IEEE Southeastern Conference 2012 Hardware Competition

1. IEEE Southeastern Conference 2012 Hardware Competition Kyle Desrosier, FIT-IEEE Chair

2. Southeastern Conference 2012 • About SECON • Technical Conference • Regional Meetings • Student Competitions • Hardware • Software • Paper • Ethics • T-shirt • March 15th-18th in Orlando, FL

3. SECON Hardware Competition Rules • Robots must navigate a course autonomously, measuring electrical signals to point it in the right direction. • Four rooms in the course, each with a central box with metal plates on them. In each room, robots will have to complete a different task: • Measuring the voltage across two metal plates • Measuring the temperature of a plate • Measuring the capacitance between two plates • Interpreting a signal waveform • Depending on the value measured, robots must take the left or right path around the box.

4. SECON Hardware Competition Robot Guidelines • Autonomous • No size or weight limitations • Scoring is largely based around how many measurements our robot correctly reads consecutively, so our robot would have an advantage to be lighter, and therefore faster. • Visible start switch/button • Must operate in bounds of course

5. Details on Tasks • Task 1: Measuring Voltage • V > 11V → go right • V < 9V → go left • Can source 10mA • Plate polarity is not specified, therefore take absolute value of magnitude • Voltage ranges from 5V to 15V • Task 2: Temperature • 10° > room temperature → go right • 10° < room temperature → go left • Room temperature is the ambient air temperature of the competition room

6. Details on Tasks (cont.) • Task 3: Measuring Capacitance • C > 550nF → go right • C < 450nF → go left • Non-polarized caps • Capacitance ranges from 10nF to 10μF • Maximum voltage tolerance of 12V • Task 4: Interpret Signal Waveform • Square wave → go right • Sawtooth wave → go left • f≈ 100kHz • Can source 10mA • Signal will be 5VRMS

7. Course Layout • Rooms are 3’x3’. • Boxes are 1’x6”x6”. • Pathways around boxes are 1’ wide. • Metal plates on boxes are 1”x6” and are spaced 0.5” apart. • Course walls are 3.5” high.

8. Course Layout (cont.) • Hash marks indicate the entrance to a room and the task number (ex. 3 hash marks indicates task number 3). • Hash marks are 0.5” wide and are spaced 0.5” apart.

9. Hardware • Our robot must be aware of its surroundings. To do this, our robot will carry a variety of sensors, including: • Voltage • Thermometer • Capacitance • Line Follower (for navigation) • Ultrasonic Range Finder (to avoid walls, boxes, etc.) • Oscilloscope (to interpret signal waveform)

10. Software • Our robot must also be intelligent enough to know what to do with its surroundings. In order for the robot to be fully autonomous, it will carry many microcontrollers, one which will act as the motherboard and many others will act as subsequent daughterboards. • We will be programming these microcontrollers in the C and C++ languages. The code we will be writing will allow the our robot to process information gathered by the sensors listed previously.

11. Drive Train • Pros: • Central pivot point • Great for navigating tough terrain and over obstacles • Cheaper • Reliable • Cons: • Slower • Pros: • Omnidirectional • Strafes laterally • Faster • Cool • Cons: • Expensive • Complicated Tank Treads Omni Wheel Drive

12. Drive Train (cont.) Omni Wheel Drive will allow our robot to move forward for a given time and then slide left or right, without having to pivot first. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUs7I9iEnfk&feature=player_embedded Omni Wheel Drive

13. SECON Team Organization

14. SECON Team Organization (cont.) • Team Responsibilities • Systems Team • write objectives, write requirements, allocate requirements to robot construction, coordinate technical work • Essentially, this is a planning team • Hardware Team • circuit design and production, soldering, microcontrollers, microcontroller peripherals, sensors, power • Software Team • C and C++ programming, navigation algorithms, signal processing, motor controllers • Mechanical/Civil Team • drive train design and production, robot structure, test field construction

15. SECON Team Organization (cont.) • What We Need • Project Manager • Systems Team Lead • Hardware Team Lead • Software Team Lead • Mechanical/Civil Team Lead • At least 5 dedicated members per team • Team Sign-Ups • You can be a member of as many teams as you’d like. • You don’t experience in the field you’re interested in! You’re here learn!