Download Amaze Me

Preliminary Design
Review (PDR)
Team Amaze Me
Team Amaze Me
• EE 296 Project (MicroMouse)
• Members
– Brandon Gibu
– Ah Ram Kim
– John-Kalani Miyajima
– Justin Ogata
• Website
– http://www2.hawaii.edu/~bgibu
Brief Overview of Project
• Micromouse
– Autonomous robot
– Find center of a 16 x 16 maze
– Uses sensors to turn at corners
– Uses tracking program to keep track of location
in maze
– Continues to search until it finds the fastest
path to center
Brief Overview (continued)
• Approaches
– Use tutorials to help construct hardware to
build mouse
– Create wall hugger program to randomly
maneuver through maze
– Create tracking software to find fastest route to
center
Block Diagram of the Mouse
Mouse Itself
Coding
Wall Hugger
Code
Tracking Code
Circuit
Stepper Motor
Code
Sensors
Hardware (Chassis)
Rabbit
Circuit Parts
(battery supply,
Protoboards
Stepper motor)
Non-Circuit Parts
(frame, wheels
Joints)
*Sub-components are inter-related with each other in some way*
The Chassis of the Mouse in
detail
• Base frame (bottom plate)
• The Third Wheel
• Position of the protoboards, sensors, and
other circuit elements
• Miscellaneous
Base Frame
• Oval design
• Fold up motor mounts
• Keep the wheels
closer together
• Small body frame
The Third Wheel
• It is used to balance the overall weight of
the mouse
• Experimented with
roller caster
• Problem: Possibility of
dragging the mouse
• Looking for a new 3rd
• wheel
The Position of Circuit
Elements
• Stack the protoboards on top of each other
• Stack in a easy access manner
• Team decided to use a top down layout b/c
of experiment
– The infrared sensors (QRD1114) are “weak”
– A signal roughly occurs within half an inch
distanc, based on tests
• Battery packs placed in vertical fashion
near stepper motor
Miscellaneous
• Try to make it look like a mouse
– Either a circuit board in the shape of a mouse
or have a figure of a mouse on top
• Have adjustable arms that connect to areas
of the sensors
– No two mazes are exactly the same
• Find ways to protect the sensors
– Ex. With a side sensor layout, use stand offs
as bumpers to prevent damage
Prototype of Mouse
Front View
Top View
Side View
Top View
Future Tasks
• Become highly familiar with the behavior of
the sensors and “rabbit”
• At the same time, continue making
changes on the chassis of the mouse
• Create the Algorithm
• Coding, coding, coding
Potential Problems
• Balance of mouse (extra wheels ???)
• Connecting the right ports to desired input
or output
• Supplying enough power to mouse
• Keeping mouse within rules of competition
• Brains of the mouse
• Time constrains
Other Module Analysis-The Circuit
(Stepper Motor Problem)
• Voltage drop across stepper motor circuit
– Axle rotated only in one direction and stopped
when sensor sensed movement
– Voltage supply showed voltage dropping by
half
• LED probe on sensor circuit
– Not enough resistance resulting in LED being
very bright and decrease in voltage
Decisions to be Made
• Third wheel(s): low friction pad or canster
ball
• Number of sensors to be used
• Exact locations of sensors
• Design mouse into a “mouse”
• Amount of batteries we need to supply
mouse
Schedule and Time Line
Gantt Chart
Thank You
Questions or
comments?