T.R.O.N.
Transportional Regulation Obedient
Newbie
Dima Haddad
TAs:
William Dubel
Steven Pickles
Instructors:
A.A. Arroyo
E. M. Schwartz
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
EEL 5666
Intelligent Machines Design Laboratory
Table
of Contents
Abstract
Executive
Summary
Introduction
The project at hand is to build an autonomous intelligent machine that does a practical function. In this particular design the robot will have the ability to discern between the phases of a traffic signal. The main purpose of the design is to mimic a real-world application of a vehicle on a roadway.
There has been large scale and much more intricate projects that have successfully created an autonomous vehicle that can maneuver through signals and drive on freeways. This project will only concentrate on the aspect of recognizing and reacting to a traffic light.
The T.R.O.N. project will entail several things of which the main parts will be the building of the robot and then of its test environment. The environment should be a miniature roadway model with a lane and traffic signals. It will have a black background representing the asphalt and white line for the lane edges. The traffic signal should be overhead of the vehicle as in reality and will have the red, yellow, and green phase lights. The building of the robot includes a multitude of aspects, such as the body, the actuation, the sensors, and the programming code to allow it to integrate all these parts together. In the following paragraphs all these aspects will be discussed in detail.
Platform
The platform will slightly resemble a vehicle. It will have a semi-rectangular shape with four wheels and two levels.
Figure 1: Robot Base Visual
As can be seen from figure one the car robot will look like a miniature monster truck. This base would be the ideal platform due to its space to allow all the sensors and equipment to fit on base levels, having tires that can go various terrains (such as, carpet, tile, grass, concrete, asphalt, and dirt.) The measurements for the body are L: 6.75”, W: 6”, and H: 4.25”. The two levels are 1 ¼” apart.
Actuation
As has been mentioned the platform will run on four wheels each with its own servo. So the car will have similar to four wheel drive. A view of the wheels and servos are shown below:
Figure 2: Bottom view of platform, with wheels and
servos.
The wheel and servo set has the following specifications (Budget Robotics):
· Wheels: X4
· Tire diameter: 65mm (2 1/2"); tread 7/8" wide
· Tire material: Medium-hardness treaded rubber (with "studs" for traction)
· Hub: Custom machined from PVC plastic
· Futaba-spline wheel hub, to match Futaba R/C servos
The R/C servos have already been modified for continuous rotation. They need any where between 4.8 to 6 volts of power to operate.
Other than the wheels the robot will not have any other actuation.
Sensors
There are several sensors that are need for the robot to accurately mimic a car on the roadway. The following is a list of sensors to be used along with some miscellaneous parts:
· Two IR Sensors
· One Sonar Sensor
· Four Bump Sensors
·
CMU
· Miscellaneous: buzzer and various leds
The IR sensors will be placed one on each side of the robot to detect the edge of the lane. Simply they will be line avoidance sensors so that the robot can stay within his lane, the left IR sensor will avoid the left side of the lane (left line edge) and the right will do the same for the right side (right line edge).
The sonar will be used for proximity detection so the robot does not collide with any other objects on the roadway. The robot only needs one sonar sensor due to the fact that the robot stops before an object and does not swerve into another lane or oncoming traffic. Once the sonar detects and objects the robot stops and will not move until the object is removed. Also as a collision tool the bump sensors will be used just incase the robot does collide into an object or wall it will back up from that position.
The CMU cam will be used for vision, so the robot can see the traffic light as well as which phase it is in. Once the image is processed it will react accordingly.
The miscellaneous section has parts in it that will allow the robot to look and be more car-like, such as having a horn and front and rear lights.
Conclusion
The T.R.O.N.
robot will have the ability to drive in a lane of traffic and react to a
traffic signal on the roadway in its environment. This behavior will be achieved through
several sensors and a platform that is built for roadway conditions.