Wire Robotic Vehicle Testing - Essay Example

Wire Robotic Vehicle Testing From the previous experiments results, where the control on the stepper motor was done successfully in both directions, it is now actually possible to use the robot components such as stepper motors ‘Sanyo Denki Model 103H546-0440’, MOSFETS, RS232, wireless device and Microcontroller 68HC12. One can assemble the robot components together by installing all these components on the robot body using the sticker paper, because it ensures ease of installation and removal in case of any error such as short circuit or in case of reconfiguration. After installing these components, they are connected them together by wires and cables thus ensuring that they are in right places. The current status of the project is that, all components are ready for installation except the external power source and the wireless camera, which will discussed in some other section later. Another pending thing is that the program code needs to be configured and the memory location has to be kept ready to run the program when the robot is powered externally. 8 Drive by wire robotic vehicle testing Testing the robot involves testing each component individually first. If the individual components are working properly, then it clears the path for combining them into the robot in the last stage of this project. This ensures that when the robot components are assembled together in the final of the project, the robot will be ready to be controlled from the computer in the wireless mode. Many components were tested during the course of this project, some of the important ones are highlighted in the sections to follow. 8.1 Testing Stepper motors voltage power I applied different various levels of voltages by using DC power supply to drive the stepper motors. The goal was to make the motor and all other components run using 4V since I intended to use external power source at the final stage of the project. When I applied 4V to one of stepper motors it was working properly. However, when 4V was applied to both of the motors, the short circuit light in the DC power supply started shining, indicating a short circuit in the system. This happened because of limited current and hence short circuit happened. To solve this problem 4V was connected to the stepper motors from different power sources separately to avoid the short circuit. 8.2 Testing Regulator This device tracks the voltage from the input to the output. The input from the DC power supply is 12V, which will be reduced into 5v by passed it through the 7805 regulator. The regulator is used to maintain the constant voltage of 5 volts in the circuit. This 5 volt entered the MAXX232 and the radio device which is supposed to perform as transceiver device. With this the I ensured that regulator performance was satisfactory and was working properly. 9 Drive by wire robotic vehicle project management In this section I have introduced the work breakdown structure for managing the Drive by wire robotic vehicle project. This helped me to keep track of the project plan by categorizing the work breakdown structure into main and secondary levels of tasks. In the following sections, I have mentioned some of risks associated with the project was I faced during the implementation (TechTarget 2010). 9.2 Drive by wire robotic vehicle risk management With all projects there will be some risks. These risks vary from project to project and it depends on the project environment. In robotic project I envisaged some risks and identified them clearly before trying to mitigate them. Some of risks I identified were - deficiency in programming skills, using the DSO, tracking the project tasks on time, soldering and problems in understanding the technical details. I avoided some of these risks by trying to do some experiments and gain knowledge in programming and using DSO. I took extra care while soldering as the solder gained up to 400c sometimes. Understanding the technical details was a challenge and I spent more time discussing and reading more relevant technical information from different sources. Finally I came to a stage where there were no high risks faced in the project. The risks now were normal such as strain in the eyes and neck because of prolonged usage of the computer. I exercised caution and care while using the laboratory equipments as electronic components susceptible to getting burnt by exposing to high power (Business Dictionary 2010). 10 Critical Appraisal At the beginning of this I did not have a clear picture of the project and how it will pan out. With constant effort to search for more adequate information and some timely support from my supervisor, a clear picture began to emerge. At the initial stage of the project, I spent most my time in writing the project brief, project background, aims and objectives, activities and scope etc. The next step was starting the practical work in the laboratory. I started doing the experiment on serial communication interface through sending and receiving data from one computer to another using RS232. After successfully completing this experiment, I removed the cable and installed the wireless device which was provided by my supervisor. Then I moved to another experiment on controlling the stepper motor by using Darlington driver and stepper motor IC. The aim of this experiment was to understand how stepper motors are driven in half steps. However i realised later that I had to drive the stepper motor via full steps itself. Hence, I removed the stepper motor IC and drove the motors in full steps by configuring the program code. The program code was supposed to control the stepper motors in sequential steps. This experiment took a little more time than I had planned, because I had to study the programs with the assembly language. My next activity was to make the robot body. I took help of the laboratory worker Mr. Alex, who was responsible for making the hardware components. I briefed Mr. Alex in detail about the body of robot I wanted. I had a mental design of robot with two rectangular layers installed one above the other, with two stepper motors hangers installed by the sides of the underneath of the bottom layer. Meanwhile I started searching the internet for the appropriate stepper motor which could function with 5volts. Eventually I found one and with the consent of my supervisor I decided to procure them. The next step was making the wireless device. As was the method adopted previously, here too I started collecting material about the radio device, understanding how the wireless communication works, as well as studying the radio device circuit and procedure to make the circuit board. I downloaded the radio device data sheet and used Multi-sim software to draw the exact circuit in the data sheet. I then transferred it into Ultra board to design the PCB. This task had to be done diligently as it was hard to connect copper lines with the components. A slight movement of the components than their original positions could give rise to errors and there errors were nearly impossible to be corrected once the circuit was done. I made some mistakes, but with the help of my supervisor I revised the design before execution. All the individual components were tested and then installed and wired, soldered over the PCB after making sure that they placed in the right positions in the board. Next task was driving the two stepper motors with the MOSFETS. This work was done by connecting two MOSFETS with the parallel board which was connected to the 68HC12 Microcontroller. This was done in other way too by connecting with the stepper motors directly. For driving the stepper motors successfully by the MOSFETS it was connected to the stepper motors wires with the right pins based on the full step faces. It was then possible to drive the stepper motors and control them by the control program made in the Visual Basic. By then, the body of the robot was made and it was ready to install all the components on it. I had approached the final stage of the project which was to test and examine the stepper motor movements controlled on wireless mode from the computer software. The control test results were satisfactory and the robot was moved in different directions. However, there were some small problems during the tests related to the programming. I have gained good knowledge from this project and I have improved my technical abilities based on this experience. I am sure I will benefit a lot from it in the future. This project increased my knowledge about understanding lot of techniques such as serial communication interface, driving the stepper motors, programming with the assembly language, drawing and making circuit boards, soldering and tracking the tasks on time. 11 Drive by wire robotic vehicle project conclusions The conclusion enables the readers to know what has been done, achieved and what is remaining to be done. In other words it is like a bridge enabling reader to travel from his place to your place. The conclusion is located at the end of all reports as it summarizes the project and I believe it is the hardest part of the report (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2007). 11.1 Drive by wire robotic vehicle project achievements In this project I have achieved most of my objectives. There have been many things that I have done for the project involving both theory and practicality. As far as theory is concerned, the project increased my knowledge about robots, how can robots be made, understanding their application, how to control the robots and how to tracking the project time plan. I have gained a lot from my experience to find easy solutions for the problems. Talking about practical knowledge, I have done many experiments successfully that has helped me to achieve my project objectives such as laboratory works, experiments on serial communication interface, configuring the program code to control the robot, making wireless PCB board, soldering of all components on the board, driving the stepper motors with the MOSFETES, designing and making the body of the robot and testing the robot system. 11.2 Drive by wire robotic vehicle needs more work There are many tasks which have been done successfully in this project, but there are many which are incomplete. Some of the in-completed works are buying and installing the wireless camera, carrying out the modifications required in control program, using external power to drive motors. I searched several times in the internet for the appropriate wireless camera but I could not find a useful one. I then decided to take it up as future work. I decided to showcase my project without it, to avoid any delay in time schedule. In addition to it, the program code needs some modification to start the program from specified memory location when microcontroller is powered. The robot components have to be installed on the body of the robot using the sticker paper and the task of connecting all wires with the components has to be done. Finally the system need to have external power supply. Currently I am using a DC power supply. I did find out some appropriate external power, but unfortunately I was running out of time to order it, therefore I decided to leave this task for my future work. 12 Student Reflections This project has added a few skill sets to my armoury such as programming, serial communication testing in the laboratory, communicating with laboratory staff, students etc. This skills can benefit me in future. I increased my knowledge in academic writing, referencing, understanding the electronic circuits and drawing the diagrams. One of very important things I learnt is the ability to solve problems. I faced a few problems during the practical work, such as finding the appropriate wireless camera with USB flash receiver, which was not available in most of the internet websites or was out of stock. The other problem was with the wireless device, where I made the circuit board based on the data sheet. The data sheet advised using the regulator to reduce the voltage from 12v or 8v to 5v. But I wanted 5v directly from the power source without any regulator as I had to operate the system with 5v. Another problem that I faced was with the ultra board software, where I placed large size of components such as capacitors. After discussing the problem with my supervisor he advised me to change the components footprint to the appropriate size. In addition to solving problems, there are many things I have learnt from this project like interfacing between different devices, driving the stepper motor in half steps and full steps, testing and analysing. Read More