F16: Autonomous Fire Extinguishing Vehicle

Grading Criteria

• How well is Software & Hardware Design described?
• How well can this report be used to reproduce this project?
• Code Quality
• Overall Report Quality:
  • Software Block Diagrams
  • Hardware Block Diagrams

    Schematic Quality

  • Quality of technical challenges and solutions adopted.

Abstract

The Autonomous FEV is able to scan a room for fires through a focused IR sensor and navigate to each fire's location. Once the vehicle reaches a reasonable distance from the fire's location, the vehicle will spray water in the fire's general location and extinguish it.

Objectives & Introduction

The objectives of this project include:

• Create a stand-by mode where vehicle would rotate in place and scan
• Have vehicle detect a flame and traverse to its general location
• Stop vehicle when flame is detected and activate water pump to spray in the fire's general location

Team Members & Responsibilities

• Kevin Gadek
  • Sensor ADC Interface
  • Vehicle Assembly
  • Project Documentation
• John Purkis
  • DC Motor Controller Interface
  • PWM Interface
  • Project Documentation
• RuiQiang Yu
  • Vehicle Assembly
  • Project Documentation

Schedule

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Week#	Start Date	End Data	Task	Status	Actual Completion Date
1	10/21/2016	10/28/2016	Finalize Project Proposal	Completed	10/28/2016
2	10/28/2016	11/04/2016	Compile Bill of Materials/Design Schematics	Completed	11/04/2016
3	11/04/2016	11/11/2016	Order necessary parts	Completed	11/15/2016
4	11/11/2016	11/18/2016	Disassemble prebuilt RC car/Develop initial IR sensor task	Completed	11/21/16
5	11/18/2016	11/25/2016	Develop preliminary servo motor control task	Completed	11/21/16
6	11/25/2016	12/2/2016	Assemble vehicle	Completed	12/9/2016
7	12/2/2016	12/9/2016	Test/troubleshoot system setup	Completed	12/11/2016
8	12/9/2016	12/16/2016	Fine-tune/Finalize of project	Done	12/18.16
9	12/16/2016	12/20/2016	Prepare for demo/presentation	Done	12/20/16

Parts List & Cost

Part Name	Quantity	Cost	Notes
SJOne Board	1	$80	Main microcontroller
Infrared Sensor Module	2	$13.67	Placed around front of car to detect and approximate flame location
Actobactics Bogie Rover	1	$69.99	Main vehicle
Water pump	1	$25.77	Aubig 12V Brushless DC water pump
Water pump battery supply	2	$8.00	12V 8xAA battery pack w/ switch
System battery supply	2	$5.00	6V 4xAA battery pack w/ switch
Voltage Regulator	2	$2.00	5V Voltage Regulator (Approx. 1A output current)

Design & Implementation

Hardware Design

The overall system design diagram is shown below.

Figure 1. Overall System Diagram

Hardware Interface

SJOne Board

SJ-One Board Picture

Irf3205 H-Bridge Motor Driver

Figure 2. IrF3205 H-Bridge Motor Driver

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Software Design

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Implementation

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Testing & Technical Challenges

IR Sensor Calibration

Issue

Calibrating the IR sensor to focus on a specific source of IR waves rather than all the ambient light around it. ADC readings from the IR sensor were sporadic and unpredictable in areas with spotty lighting. Sensitivity calibration ended up not being as helpful as indicated in affecting the analog output of IR sensor.

Solution

This problem was somewhat mitigated by creating a makeshift apparatus with a film canister, forcing the sensor to focus its sensing in one specific direction at a time. The film canister prevents most outside IR waves from interfering with readings.

Motor Power

Issue

Control of the six different DC motors provided on the vehicle was sporadic at best. Because each motor required a peak supply current of approximately 220 mA, the peak output current of the LM7805 voltage regulator often wasn't enough to supply all six of them without either overheating and/or stopping some motors from functioning.

Solution

Attaching a 7805 with a heatsink mitigated many of the overheating issues. Installing a heatsink to the LM7805 instantly resolved power issues and the vehicle was able to traverse ground easily.

Conclusion

This project was ultimately successful at its goal. The RC Rover is able to detect IR light within a reasonable wavelength, detecting both certain flashlights as well as matches. The RC Rover is then able to transition between states according to readings that are being interpreted. These states allow the rover to traverse and navigate to several different fires within an enclosed area. The research done in learning how to interface the SJOne microcontroller over a variety of interfaces like ADC and PWM was a great learning experience. Creating a system with multiple tasks continually context switching and being able to predict the result was also a great lesson on designing with freeRTOS. With further work, this project could be improved both to increase reliability and accuracy.

Project Video

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Project Source Code

• Github Source Code Link

References

Acknowledgement

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References Used

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Appendix

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