sd-may1014 team: michael peat, kollin moore, matt rich, alex reifert advisors: dr. nicola elia and...

MicroCART Senior Design Project

Phase 5

SD-May1014 Team: Michael Peat, Kollin Moore, Matt Rich, Alex ReifertAdvisors: Dr. Nicola Elia and Dr. Phillip Jones

Objective: Create a small electrically powered autonomous flying vehicle capable of takeoff and landing from horizontal surfaces as well as stable indoor hover without human assistance.

Operating Environment:◦ Indoors and Unobstructed Area◦ Within Range of Position Tracking System

End Use and Users:◦ The intended end use of our system will be

continued research and development into the area of autonomous flight systems.

◦ The intended users will be knowledgeable engineering students and/or professors.

Project Plan

Overall System Design

Helicopter Flight

Mechanics

Radio Controller

Onboard Sensors:• IR Camera•Accelerometer•Wireless Transmitter

Ground Station

Power System◦ Designed a step-down buck converter circuit to power the

Wiimote sensors using the helicopter’s battery Required since the battery provides 7.4V and the Wiimote only requires

3.3V

◦ Currently exists on a breadboard circuit, will try and make the package smaller so it will only add minimal weight to the helicopter system

Helicopter Model◦ Researching various papers and also the models created by the

previous MicroCART group◦ The end goal is to design a Simulink block diagram to maintain

helicopter stability during flight◦ Has been very challenging up to this point because many

models are designed to work with standard helicopter blade configuration rather than coaxial

Power System and Modeling

Wii data analysis function completely re-written:◦ Improved efficiency (run time, memory usage…) , overall analysis

capabilties (4 IR sets), expandability, and commenting significantly.

Modified Cwiid code◦ Outputs re-formatted , timestamp added, file output and numbering

added

Fabricated a cradle attaching Wii-mote to helicopter◦ Modified existing Aluminum brackets and a portion of original Wii-mote

case

Beginning further sensor testing◦ Constellations, data resolutions, disturbance spectrum

characterization…

Wii-Remote Programming and Cradle Manufacturing

Reading Xbox Controller◦ Rewrote and adapted software being used by Korebot

Project◦ Tested and all inputs are working and available

Manipulating values appropriately◦ Mapped Xbox inputs to helicopter throttle, pitch, roll and

yaw values.◦ Tested and appropriate values are being generated.

Sending data using RS232 Serial port◦ Sends Channel Command followed by value to FPGA

state machine.◦ Found current maximum refresh rate of 2ms.◦ Appropriate voltage levels are seen at the DAC outputs.

Programming

Traditionally used by physically changing potentiometers that in turn changed 4 control voltages

We decided to use the controller in a new way by directly changing the control voltages with a computer program◦ We first measured the control voltages and recorded how

they varied ◦ After carefully labeling the different control channels we

stripped the controller of nonessential parts including the potentiometers

◦ First we test our idea by connecting the controller to controlled power source

◦ We finally connected the controller to a DAC and FPGA that allowed us to connect directly to our team laptop

RC Controller

Schedule

Data Aquistion Testing

Model Design

Data Analysis

Controller Design and Testing

End Product Testing

End Product Documentation

2/11/2010

2/21/2010

3/3/2010

3/13/2010

3/23/2010

4/2/2010

4/12/2010

4/22/2010

5/2/2010

Any Questions ?