Platform 1: H obby E lectric R emote C ontrol C ar

	Input	Processing	Output	Feedback Loop
Software (Dynamic)	Machine Vision GPUCV			System Modeling PID controller
Software (Static)	OS Selection
High Level	Remote Communication	Computer Platform Selection	Remote Communication
	On-Vehicle Interface		On-Vehicle Interface
Low Level	Remote Control	Embedded Platform Selection	Motor Driver Interface
Hardware (Dynamic)	Sensors
Hardware (Static)	Add-on Frame
Physical (Dynamic)	EMI/EMC
Physical (Static)	Add-on Frame

Project 2a: Sensors

With the goal of autonomous navigation, the students shall research an array of possible sensors, assess their functionality, and develop a solution with one type (or more) of sensor(s) with the following goals:

· Obstacle Avoidance

· Route Identification

· Quality and preciseness of data such as distance

· Area coverage (blind spots, etc)

· High refresh rate for full sweeps

· Analog vs. Digital performance

Goals:

· Assess various sensors by measuring cost, performance, overhead, resolution and precision, distance and reproducibility of the information;

· Design a solution that is capable of identifying obstacles of various spacing between each, up to 5 meters away;

· Demonstrate the design’s strengths, shortcomings, and an assessment of its performance vs risk (i.e., long range but slow refresh, wide sweep area but fuzzy resolution, etc).

For the Professor: Successful sensors that have been used in the past are SONAR (Ultrasonic emitter and receiver), IR (infrared emitter and receiver), and LIDAR (Laser emitter and receiver). A combination of these has always yielded stronger results, if properly managed.