ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project  Spring 2010 D IGITAL O BJECT G ATHERER

1. ECE 477 Digital Systems Senior Design Project  Spring 2010 DIGITAL OBJECT GATHERER DESIGN ASPECTS DESIGN CHALLENGES (L-R) Beau Morrison Seraj Dosenbach Greg Lammers Ananya Panja • Getting correct GPS headers in order to return home • Making the DOG less prone to sonar echoes while avoiding obstacles • Driving the DOG straight while balancing its body • Lifting up the heavy neck using relatively weak servos • Designing efficient power circuitry to withstand 60A drawn by the motors • Training the DOG to track different objects System Block Diagram PACKAGING DESIGN PROJECT OVERVIEW PCB Design • DOG is an autonomous robot which : • Simulates the behavior of dog fetching • Tracks a thrown object, picks it up, and returns it to initial GPS location • Avoids obstacles using sonar sensors • Recognizes an object using a camera • Follows object using computer vision algorithm PCB Bottom Layer PCB Top Layer Digijock(ette)-Strength Digital System DesignTM