since it is easier to make changes on the temporary setup than on the car. Also, considering the size of the team, different teams might be using the car and the GPS team will always be the last team to get hold of the car.

Review of Parts used

The parts used for this controller were good and I would use them again.

IO Controller

Summary

The IO controller's purpose is to display useful information on an LCD screen for debugging and verification purposes. Essentially, it monitors the CAN bus for other controllers' data as well as bus utilization. The hardware and software design is described below, as well as the challenges we encountered along the way.

Hardware Design

The hardware design of the IO controller is relatively simple. The only requirements are the serial LCD module and the controller itself. The LCD interfaces to the IO controller via UART protocol, while the IO controller interfaces to tater other controllers via CAN Protocol. The block diagram above shows gives a clear description of the IO controller's place in the system.

The LCD chosen was a serial enabled 20x4 character display from Sparkfun. It was chosen for it's larger character display (rather than 16x2) and because the serial "backpack was built into the PCB. This backpack is used because the display controller communicates with a parallel interface. The serial "backpack" or converter interfaces the parallel connections with a serial one and provides a low level API to control the display. An additional API was designed on top of this one to make programming simple and clear as well as implement some useful features (such as printing with printf style arguments). It operates on 5V, so it could not be powered by the controller itself and need to use one of the 5V supplies on the car.

Software Design

RX Task

The receiving task uses the interrupt driven CAN driver to process messages sent on the bus. When a CAN message is received, the data is filtered and stored a global memory locations. This data is later used by the IO task to format and print the desired information to the LCD. No hardware filter was used, since the IO controller must monitor bus utilization and therefore listen to all messages. No heavy calculations or blocking code is allowed in this task; it's purpose is to get the data out as fast as possible and wait for more.

LCD API

The LCD API uses a singleton template so that any task can invoke it and print something to the LCD. Since the LCD doesn't care who prints what, care must be taken to ensure other tasks' data isn't unintentionally overwritten. However, only a single task in our implementation is utilizing this API so it wasn't a problem. The LCD communicates over UART, so the available UART driver was used (also a singleton template). The data sheet from Sparkfun was used to create this API so that nearly all the LCD capabilities can be supported. These features include:

• Erase screen or individual line
• Write to screen, line or specific location
• Adjust backlight brightness
• Adjust cursor position and style
• Scroll text
• Turn display off or on
• Change baud rate

IO Task

Fig. LCD screen object design

The IO task utilizes the LCD API to display LCD "screens". A screen is a custom-defined object containing "line" objects. Lines consist of a format sting (in the printf format) and optional variables. All screens are stored in a vector, of which the front object is always displayed on the LCD. To change the screen, the vector is simply rotated left or right (forward or backward). For simplicity, the screens are rotated every second. However the screens can be rotated by button press, timer, external interrupt or even CAN message.

The data objects that are stored in shared memory by the RX task make up the variables in the format strings described above. To accomplish this, the data types for these variables are char**, or a pointer to a char pointer. That way, we can just supply the memory location of the char* that is constantly being updated by the RX task. This simplifies the implementation of the IO Task and ensures the latest data is used when printing the screens.

Fig. IO task flow chart

Controller Communication Table

Controller ID Table

Controller ID	Controller
0x01	Master Controller
0x02	Geographical Controller
0x03	Motor Controller
0x04	Sensor Controller
0x05	IO Controller
0x06	Communication (Bluetooth Bridge/Android App) Controller

Central Controller Communication Table

Sl. No	Message Number	Purpose	Data layout
1	0x501	Send Throttle and steering to motor	throttle steering
2	0x502	Start car
3	0x503	Stop car
4	0x101	Broadcast request revision
5	0x102	Broadcast Set time
6	0x103	Request TX count (broadcast)
7	0x104	Request RX count (broadcast)
8	0x105	Send TX count (LCD)
9	0x106	Send RX count (LCD)
10	0x107	All controllers initialize

Communication (Bluetooth Bridge/Android App) Controller Communication Table

Sl. No	Message Number	Purpose	Data layout
1	0x301	Broadcast Start command
2	0x302	Broadcast Stop command
3	0x303	Broadcast GPS destination set by Android	byte [0-3] : (float), Longitude byte [4-7] : (float), Latitude

Sensor Controller Communication Table

Sl. No	Message Number	Purpose	Data layout
1	0x501	Broadcast front sensors values	byte[0]: Right ultrasonic sensor value in inches byte[1]: Front ultrasonic sensor value in inches byte[2]: Left ultrasonic sensor value in inches byte[3]: Front bottom infrared sensor value in inches
2	0x502	Broadcast back infrared sensor value	byte[0]: Back infrared sensor value in inches
3	0x503	Broadcast battery sensor value	byte[0]: current/voltage sensor value in percentage
4	0x504	Broadcast light sensor value	byte[0]: light sensor value as integer
5	0x505	Broadcast tilt sensor value	byte[0]: X-Axis tilt sensor value as integer byte[1]: Y-Axis tilt sensor value as integer byte[2]: Z-Axis tilt sensor value as integer

Motor/Servo Controller Communication Table

Sl. No	Send Code	Description	Data
1	0x201	Heartbeat data	Controller id 1 byte
2	0x201	Heartbeat data	Controller id 1 byte
3	0x201	Heartbeat data	Controller id 1 byte
4	0x202	Mem info data	Sys-mem remaining 4bytes
5	0x501	RPM data send	RPM (2 bytes)
6	0x502	Speed data send	Speed (2bytes)
Sl. No	Receive Code	Description	Response
1	0x300	Kill	Receive only
2	0x301	Stop	Receive only
3	0x302	Straight	Receive only
4	0x307	move forward 25%	Receive only
5	0x30C	move forward 50%	Receive only
6	0x311	move forward 75%	Receive only
7	0x315	move forward 100%	Receive only
8	0x31A	move backward 25%	Receive only
9	0x31F	move backward 50%	Receive only
10	0x324	move backward 75%	Receive only
11	0x329	move backward 100%	Receive only
12	0x334	Steer right 25%	Receive only
13	0x339	Steer right 50%	Receive only
14	0x33E	Steer right 75%	Receive only
15	0x343	Steer right 100%	Receive only
16	0x348	Steer Left 25%	Receive only
17	0x34D	Steer left 50%	Receive only
18	0x352	Steer left 75%	Receive only
19	0x357	Steer left 100%	Receive only

Io Controller Communication Table

Sl. No	Message Number	Purpose	Destination
1	0x301	Start command for car	Central Controller
2	0x302	Stop command for car	Central Controller
3	0x303	Go to a predefined Destination.	Central Controller

Testing & Technical Challenges

Sensors

The first challenge was the positioning and spacing between the sensors. The sensors were mounted on a 3D printed bracket for initial testing but the angle between the brackets seemed to cause interference and was not giving optimum values. The sensors were then individually mounted further apart to reduce interference. The detection distance was tweaked by trial and error and finally settled on the value of 36 inches for the front, left and right sensors and 7 inches for the back sensor.

The second challenge was dealing with erroneous values. Using ADC to interface sensors lead to certain erroneous values that didn't have the desired effect and after some testing, the sensor interface was changed to pulse width. This lead to more robust values after filtering.

Another challenge was the initial skewed alignment. It was difficult to detect whether the direction of the running car was changing because of the motor response to sensor values or the alignment of the tires. The group eventually decided to get a new car that rectified the alignment issue.

Sensors Configuration and Implementation

We used LV-MaxSonar series MB1010 high performance ultrasonic sensors for our application. The sensors detects objects from 6 inch to 254 inches and can be interfaced to ADC or pulse width output. We found the ADC values were inconsistent and due to the constraint of number of ADC pins on SJONE board , we used PWM to configure the sensors. We mounted three sensors in front of the car and we found the values were not consistent as it was reflected from the ground, hence we elevated the sensor placement. The sensor configuration is explained

Ultra SonicSensor

Motor Controller

Issue 1

As we were using Electric Speed Control (ESC) to control the speed of motor we faced issues based on inconsistency of the speed. This could have been solved easily if we used H-bridge chip. When ESC was supplied with particular PWM signal it would work at desirable speed but when turning off the ESC and turning on the ESC the speed would change for the same PWM signal supplied. This inconsistency of the speed can easily damaged the motor as it was hard to predict when the motor will switch from forward to backward motion. So to fix this issue we had to connect the ESC to oscilloscope and turn on the transmitter. As soon as the transmitter is turned on the transmitter send a fix signal to ESC for some time that could have been in milli seconds. By doing this the ESC get initialized and once the ESC has initialized the transmitter can send a signal to go forward or reverse.

So we wrote a code to initialize the ESC. Before we sends the signal to ESC to move forward or reverse we send a fix PWM signal to ESC for one second to initialize ESC and this signal was sent from the main function.

Issue 2

The servo that came with the RC car wasn't fast enough to respond to left and right movement of the car. Car would hit the obstacle and than the wheel would rotate in opposite direction. So we change the servo with faster response time.

System Testing

Sl. No	Test Case	Test Description	Result
1	Initial CAN communication of all controllers	Check if all the controllers are broadcasting the periodic message on CAN bus and receiving the data	All controllers PASSED
2	Obstacle avoidance	Obstacle by integrating the ultrasonic sensor	Obstacle avoidance PASSED
3	LCD display	Displying all the values including CPU Utilization, CAN message count, and message from the controllers	LCD display of all message PASSED
4	Building Android application	Check if the Android application sends the destination by Bluetooth	Communication PASSED
5	Point to Point movement	Test Car runs by setting two way points	Point to point car movement PASSED
6	Checking if Car runs with multiple way points	Check if the car works with multiple way points	Multiple way points steering PASSED

Future Enhancement

Sensors

It would be ideal to add another infrared sensor to the front lower portion of the car for cliff detection. It would also be good to have a bigger 3D printed bracket to mount the sensors that match our measurements requirements. This would add to the visual appeal and also reduce tangling mess due to the wires.

Conclusion

A self-driving car was successfully designed implemented and tested. We changed the design multiple times during the course of the project. While the final product is not perfect, autonomous navigation of the car has been achieved. If we had more time we would have improved the car navigation and added more features. Given a single destination, or a list of way-points, the car can successfully navigate to the final destination avoiding all obstacles in its path, albeit a little slowly.

This project was a great learning experience since it covered all aspects of a product design: mechanical design and assembly, procurement of parts, software design, coding and testing, and team work.

Project Video

Demo  : http://youtu.be/a9ceLDJN67M

Teampics : http://youtu.be/TJW7AsHpXfE

References

References Used

1. Preetpal Kang, Lecture notes of CMPE 243, Computer Engineering, Charles W. Davidson College of Engineering, San Jose State University, Aug-Dec 2014.
2. en.wikipedia.org/
3. MaxBotix 2012, http://www.maxbotix.com/articles/031.htm