EEL 4924 Electrical Engineering Design (Senior Design) Preliminary Design Report 30 January 2012 Project Title: Lunabot Team Name: UF Lunabotics Team Members: Name: Matt Morgan Name: UF Lunabotics Team Project Abstract: Our project consists of building a mobile, autonomous robot capable of simulating a lunar mission. It must be able to handle navigating through an area of obstacles, over a material known as BP-1, to another area designated for mining. Sediment will be collected and stored on the robot, and ultimately driven back to a larger storage unit for deposit. This report, in particular, focuses on the electronic aspects of the design. Four 24 V motors along with four independent motor drivers will be used for movement, another motor will be used for running the conveyor belt, and a linear actuator will be used to raise and lower the conveyor belt and storage bin. Location awareness and obstacle avoidance will be achieved with IR sensors as well as a Microsoft Kinect integrated with a small PC running Windows. All other processing will be achieved on an Atmel microprocessor that has enough peripherals to support all of the IR sensors and motor drivers.
Page 2/6 Table of Contents Sections: Introduction...3 Project Features...3 Technical Objectives...3 Cost Objectives...4 Electrical Components...4 Timeline...5 References...5 Figures: Electrical Components...4 Block Diagram...5 Gantt Chart...5
Page 3/6 Introduction: The Lunabot project finds application in the domains of robotic vision image processing, location awareness, and autonomous mining of material. The robot has to recognize a safe course to a specific destination, mine the desired material after reaching the desired destination, and return home to deposit its findings. If at any time the robot malfunctions and goes rogue, there must be a wireless failsafe to allow for optional manual control. The purpose of the project is to design a robot capable of performing the necessary tasks for a lunar mission. My specific role as a member of the team is to design the PCB which will consist of the main processing unit as well as integrate the rest of the motor drivers and sensors, design the main power supply, harness the Kinect's depth detecting qualities and integrate them into the other path finding and avoidance capabilities, and finally design the wireless remote access and control unit. Project Features: The primary electronic features associated with the Lunabot are as follows: Four independent, customized motor drivers powering four independent motors via PWM. A fifth motor driver driving a DC motor for the conveyor belt system. A sixth motor driver driving a linear actuator for raising and lowering the conveyor belt/bin. Up to eight separate analog IR sensors (ranging from 3 cm to 80 cm) Microsoft Kinect with integrated PC (either complete laptop/netbook or just motherboard) Three - four separate power supplies: o LiPo for motors o Lithium-ion for PC o Alkaline for microcontroller o Possible separate LiPo for conveyor belt Wireless remote control emergency system (Likely using WiFly Super Module)
Page 4/6 Electrical Components: (1) Atmel Xmega128a1 Five DC Motors Linear Actuator (2) STMicroelectronics VNH5019A Motor Driver IC (3) Microsoft Kinect integrated with either standalone PC/netbook or motherboard running Windows 7 (4) Sharp Analog IR sensors (5) Sparkfun LCD-09051 (6) WiFly Super Module (SuRF) (7) LiPo Power Supply
Page 5/6 This is a preliminary estimation of how the components will connect and function together. Wireless Power Supply PC up Motor Drivers (6) IR Sensors LCD Motors Linear Actuator Location Awareness Behavior Figure 1 - Block Diagram Technical Objectives: The main objective of our project is to design a system that can mimic NASA's description of a lunar mission and achieve successful deposition of the desired material. The first problem that has to be resolved is finding a suitable processor with all of the necessary analog-to-digital capabilities as well as design a PCB that will harness all of the essential peripherals. Design a power supply that can support at least four (possibly all five) of the motors (fifth used to power the conveyor belt and lifter) that is separate from the one used for the microprocessor (likely LiPo). Design the motor driver boards and isolate them from the microprocessor so that any kind of current spike from the motors will not result in the microprocessor being reset (possibly optocouplers). Utilize the Kinect SDK (if a small PC running Windows is used) to obtain depth and color information. Design algorithms like a Canny edge detection or utilize a Sobel operator to effectively source the desired destination with the Kinect.
Page 6/6 Design the wireless remote control system that will tell the robot when to begin and will further be able to remote control the entire robot in case of an emergency situation (WiFly is most likely to be used due to the need to use 802.11 protocol). Cost Objective: We expect the price of the Lunabot to be around $12,000 ($3,000 for all of the electronic parts including the Kinect and integrated PC) based off the electrical components listed on the previous page. Funding is being obtained from numerous sources including the University of Florida. Timeline: Figure 2 - Gantt Chart References: http://mil.ufl.edu/5666/ http://www.facebook.com/groups/166078693474170/ http://www.nasa.gov/offices/education/centers/kennedy/technology/lunabotics.html (1) http://www.atmel.com (2) http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/1449 (3) http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/kinectforwindows/ (4) http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/136 (5) http://www.sparkfun.com/products/9051 (6) http://www.gridconnect.com/wiflysurf.html (7) http://www.ebay.com/itm/18-5v-5000mah-30c-lipo-5s-18-5-volt-rc-akku-battery-dr- /320657719266?pt=AU_Toys_Hobbies_Radio_Controlled_Vehicles&hash=item4aa8b07fe2