Platform 1: Hobby Electric Remote Control Car

	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.