Date:

2/19/2009

Student:

Taylor Lusk

TAs:

Mike Pridgen

Thomas Vermeer

Instructors:

Dr. A. Antonio Arroyo

Dr. Eric M. Schwartz

 

 

University of Florida

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

EEL 5666

Intelligent Machines Design Laboratory

 

Weekly Report 7

 

This week the last of my parts came in. It turns out I ordered the wrong IR receiver so I will find a different one soon. Thomas suggested just getting a module from Sparkfun but I thought about it some after our conversation and I am still leaning toward making my own. I took this class to learn about robotics and if I just buy everything pre-made I won’t learn as much. The bottom line is that the jury is still out about the IR stuff and I will talk to someone some more before I decide.

 

As I mentioned in my last report I did not like the first design of my platform. I redesigned it and I think it will be much better. I sent the parts to Mike to cut on the T-Tech.

 

Next week I will assemble the new platform and mount my servos, board, battery pack, and tracks to it. I could not decide where I wanted to locate the LCD screen so I will look at that after I assemble the rest. Once the platform is assembled I will mount all of the bump sensors. It looks like there will be two on each side and three on the front and back, all actuated by some sort of lever. I plan to use the voltage divider described in class so that I don’t have to use as many ports on my board. I will mount the IR emitters and receivers as soon as I get the new parts. Finally, I will begin coding for obstacle avoidance. I know how the structure should go but I will be working with a TA to figure out the details (port assignment, counter operation, etc.).