MEMO

To: Professor Dammeyer

From: David Umansky
Date: 03/01/2021
Subject: ENES100 guidelines and instructions for successfully designing and building an autonomous vehicle
Reflection on Writing as a Social Process
My approach to this assignment was to consider a few things that affected me when I took this
course.
● The instructions provided to me
● What my group ended up doing
● And what I wish I had known
I structured my instructions and accompanying information based on these three points, and I
think this will be helpful for any student that will be reading this. My peer reviewers overall had
positive responses to my first draft but had a few suggestions. Rohan mentioned that my
instructions for the class were too open ended and were too much like a guide rather than a set of
instructions. Though I agree to some extent, I think for this set of instructions it was critical for
the instructions to allow for creative thought, iterations, and group discussion. Setting a stringent
set of instructions defeats the purpose of a design project. I did add more detail and questions for
students to carefully go through the instructions and keep themselves accountable. Joseph
mentioned in his peer review that he thinks that the audience is too large, but I would have to
disagree because these directions apply to everyone in this class. This set of instructions allows
students to carefully plan out their projects and know that theory is setting themselves up for
success. When reviewing my peers' work I learned the completely different approaches that
people are taking for the project and that a set of instructions such as they were provided can be
interpreted differently. I learned from the instructions that I read that there are multiple ways to
present a good set of instructions, and what might be easy to read and clear to one person might
be difficult to read to others. I also learned that there is such a thing as trying to do too much and
over explaining and I tried to minimize that when writing my set of directions. Especially for my
project, there is a lot of learning by doing. And mistakes are part of the process. They are
required. No set of instructions will help avoid mistakes, and that’s where my set of instructions
differ from those of my classmates.
Reflect on Reading as a Social Process
Not understanding instructions is very frustrating and something I have been a victim of. Without
instructions a project or task may seem impossible and without having any other resources it may
seem impossible. A slight advantage I might have with my set of instructions is that people will
be using my instructions in groups so it will be easier to understand with multiple people reading
the same thing. Additionally, my instructions are for a classroom setting where a teacher will be
present and can help out at any time. In order to mitigate confusion from my readers is to include
pictures and include questions that users should be able to answer before moving step to step.
Answering those questions will help the users be more comfortable with their project and prepare
them for the following steps of the instructions. I think I am in a unique position to understand
my audience because I was in my audience’s shoes just a few years ago. The bullets I listed
above are what I based my instructions on because the combination of those three things are
what I wish I had been given before I started the project. I would have made less mistakes and
would be better prepared at the beginning of the project. Future students will have the
opportunity to learn and avoid the mistakes I made and be able to succeed easier.
Audience Analysis

The target audience are the engineering students of the ENES100 course at the University of
Maryland. In this class their goal is to develop an autonomous robot, to perform tasks without
human interference, such as small scale exploration and detection in unknown environments.
My role is of a former student who wants to offer support to current and future students taking
the course. I am a student in the engineering school and someone that is qualified to help out and
give instructions for this class.
Each team that will be using the instructions that I will provide. The team will consist of two
sub-teams. One will be for the design and construction of the physical vehicle and the other will
be in charge of the programming and electronics of the system.
For the members of these groups, this class is usually one for the first engineering classes that
these students take. It is supposed to be a general introduction to the wide berth of engineering
and supposed to be fun and interesting. The goal of this set of instructions is to provide the
backbone of what the project entails, but still allow the students to have free will and creativity.
The reason that these instructions are needed is that students are sometimes coming into this
class blind and need something to lean on when working on the project. This set of instructions
will serve as a guide rather than a rigorous set of rules.

Design and Construction of an All-Terrain Autonomous Vehicle

Introduction: These instructions are for teams in the ENES100 class that will be designing and
building an autonomous vehicle. These instructions are the skeleton structure for the minimum
that needs to be done to design and build a successful vehicle, but require a lot of creative and
personal input from the teams in order to create something great.

Warnings/Caution:
● A few general warnings about tool and material use will be covered in class and safety
quizzes will have to be taken before using saws and other tools
● In terms of the design process:
○ Make sure the team is organized and everyone knows their respective roles
○ Make sure there is a plan in place with deadlines
○ Make sure everyone is on the same page and everyone is keeping up with the
schedule
○ Keep everyone accountable
○ Continuous iteration is they key to success
○ Organization and Teamwork are the most important aspects of this project
Technical Background:
As this class is one of the first classes an engineer will take at the University of Maryland there is
not really any prerequisite that can be learned through classes. What I would recommend is to be
familiar with:
● Basic coding in Arduino
● Basic woodworking skills
● Basic electronics, wiring and soldering
As long as these skills are possessed the rest of the skills are learned in
class as the project is moving along. This is a project based course so you
learn a lot by doing and by making mistakes.

Basic Materials:
● Computer
● 1 Arduino Kit with software installed on computer
● 2 Ultrasonic sensors
● 2 servo motors
● 4 drive motors
● Plywood

Arduino Kit

Drive and Servo Motors

Plywood
Ultrasonic Sensor
Instructions:
1. Determine the mission that needs to be accomplished
a. Professor will give general outline and assign each time a mission type
b. Be able to answer questions:
i. What are the mission requirements?
ii. What extra steps need to be taken?
iii. What extra skills need to be mastered for the specific mission?

Sample Requirements:
2. Get team together with people of different skills
a. Skills include, hardware, software, design etc.
b. Separate team into two sub teams. One will be for the design and construction of
the physical vehicle and the other will be in charge of the programming and
electronics of the system.
c. Make a plan how each team will work by themselves and how they will work
together
i. Each subteam should create a set of goals and what they hope to
accomplish by certain dates
ii. Each team should make sure that they are meeting all the requirements
provided by the professor, update plan as things change, and keep to the
timeline described in the next step

3. Create a timeline with milestones during the semester

a. Milestones include:
i. Team responsibilities/charter
ii. Gant chart creation
iii. Finalizing design
iv. Completing electronic system
v. Completing autonomous code
vi. Building first
iterations and
testing
vii. Final product
4. Start iterating through different ideas
a. At least 3 iterations per project component
i. Make sure each iteration has a reason for change and every time there is
an improvement made
ii. Document every change made

5. Finalize design specs

a. Provide documentation justifying every finalized design specification
b. Team should be able to answer these questions once design is completed
i. Why was this design chosen?
ii. How is this design better than other iterations?
iii. Who is in charge of creating each component of the design?
6. Create 3D model and virtual model of code and electronics system
a. 3D model should be made on CAD program such as SolidWorks
b. Electronics should be modeled on a program such as MultiSim
c. Code should be written in Arduino and modeled in the provided test software

7. Acquire all materials necessary based on design

a. Be able to answer questions:
i. Within the budget?
ii. Is it necessary and what would be its purpose?
iii. Does the design require these parts or can they be replaced with something
cheaper?
8. Start building the vehicle
a. Physical building
i. Iterate the components, minimizing budget and weight
b. Electronics
i. Make sure the electronics are all straightened out in the simulation before
putting it on a breadboard
ii. Test each section before putting other sections
c. Code
i. Test each section before putting other sections
9. Run test on individual components of the vehicle
a. Code through simulation
b. Motors and sensors through electronic system
c. Mission objective testing
d. Is the vehicle ready for final testing?
e. Have all the requirements been fulfilled?
 f. Any final ideas?

10. Put everything together and run test on the whole design
a. Conduct iterative test and adjust based on witnessed failures
i. What caused the failures?
1. How can they be addressed?
ii. What is the standard for success?
b. Has the objective been accomplished?
i. Any way anything can be improved?
11. Once design is working, optimize design to be efficient
a. Minimize weight and cost
b. Can anything be improved?
c. Are more tests necessary/a good use of remaining time?