Fire-Fighting Robot

Project Design Report

Design Team 3

Joseph M. McGlinchy

Matthew J. Taschner

Thomas V. Vo

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Tom Hartley

December 3, 2007
Table of Contents
Table of Contents................................................................................................................ ii
Table of Figures ................................................................................................................. iv
Table of Tables ................................................................................................................... v
Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 1
Introduction......................................................................................................................... 1
Statement of Need........................................................................................................... 1
Problem Definition...................................................................................................... 1
Goals ........................................................................................................................... 1
Objectives ................................................................................................................... 1
Constraints .................................................................................................................. 2
Design Specifications.......................................................................................................... 2
Power System.................................................................................................................. 2
Mechanical Specifications .............................................................................................. 2
Sensors ............................................................................................................................ 2
Actuator........................................................................................................................... 3
Locomotion ..................................................................................................................... 3
Alternative Design Analysis ............................................................................................... 3
Robot Body ..................................................................................................................... 3
Modifying Commercial RC Vehicle........................................................................... 3
Custom Design............................................................................................................ 3
Power System.................................................................................................................. 4
One Supply.................................................................................................................. 4
Two Supplies .............................................................................................................. 4
Three Supplies ............................................................................................................ 5
Motor Drive System........................................................................................................ 5
Motors ............................................................................................................................. 5
DC Geared Motors...................................................................................................... 5
RC Servo Motors ........................................................................................................ 6
Stepper Motors............................................................................................................ 6
Speed Controllers............................................................................................................ 6
Pre-made Controllers .................................................................................................. 6
Self-made Controllers ................................................................................................. 7
Proximity Sensors ....................................................................................................... 7
Ultrasonic.................................................................................................................... 7
Infrared........................................................................................................................ 7
Method Selected.......................................................................................................... 8
Line Detector .................................................................................................................. 8
Line Detector Package ................................................................................................ 8
Photodiode and LED................................................................................................... 8
Flame Detector................................................................................................................ 9
Camera ........................................................................................................................ 9
Infrared........................................................................................................................ 9
Ultraviolet Detector .................................................................................................... 9
Audio Detector.............................................................................................................. 10
Commercial Product ................................................................................................. 10

ii
 Custom Design.......................................................................................................... 10
Flame Extinguisher System .......................................................................................... 10
Water Pump Bottle and Linear Actuator .................................................................. 10
Pressured 12 Ounce CO2 Tank and Linear Actuator................................................. 11
Air Compressor, Water and Solenoid Valve............................................................. 11
Microcontroller ............................................................................................................. 11
Holocon..................................................................................................................... 11
Other Microcontroller ............................................................................................... 12
Accepted Technical Design .............................................................................................. 12
Power System................................................................................................................ 12
Motor Specifications..................................................................................................... 13
Motor Control ............................................................................................................... 15
Sensors .......................................................................................................................... 17
Audio Detector.............................................................................................................. 17
Ultrasonic Sensors ........................................................................................................ 21
Infrared Rangers............................................................................................................ 23
White Line Detector...................................................................................................... 24
Flame Detection Sensors............................................................................................... 27
Digital Compass............................................................................................................ 29
Fire Extinguisher........................................................................................................... 31
Software ........................................................................................................................ 33
Pseudo Code.................................................................................................................. 36
Main Loop..................................................................................................................... 36
Entering Room Algorithm ............................................................................................ 37
Leave Room Algorithm ................................................................................................ 37
Flame Locate and Extinguish Algorithm...................................................................... 37
Return Home Algorithm ............................................................................................... 38
Robot Body Construction and Layout .......................................................................... 38
Testing Procedures............................................................................................................ 45
Drive System................................................................................................................. 45
Audio Signal Detection................................................................................................. 46
Linear Actuator Testing ................................................................................................ 46
White Line Detection.................................................................................................... 47
Flame Detection ............................................................................................................ 47
Digital Compass............................................................................................................ 48
Ultrasonic Rangers........................................................................................................ 49
Infrared.......................................................................................................................... 49
System Testing.............................................................................................................. 49
Schematics .................................................................................................................... 50
Financial Budget ............................................................................................................... 53
Labor Cost..................................................................................................................... 53
Material Cost................................................................................................................. 53
Project Schedule................................................................................................................ 56
Design Team Information ................................................................................................. 60
Conclusions and Recommendations ................................................................................. 60
References and Acknowledgments ................................................................................... 60

iii
Table of Figures
Figure 1: Different curve relationships for the Transmotec 12V motor .......................... 14
Figure 2: Transmotoec SD3729 spur DC gear motor with encoder option ..................... 15
Figure 3: Output waveform of the motor's encoders in digital form ............................... 15
Figure 4: H-Bridge Schematic for control of DC motors ................................................ 16
Figure 5: One cycle of a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal................................... 17
Figure 6: Circuit used for detecting tone between 3-4kHz to start robot.......................... 17
Figure 7: Frequency response for bandpass filter sub-circuit........................................... 20
Figure 8: 3.5 kHz, 3Vptp waveform input to 4th stage; peak detector output between
2.7V and 3V ...................................................................................................................... 21
Figure 9: SRF05 Timing Diagram with Trigger and Echo on the same line, courtesy of
Robot Electronics.............................................................................................................. 22
Figure 10 Pinout for Devantech SRF05 Ultrasonic Ranger, courtesy of Robot Electronics
........................................................................................................................................... 22
Figure 11: Output voltage characteristic of Sharp GP2D120, courtesy of Acroname...... 24
Figure 12: Circuit schematic for detecting a white line.................................................... 25
Figure 13: White line detector layout on bottom of robot ................................................ 26
Figure 14: Photodiode Spectral Responsivity, courtesy of Texas Advanced Optical
Solutions ........................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 15: Sensitivity pattern for Hamamatsu UVTRON Flame Sensor, courtesy of
Hamamatsu ....................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 16: Simplified block diagram of drive circuit used to implement Hamamatsu
UVTRON R2868 Flame Detector, courtesy of Hamamatsu ............................................ 27
Figure 17: Sensitivity Diagram for LTR-4206E NPN phototransistor, courtesy of Lite-On
Electronics......................................................................................................................... 28
Figure 18: Layout of 3 VIRFL flame detectors on second level of robot......................... 29
Figure 19: Example of a CO2 bike pump to be used as the flame extinguisher courtesy of
www.cyclesense.co.uk ...................................................................................................... 31
Figure 20: General picture of actuator and bike pump configuration.............................. 32
Figure 21: Actuator schematic displaying relay model and DC solenoid ....................... 32
Figure 22: Internal schematic of the WRC4-OB5S relay courtesy of www.wrcakron.com
........................................................................................................................................... 33
Figure 23: Message format from Holocon to PIC33F that contains a direction and
distance command............................................................................................................. 34
Figure 24: Message format from PIC33F to Holocon that confirms that given distance
and direction have been traveled....................................................................................... 35
Figure 25: House model arena divided into grids............................................................. 35
Figure 26: Wheel to be used on robot courtesy of www.trossenrobotics.com ................ 39
Figure 27: Hub insert for wheel bore with 1/8" keyway courtesy of
www.trossenrobotics.com................................................................................................. 40
Figure 28: Physical design of H-Bridge on heat sink connected to controller ................ 41
Figure 29: Overall 3-D View of robot. ............................................................................. 42
Figure 30: View of robot from the front of robot ............................................................. 43
Figure 31: View of robot from the side with typical candle length. ................................. 44

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Figure 32: View of robot from the top.............................................................................. 44
Figure 33: View from bottom of robot ............................................................................. 45
Figure 34: Higher level schematic for sensor connections ............................................... 50
Figure 35: Higher level schematic for sensor/actuator connections to microcontrollers.. 51
Figure 36: Circuit Diagram for H-Bridge ......................................................................... 52
Figure 37: Circuit Diagram for Audio Detection Circuit.................................................. 53
Figure 38: Design Gantt Chart for project. ....................................................................... 58
Figure 39: Implementation Gantt Chart for project ......................................................... 59

Table of Tables
Table 1: Power calculations for all components .............................................................. 13
Table 2: Values for bandpass filter sub-circuit ................................................................. 19
Table 3: Summary of commands sent by host microcontroller to HMC6352, courtesy of
Honeywell ......................................................................................................................... 30
Table 4: Direction commands with corresponding values given from Holocon to PIC33F.
........................................................................................................................................... 34
Table 5: Wheel Specifications ......................................................................................... 39

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Abstract

Trinity College hosts an annual Robot Fire-Fighting contest drawing participants from
around the world. The contestants vary in age, skill level, and experience, ranging from
middle school students, college students, professors and all other robot enthusiasts. The
purpose of this contest is to simulate the real-world operation of an autonomous robot
providing a fire protection function in a house. The situation being simulated is a robot
inside a home responding to a smoke detector going off by searching the house for a fire
and putting it out as fast as possible. The contest is used as an educational tool while
simultaneously promoting advancements in the field of robotics. This robot will first be
activated by a smoke alarm signal, which then will proceed throughout the mock
household and search for a flame. Upon finding the flame, the robot will extinguish it by
actuating a pressurized CO2 cartridge. Once the flame is out, the robot will return to its
original starting position in the quickest amount of time possible. There is no weight
restriction for this robot, but in order to maximize its speed and performance the robot
will be light and small in size.

Introduction

Statement of Need

Trinity College hosts a competition that challenges participants to come up with

new innovative ideas to provide a fire fighting protection function to a home or
warehouse through the use of robotics. A robot must be constructed to navigate
through a mock household and extinguish a flame.

Problem Definition

Goals

A robot that will have the capabilities of locating a flame in a mock

household (represented by a 248 cm by 248 cm maze-like arena),
extinguish the flame, and then return to the starting position. The robot
will consist of a flame detection device, wall proximity devices,
locomotion, and a device capable of extinguishing the flame.

Objectives

The robot must be able to navigate through the arena and search for a
flame in a random room. Upon locating the flame, the robot must be able
to put it out using some type of extinguishing device and then return to its
original starting location in the arena. Size of the robot must be of
consideration, but weight is not an issue.

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 Constraints

The robot must be capable of performing these actions within the shortest
amount of time possible. It has a maximum of 5 minutes to perform a run
in the arena. The robot must not mark or damage any of the walls in the
arena. It cannot get stuck in a continuous loop more than 5 times. The
robot has no weight restriction, but it must be capable of fitting into a 31
cm long by 31 cm wide by 27 cm high box.

Design Specifications

Power System

The entire robot will be supplied by 3 packs of rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries.
All of these power supplies will be at a potential of 14.8V. The motors being
used take 12VDC, so this voltage must be stepped down in order for the motors to
operate at their nominal voltage. Also, the 14.8V must be stepped down to 3.3V
for the controller of the motors as well as to 5V for the sensors. Two of these
supplies will be used for each individual motor while the other supply will be
used for the rest of the components. The robot must be capable of performing all
of its actions for up to an hour. This means the supplies must have a total
capacity to support this specification.

Mechanical Specifications

Since there is a time limit (5 minutes) to each run in the arena, the robot must be
able to move quickly and efficiently. The maximum speed that robot will be
designed to move will be 5 ft/sec. The robot will be constructed with the thought
in mind that the arena has corners in which the robot has the potential to get stuck
in. Therefore, the body will be circular and the robot will have a zero degree
turning radius. There is no weight limit for the competition, but keeping the robot
light will give the robot more speed and agility. The size of the robot must also
be considered since it must be able to fit in a box measuring 31 cm long by 31 cm
wide by 27 cm high. Also, the robot will have a plow in the front to discard
objects in its path.

Sensors

Ultrasonic range finders and infrared range finders will be used on all sides of
the robot in order to detect the presence of a wall. Range: 2cm 4m
Three IR flame sensors and a UV sensor will be mounted on the front of robot
in order to detect the presence of a flame. Range: 0 to 1.2m
A photodiode and LED circuit will be placed on the underside of the robot so
that it can detect the white lines marking the entrance to each room of the
arena as well as the white 30 cm radius solid circle surrounding the candle.

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 A digital compass will be used so the robot will know which direction it is
facing and also so it knows the path it has taken.

Actuator

There will be only one actuator on the robot so it can extinguish the flame. Since
there are time reductions given to robots that do not use air flow to put out the
flame, a pressurized CO2 cartridge will be used for extinguishing.

Locomotion

In order to move about the arena, the robot will consist of two DC geared motors.
Geared motors are being used in order to produce the right amount of torque. The
weight of the robot is estimated to be about 20 pounds. With this in mind, as well
as 4 inch diameter wheels, these motors need to produce at least 0.0375 - 0.0625
ft-lbs of torque for each size wheel respectively. The motor needs to be able to
produce speeds up to 290 RPM.

Alternative Design Analysis

Robot Body

There are no constraints on what the body may be constructed out of. However, a
heavy robot will be less agile. Another consideration would be to make the robot
body round. A round body, as opposed to a square body, will help to ensure that
the robot does not get stuck in a corner.

Modifying Commercial RC Vehicle

Initially, the idea of purchasing a commercial RC vehicle and modifying

its base to use for the robots body was more attractive because less
mechanical design would be required. This however, limits the design of
the body to what is available on the market. This option involves
spending time tracking down a best fit RC vehicle that offers the
flexibility to retrofit various robot components to it. Another
consideration for this option is whether the drive system on the RC vehicle
would require modification or if it would need to be replaced altogether.
It most likely would need modification since most RC vehicles are
designed to move at fast speeds and not with high torque.

Custom Design

This option offers complete flexibility, which includes the exact shape of
the robot and the materials used in construction and placement of

3
 platforms required for the various components. This option includes
more mechanical labor but the robot body will be constructed exactly as
desired.

Method Selected

Finding an RC vehicle that is round and that can be modified to mount the
components required would be more difficult. Custom design was the
method chosen because it will allow for a more efficient robot body
design.

Power System

The power system is one of the most important systems for the design of the
robot. This is the system that will supply power to all of the different components
on the robot including the sensors, actuators, microcontroller, and motor drive
system. The power supply that is going to be used to operate the robot will be in
the form of rechargeable batteries: one, two, or three separate packs.

One Supply

Each one of these alternative designs consists of both pros and cons.
When utilizing only one battery pack, the overall weight and space of the
robot will be low. The single supply would distribute the power to all of
the elements of the robot directly or through regulators and/or voltage
divider circuits. Since there is only one supply, the worries of charging,
status updates, and electrical and mechanical connections would be
reduced. However, the main problem with this design is the noise
generated from the motors and actuators that potentially would affect the
sensors readings as well as the microcontroller itself.

Two Supplies

Using two separate battery packs for the robot would greatly reduce the
worries of noise from the motors and actuators affecting the sensors and
controller. Ideally, the noise would have no affect on the sensors with two
supplies. One supply would be used just for the motor drive system while
the other supply would contribute to the sensors, actuators, and
microcontroller. The down side to this design is the fact that having more
supplies means having a heavier robot. There is no weight limit on the
robot, but there is a size constraint. Having more than one supply
indicates that more space is required as well as more physical connections.

4
 Three Supplies

Lastly, the use of three supplies for the robot will be considered. One
battery pack would operate the motor drive system, another would supply
the sensors and microcontroller, and the third used specifically for the
actuators. Again, the factors that must be considered here are weight and
space. Obviously the more supplies that the robot would have the heavier
it will be as well as more room being consumed.

Method Selected

Using the two separate supplies as described above is the best alternative
here. The only reason that three supplies were even considered is the fact
that the actuator could generate noise that might affect the sensors and
microcontroller. However, this will not be an issue because there is only
one actuator being used to extinguish the flame. Even if this actuator were
to produce noise, the sensors would not be affected because they would
not be taking any readings during actuation. Once the sensors detect the
fire, the microcontroller would send a signal to the actuator to extinguish
the flame and the sensors would not be needed at that time. Therefore,
three supplies would be overdoing it while two supplies would be enough
so that the noise from the motors would not be an issue for the sensors.

Motor Drive System

The motor drive system is also one of the more important systems for this fire-
fighting robot. Without this system, the robot would clearly not be able to move.
The two parts of this system consist of the speed controllers and the actual motors
themselves.

Motors

DC Geared Motors

DC geared motors are a good option because they can easily be controlled.
The microcontroller itself would not be able to control these motors
directly, which is where separate speed controllers would be used. The
microcontroller would send information to the speed controller, which in
turn would tell the DC motors what to do. Also, the motors are supplied
with attached encoders. The data from the encoder can tell the
microcontroller exactly how far the attached wheel has been displaced.

These motors are reversible, in that they can operate in both forward and
reverse directions. The main purpose of the geared motors is to be able to
generate more torque rather than more speed. The robot is not going to

5
 have to move very fast, but it will have to have enough strength to be
able to accelerate and decelerate quickly.

RC Servo Motors

Servo motors are very common in the field of robotics, especially small
robots. The advantage of having servo motors is that a separate speed
controller would not be needed. These motors operate through the use of
pulse width modulation by receiving certain frequencies of pulses to
position the shaft. Conversely, since full travel of these motors is typically
180, they would have to be modified in order for continuous travel. Also,
these motors are generally slower and less powerful than a DC motor.

Stepper Motors

Stepper motors are very similar to servo motors, in that they receive
commands from the microcontroller and move to a specific location.
These motors would not need the use of encoders because the controller
would already know the location of the motor shaft. However, these
motors are capable of skipping steps, which would cause the controller to
think the motor is in one step when it is actually in another. Also, there
are more wires involved with a stepper motor than a DC motor; each of
the wires would be used to drive a coil within the motor.

Method Selected

Looking at these three possibilities, the best choice seems to be the DC

geared motors. These motors can easily be controlled and will also give
the desired torque and speed needed to drive the robot.

Speed Controllers

Pre-made Controllers

Some other person or company that has already made speed controllers
can easily be purchased. They have already been tested and it is known
that they will do the job required. One of the cons to these controllers is
the fact that it will require some time to understand exactly how they
operate. Once this is determined, they will be very helpful and useful.
There are controllers out there that have feedback imbedded in the logic so
that they can know what the motor is actually doing. These would be very
useful for DC motors, but can be rather expensive.

6
 Self-made Controllers

When designing ones own controller to operate a motor, much time and
effort are needed. Not that time and effort arent needed for pre-made
controllers, but some time is required in the actual design. For this design,
a simple H-bridge would be constructed using transistors. These
transistors would have to be able to sustain a certain range of current and
voltage. Also, without feedback it is impossible to know what the motor
is actually doing. So, encoders would have to be used for the motor
feedback. The advantage of one designing a speed controller is that they
will know exactly how it works when it is finished.

Method Selected

Both of these alternative design techniques are very useful and practical.
However, constructing an H-Bridge and using a microcontroller to control
the transistors seems to be the best choice. It is quite simple to determine
how the transistors will operate and which transistors need to be on at
what time.

Sensors

Proximity Sensors

Sensors will be needed for the robot to determine how close it to a wall so it can
adjust its position when necessary. Also, it will need to be able to tell when there
is a gap in the wall so it will know when a room is present, or if it needs to turn a
certain direction. To accomplish this, the following options were considered.

Ultrasonic

Using sonar is a technique that will be useful when detecting distances that
are directly in front of the sensor. Most of the ultrasonic sensors looked at
are able to detect distances a minimum of 3cm to a maximum of 4m.
Also, they are less sensitive to ambient noise, such as lighting or radiation.

Infrared

Infrared rangers that use triangulation as a means of sensing a distance

would be very useful. First of all, it would provide data that could quickly
be calculated to determine how far away an object is. Along with that, the
angle of reflection created by the IR beam and the object is also known.
Minimum detection distances range from 0cm to approximately 10cm.
Maximum detection distances range from 80cm to approximately 151cm.
These IR sensors are also fairly inexpensive, but can be susceptible to

7
 ambient lighting and radiation, such as that emitted by a camera, which
may be filming the robots run.

Method Selected

Using IR rangers posted at various points on the robot body seemed like
the most cost effective method for the robot to detect its surroundings. But
because of the surrounding environment, these would be best suited for
close range detection. Therefore, they will be used to keep the robot
aligned properly while navigating hallways and from coming into direct
contact with walls. Additionally, the use of sonar will be most efficient in
determining when there is adequate space in front of the robot for it to
move forward. Hence, an ultrasonic ranger will be mounted on the front
of the robot, with IR sensors on each side and also on the front of the
robot.

Line Detector

At the entrance of every room in the arena, there is a line of white tape that 2.5cm
wide. The robot will be able to detect this line, and enter its algorithm of
sweeping the room for the candle. To allow for this, the following options were
considered.

Line Detector Package

The Lynxmotion single-line detector is a reflective IR sensor that outputs

a high or low voltage signal depending on the shade of the surface it is
positioned over. It is made with an 8 connector that can plug directly
into digital I/O ports of most microcontrollers. Its minimum range is
approximately 3mm with a maximum range of 12.7mm. These distances
are taken from the floor to the sensor.

Photodiode and LED

Using a photodiode with a LED is another option. A photodiode and a

LED can be mounted next to each other so the photodiode is constantly
measuring the wavelength of the reflection the surface provides from the
LED. The photodiode would have to be shielded such that no ambient
light interferes with the photodiode.

Method Selected

In looking at cost and complexity of the circuit needed for the robot to
detect a white line, implementing a custom circuit and allowing the

8
 microcontroller to process the readings is the better option. It can be
calibrated to tell the difference in color of the floor (black) as compared to
the white line. It will be much less expensive than buying the circuit pre-
made in a package.

Flame Detector

The robot must be able to locate the candle and extinguish it when it is found.
The following methods of accomplishing this have been examined.

Camera

An IR camera would be able to take a picture of the robots surroundings

in terms of IR radiation. This would require real-time image processing to
be able to tell the difference between readings on the image. The
advantage of using an IR camera is it would allow the robot to take into
consideration the entire environment, although it may be sensitive to
ambient radiation such as sunlight and temperature.

Infrared
A pyroelectric sensor is specifically sensitive to heat in the form of IR
radiation. It has two sensing elements such that the arrangement can
cancel signals caused by vibration, temperature changes and sunlight. A
body passing in front of the sensor will activate first one and then the other
element whereas other sources will affect both elements simultaneously
and be cancelled. To focus the radiation coming into the sensor, a lens can
be used as well.
There are also phototransistors which are specifically sensitive to the
radiation given off by fire. This is approximately 940nm in the low
infrared. Implementing these types of phototransistors provides another
option to detect the flame.

Ultraviolet Detector

A flame detector made by Hamamatsu is sensitive directly to a 185-260nm

range, which is given off by a flame. With this range, it is insensitive to
solar UV radiation. It also has a wide conical range of detection, which
can be focused using shielding devices.

Method Selected

Using an IR camera seems like a very logical choice, but it also seems to
be outside the scope of this project. The pyroelectric sensor is a good
choice for determining the presence of IR radiation, but it works best
when the sensing elements are stationary. A phototransistor sensitive to
the low infrared, along with, along with the UV flame detector, can be

9
 used to zero in on the flame so the robot will know precisely where to go
to extinguish it. The method chosen will be a combinational system using
a phototransistors and the Hamamatsu UV flame detector.

Audio Detector

The option of starting the robot with a 3 to 4 kHz tone is given for the competition
with a time reduction as an incentive. This tone represents a smoke detector
going off.

Commercial Product

Finding an audio detector circuit that is available as a unit and pre-made

would take a considerable amount of time. Anything available
commercially would cost more since ordering one unit costs more than
buying in bulk. Also, this would limit any options of modifying the unit
as needed during testing.

Custom Design

Designing and building a band-pass filter tuned to 3-4 kHz with a

microphone input is another option. The values of circuit components can
be calculated and modified if needed to allow for appropriate tuning of the
detector. Also, the sampling rate can be controlled so the tone being
detected isnt confused a hand clap, whistles or other random signals that
have a duration shorter than what is to be detected. This will allow the
robot to self-start given the correct signal.

Method Selected

Designing and building an audio detector circuit will be the method

chosen for audio detection. The components are not very expensive
(resistors, capacitors, op-amps), and ease of tuning during testing provides
additional incentive for choosing this option.

Flame Extinguisher System

After detecting the flame, the goal is to have it extinguished. In order to do this,
the method chosen must be able to put the flame out in an efficient and repeatable
manner. A fan may be used but a penalty is given since it is not a practical way of
putting out a fire in the real world.

Water Pump Bottle and Linear Actuator

This option uses a bottle with a pump spray similar to that of a hairspray
bottle. A fixture would then hold the bottle in place with a linear actuator

10
 mounted on top to compress the pump. A downfall of this option may be
the reliability and consistency of the water coming out of the nozzle.

Pressured 12 Ounce CO2 Tank and Linear Actuator

This method would involve taking a commercial product such as a bike

pump or air duster that uses the 12 Ounce CO2 cartridges and adding an
Actuator to activate the commercial product.

Air Compressor, Water and Solenoid Valve

This option would use a miniature air compressor, water storage tank, a
solenoid valve, and nozzle. This method is more complex than the
previous options but since the entire device would be custom designed, the
amount of pressure, the amount of water storage, and the nozzle could be
designed to desired specifications.

Method Selected

Although, the third method would give the most flexibility in its design it
also would be more time consuming. Putting out the candle may not need
to be that sophisticated. The first method would be the least expensive and
a simpler design but would not always be reliable. The pressurized CO2
canister method will be chosen since it is a simpler design and offers more
reliability.

Microcontroller

The microcontroller will be the main computer for the robot. It will process all
data from sensors, apply algorithms to the data, and generate commands for the
actuator and motors.

Holocon

The Holocon controller was offered as a donation from Western Reserve

Controls. The Holocon controller was designed for use in industrial
applications. The controller has configurable I/O card slots with many
options such as: a thermocouple card, analog I/O card, digital I/O card,
high-speed counting, and more. It also offers up to 4 serial ports and an
Ethernet port. The controller is programmed with graphical function
blocks. There are pre-made function block libraries that are offered but
there is also the option for custom-defined blocks that can be designed in
Java code, Ladder Logic Diagrams, or Structured Text.

11
 Other Microcontroller

There are also many other microcontrollers that may be used such as the
Basic Stamp or the inexpensive PICs. Separate PICs can be used
specifically for the control over the motors.

Method Selected

The Holocon was selected for its ease in programming via the Function
Blocks. Also Java is the programming language that the team software
programmer is most proficient in. The Holocon also offers necessary
hardware onboard such as the ADC for analog inputs. Also in terms of
cost the donation is helpful in keeping the project budget down. A
separate PIC, designated to only monitor the motors, will also be used.

Accepted Technical Design

Power System

The Fire-Fighting Robot must be capable of performing multiple runs through an

arena and be able to stay powered for at least one hour. This robot will not be
hard wired to a power supply, which is why batteries will be the best option for
this type of application. As described in the Alternative Design Analysis, using
two separate battery packs will result in the best performance. The robot would
be able to perform with only one battery supplying the entire system; however
there would be a considerable amount of noise generated from the motors. This
noise could and would affect the performance of the sensors used on the robot.

Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries will be used as the separate supply specifically

designed for the motors. Since there will be a supply just for the motor, noise
should not be a factor in the sensors performance. Each of the two motors will
be controlled by an H-Bridge, described in detail later, and estimated to be pulling
a maximum of 5 amps each. Searching for a suitable battery, a 14.8V Li-Ion
battery pack with a 4400mAh rating was determined to be the best option. Two
of these packs will be purchased, one pack for each motor, and an LD1084 5A
low drop positive voltage regulator will be used to regulate the 14.8V down to
12V, since the motors are rated at 12V. Even though the specifications require
the robot to run for an hour and the motors have the tendency to pull a maximum
of 5A, this 4400mAh battery pack will come very close to meeting the
requirements. Size of the battery as well as cost must be taken into consideration
and this battery met both of those requirements.

12
Another 14.8V Li-Ion battery will be used to supply the sensors, microcontrollers,
and actuator. However, this battery does not need the same capacity as the
supplies for the motors. The battery that is well capable of supplying these
components the correct amount of power has a capacity of 2600mAh. Again, size
and cost was considered and this type of battery met these specifications. As seen
in Table 1, the current drawn by all the sensors, microcontrollers, and actuator is
very small, approximately 1700mA. With the supply being used for these
components, this supply would last close to two hours which meets the
specifications. Since all the sensors have an input rating of 5V, a voltage
regulator must be used to step down the 14.8V from the power supply. Another
voltage regulator must be used to step down the voltage to 3.3V because that is
what the dsPIC33F microcontroller takes.

Table 1: Power calculations for all components

Motor Specifications

In order to determine what kind of motors would be suitable for the robot,
estimations and calculations were performed. The main quantities that must be
considered are the minimum torque the motors need to produce, the minimum
speed of the shaft, and the power that the motors need to produce. The
estimations that were made were the overall weight of the robot (max 20 lbs), the
coefficient of rolling friction (on pavement R = 0.015), the desired maximum
speed of the robot (5ft/sec), and the size of the wheels (4 inch diameter).

With the numbers given above, the power that the motors would need to produce
was calculated to be about 2 W. In order to determine the torque, the angular
speed of the shaft must be known. Using the maximum speed with a 4 inch
diameter wheel, it was found to be 30 radians per second, which results in a speed
of about 290 rotations per minute. Taking these numbers, the torque was
determined to be 0.05 foot-pounds which is close to 700 gram-centimeters. If the

13
wheel size increases, likewise the torque will increase, while the speed of the
motor shaft will decrease. These calculations were based on only one motor
performing the task of moving the robot. Since two motors will be used, the
overall load will be distributed between the motors cutting the torque in half.
This results in a torque of approximately 350 gram-centimeters that each motor
must be capable of overcoming. Using the numbers calculated for the torque and
speed, a motor capable of these specifications was selected. To obtain the desired
torque and speed, a geared motor seemed to be the best choice. The motor
characteristics curve can be seen in Figure 1 obtained from the Transmotec
SD3729 datasheet. This graph only depicts the motors characteristics, not the
motor with the gears attached. From the SD3729 datasheet, a gear reduction ratio
of 1:18 resulted in a rated torque of 680 g-cm and a rated speed of 310 rpm
compared to the rated speed of the motor without the gears, 5100 rpm, and the
corresponding rated torque, 60 g-cm. Choosing a speed relatively close to the
specification of 290 rpm resulted in a rated torque that is about twice the amount
needed. This is an acceptable factor since the motor only needs to be capable of
producing a minimum torque of 350 g-cm.

Figure 1: Different curve relationships for the Transmotec 12V motor

Below, Figure 2 depicts the actual picture of the motor with an encoder option
attached to the backside of it. The main reason that the encoder will be used is in
order to determine the position of the motor. The encoder is an essential
component to the motors because this will communicate with the microcontroller,
which will keep track of the motors position. It is based on the method of
quadrature encoding, which basically produces two sinusoidal signals using
magnetic Hall sensors. One signal will lag the other signal by 90 1/6T where T
is the period of the waves. The frequency of these signals is proportional to the
speed of the motor. Inside the encoder is sinusoidal squaring circuitry which
converts the sine waves to square waves that have the same phase difference as
the analog signals[1]. Figure 3 displays the digital waveforms from the motors
encoder with one signal lagging the other.

14
 Figure 2: Transmotoec SD3729 spur DC gear motor with encoder option

Figure 3: Output waveform of the motor's encoders in digital form

Motor Control

Motor control is one of the most important concepts that must be considered for
the robot. Without excellent control over the motors, the robot would not be able
to stop itself once it detects a wall is too close. There are many different methods
to go about controlling the motors, like purchasing pre-made motor controllers.
However, it was decided that designing and constructing an H-Bridge would best
benefit the robot. This option is much cheaper and more reliable and consists of
two pair of Darlington BJT transistors; NPN and PNP. Below, in Figure 4, is the
schematic of the H-Bridge that will control the direction of the motors.

15
 12VDC

Q3 Q4

D1 D2
R1 R2
Q1 Q2
PWM1 PWM2
33k 33k
1 MG1 2

R3 DC Motor R4
PWM2 PWM1
D3 D4
1k 1k
Q5 Q6

Figure 4: H-Bridge Schematic for control of DC motors

With the estimations of the weight of the entire robot, and the above calculations
for the torque (350 g-cm), it can be seen in Figure 1 that the current pulled by the
SD3729 DC gear motors will be around 2 amps maximum. However, with the
gear option, the torque is higher and therefore the current will increase. As a
precaution, the H-Bridge was designed for a maximum of 5 amps being drawn by
the motors. Knowing this, proper Darlington pairs were chosen for the H-Bridge.
The PNP Darlington pair that will be used is the TIP147 while the NPN
Darlington transistors will be the TIP142. These types of Darlington pairs can
withstand up to 10 amps while dissipating a good amount of heat in the process.
That is why a heat sink must be used for all of the Darlington pairs. The resistor
values at the bases of all the transistors were determined with the assumption that
5 amps would be the maximum current flowing through the respective collectors.

As seen in Figure 4, the PNP Darlington transistors are being controlled by a

single NPN transistor with its collector connected to the base of the PNP. This
configuration allows for only two Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signals to be
applied to the bases of all the NPN type transistors. As shown, the similar PWM
signals are being applied to the transistors at diagonals to each other. This will
allow the current to flow from the 12V supply through the motor and to ground.
Applying a PWM signal to corresponding diagonal transistors will allow the
motor to spin either clockwise or counterclockwise. Also, it is shown that the
Darlington pairs all have diodes across their collector-emitter junctions. When
one of the PWM signals seizes, stored energy in the motors coils will want to
continue flowing through the circuit. The diodes allow for this current to continue
flowing without damaging the transistors in any way. Two of the diagonal diodes
basically act as a free-wheeling diode, circulating the current until it has all been
dissipated.?

16
The H-Bridge of the motors will be controlled by the dsPIC33F microcontroller,
which will be supplying the PWM signals to the bases of the appropriate
transistors. The speed of the motor will be dependent upon the duty cycle of the
pulses. As seen in Figure 5, the duty cycle is not the only important factor. The
period, T, also plays a role in the motors performance. With too large of a
period, or too low of frequency, there will be noise generated due to the clashing
of the transistor switching frequency with the PWM signals frequency. At higher
frequencies, the motors winding inductance can potentially distort its own speed
response characteristics. Also, as the frequency goes up, the switching losses of
the transistors will rise. Taking this into account, a frequency in the range of 20
30 kHz of the PWM signals is desirable [2].

Figure 5: One cycle of a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal

Sensors

Audio Detector
+5V

R4

C1
470k
3 R9

4.7k R1 0V .01u 2
3k
R7
0V 0V
11

MK1 U1A 1
C3
2 2 LM324 U1B 0V
11

11
V-

1 - R5 C2 LM324 U1D
1n
1 6 U1C 13 LM324
11
V-

V-

MICROPHONE OUT - R8 LM324 - D1

200 .01u
3 7 9 14
V+

V-

+ OUT - C6 OUT
1k
R6 5 8 12
V+

V+

65 + OUT +
4

0.01
10 C5
V+

R2 +5V + R10 0.1u R11

4

100k
1k +5V +5V 100k
4

0
+5V
0
0 0
R3
330 C4
1n

Figure 6: Circuit used for detecting tone between 3-4kHz to start robot

The circuit in Figure 6 above is used to detect a 3-4 KHz tone that simulates a
smoke alarm in order for the robot to start moving [ 3 ]. It is the circuit internal to
the block U12 in the schematic shown in Figure 34. The four op-amps shown are
internal to the LM324 quad op-amp. The numbers under the input pins to the op-

17
amps are the pin numbers used in connecting the circuitry to the relevant op-
amps. The hemisphere on the left is a schematic symbol for the microphone used,
which is an electret condenser microphone. R11 = 4.7k is used as the load for
the microphone, as this is a standard load as referred to by the microphones data
sheet. R12 and R13 form a voltage divider to supply a reference voltage for the
positive inputs to each of the op-amps as these inputs cannot be connected
directly to ground. The voltage is obtained from Equation 1 below, with R12 =
1k and R13 = 330,
R13 330
V+ = VDD =5 25mV [1]
R12 + R13 1000 + 330

Each of the sub-circuits are discussed below.

First Gain Stage

The input signal to the first stage generated by the microphone is coupled through
C5 = 0.01uF to rid the signal of the DC level provided by the power supply.
Since the signal generated by the microphone is on the level of millivolts, it is
amplified by U1A by the ratio of R14 to R11. With R14 = 470k and R11 =
4.7k, the gain introduced by U1A is 100V/V.

Bandpass Filter

U1B is the op-amp associated with the bandpass filter section of this circuit.
Signals of frequencies below 3kHz or above 4kHz are not to be considered as a
viable input to start the robot. To do this, the sub-circuit composed of R15, R16,
R17, C6 and C7=C6 is designed to form such a bandpass filter. Using a method
suggested by Texas Instruments [ 4 ], the bandwidth, center frequency of the filter,
capacitance, and R5 values are defined by the requirements. The following values
were chosen:
B = 500
f o = 3500 Hz
C = C 6 = C 7 = 0.01uF
R15 = 250
Based off these values, the center frequency in rad/s, bandwidth in rad/s, R16, and
R17 were determined based off the following equations:

18
 o = 2f o
= 2B
2
R17 =
C
1
R15 || R16 = R16
R17 C 2 o2
Using the above equations, the values calculated are shown below in Table 2.
Table 2: Values for bandpass filter sub-circuit
B 750
fo 3500
wo 21991.15
Brad 4712.389
C 1.00E-07
R17 4244.132
R15
||
R16 48.7209

pick
R15 200
gives
R16 64.41194

To verify these values provide the necessary frequency response, the sub-circuit
was analyzed to determine its transfer function. After such analysis, the
frequency transfer function was determined to be

1
s
Vo ( s )
= C R15 [2]
Vi ( s) 2 R15 + R16
s 2 + s + 2
C R17 C R15 R16 R17

This transfer function was plotted in MATLAB and produced the frequency
response shown below in Figure 7.

19
 Figure 7: Frequency response for bandpass filter sub-circuit

The peak response of the filter is shown to be at a frequency of 2.2e+004 rad/s,

which corresponds to 3501.41Hz, which is extremely close to 3.5 kHz. The other
2 points marked are at 1.88e+004 and 2.51e+004, which correspond to 2992.11
Hz and 4090.28 Hz, respectively. This provides a bandpass filter with center
frequency 3.5 kHz and a bandwidth of 1 kHz which will pass signals of frequency
ranging from 3 kHz to 4 kHz without significant attenuation.

Second Gain Stage

The next stage is another gain stage, provided by U1C, R18, and R19. This is to
make sure the signal has a large enough peak to peak value to be detected by the
microcontroller. This gain does not need to be as large as the first gain stage; the
ratio of R19 to R18 is decided to be 3, thus the resistors used were 3k and 1k,
respectively. Thus U1C inverts the signal and amplifies it by 3 V/V.

Peak Detector

20
The last stage of this circuit is a peak detector circuit. The AC signal from the
previous stage is coupled into the positive input of U1D. The diode in the
feedback path conducts only during the positive half-cycles of the signal. This
half-rectified signal is passed through an RC filter with a time constant sufficient
enough for the peak values of the signal to be held at a readable value for the
microcontroller. The waveform shown below in Figure 8 is a 3.5 kHz +3V peak-
to-peak tone with the peak of +3V being held by C9. This in turn will be sampled
by an A/D pin on the Holocon microcontroller every 10ms, and a string of 5
consecutive samples within the range 2.7<V<3V will tell the Holocon to start the
robots fire finding algorithm. This will guard against the robot being started by
some random signal of similar frequency that isnt present as long as the tone that
is being used to start the robot.

Figure 8: 3.5 kHz, 3Vptp waveform input to 4th stage; peak detector output
between 2.7V and 3V
Ultrasonic Sensors

To keep the robot from bumping into walls and to make sure it has sufficient
space to move on all sides, the Devantech SRF05 Ultrasonic Ranger will be used.
The Holocon sends a 10s pulse to the trigger line of the SRF05. At the end of
this pulse, the SRF05 sends a series of 8 ultrasonic bursts. At this point, the echo
line of the SRF05 is raised high, and when the echo pulse is received it brings the
echo line low. The width of the pulse on the echo line is directly proportional to
the distance of the object the ultrasonic burst was reflected from. See Figure 9
below [ 5 ].

21
 Figure 9: SRF05 Timing Diagram with Trigger and Echo on the same line,
courtesy of Robot Electronics

The SRF05 has two modes to accomplish this. In the first mode, the echo and
trigger lines are separate, and thus requires 2 pins from the microcontroller to
operate. To use this mode, the Mode pin on the SRF05 is left unconnected.
There is an internal pull-up resistor connected to this pin for use in this mode.

In the other mode, the trigger and echo lines share a line, cutting the number of
pins needed from the microcontroller in half. The Mode pin on the SRF05 is
connected directly to ground, or the 0V ground pin directly below it. See
Figure 10 below.

Figure 10 Pinout for Devantech SRF05 Ultrasonic Ranger, courtesy of Robot

Electronics

What is nice about the SRF05 is the trigger and echo lines both operate on digital
signals. This allows for direct communication between the Holocon
microcontroller and each ultrasonic ranger individually. On the other hand, since

22
the communication lines are digital, the rangers will not be able to fire
simultaneously. They will have to be fired one after the other. To ensure that
each rangers pulses dont interfere with each other, they will be fired
sequentially. As a consequence, the Holocon will also need to sequentially read
the echoed pulses.

Timing is also an issue in firing the rangers sequentially. Using the second mode
of operation, the SRF05 waits 700s before raising the echo line high after
reception of the trigger signal. Assuming worst case scenario, the largest distance
these sensors would detect within the competition arena is 3m. Using the given
conversion factor, the longest pulse the echo line would produce is

or 17.4ms. Thus, the maximum total time, including the wait time between
trigger and echo mode for the transmission line and the 10s trigger pulse, comes
to be 18.11ms. This is the amount of time that needs to be allotted per SRF05.
With 4 of these sensors (one mounted on the front, back, and either side) the
maximum time to complete one sequence is 72.44ms. During this time, assuming
the robot is moving at a constant speed of 3ft/s, the robot will have moved 2.6
inches.

Infrared Rangers

To complement the ultrasonic rangers in determining how far away the robot is
from the walls in the arena, IR rangers will be used. Sharp produces a family of
such devices with detection distances encompassing, at a minimum, of 1.5 and
up to a maximum of 5 (obviously not the same device). The device chosen for
this project is the Sharp GP2D120, which has a minimum detection distance of
1.5 and a maximum of approximately 12. Since the widths of the hallways in
the arena are approximately 18 and the diameter of the robot will be 8, the
GP2D120 is an appropriate choice since it will be mounted on the periphery of the
robot.

The sensor takes a continuous distance reading and outputs an analog voltage
which corresponds to this distance. The output voltage ranges from -0.3V to 0.3V
over the supply voltage. With a supply voltage of +5V, this gives an output range
from -0.3V to 5.3V. Typically, the output voltage will really only be in the range
0V to 3.2V. A graph, which was obtained from the device datasheet, is shown
below in Figure 11 [ 6 ].

23
 Figure 11: Output voltage characteristic of Sharp GP2D120, courtesy of
Acroname.

White Line Detector

As the contest rules dictate, the entrance to each room is marked by a white line
across the entrance way and the candle is located in the center of a solid white
circle 30cm in diameter. Certain algorithms will be dependent upon whether the
robot is in a room or a hallway, or if it is close enough to the candle to extinguish

24
it. Since the floor of the arena is solid black, a white line should be easy enough
to detect by measuring light being reflected off the surface of the floor.

The circuit that will be used to accomplish this will consist of a light emitter and
detector. It will be powered by a +5V power supply. This will be done using an
ultra-bright LED as the emitter. The detector in this circuit will be an IC
consisting of a photodiode and an amplifier. This is the TSL257 made by Texas
Advanced Optoelectronics Solutions. A schematic for this circuit is shown in
Figure 12 below [ 7 ].

Figure 12: Circuit schematic for detecting a white line

To ensure a white surface is being detected, more than one of these circuits will
be implemented so the microcontroller has data to compare from both the left and
right side of the robot. A rough drawing of this layout is shown in Figure 13
below. To block ambient light from interfering with the detector, the layout will
be shielded. The resistor R in Figure 12 above is a current limiting resistor to
ensure the diode does not burn itself out if the potentiometer is adjusted to its
minimum value. This will be a 100 resistor. The potentiometer is a 10k
variable resistor. The TSL257 outputs a voltage that is directly proportional to
the light being measured, and this voltage will be sampled by the Holocon
microcontroller to determine if the robot is passing over a white surface. Since
the TSL257 is most sensitive to light wavelengths of approximately 700nm, red
LEDs will be used since red light has wavelengths that vary from 650-720nm.
See Figure 14 below. The output voltage that will be sampled by the
microcontroller will be in the range of Vo=0.1V to 4.5V [ 8 ].

25
 Figure 13: White line detector layout on bottom of robot

Figure 14: Photodiode Spectral Responsivity, courtesy of Texas Advanced

Optical Solutions

26
Flame Detection Sensors

Ultraviolet

As the robot is navigating its way through the arena, it will be moving past
entrances to different rooms. To avoid wasting time by moving through each
room individually, the robot will pause when it detects a room entrance on either
side of it. It will then receive information from the Hamamatsu UVTRON R2868
Flame Sensor as to whether or not a flame is in the periphery of the sensor. The
angular sensitivity of the UVTRON is shown in Figure 15 below [ 9 ].

Figure 15: Sensitivity pattern for Hamamatsu UVTRON Flame Sensor, courtesy
of Hamamatsu

The R2868 itself requires a very high input voltage to operate correctly, on the
order of +350V. Also available from Hamamatsu is a drive circuit that only needs
+5V to operate. Internal to this drive circuit is a high voltage DC/DC converter
that supplies the R2868 with the +350V it needs. This voltage will remain
constant as long as the +5V source used to drive the circuit is constant. A
simplified block diagram of this drive circuit is shown in Figure 16 below [ 10 ].

Figure 16: Simplified block diagram of drive circuit used to implement

Hamamatsu UVTRON R2868 Flame Detector, courtesy of Hamamatsu

The output of this circuit will be connected directly to one of the Holocon
microcontrollers input pins. Since the output signal is already a digital signal,
there is no need for A/D conversion. With the output signal being a pulse of

27
duration 10ms, the Holocon can count the number of pulses it receives. When
this number falls in a defined range, this will tell the controller that the candle is
present in a nearby room.

Infrared

To determine the exact location of the flame once inside the room as decided by
the Hamamatsu UVTRON Flame Detector, three IR sensors will be used. These
are the VIRFL InfraRed Flame Sensors. Each one is powered by a +5V supply
which is fed through a 1M potentiometer. The collector of an NPN
phototransistor is connected to the pot and the output pin. The emitter is
connected to ground. The output pin is pulled up to +5 volts, and is tied to ground
through the phototransistor. Output voltage depends on the current through the
phototransistor. When the sensor is energized and the potentiometer is fully
turned counterclockwise (allowing for greater sensitivity), the output voltage rests
at +2.8V. If a flame is passed in front of the sensor, the output voltage drops to
the range of +125mV to +200mV. The lowest value is output when the flame is
directly in front of the sensor. The Holocon microcontroller will be taking
consecutive readings from the sensor, and will compare past and present values.
When it reads three values and sees that there is a minimum voltage level, this
will tell the Holocon that the flame is directly in front of the sensor.

These sensors have a stable sensing range of 1 to approximately 4, so using

them exclusively in a room will provide accurate readings. Also, the
phototransistors being used have a rather narrow range of sensitivity as can be
seen in Figure 17 below [ 11 ].

Figure 17: Sensitivity Diagram for LTR-4206E NPN phototransistor, courtesy of

Lite-On Electronics
Since the field of vision of these infrared sensors is narrow, three of them will be
positioned on the front of the robot to allow for a wider field of vision. The
drawing in Figure 18 below illustrates this.

28
 Figure 18: Layout of 3 VIRFL flame detectors on second level of robot

If the leftmost sensor is giving the microcontroller the lowest reading, the robot
will rotate to the left until the middle sensor is giving the lowest reading, and vice
versa for the rightmost sensor. When the robot is positioned such that the middle
sensor is outputting its lowest voltage, this will tell the robot the flame is directly
in front of it. The robot will move forward towards the flame, and will stop once
it realizes it is inside the white circle which the candle is in the center of. This
then gives a command to the microcontroller to actuate the flame extinguisher.

Digital Compass

To help ensure the robot does not veer too far away from a straight line path, a
digital compass will be implemented as an additional sensor unit. This will be the
Honeywell HMC6352. It contains two magneto-resistive sensors oriented
orthogonally to detect horizontal components of the earths magnetic field, two
amplifiers, a drive circuit, and an internal microprocessor.

The compass responds to a certain set of command bytes, sent in hexadecimal

ASCII characters. These are summarized in Table 3 below [ 12 ].

29
 Table 3: Summary of commands sent by host microcontroller to HMC6352,
courtesy of Honeywell

The HMC6352 has several operating modes the user can draw on. The operating
mode chosen for this application is continuous mode. The unit performs
continuous measurements and computations at a selected rate of 1 Hz, 5Hz, 10
Hz, or 20 Hz. In this particular application, a rate of 5 Hz will suffice for accurate
readings. After each measurement and computation, the output data bytes are also
updated. This means that on every READ command, the most recent data will be
read by the Holocon microcontroller.

There are also different output modes the data can be sent in. The mode that will
be used is Heading mode. In Heading mode, the output data is returned in binary
over two bytes. The output data value will be in tenths of degrees in the range of
zero to 3599.

The device also will need to be calibrated to reduce the impact of error from
various sources. Error can come from the device not being perfectly
perpendicular to the gravitational field since it measures only horizontal
components of the earths magnetic fields. Also, materials in close proximity that
can alter the near surrounding magnetic field can also be a viable source for error
in measurements. The DC motors on the robot also produce a magnetic field that
can interfere with the HMC6352s ability to accurately measure the magnetic
field around it. Instructions for calibrating the device to its surroundings are
provided in the device documentation.

When the robot begins to move, it will be moving to the right and be situated such
that it is in the middle of the hallway in the arena. The output data associated
with this state will be defined as the RIGHT value, as it will be moving to the
right in the gridded arena shown in Figure 25. The DOWN, LEFT, and UP values
will correspond to the RIGHT value added with 900, 1800, and 2700 tenths of
degrees, respectively. These values will then serve as the basis for comparison to
the values that will be read as the robot is moving. Based on what grid the robot

30
 is going to be in, it will be moving in a certain direction. The HMC6352 will
provide enough data to help keep the robot moving in as close to a straight line as
possible. This is further discussed in the software section of the report.

Fire Extinguisher

One of the more important components to this Fire-Fighting Robot is the

extinguisher. Without some form of extinguisher, the robot could not be a fire
fighter. The rules of the contest state that putting the flame out with airflow is
legal, but the team will not receive any time reduction with this technique since it
is not that practical. Any other form of snuffing the flame will receive a 15%
time reduction. The easiest and cleanest method to utilize would be to extinguish
the flame with carbon dioxide, or CO2. A device such as a handheld CO2 bike
pump shown in Figure 19 will work very well in this case.

Figure 19: Example of a CO2 bike pump to be used as the flame extinguisher courtesy
of www.cyclesense.co.uk

In order to pull the trigger of this CO2 bike pump, a linear actuator will be used.
A linear DC solenoid attached to one end of a wire with the other end tied to the
trigger of the pump is a simple, but useful solution. A basic drawing of this
configuration is shown below in Figure 20. The solenoid will have a wire
attached to it as shown and will initiate when the microcontroller sends the
extinguish signal. The signal will be applied to the excitation coil of a relay,
which will switch in the 12VDC supply to the solenoid. The bike pump will be
active for approximately 1 second allowing enough time duration for the CO2 to
extinguish the flame.

31
 Figure 20: General picture of actuator and bike pump configuration

As stated above, a relay will be used to switch in 12VDC to the linear DC

solenoid. The schematic for the flame extinguishing actuator can be seen below
in Figure 21. This is just a model of how the relay will switch in the 12V supply
to the solenoid. Figure 22 displays the actual internal circuitry of the WRC4-
OB5S relay. This relay is a solid-state relay in that it has no mechanical
switching device; no moving parts. The switching occurs through the use of
transistors as shown. Comparing the two figures, Figure 21 and Figure 22, the pin
numbers do not exactly match up. Logic pins 3 and 4 of the WRC4 relay are the
same pins as 1 and 2 of the relay model in Figure 21. Those pins initiate the
switching action. The positive terminal of the solenoid would be connected to pin
2 of the WRC4 relay, while the 12V supply would be connected to pin 1. Both
figures perform the same task but the WRC4 relay is much faster because it is a
solid-state relay. The microcontroller that is being used on this robot is a
Holocon, which will be supplied by the same company that makes the relay. The
Holocon microcontroller contains this type of relay on one of its breakout boards,
which is very convenient.

12VDC

Input f rom Microcontroller U1

2
U2
5
+ 3
4
Relay Model
-

DC Linear Solenoid

Figure 21: Actuator schematic displaying relay model and DC solenoid

32
 Vdc

LOGIC

Figure 22: Internal schematic of the WRC4-OB5S relay courtesy of

www.wrcakron.com
Software

The software architecture will be based upon three microcontroller systems a

Holocon and two PIC33F processors. The Holocon controller will be the main
controller for the Robots system and will be used for the robot navigation and
reading the various sensors. The two PIC microcontrollers will be used as speed
controllers, one PIC33F for each of the DC motors. Each motor has an encoder
signal coming from it that will be monitored using the Quadrature Encoder
Interface (QEI) modules available on the PIC33F parts. Ideally, one PIC33F
would have been used to control both motors but there were no available single
PIC microprocessors that supported two QEI modules. The PIC33F parts also
have modules specifically for pulse-width modulated motor control. Using these
modules as well as the QEI modules will save design time that would have been
spent developing these functions. The second benefit is that the PIC parts will
take the care of the generation of the motor signals and allow the Holocon to
focus more on the navigation algorithms.

A special serial configuration will be used for communication between the three
devices. In order to simplify the communication between the Holocon and the two
PIC33F parts, the transmit line of the Holocons UART will be connected to each
of the two PIC33F parts UART receive line. The way this configuration works is
that each PIC33F part will receive the same command from the Holocon, but the
command will be split into two sections, each corresponding with only one of the
PIC33F parts. In other words, each PIC33F part will look at only one section of a
command and disregard the other. The Holocon will have two receive lines, one
for each UART transmit lines coming from each of the two PIC devices. Every
message or command between each device will be prefixed with a flag character
followed by the actual message.

The intended operation of the system will be as follows, the Holocon will
generate new position headings based off of sensor readings (A more detailed
33
 explanation on how the position headings are calculated will be covered later on).
Then the Holocon will give direction and distance commands to each PIC33F in a
pre-determined packet format. The packet will consist of: a flag character
represented by a ! symbol followed by a byte for direction, and then two more
bytes for distance. This can be seen visually in Figure 23. The direction
commands are assigned values shown in Table 4.

! XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Flag Direction Byte Distance MSB Distance LSB

Figure 23: Message format from Holocon to PIC33F that contains a direction and distance
command.

Table 4: Direction commands with corresponding values given from Holocon to PIC33F.

Direction Command Value

Forward and Left 0

Forward and Right 1

Forward 2

Reverse and Left 3

Reverse and Right 4

Reverse 5

CCW 6

CW 7

Coast Stop 8

Next, each PIC33F will then parse the incoming serial data command and read only the
section of the command that belongs to it. It will take this section and parse it further into
the separate direction and distance information. The direction information will be
interpreted and generate the H-bridge logic required to drive the motor in the proper
direction. Similarly, the distance information will be interpreted and a pulse width
modulated signal will be generated for the motor speed. Each motors encoders will be
monitored through the QEI module to provide feedback on the estimated distance
traveled. Each PIC33F will then send a message back to the Holocon to tell it when it is
complete with the command. The return message to the Holocon will be the same

34
distance given to the PIC33F from the Holocon just for confirmation the proper signal
was received. The generalized packet can be seen in Figure 24.

! XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX

Flag Distance MSB Distance LSB

Figure 24: Message format from PIC33F to Holocon that confirms that given distance and direction have
been traveled.
In order to navigate through the arena, the design team chose to divide the arena into
grids. The grids mapped onto the arena schematic can be seen in Figure 25. Using the
grids concept and the digital compass, ultrasonic sensors, and motor encoders the robot
will be able to determine its location within the arena. Information about each grid will be
input into the robots memory that will include adjacent grids, whether or not that grid
contains a room entrance, or any possible turns it can make. By keeping track of where
the robot currently is and which direction and the position it is heading, the robot will be
able to determine which grid that it is in.

Up
Left Right
Down

Figure 25: House model arena divided into grids.

35
The robot will begin by being placed within grid 1 facing towards grid 2. The Holocon
will be in an initial starting state waiting for the 3-4 kHz signal to activate. Upon
activation the Holocon will first determine the robots starting heading using the digital
compass from which it will record as the Right direction for the rest of the run. The three
other directions Up, Down and Left will be derived from this initial direction as well. The
Holocon will measure the robots distance from each wall in the Up, Down, Left and
Right directions. Knowing these four values, the Holocon will then calculate the distance
and direction the robot will need to move to the center of grid 2. This information will be
sent to each PIC33F as mentioned previously. The robot will continue to move from grid
to grid in the same manner until it reaches a grid containing a room entrance which will
be grid 7. At this point, denoted by the star in grid 7 of Figure 25, the front of the robot
will be facing towards the Left direction. The robot will be using the side mounted
UVTron Sensor, which at this point will facing in the Up direction, and will quickly scan
the room for ultraviolet rays given off by the candle. If a candle is detected the robot will
continue with the Entering Room Algorithm, which will be covered later on. If a candle
is not detected, the robot will continue on to grid-to-grid as shown by the path shown in
Figure 25, stopping and checking for a flame at each star icon. If a flame is detected in
any room, the robot will go into the Entering Room Algorithm.

Pseudo Code

Main Loop

1. Wait here until a 3-4 kHz signal is detected.

2. Right = Get current heading from compass();
3. Derive the other directions
a. Left = Right + 180 degrees;
b. Up = Right 90 degrees;
c. Down = Right + 90 degrees;
4. Start the Navigation Loop until robot finds room with flame.
5. Measure distance from walls
a. Measure distance from Up direction wall.
b. Measure distance from Down direction wall.
c. Measure distance from Left direction wall.
d. Measure distance from Right direction wall.
6. Determine the next grid to travel to from pre-determined path using
current grid location and the previous steps measured distances.
7. Calculate the distance that will need to be covered from the current
grid to the position desired in the next grid.
8. Send this information to each of the two PIC33F ports via UART1
Transmit.
9. Wait for the confirmation by the PIC33F parts that this is complete.
10. Check whether or not the current grid contains a room that should be
scanned by the flame.
a. If it does scan the room.

36
 i. If a flame is detected go to the Entering Room
Algorithm.
ii. Else, a flame is not detected continue to next grid.
b. Else, continue onwards to next grid.
11. Start over at step 4.

Entering Room Algorithm

This algorithm will be called only if the robot has looked into room and detected
infrared radiation with the UVtron Sensor.

1. Navigate robot into room entrance.

2. Continually read TSL257 output, searching for white line that denotes a
room entrance.
3. Once inside the room the robot will verify that a high intensity light source
(the flame) is in the room using VIRFL sensors and rotating its body.
i. If the robot does not detect a flame in the room
a. It has gone in the room by error continue and call the Leave
Room Algorithm.
ii. Else, the robot will call the Locate Flame and Extinguish Algorithm.

Leave Room Algorithm

1. Find the entrance of the room based off of the:

i. Heading given by the digital compass.
ii. Current room the robot is in.
iii. Measure distances measured from room walls.
2. Provide the distance and direction based off the calculations to each of the
PIC33F parts.
3. Constantly scan for the white line using TSL257 output to verify when the
robot has left the room.
4. Check flame has been found flag:
i. If it has not, navigate to the next Grid based off of current grid
information and distance from measuring four walls.
ii. If it has call the Return Home Algorithm.

Flame Locate and Extinguish Algorithm

1. The robot will find the general direction of the flame and position the robot to
center the flame between the two outside flame detectors with the middle flame
detector with the brightest intensity.
2. This will be done calling the motor algorithms with either clockwise or counter
clockwise commands based off of the flame sensor data readings.

37
 3. The robot will move in the flame direction until the white line around the candle
is detected. The white line around the candle indicates the robot is within the
correct range to put out the flame.
4. The flame extinguisher (CO2) bike pump actuator will be triggered for a pre-
determined amount of time that ensures the flame is extinguished.
5. Each flame sensor will check for any indication of the flame once the
extinguisher has gone off.
a. If a flame is still detected, the robot will attempt to re-center on the flame
and restart the algorithm at step 3.
b. If no flame is detected by the sensors the algorithm is complete.
6. Set the fire has been found flag to true.
7. Call the Leave Room Algorithm

Return Home Algorithm

1. Based off the current grid the robot is in, it will obtain the quickest
pre-determined path from memory from the current grid to reach
home.
2. Obtain the current compass direction.
3. Face the robot in the correct direction based off of the compass
direction by generating the required distance to spin the robot to each
of the PIC33F parts.
4. Once the correct direction has been validated, the distances from each
wall in all four directions are measured.
5. Calculate the distance to travel required to get to the next grid in the
pre-determined path .
6. Provide the commands to the PIC33F parts and looking for verification
from each of the parts.
7. Continue moving grid to grid until the number grid is reached.
8. Move to the center of the grid while continuously searching for the
white line that represents the home circle.
9. Stop once it has been determined the robot is within the home circle.

Robot Body Construction and Layout

Now that all of the physical components of the robot have been discussed, the
location of these parts on the robot must be considered. This is a very important
aspect because if the motors, sensors, and actuator are not placed properly, then
the robot will not perform the desired functions accurately.

There will be two main platforms used to contain all the required components of
the robot. Since the robot has a size constraint, capable of fitting inside a 31 cm
long by 31 cm wide by 27 cm high box, the platforms will be circular in shape
and measure 22 cm in diameter. This diameter was chosen by considering the
length of the motors, 10 cm, and wheel width, 7/8 inch equivalent to 2.2 cm.
Choosing the platform to be 22 cm allows the robot to have 9 cm to spare on the

38
 width and length. The wheels will be mounted on the outside of the 22 cm disc
and since the wheels will only be 2.2 cm wide, the size constraint will not be an
issue.

The wheels and how they are to be mounted is a separate, but important issue to
consider. Below in Figure 26 is a picture of a Colson wheel that will be used for
the robot. Table 5 displays the specifications for this wheel in both English and
Metric units.

Figure 26: Wheel to be used on robot courtesy of www.trossenrobotics.com

Table 5: Wheel Specifications

Specifications Dimensions (English) Dimensions (Metric)
Outside Diameter 4 in 102 mm
Width 7/8 in 22 mm
Bore 39/64 in 15 mm
Length Through Bore 1-1/32 in 26 mm
Capacity 135 lbs 61 kg
Weight 4.05 oz 114.8 g
Color Grey Grey

The most important parameter to take into consideration for mounting this wheel
on a motors shaft is the bore size. The diameter of the Transmotec SD3729 spur
gear motor shaft is 6 mm. As seen in Table 5, the diameter of the bore is 15 mm,
which is larger than the motor shaft. Also, the length through the bore is 26 mm
while the motors shaft is only 15 mm long. The solution to this small problem
can easily be solved by using a small coupler. This coupler will have an inner
diameter of 6 mm so it can fit the motor shaft. The outer diameter does not need a
specific dimension however a good choice would be 12 mm, which matches the
shaft mount of the motor. This coupler will be a solid metal cylinder
approximately 27 mm in length so that 13.5 mm of the motor shaft will be
covered and another 13.5 mm of a separate, longer shaft can be fitted into the
coupler. This longer shaft will be a solid cylindrical piece of steel measuring 6

39
mm in diameter, and like the motor shaft will have a flat edge along a side acting
as a key. The shaft extension will measure 52 mm long so it will be capable of
containing a wheel and a collar. The collar will be used to keep the wheel from
sliding off the shaft while the robot is in motion. The collar should be fit to the
shaft so it can securely hold the wheel in place. Another important feature to
consider is mounting the wheel on the shaft. The wheel in Figure 26 shows a
plastic insert inside the bore. This will be removed and replaced by a metal hub,
or bushing, so the shaft can be inserted and the wheel locked down through a 1/8
inch keyway. A rectangular piece of metal, fit to the keyway, will be placed
inside to lock it down. To aid in the understanding of what the hub and collar
looks like, their picture can be seen in Figure 27.

Figure 27: Hub insert for wheel bore with 1/8" keyway courtesy of
www.trossenrobotics.com

There will be two platforms, or levels, being utilized on the robot. Each platform
will contain all of the components being used from the robot design. Starting
with the platform lowest to the ground, all of the heaviest components will be
mounted on both sides of this platform. On the bottom, both of the Transmotoec
SD3729 spur DC gear motors will be mounted using a handmade bracket. This
bracket will be a right angle piece of sheet metal with a 12 mm hole drilled
through one side to fit the motor shaft. Four smaller holes will be drilled around
the center hole so that the motor can be mounted to this bracket. These smaller
holes must match the size of the holes on the motor, which can fit a 3-M3x0.5mm
size screw. These brackets will be mounted to the underside of the bottom
platform. Ball bearing casters must be mounted 90 from either motor so that the
robot can balance and it must also be placed as close to the edge of the robot as
possible because it must share room with the H-Bridge.

On either side of the motors will be the H-Bridge that controls the proper motor.
As stated earlier, the transistors of the H-Bridges will be mounted on a flat heat
sink. This will measure 3-7/8 long, 1-5/8wide and high. The benefit to
having a flat heat sink is that it saves space as well as absorbing a considerable
amount of heat. Next to the respective heat sinks will be the dsPIC33F, which
controls the H-Bridge. The physical layout of the heat sink with the traces to the
controller, motor, and power supply can be seen in Figure 28. The collectors of
the TIP142 and TIP147 are connected together as can be seen both in Figure 4

40
 and Figure 28. The tabs are touching in the figure below because internally, the
center pin and tab are connected.

Figure 28: Physical design of H-Bridge on heat sink connected to controller

The upper side of the lowest platform will contain the main brain of the robot;
the Holocon microcontroller. Also, the two power supplies will be mounted next
to the microcontroller. Since the Holocon and the two power supplies together
take up a considerable amount of space, the upper side of this platform will only
contain these three components. One can easily see that the lower platform
contains the main bulk and weight of the robot.

The upper platform will consist of the UVTRON, ultrasonic, and infrared sensors.
All of these sensors do not weigh much in comparison to the components on the
lower platform. These sensors will be mounted on the top side of the upper
platform. This will allow each sensor enough space to take the appropriate
reading. The UVTRON flame sensor will be positioned directly on the right side
of the robot because as the robot travels throughout the arena, each room it will
come across will always be on the right. Mounting this sensor on the right side
will save time during each run because the robot will not have to turn and face a
room in order to scan it for a flame. As stated above, there will be three infrared
sensors pointed towards the front of the robot. One will face dead center while
the other two will be placed on either side of the center at a pre-determined angle.
In the center of the upper platform will be a post that will extend upwards with a
small platform atop of it, similar to a crows nest on an old wooden ship. On this
smaller platform, the ultrasonic sensors will be mounted. One will face forward,
one backwards, and one on each side. The reason that these sensors will be
higher than the rest is because they will be acting as the eyes of the robot. If they
would be at the same height as the UVTRON and infrared sensors, then these
sensors would obstruct the line of sight of the ultrasonic sensors.

41
This entire section described the whole layout and construction of the robot.
Some of the explanations might be a bit confusing, which is why Figure 29 shows
a model of the entire robot construction. All of the components described above
can be seen here. Following the three-dimensional model of the robot are Figure
30, Figure 31, Figure 32, and
Figure 33 which depict each platform layout separately in a two-dimensional
manner from the front, side, top, and bottom respectively.

Figure 29: Overall 3-D View of robot.

42
Figure 30: View of robot from the front of robot

43
Figure 31: View of robot from the side with typical candle length.

Figure 32: View of robot from the top.

44
 Figure 33: View from bottom of robot

Testing Procedures

Drive System

To ensure the robot can move as efficiently as possible, extra care must be taken
to be certain the wheels are on exactly opposite sides of the lowest platform and
also that they are level with each other. This also means the motors must be
mounted such that the motor shafts that will serve as the wheel axles are along the
same line and level with each other. To make sure the lowest platform is lying
flat, a level will be used to determine if the motors and wheels are mounted
correctly.

45
The H-bridge circuitry that will be controlling the direction of the motors and also
the speed at which it moves will first be bread boarded to work out any problems
that might arise. It will then be tested with PWM inputs from a function generator
to simulate the inputs that will be coming from the output one of the PIC33
microcontroller. The functionality of the H-bridge circuitry will be verified by
observing the direction the wheels move given the corresponding inputs.

The only other part of the drive system is based on programming the PIC to
output the PWM signals as needed. Each coding sequence (forward, backward,
counterclockwise, clockwise) will be written individually and simulated to be sure
the correct waveforms are being produced. When the simulations are performing
as specified, the code will be programmed into the PIC so actual physical testing
can begin. Testing and modification to code will ensue until the drive system
performs as needed.

Audio Signal Detection

The audio detection circuit needs to respond to an audio signal in the 3-4 kHz
range. The circuit shown in Figure 6 will be bread boarded and tested before
producing it on a PCB. To simulate a tone emitted from a smoke alarm, a small
piezo siren with adjustable frequency will be used. This will be used as the input
to the microphone, and the signals at the various stages will be observed on the
oscilloscope to be sure each stage is functioning properly. Signals with
frequencies in the 3-4 kHz range will be tested, as well as signals with frequencies
above and below this range to verify the detection circuit is not passing these
signals.

One of the main components that will determine if the desired frequencies are
being passed is the potentiometer in Figure 6. The circuit will first be tested with
the potentiometer set at the resistance value tabulated in Table 2. If the desired
frequencies are not being passed, then the potentiometer will be adjusted until
these frequencies are being passed.

The output signal of the peak detector of this circuit will be sampled by an A/D
pin on the Holocon microcontroller. Code will be written to simulate a counter,
and when the counter reaches a certain value, the code will execute a command to
switch the robot on. When this simulation is observed to perform properly, then
the audio detection circuit will be interfaced to the microcontroller for full-scale
testing.

Linear Actuator Testing

The CO2 bike pump needs approximately 3lbs. of force to fully release the CO2.
The linear actuator that will be used to apply this force to the pump must be able

46
to do so over and over again without fail. A function generator will be used to
produce a square wave to simulate the input voltage that will be seen from the
microcontroller. Once it is verified that the actuator circuitry operates the pump
correctly, code will be written to control the actuator. A string of 5 consecutive,
successful sprays of CO2 will indicate the actuator is working properly and is not
slipping out of contact with the CO2 bike pump trigger.

Once the operation of the actuator and bike pump is verified, code will be written
to the Holocon microcontroller to produce a voltage signal that triggers the linear
actuator. This voltage signal will give power to the actuator, thus operating the
CO2 bike pump. The signal produced will be a PWM signal to allow successive
bursts from the bike pump.

White Line Detection

For the white line detecting circuit to operate properly, the light emitted from the
LED obviously must be bright enough, and this is controlled by adjusting the
potentiometer in Figure 12. The circuit will be constructed on perf-board, and
will be attached to a block of wood that will simulate the underside of the robot.
With the circuit active, this unit will then be passed over a black surface with a
line of white tape across a section of it. The change in voltage of the TSL257 will
be observed; if there is a considerable voltage change as the unit passes over the
white line from the black surface, this will indicate the circuit is working as
specified. If it does not, certain adjustments will have to be made such as
adjusting the brightness of the LED and/or shielding the unit from any external
lighting that may be interfering.

Once the operation of the TSL257 is observed to be working correctly, the output
pin will be connected to a Holocon microcontroller A/D pin. Code will be written
and the data being read in by the pin will be examined to be sure it is a correct
representation of the analog voltage produced by theTSL257.

Flame Detection

As can be seen in Figure 15, the UVTRON R2868 Flame Sensor has a wide range
of detection. Unfortunately, this allows for various sources of UV radiation that
are not coming from a flame (such as sunlight) to also be detected by the sensor.
Depending on how intense the sources of interference are, pulses can enter the
C3704 drive circuit more frequently. For this reason, the driving circuit contains
a set of jumpers that allow for background radiation cancellation, and will only
output a pulse when a decided number of pulses enter the circuit. The circuit will
only output a pulse if the sensor produces 3, 5, 7, or 9 pulses, depending on the
jumper used. Per the C3704 datasheet, the 3 jumper is connected for normal
use. The sensor will be tested thoroughly with different sources of UV radiation
such as fluorescent lighting and sunlight in conjunction with the UV radiation
given off by the flame to determine the appropriate cancellation level.

47
The VIRFL flame sensors are also prone to interference. The potentiometer
attached to the NPN phototransistor, however, helps to control the amount of
current that runs through the phototransistor. Since the output voltage is
dependent on this current, the potentiometer adjusts the sensitivity of the
phototransistor.

To see the level of interference the surrounding environment may introduce, the
sensor will be connected to a bread board and its output will be measured on an
oscilloscope. The sensors response to various sources of infrared radiation such
as sunlight, infrared remote controls, incandescent lamps, and a flame will be
examined. The sensitivity of the sensor will be adjusted to such a level that all
sources of IR radiation besides the flame contribute as little as possible to the
sensor output. If needed, external shielding will also be considered to reduce the
impact of undesirable sources.

After calibration, code will be written and programmed into the Holocon to
measure the outputs of the flame detection sensors. The output of the Hamamatsu
C3704 drive circuit will be connected directly to a digital I/O pin. The code for
this sensor

Digital Compass

To calibrate the HMC6352 digital compass, it first must be connected to the

Holocon microcontrollers I2C line. The microcontroller will then be
programmed to send a C command per the devices datasheet to enter
calibration mode. When in this mode, the compass must be manually rotated in a
circle on a flat surface slowly enough to acquire enough data points. For
optimum calibration, the compass should be rotated 2 complete times, and the
time for one complete rotation must be at a minimum 6 seconds and a maximum
of 3 minutes.

The calibration time depends on the application, or how exact the user wants the
calibration to be. For this project, given the presence of the permanent magnets in
the DC motors, the compass will be calibrated while the motors are in operation.
The compass needs to take into account the presence of all sources of magnetic
interference to be properly calibrated. Once the compass has been calibrated, the
compass will be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise. The data the compass
collects and sends to the microcontroller will then be read and verified that it is
operating correctly.

48
Ultrasonic Rangers

The Devantech SRF05 Ultrasonic Ranger will be used to detect how far away the
robot is from a wall on any of its sides. To determine the minimum distance at
which to place the SRF05 in order to obtain the most accurate reading, the sensor
output will be examined at distances starting at 1cm. The SRF05 is documented
to have a minimum range of 1cm, but using the configuration of having the
trigger and echo lines on the same line, 1 cm might be too short of a distance to
produce an accurate reading.

Also, the SRF05 cannot simply be connected to a +5V source and be expected to
work. Code will be written and programmed into the Holocon microcontroller to
output the required 10s pulse for the SRF05 to send out the ultrasonic bursts.
The SRF05 will be connected to a digital I/O pin on the Holocon microcontroller.
The width of the echo pulse produced by the SRF05 will be converted by the code
into a physical distance which will be used to measure how far the sensor is from
the wall.

Infrared

The Sharp GP2D120 IR Ranger will be used to complement the ultrasonic rangers
in determining how far the robot is from a wall. To test the capabilities of the
ranger, it will be bread boarded and moved manually at various distances from a
stationary object that will be used to represent a wall, such as a piece of plywood.
The output voltage will be observed as the distance changes, and code will be
developed in relation to how the voltage changes. At this point, the output pin of
the GP2D120 will be connected to an A/D pin on the Holocon microcontroller to
experimentally determine if the code is performing accurate distance calculations.
The code will be adjusted as need during testing.

System Testing

Once the robot is fully constructed as shown in Figure 29 and programmed, it will
enter full scale testing. To simulate the competition, a practice arena will be built
according to the dimensions specified by the contest rules. The walls will be
painted a glossy white per the contest rules, the floor will be painted black, and
strips of white tape will be placed at the room entrances. To take into account
contest conditions, the robot must be able to perform its tasks in various lighting
conditions and also in the presence of various sources of interference. Also, the
robot must be able to find the candle regardless of what room it is placed in.
Testing will continue until the robot is successfully able to find the candle in each
of the four rooms. Also, modifications in coding, sensor alignment, sensitivity
settings, and sensor shielding (if necessary) will be made until the design is robust
enough to perform in the required environments.

49
 Schematics
U16
DE-SW050 U18
+5V DE-SW033

GND
IN OUT +3.3V U4
V1 U8

GND
V2 IN OUT
12V Vdd +
12V NC -
U17 Trigger/Echo 1
Mode 2
GND Gnd 3 UVTRON
3.3V SRF05 K
R2868
SDA U5 A
SCL C3704
HMC6352 Vdd
NC
Trigger/Echo
U1 U9 Mode
Gnd
Vdd Gnd .1u C1 SRF05
Out R1 R2 Vdd U6
Gnd Out
Vdd 1
VIRFL 10k TSL257
U2 100 NC
SET = 0.5
D1 Trigger/Echo
Vdd Mode 2
LED
Out Gnd
Gnd 3
SRF05
VIRFL U7
U3 4
U10 Vdd
Vdd NC 5
Out Gnd .1u C2 Trigger/Echo
Gnd R3 R4 Vdd Mode
VIRFL Out Gnd
U13 10k TSL257 SRF05
100
SET = 0.5
Vdd D2
Out 6
LED
Gnd
7
GP2D120
U14
Vdd U11
Out 8
Gnd Gnd .1u C3
Vdd 9
GP2D120 R5 R6
U15 Out
10
10k TSL257
Vdd 100
SET = 0.5
Out 11
D3
Gnd LED
12
GP2D120
13

14

15

16
MK1 U12
17
2
1 Vdd
Out
Gnd
MICROPHONE Audio Detection

Sheet 1 of 4

Figure 34: Higher level schematic for sensor connections

50
1

2 U19
U20B +5V DE-SW050
3
1 49

GND
3 Ch.23 Vdd 50 OUT IN
4 Ch.22 GND V3
5
7 Ch.21 33 12V
5 Ch.20 Ch.7
9
11 Ch.19 35
6 Ch.18 Ch.6
13 37
Ch.17 Ch.5 12VDC
15 39 U23
17 Ch.16 Ch.4 41
19 Ch.15 Ch.3 1
21 Ch.14 43
23 Ch.13 Ch.2
Ch.12 45
25 Ch.1
27 Ch.11 47 2
29 Ch.10 Ch.0 U22
31 Ch.9 5
Ch.8 + 3
4 12VDC
Relay Model
- MG5

1
Holocon Digital I/O 0-23 U29
+
DC Linear Solenoid Vcc Motor+
PWM1

PWM2
U26 GND Motor- -
H-Bridge
Holocon UART DC Motor

2
UART2 Rx UART Tx PWM1

UART2 Tx UART Rx PWM2

UART1 Rx RP15

UART1 Tx PIC33 UART, QEA

U20C
U31 MG6

1
U30
+
Vcc Motor+
7 UART Tx PWM3 PWM1
U20A
1 UART Rx PWM4 PWM2
8 Ch.0
2 GND Motor-
GND -
3 RP14
9 Ch.1 H-Bridge
4 DC Motor

2
5 Ch.2 16
10 GND GND PIC33 UART, QEA
6 18
7 Ch.3 Ch.11 19
11 Ch.4 GND
8 20
9 GND Ch.12 21
12 Ch.5 Ch.13
10 22
11 Ch.6 GND 23
13 GND Ch.14
12 24
13 Ch.7 Ch.15 25
14 GND GND
14
15 Ch.8
16 Ch.9
17
Ch.10
17
Holocon Analog I/O 0-15
18

Figure 35: Higher level schematic for sensor/actuator connections to microcontrollers

51
 12VDC

Q3 Q4

D4 D5
R7 R8
Q1 Q2
PWM1 PWM2
33k 33k
1 2

R9 DC Motor R10
PWM2 PWM1
D6 D7
1k 1k
Q5 Q6

12VDC

Q7 Q8

D9 D10
R22 R23
Q11 Q12
PWM3 PWM4
33k 33k
1 2

R24 DC Motor R25

PWM4 PWM3
D11 D12
1k 1k
Q9 Q10

Figure 36: Circuit Diagram for H-Bridge

52
 +5V
R14

470k
R11 C6
4.7k 0v
.01u R17 R19
LM324 0v

11
MK2 C5 1.5Meg
3k
2 2

11
R15 0v

V-
1 - C7 LM324
.01u 1 6

11
+5V

V-
OUT - LM324
200 .01u R18
MICROPHONE 3 7 9

V-
+ 4 OUT -

4
C8 U12D
U12A V+ 1k
R16 5 8 12

V+
+ 4 OUT + D8
65 .01
U12B V+ 10 14 17
+ 4 OUT
+5V U12C V+ 13 D1N4006
- 11 LM324
+5V V-
+5V
0v

R12
1k R20
100k
C9 R21
.1u 100k

R13
C4
330
5u

Figure 37: Circuit Diagram for Audio Detection Circuit

Financial Budget

Labor Cost
Design Team Hourly Rate Estimated Hours Total Estimated
Member Cost
Joe McGlinchy $10.00 150 $1,500.00
Matt Taschner $10.00 150 $1,500.00
Tom Vo $10.00 150 $1,500.00

Material Cost

Qty. Part Num. Description Unit Cost Total Cost

1 Holocon Holocon Microcontroller donated donated
DSPIC33FJ12MC201- IC DSPIC MCU/DSP
4 I/P-ND 12K 20DIP $5.58 $22.32
3 VIRFL VIRFL IR flame sensor donated donated
Light to Voltage optical
4 TSL257-LF converter $2.02 $8.08
Hamamatsu UVTRON
1 C3704,R2868 Flame Detector Package $72.00 $72.00
Special Ultra-bright Red
LED, 5mm, water clear
4 LED-126 lens $0.45 $1.80
1MEG Ohm single turn
cermet 3/8" square, 1/2
2 38-164 W, +/- 10% $0.75 $1.50
4 38-244 10k Ohm single turn $0.75 $3.00

53
 cermet 3/8" square, 1/2
W, +/- 10%
Devantech SRF05
5 SRF05 Ultrasonic Ranger $29.50 $147.50
Microphone Omni-direct
5 EM6050P-443 6.0X5.0MM $1.34 $6.70
3 NLM324 LM324 Quad Op-Amp $1.69 $5.07
Sharp IR Ranger 1.5"to
4 GPD2D120 12" $12.50 $50.00
5V 1A Switching voltage
2 DE-SW050 regulator $15.00 $30.00
3.3V 1A Switching
2 DE-SW033 voltage regulator $15.00 $30.00
Honeywell digital
1 HMC6352 compass module $59.95 $59.95
1 F1578L-12V DC Linear Solenoid $72.90 $72.90
2 SD3729-12-18-FEC DC Motor with encoder $61.43 $122.86
10 1N4006 Diode $0.09 $0.87
TRANS NPN DARL
4 TIP142 100V 10A TO-218 $1.68 $6.72
TRANS PNP DARL
4 TIP147 100V 10A TO-218 $1.91 $7.64
IC TRANS NPN SS GP
4 2N4123BU 200MA TO-92 $0.11 $0.44
3 A104K15X7RF5TAA .1uF capacitor $0.09 $0.27
1 C1608X8R1H103K .01F capacitor $0.12 $0.12
3 ECJ-1VB1E103K .01uF capacitor $0.03 $0.09
1 ECE-A1EKA4R7 4.7uF capacitor $0.14 $0.14
1k ohm resistor 1/2W 5%
6 CFR-50JB-1K0 Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.31
100 ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-100R 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
33k ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-33K 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
100k ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-100K 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
3k ohm resistor 1/2W 5%
5 CFR-50JB-3K0 Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
65 ohm resistor 1/2W 5%
Carbon Film, min.5,
5 CFR-50JB-68R closest is 68 ohm $0.05 $0.26
200 ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-200R 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
470k ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-470K 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26

54
 330 ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-50JB-330R 5% Carbon Film, min.5 $0.05 $0.26
4.7k ohm resistor 1/2W
5 CFR-25JB-4K7 5% Carbon Film, min. 5 $0.05 $0.26
Li-Ion 14.8 V 2600mah
battery module ( Flat)
1 LCH4S4R1WR with Protection IC $65.95 $65.95
Universal Smart Charger
(1.5A) for 14.8V Li-Ion
Battery Pack (4 cells )
with two pins universal
1 CH-LI1418-4 connector $26.95 $26.95
Li-Ion 18650 14.8V 4400
mAh PCB Preotected
LI18650- Rechargeable Battery
2 14.8V4400BL with Bare Leads $59.99 $119.98
Universal Fast Smart
Charger for Li-Ion / Li-
polymer battery Pack
1 TLP_3000 (14.8V, 4 cells) $23.99 $23.99
Low Drop Voltage
Regulators/Drivers 12V
1 LD1084-12 5.0A Positive $1.74 $1.74
Innovations Ultraflate
1 24028 CO2 Powered Inflation $13.98 $13.98
2 M-400-30-WC-2007 Colson Wheel 4 x 7/8 $4.15 $8.30
M-400-30-WH- Wheel Hub, Colson 7/8"
2 WC002-B Wheel, 6mm, 1/8" Broach $6.00 $12.00
S/S PRECISION SHAFT
6MM DIA TYPE 303 36"
1 CGSX-M06-36 LONG $10.64 $10.64
S/S PRECISION SHAFT
12MM DIA TYPE 303
1 CGSX-M12-24 24" LONG $19.55 $19.55
POLYCARBONATE
ROUND 1" DIA 36"
1 ZPR-16-36 LONG $35.50 $35.50
Type 303 SS Set Screw
Shaft Collar 1/4" Bore,
1/2" Outside Diameter,
2 6462K12 9/32" Width $2.47 $4.94
Metric Knurled Cup Point
Socket Set Screw 18-8
Stainless Steel, M3
1 91313A116 Thread, 3 mm Length $7.50 $7.50
10 PC2501010 1/4" X 10" X 10" $6.22 $62.20

55
 Polycarbonate Sheet
Round Trip to
1082 - Connecticut $0.13 $140.66
1 - Contest Registration $70.00 $70.00
2 - Lodging $130.00 $260.00
Total $1,536.50

Project Schedule

56
ID Tas k Nam e D uration Start Finis h Predeces s ors R es ource Names

1 Block Diagrams (hardw are & software) 63.38 days Fri 8/31/07 Fri 11/2/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
2 Full Block Diagrams Pass 2 1.81 days Fri 8/31/07 Wed 9/5/07 Matt Taschner,Joe McGlinchy
3 Individual Block Diagrams Pass 1 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 2 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
4 Software D iagram 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 Tom Vo
5 Pow er Sys tem D iagram 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 Matt Taschner
6 Sensor Diagram 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 Joe McGlinchy
7 Motor D iagram 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 Matt Taschner
8 Actuator D iagram 18.38 days Mon 9/3/07 Fri 9/21/07 Joe McGlinchy
9 Individual Block Diagrams Pass 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 3 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
10 Software D iagram Pass 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 Tom Vo
11 Pow er Sys tem D iagram Pass 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 Matt Taschner
12 Sensor Diagram Pas s 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 Joe McGlinchy
13 Motor D iagram Pass 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 Matt Taschner
14 Actuator D iagram Pass 2 18.38 days Mon 9/24/07 Fri 10/12/07 Joe McGlinchy
15 Com pleted Block Diagram s 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 9 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
16 Software D iagram Final 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 Tom Vo
17 Pow er Sys tem D iagram Final 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 Matt Taschner
18 Sensor Diagram Final 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 Joe McGlinchy
19 Motor D iagram Final 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 Matt Taschner
20 Actuator D iagram Final 18.38 days Mon 10/15/07 Fri 11/2/07 Joe McGlinchy
21 Design Specifications 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
22 Mechanical 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Joe McGlinchy
23 Material 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Tom Vo
24 Pow er Sys tem 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Matt Taschner
25 Control 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Tom Vo
26 Radiation 5 days Mon 8/27/07 Sat 9/1/07 Joe McGlinchy
27 Alternative Design Analysis 32 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/28/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
28 Num ericalAnalysis 25 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/21/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
29 Electrical Design Calculations 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
30 Com munication 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
31 Interface between PIC24 & Holocon 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
32 Serial C om munication 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
33 D igital Signal Lines 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
34 Com puting & Control System 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
35 PIC 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
36 H olocon 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
37 Pow er, voltage, current 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
38 Batteries 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
39 N um ber (1, 2 or 3) 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
40 Type (L-Ion, N iMH, Lead Acid) 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
41 Thermal 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
42 Motors & H -Bridge Heat Diss ipation 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Matt Taschner
43 Radiation 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Joe McGlinchy
44 Sensors Sensistivity to Environm ent Noi 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07
45 Infrared 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Joe McGlinchy
46 U ltrasonic 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Joe McGlinchy
47 Mechanical Design Calculations 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07
48 Structual considerations 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07
49 Body 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
50 Poly-Carbonate 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
51 Aluminum 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
52 System Dynamics 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07
53 Fire Extinguishing Method 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
54 Water Spray Bottle 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
55 Pres surized C O2 Cartridge 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
56 Air C om press or, Valve, Water Tank 2 days Mon 8/27/07 Wed 8/29/07 Tom Vo
57 Economic Calculations 25 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/21/07 Joe McGlinchy
58 Major Com ponent Com parison 25 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/21/07
59 Hardware 25 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/21/07
60 Electrical 8.33 days Mon 8/27/07 Tue 9/4/07 Tom Vo,Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner
61 Mechanical 25 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 9/21/07 Tom Vo,Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner
62 Software 8.33 days Mon 8/27/07 Tue 9/4/07
63 Development Tools 8.33 days Mon 8/27/07 Tue 9/4/07 Tom Vo,Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner
64 Learning Curve 8.33 days Mon 8/27/07 Tue 9/4/07 Tom Vo,Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner
65 Alternatve Design Presentation 7 days Fri 9/21/07 Fri 9/28/0728 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Tas chner,Tom Vo
66 Progress Reports 56 days Fri 9/28/07 Fri 11/23/07 65 Matt Taschner
67 Report #1 7.09 days Fri 9/28/07 Fri 10/5/0765 Matt Taschner
68 Report #2 7 days Fri 10/5/07 Fri 10/12/0767 Matt Taschner
69 Report #3 7 days Fri 10/12/07 Fri 10/19/0768 Matt Taschner
70 Report #4 7 days Fri 10/19/07 Fri 10/26/0769 Matt Taschner
71 Report #5 7 days Fri 10/26/07 Fri 11/2/0770 Matt Taschner
72 Report #6 7 days Fri 11/2/07 Fri 11/9/0771 Matt Taschner
73 Report #7 7 days Fri 11/9/07 Fri 11/16/0772 Matt Taschner
74 Report #8 7 days Fri 11/16/07 Fri 11/23/0773 Matt Taschner
75 Accepted Project Design 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08 74 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Taschner,Tom Vo
76 Design Gantt Chart 7 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 11/30/0767 Tom Vo

57
77 Software Design 3 days Fri 11/23/07 Mon 11/26/07 Tom Vo
78 Psuedo Code 3 days Fri 11/23/07 Mon 11/26/07 Tom Vo
79 Input R outine 3 days Fri 11/23/07 Mon 11/26/07 Tom Vo
80 Hardware Design 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08
81 Sim ulations 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08
82 Schem atics 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08
83 Parts Reques t Form 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08
84 Budget (Estim ated) 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Tom Vo
85 C om petition C os ts 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Tom Vo
86 R obot Materials 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Tom Vo
87 Tes ting Materials 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Tom Vo
88 Testing Procedures 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08
89 Hardware Procedures 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07
90 Motor & H-Bridge Operation 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Matt Taschner
91 Tes t Motor Speed w/PWM s ignal 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Matt Taschner
92 Proper Motor Direction given H -Bridge Log 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Matt Taschner
93 Actuator Operation 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Matt Taschner
94 Capable of closing the CO2 pump lever 1 day Fri 11/23/07 Sat 11/24/07 Matt Taschner
95 Verify Proper Sensor Outputs 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Joe McGlinchy
96 Flame Sensors 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Joe McGlinchy
97 Ultrasonic Sensors 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Joe McGlinchy
98 Infrared Line Detectors 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Joe McGlinchy
99 Software Procedures 56 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 1/18/08 Tom Vo
100 Motor Output 7 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 11/30/07 Tom Vo
101 Given direction, Proper H-Bridge Logic is prod 7 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 11/30/07 Tom Vo
102 Given s peed, Proper PWM s ignal is produced 7 days Fri 11/23/07 Fri 11/30/07 Tom Vo
103 Sensors 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Tom Vo
104 Verify expected values are read in properly 2 days Fri 11/23/07 Sun 11/25/07 Tom Vo
105 Project Poster 7 days Fri 11/30/07 Fri 12/7/0776 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Tas chner,Tom Vo
106 Implem entation Gantt Chart 21 days Fri 12/7/07 Fri 12/28/07105 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Tas chner,Tom Vo
107 Final Design Report 95 days Mon 8/27/07 Fri 11/30/07 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Tas chner,Tom Vo
108 Final Design Presentation 7 days Fri 11/30/07 Fri 12/7/07107 Joe McGlinchy,Matt Tas chner,Tom Vo

Figure 38: Design Gantt Chart for project.

58
ID T ask Name Duration Start Finish Prede Week Resource Names
1 Revise Gantt Chart 22 days Mon 12/17/0 T ue 1/8/0 1
2 Implement Project Design 93 days Mon 12/17/07 Wed 3/19/08
3 Hardw are Implementation 93 days Mon 12/17/07 Wed 3/19/08
4 Breadboard Components 28 days Mon 12/17/07 Mon 1/14/08
5 Li-Ion Power Suppl y 14 days Mon 12/24/0 Mon 1/7/0 Matt
6 PIC and H-Bridge Circuit 5 days Mon 12/24/0 Sat 12/29/0 Matt,Tom
7 DC Spur Gear Motors 7 days Mon 12/31/0 Mon 1/7/0 Matt
8 Audio Detection Circuit 5 days Mon 12/17/0 Sat 12/22/0 Joe
9 Ultrasonic Sensors 14 days Mon 12/31/0 Mon 1/14/0 Joe
10 Infrared Sensors 14 days Mon 12/17/0 Mon 12/31/0 Joe
11 UVT RON Flame Sensor 14 days Mon 12/17/0 Mon 12/31/0 Joe
12 White Line Detection Circui t 10 days Mon 12/31/0 T hu 1/10/0 Joe
13 Layout and Generate PCB(s) 30 days Mon 12/31/07 Wed 1/30/08 2
14 H-Bridge Heatsi nk PCB traces 7 days Wed 1/2/08 Wed 1/9/08 Matt
15 Audio Detection PCB 5 days Mon 12/31/0 Sat 1/5/08 Joe
16 dsPIC33F Layout and Connecti ons 14 days Mon 1/7/0 Mon 1/21/0 T om
17 Ultrasonic Sensors Overal l Layout PCB 9 days Mon 1/21/0 Wed 1/30/08 Joe
18 IR Sensor Breakout Board 9 days Wed 1/2/08 Fri 1/11/08 Joe
19 Digital Compass PCB 2 days T ue 1/1/0 T hu 1/3/0 T om
20 Assemble Hardw are 79 days Mon 12/17/07 Wed 3/5/08 4
21 Electrical 29 days Sat 1/5/08 Sun 2/3/08
22 Power connecti ons 14 days Sat 1/5/08 Sat 1/19/08 Matt
23 H-Bridge and dsPIC33F PCB assembl y 5 days Wed 1/9/08 Mon 1/14/0 14 Matt,Tom
24 Audio Detection Circuit PCB assembl y 5 days Sat 1/5/08 T hu 1/10/0 15 Joe
25 dsPIC33F PCB assembl y 7 days Mon 1/21/0 Mon 1/28/0 16 T om
26 Ultrasonic Sensor PCB assembl y 4 days Wed 1/30/08 Sun 2/3/08 17 Joe
27 IR Breakout Board assembly 5 days Fri 1/11/08 Wed 1/16/08 18 Joe
28 Digital Compass assembly 4 days Wed 1/9/08 Sun 1/13/0 Joe
29 Mechanical 79 days Mon 12/17/07 Wed 3/5/08
30 Mock Arena Construction 14 days Mon 12/17/0 Mon 12/31/0 Matt,Joe,Tom
31 Pol ycarbonate Body Construction 14 days Mon 1/14/0 Mon 1/28/0 Matt,Joe,Tom
32 Motor Mounti ng 8 days T ue 1/29/0 Wed 2/6/08 Matt
33 Wheels, couplers, and hub attachments 8 days T ue 1/29/0 Wed 2/6/08 T om,Matt
34 H-Bridge and dsPIC33F PCB Pl acement 3 days Wed 2/6/08 Sat 2/9/08 33 Matt
35 White Line Detection Circui t Orei entation 3 days Wed 2/6/08 Sat 2/9/08 Joe
36 Caster Mounting and pl acement 5 days Wed 2/6/08 Mon 2/11/0 32 T om
37 Hol ocon ori entati on and mounting considerations 5 days Mon 2/18/0 Sat 2/23/08 T om
38 Power-Battery l ocations and mounti ng 5 days Mon 2/18/0 Sat 2/23/08 Matt
39 Ultrasonic platform construction 5 days Sun 2/24/08 Fri 2/29/08 Joe
40 Ultrasonic sensor mounting 5 days Sun 2/24/0 Fri 2/29/08 Joe
41 Infrared sensor orientati on and mounting 4 days Mon 2/25/0 Fri 2/29/08 Joe
42 UVT RON sensor placement 4 days Mon 2/25/0 Fri 2/29/08 Joe
43 Extinguisher mounting 5 days Fri 2/29/08 Wed 3/5/08 Matt
44 Test Hardw are 27 days Mon 1/14/08 Sun 2/10/08 5
45 Audio Detection response to specifi c frequencies 5 days Wed 1/16/08 Mon 1/21/0 24 Joe
46 H-Bridge, dsPIC33F, and motor synchroni zation 7 days Mon 1/14/0 Mon 1/21/0 23 T om,Matt
47 Ultrasonic Sensor range and response 7 days Sun 2/3/08 Sun 2/10/0 26 Joe
48 IR Sensor range and response 7 days Wed 1/16/08 Wed 1/23/08 27 Joe
49 UVT RON Sensor range and response 7 days Wed 1/16/08 Wed 1/23/08 Joe
50 Power consumpti on and requirements 14 days Mon 1/14/0 Mon 1/28/0 Matt
51 Actuator-CO2 bike pump performance 6 days Mon 1/14/0 Sun 1/20/0 Matt
52 Revise Hardware 7 days Wed 3/5/08 Wed 3/12/08 20
53 Demonstrate Hardware 7 days Wed 3/12/08 Wed 3/19/08 44,52 7
54 SDC & FA Hardware Approval 0 days Wed 3/19/08 Wed 3/19/08 53
55 Softw are Implementation 75 days Mon 12/17/07 Sat 3/1/08
56 Dev elop Softw are 54 days Mon 12/17/07 Sat 2/9/08
57 H-Bridge and dsPIC33F Communicati on 5 days Wed 1/2/08 Mon 1/7/0 T om,Matt
58 Hol ocon communication wi th sensors 14 days Mon 12/17/0 Mon 12/31/0 T om
59 Hol ocon and dsPIC33F Interface 14 days Mon 1/7/0 Mon 1/21/0 T om
60 Holocon Algorithms 33 days Mon 1/7/08 Sat 2/9/08 Tom
61 Arena navigating algorithm 14 days Mon 1/7/0 Mon 1/21/0 T om
62 Room navigating algorithm 7 days Mon 1/21/0 Mon 1/28/0 T om
63 Flame extingui shing al gorithm 5 days Mon 1/28/0 Sat 2/2/08 T om
64 Return Home T rip algorithm 7 days Sat 2/2/08 Sat 2/9/08 T om
65 Test Softw are 46 days Tue 1/1/08 Sat 2/16/08
66 H-Bridge and dsPIC33F Communicati on 5 days Mon 1/7/0 Sat 1/12/08 T om,Matt
67 Hol ocon communication wi th sensors 10 days T ue 1/1/0 Fri 1/11/08 T om
68 Hol ocon and dsPIC33F Interface 10 days Mon 1/21/0 T hu 1/31/0 T om
69 Holocon Algorithms 26 days Mon 1/21/08 Sat 2/16/08 Tom
70 Arena navigating algorithm 14 days Mon 1/21/0 Mon 2/4/0 T om
71 Room navigating algorithm 7 days Mon 1/28/0 Mon 2/4/0 T om
72 Flame extingui shing al gorithm 5 days Sat 2/2/08 T hu 2/7/0 T om
73 Return Home T rip algorithm 7 days Sat 2/9/08 Sat 2/16/08 T om
74 Revise Software 7 days Sat 2/16/08 Sat 2/23/08 69
75 Demonstrate Software 7 days Sat 2/23/08 Sat 3/1/08 74 8
76 SDC & FA Software Approval 0 days Sat 3/1/08 Sat 3/1/08 75 9
77 System Integration 96 days Mon 1/21/08 Sat 4/26/08
78 Assemble Complete System 28 days Mon 1/21/08 Mon 2/18/08
79 Intergrate H-Bri dge, dsPIC33F, and motors wi th Holocon mi crocontroll 14 days Mon 1/21/0 Mon 2/4/0 Matt,Tom
80 Integrate al l sensors with Holocon microcontroll er 14 days Mon 2/4/0 Mon 2/18/0 Joe,T om
81 Integrate al l alogrithms, have all components functi on at proper time 21 days Mon 1/21/0 Mon 2/11/0
82 Test Complete System 9 days Sat 3/8/08 Mon 3/17/08 10
83 Power-Up 5 days Sat 3/8/08 T hu 3/13/0 Matt
84 Locomoti on 7 days Sat 3/8/08 Sat 3/15/08 Matt
85 3-4kHz Frequency Activation 5 days Sat 3/8/08 T hu 3/13/0 Joe
86 Flame location accuracy 5 days Sat 3/8/08 T hu 3/13/0 Joe
87 Flame extingui shing accuracy 5 days Sat 3/8/08 T hu 3/13/0 Matt
88 Hal lway Navi gation 7 days Mon 3/10/0 Mon 3/17/0 T om
89 Room Navi gation 7 days Mon 3/10/0 Mon 3/17/0 T om
90 Return Home T rip 7 days Mon 3/10/0 Mon 3/17/0 T om
91 Revise Complete System 14 days Mon 2/18/0 Mon 3/3/0 78
92 Demonstration of Complete System 0 days Sat 4/12/08 Sat 4/12/08 91 12
93 Demonstration w/ 10 % Fi nal Grade deduction 0 days Sat 4/26/08 Sat 4/26/08 14
94 Dev elop Final Report 105 days Mon 1/14/08 Mon 4/28/08
95 Wri te Final Report 105 days Mon 1/14/0 Mon 4/28/0
96 Submit Final Report 0 days Mon 4/28/0 Mon 4/28/0 95 15
97 Marti n Luther King Day - Universi ty cl osed 0 days Mon 12/17/0 Mon 12/17/0
98 Spring Recess 6 days Mon 3/17/0 Sun 3/23/0
99 ECE Advi sory Counci l Presentation 0 days Mon 4/14/0 Mon 4/14/0 13
100 Senior Desi gn Expo 0 days Wed 4/30/08 Wed 4/30/08 15

Figure 39: Implementation Gantt Chart for project

59
Design Team Information

Design Team Member Email Discipline Responsibilities

Joe McGlinchy jmm78@uakron.edu Electrical Hardware Manager
Engineering
Matt Taschner mjt17@uakron.edu Electrical Archivist
Engineering
Tom Vo tvv1@uakron.edu Electrical Project Manager/
Engineering Software Manger

Conclusions and Recommendations

The purpose of the Trinity College annual Fire-Fighting Robot competition is to

challenge participants to come up with new innovative ideas to provide a fire fighting
protection function to a home or warehouse through the use of robotics. Since the
competition is held in mid April, the construction and testing of the robot must be
completed a month before the senior project deadline. The plan is to finish the robot
construction by early to mid March in order to provide sufficient time for testing before
the competition is held.

The University of Akrons Electrical and Computer Engineering program has well
prepared the team for the tasks that this project has described. The team is very confident
that the robot will be built by mid March and will be ready for competition in April. In
the next few months, the team will be challenged in both electrical and mechanical fields.
This project will be an excellent experience for the team to gain a considerable amount of
knowledge in both of these fields.

References and Acknowledgments

References

[1]Embedded.com, Quadrature-Encoded Position and Beyond, Don Morgan, 26

February 2001, http://embedded.com/columns/spectra/9900043
[2]Pulse width modulation quietens fans and blowers, Zetex Semiconductors, Laurence
Armstrong, September 2004
[3] Audio Detector Circuit, Larry Barello, 06 March 2006,
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/200003/larryb.html
[4] Filter Design in Thirty Seconds, Texas Instruments, Bruce Carter, December 2001
http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/sloa093/sloa093.pdf
[5]SRF05 Technical Documentation, http://www.robot-
electronics.co.uk/htm/srf05tech.htm
[6] Sharp, Datasheet, GP2D120, IR Ranger
[7] Cook, David, Intermediate Robot Building. Apress, 2004.
[8] Texas Advanced Optical Solutions, Datasheet, TSL257, High-Sensitivity Light-to-
Voltage Converter.

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[9] Hamamatsu, Datasheet, R2868, Flame Sensor UVTRON R2868.
[10] Hamamatsu, Datasheet, C3704, UVTRON Driving Circuit C3704 Series.
[11] Lite-On Electronics, Inc., LTR-4206E, NPN Phototransistor Sensitive to 940nm
Wavelength
[12] Honeywell, Datasheet, HMC6352, Digital Compass Solution.
[13] Trinity Fire Fighting Robot Contest Contest Rules, 2008 Rules and Regulations,
12-13 April 2008, http://www.trincoll.edu/events/robot/Rules/default.asp

Acknowledgments

Western Reserves Controls - Fred Billock, VP and Senior Head Engineer, Akron, Ohio
Ametek - Alan Neal, Division VP Engineering, Kent, Ohio
Rick Nemer - Electronics Engineer, University of Akron, Akron, Ohio

Appendices

RefDes Datasheet
http://www.wrc.cc/general/product_specs/HOLOCON%20
U20 Controller.pdf
http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/70265
U26, U31 B.pdf
U1,U2,U3 VIRFL Infrared Flame Sensor datasheet
U9,U10,U11 http://www.mouser.com/catalog/632/156.pdf
U8 http://acroname.com/robotics/parts/R66-R2868.pdf
D1,D2,D3 http://www.allelectronics.com/spec/LED-126.pdf
U4,U5,U6,U7 http://www.robot-electronics.co.uk/htm/srf05tech.htm
http://rocky.digikey.com/WebLib/Horn/WEB%20DATA/E
MK1,MK2 M6050P-44.PDF
U12 http://www.radioshack.com/product
U13,U14,U15 http://www.acroname.com/robotics/parts/GP2D120_SS.pdf
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/datasheets/DE-
U16,U19 SW0XX.pdf
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/datasheets/DE-
U18 SW0XX.pdf
http://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/HMC635
U17 2.pdf
http://www.transmotec.com/PDF/Solenoids_Open_Frame/F
U22 1578.pdf
http://www.transmotec.com/PDF/Motors_Spur_Gear_1W-
MG5,MG6 40W/SD3729.pdf
D4,D5,D6,D7,D8,D9,D10,D11,D12 http://www.onsemi.com/pub/Collateral/1N4001-D.PDF
Q5,Q6,Q9,Q10 http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/4132.pdf
Q3,Q4,Q7,Q8 http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/4132.pdf
Q1,Q2,Q11,Q12 http://www.fairchildsemi.com/ds/2N/2N4123.pdf

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