Mozart TEAM MOZART Alex Bostandjiev Computer Engineer Ivan

Mozart!

TEAM MOZART Alex Bostandjiev - Computer Engineer Ivan Dryanovski - Electrical Engineer Bob Lynch - Project Manager Dr. Ken Krebs - Faculty Advisor Steve Spadafore - Technical Consultant

Team MOZART. . . where are Krebs and Steve?

Team MOZART

The 12 th Annual Trinity College Firefighting Robot Contest April 9 - 10, 2005 Hartford, CT

Contest Objective: The main challenge of this contest is to build an autonomous computer-controlled robot that can find its way through an arena that represents a model house, find a lit candle that represents a fire in the house, and extinguish the fire in the shortest time. This task simulates the real-world operation of an autonomous robot performing a fire protection function in a real house. The goal of the contest is to advance robot technology and knowledge while using robotics as an educational tool.

CONTEST RULES • Robot Operation Once turned on, the robot must be autonomous--self-controlled without any human intervention. A robot may bump into or touch the walls of the arena as it travels, but it cannot mark, dislodge or damage the walls in doing so. The robot must have found the candle before it attempts to put it out.

CONTEST RULES • Putting out the Candle The robot must not use any destructive or dangerous methods to put out the candle. It may use such substances as water, air, CO 2, etc. , but any method or material that is dangerous or will damage the arena is prohibited. The robot must come within 30 cm of the candle before it attempts to extinguish the flame.

CONTEST RULES • Robot Size The robot must be able to fit in a box 31 cm long by 31 cm wide by 27 cm high. The robot cannot separate into multiple parts and must never extend itself beyond the 31 cm allowed.

CONTEST RULES • The Candle The candle flame will be from 15 cm to 20 cm above the floor level. The exact height and size of the flame will change throughout the contest depending upon the condition of candle and its surroundings. The robot is required to find the candle no matter what the size of the flame is at that particular moment. The candle will be placed at random in one of the rooms in the arena.

CONTEST RULES • Time Limits In order to achieve the contest objective of building a robot that can find and extinguish a fire in a house, finding the fire within a reasonable period of time is very important. The maximum time limit for a robot to find the candle will be 5 minutes.

CONTEST SCORING • Operating Modes üStandard Mode (1. 0 MF) X Sound Activation Mode (0. 95 MF) üReturn Trip Mode (0. 8 MF) üExtinguisher Mode (0. 85 MF) X Furniture Mode (0. 75 MF) X Uneven Floor Mode (0. 8 MF) X Clutter Mode (0. 8 MF)

CONTEST SCORING • Penalties § Continuous Contact With a Wall (1 second for every 2 cm) § Touching the Candle (50 seconds)

CONTEST SCORING • Room Factor If the candle is in the 1 st room searched, the Room Factor will be 1. 0 If the candle is in the 2 nd room searched, the Room Factor will be 0. 85 If the candle is in the 3 rd room searched, the Room Factor will be 0. 50 If the candle is in the 4 th room searched, the Room Factor will be 0. 35

CONTEST SCORING • Scoring Procedure For any run the judges measure the actual time of the run and they record the operating modes and penalties. Robots with three successful runs (candle extinguished) will form the highest group.

Design of MOZART §Processor - Handyboard §Operating System - Interactive C §Locomotion - 4 Drive Motors §Power - External Battery Pack (Ni. MH) §Structure - K’NEX §Extinguishing Device - Water §Sensors - IR, Ultrasonic, Gyro, UV Detection, Heat Detection

The Handy. Board Description: • Commercially available microcontroller system • Based on a Motorola 6811 chip • Battery-powered • 32 K of memory Quantity: 1 • Two-line LCD display • 4 outputs to DC motors • Analog & Digital inputs • Digital outputs • Servo outputs

The Handy. Board The Digital Inputs • Take ~0 V or ~5 V as input • Convert to FALSE or TRUE The Analog Inputs Quantity: 1 • Take anywhere from 0 V to 5 V as input • Convert to a number from 0 to 255 • ( 1 byte of memory space)

The Handy. Board Advantages • Easy to use & interface with computer • Well documented • “Plug-and-play” sensor & motor support Disadvantages Quantity: 1 • Low power output • Unreliable at times • Odd sensor input behavior

Sharp GP 2 D 12: Infrared Detector Package Description • Operates with infrared light • Detects proximity of objects Advantages • Very narrow field of sight • Very fast update rate • Reliable • Little dependence on surface color / shape Quantity: 6 Disadvantages • Low distance accuracy (to within 3 -4 cm) • Cannot detect objects closer than 10 cm

Devantech SRF 04: Ultrasonic Range Sensor Description • Operates with high-frequency sound • Detects proximity of objects Advantages Quantity: 1 • Wide field of “sight” • Good distance accuracy (to within 1 cm) • Good minimum range (2 – 3 cm) Disadvantages • Slow update rate • Occasional erroneous readings

Hamamatsu C 3704/R 2868: UV Flame Detector Package Description Detects UV radiation Advantages • 360 -degree field of sight • High sensitivity • Reliable Quantity: 1 Disadvantages • Positioning difficulties

Eltec 442 -3: Pyroelectric Sensor Package Description Detects heat (infrared) radiation Can detect candle flame or body heat Advantages • Very high angular precision Disadvantages • Very slow update rate • Unreliable Quantity: 2

ADXRS 150: Angular Rate Sensor Description Detects rate of turning (angular velocity about the vertical axis) Quantity: 1 Advantages • Very light and small • Fast update • Very accurate for small intervals • Reliable Disadvantages • Error builds up for longer intervals of time

Standard 180º Servo Description Rotates to a specified angle Advantages • Accurate • Fast Quantity: 2 Disadvantages • High power consumption

Water Pump Controller Quantity: 1 Description • Water pump: 12 V motor • Send low-power signal from Handy. Board to external circuit • External circuit amplifies power

A Regular Week of the Programmer…

Week of the Competition…

What does this: involve?

Inputs -> Black Box -> Outputs ?

Can you find an analogy with something else?

An analogy. .

Remember: Inputs -> Black Box -> Outputs ? Functions… F (input 1, input 2, … , input 3) = output

Examples from our functions: • Navigate the maze : : Remember where you are • Movement: • • – – Turn left Turn right Go forward Go backward Follow the wall (left or right) Transform input data into something that makes sense Speak : : Sing When found fire: – – Scan for fire Approach candle Extinguish Swivel ! • Go home + many, many others…

Example: Transforming IR input • • Input : : number between 0 and 255 ? ? ? Transform into distance (centimeters) Split the curve into different parts Fit a polynomial

What is Interactive C • a C language designed for programming robots using the RCX, XBC or Handyboard robot controller

Connections

IC consists of: • compiler (with interactive command-line • • compilation and debugging) run-time machine language module context sensitive editor built in documentation ability to upload data from the robot controller back to the host pc

Processes: allow multi-sensing!

IC implements a subset of C including: • • control structures (for, while, if, else) local and global variables arrays pointers structures 16 -bit and 32 -bit integers 32 -bit floating point numbers

Built in libraries support a variety of sensors and actuators including: • • • servo and DC motors sonars encoders touch and light sensors the CMUcam color tracker the XBC camera multi-color tracking system

Strategy!

MOVIES… • Testing – 3 rd person – 1 st person – 2 nd person? !? • Competition

Mozart placed 7 th out of 60 robots

Competition Troubleshooting • • Aligning the robot with the candle Blind Spot Too Many Processes Return to Home

Improvements for Next Year • • Fabricated Design Nozzle Water Reservoir External Battery Pack Placement of Handyboard Staircase - Track Drive Sound Activation

If you like what we’ve done (Or think it’s crap and you can do better) Join the F&M Robotics Club Next Semester And work on a competitive project For more info, email idryanov@fandm. edu Or ken. krebs@fandm. edu