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

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	Completed	12/18.16
9	12/16/2016	12/20/2016	Prepare for demo/presentation	Completed	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

Figure 2: SJ-One Board Picture

As shown in Figure 3, various pins were selected for the ADC and motor PWM interfaces used in this project.

PWM Control

Figure 3. IrF3205 H-Bridge Motor Driver

The H-Bridge Motor Driver is powered by a 12V battery supply that has been regulated down to 5V with an LM7805. This allows both the 4.5V-7.4V voltage requirement of the Bogie Rover to be met while also ensuring enough current is being split among the six motors to adequately drive the Rover. The control signal bank is comprised of +5V, GND, DIR1, PWM1, DIR2 and PWM2 pins that allow motor control with either 3.3V or 5V logic. As shown in Figure 1, two GPIO pins are connected to the two DIR pins to allow easy GPIO switching to change motor direction. Two pins configured for PWM output are connected to the two PWM inputs, allowing for easy motor speed control. The output bank provides for two sets of motor control signals as well as external power input. In order to drive this specific Rover, the LM7805 output is connected to the POWER and GND pins on the driver's output bank, allowing approximately 5V and 2200 mA to be split among all six of the Rover's motors. The two MOTOR1 outputs are connected to the + and - inputs of the three motors on the left side of the Rover and the two MOTOR2 outputs are connected to the right side. This allows easy manipulation of either side of the Rover at once to allow for quick turning and movement.

Software Design

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Implementation

• To implement IR interface
  • Configure ADC pin
  • Store reading
  • Check if reading meets a certain threshold indicating fire detection and change state

• To implement PWM interface
  • Configure GPIO and PWM pins
  • Depending on which state, either spin in circle, go forward or stop

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

• FreeRTOS API
• LM7805 datasheet

Appendix

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