F12: Self-Driving GPS Following Car

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Revision as of 00:14, 19 November 2012 by Caleb f12 (talk | contribs) (Hardware Interface)

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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.

Self-Driving GPS Following Car

Abstract

The objective of this project is for an autonomous vehicle to follow a lead car. The leading car is controlled manually using a remote and sends its GPS coordinates to the following car over ZigBee. The following car will move toward the received GPS coordinates while using proximity sensors to avoid obstacles.

Introduction and Features

  • Read the GPS coordinates of the leading RC car and the following self-driving car
  • Use XBee modules to send and receive GPS coordinates of the leading car to the following car
  • Compute the bearing necessary for the following car to reach the leading car
  • Read the bearing of the following car using a compass
  • Navigate the following car to the received GPS coordinates while avoiding obstacles

Team Members and Responsibilities

  • Elias Barboza
    • PWM driver, motor controllers, and obstacle avoidance
  • Caleb Chow
    • Read direction from compass, read GPS data, and move toward GPS coordinates
  • Stephen Lu
    • Read data from proximity sensors, develop curve-fit function, and move toward GPS coordinates

Schedule

Week Number Scheduled Items Actual

Week 1: Design
(October 29)

  • Order Parts
  • Design proximity sensors placement
  • Design algorithm to avoid obstacles
  • Design algorithm to move toward GPS coordinate
    using compass
  • Parts all obtained
  • Proximity sensor and algorithm design completed

Week 2: Construction
(November 5)

  • Upgrade leading car with microcontroller, XBee, GPS,
    and a battery pack
  • Upgrade following car with microcontroller, XBee, GPS,
    compass, proximity sensors, motor controllers, and a
    battery pack
  • Read GPS information by connecting GPS to Xbee
  • Leading car upgrade completed
  • Following car upgrade in progress
  • GPS information sent to Xbee completed

Week 3: Drivers
(November 12)

  • Develop curve-fit function for proximity sensors
  • Read direction from compass
  • Enable car driving capabilities / motor controllers
  • Send / receive data using XBee modules
  • Proximity sensors completed
  • Compass direction in progress
  • Motor controllers completed
  • Send / receive data using XBee modules done

Week 4: Coding
(November 19)

  • Code obstacle avoidance
  • In progress

Week 5: Coding
(November 26)

  • Code moving toward GPS coordinate
  • In progress

Week 6: Testing
(December 3)

  • Testing

Week 7: Finalization
(December 10)

  • Make final changes for demo
  • Finalize content in Wiki article

Parts List & Cost

Give a simple list of the cost of your project broken down by components. Do not write long stories here.

Parts Quantity Cost Link

RC Car -
Beetle RC Car

2

$25

Previously owned


GPS -
GlobalSat ET-318

2

$37.21

GPS DataSheet

XBee Module -
XBee 1mW Chip Antenna

2

$24.95

Xbee Module

Motor Controller -
5A Motor Controller

2

$17.99

Motor Controller

Compass -
LSM303DLM

1

$14.95

Compass

Sonar Range Finder -
LV-MaxSonar-EZ4

2

$26.95

Sonar Range Finder

Ultrasonic Range Finder -
SRF08

1

~$50

Ultrasonic Range Finder

Microcontroller -
2012 SJ One Board

1

~$120

SJ One Board

Design & Implementation

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Hardware Design

Discuss your hardware design here. Show detailed schematics, and the interface here.

Hardware Interface

In this section, you can describe how your hardware communicates, such as which BUSes used. You can discuss your driver implementation here, such that the Software Design section is isolated to talk about high level workings rather than inner working of your project.
Leading Car

Cmpe146 F12 T7 Leading Car Block Diagram.png

Leading Car Block Diagram

  • GPS – UART
    • Outputs GPS data on Tx to XBee Rx
  • XBee – UART
    • Inputs data to send on Rx from GPS Tx
  • Power Supply – 3.3V
    • Supply power to GPS and XBee modules
    • Add 3.3V voltage regulator with filtering capacitors to RC car’s battery pack

Following Car

Cmpe146 F12 T7 Following Car Block Diagram.png

Following Car Block Diagram

  • Microcontroller
    • 2012 SJSU One Board (LPC1758)
  • GPS – UART
    • P2.8 = Tx, P2.9 = Rx
    • PINSEL4 = 10 for both
  • Xbee – UART3
    • P4.28 = Tx, P4.29 = Rx
    • PINSEL9 = 11 for both
  • Compass – I2C2
    • P0.10 = SDA, P0.11 = SCL
    • PINSEL0 = 10 for both
  • Proximity sensor (SRF08) – I2C2
    • P0.10 = SDA, P0.11 = SCL
    • PINSEL0 = 10 for both
  • Proximity Sensors (LV-MaxSonar-EZ4) – ADC4 and ADC5
    • P1.30 = AD0.4
    • P1.31 = AD0.5
    • PINSEL3 = 11 for both
  • Motor Controllers (2) – PWM
    • P1.20 = PWM1.2
    • P1.24 = PWM1.5
    • PINSEL3 = 10 for both
  • Power Supply – 5.0V from RC car's original battery pack
    • Supply power to motor controllers for motors
    • Supply power to SRF08 proximity sensor
  • Power Supply – 3.3V
    • Microcontroller 3.3V output
    • Supply power to GPS, Xbee, and LV-MaxSonar-EZ4 proximity sensors

Software Design

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Implementation

This section includes implementation, but again, not the details, just the high level. For example, you can list the steps it takes to communicate over a sensor, or the steps needed to write a page of memory onto SPI Flash. You can include sub-sections for each of your component implementation.

Testing & Technical Challenges

Describe the challenges of your project. What advise would you give yourself or someone else if your project can be started from scratch again? Make a smooth transition to testing section and described what it took to test your project.

Include sub-sections that list out a problem and solution, such as:

Wifi Connection Issues

Many wifi connection issues were encountered. To solve this problem, a dedicated task was created to re-connect to wifi if the connection was ever lost.

Conclusion

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Project Video

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Project Source Code

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References

Acknowledgement

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References Used

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Appendix

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