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ZacharyTaylor edited this page Oct 16, 2011 · 9 revisions

Project Goal

This was taken from the initial project list:

The aim of this project is to take the departments go-karts and build in a system to replace the human driver. This will entail (at least), selection of appropriate actuators, motion and distance sensors, development of a navigation system, an interface to the existing control system, and a central computing platform. A suitable navigational goal would include a circumnavigation of S block.

Purpose

To retrofit one of the EE department's electric go-karts with a drive by wire system, controllable over a single USB interface. Add to this a simple example of a closed-loop controller using sensors and software running on a *nix laptop.

Method

To accomplish this goal a system for controlling the kart was designed. This design used five identical boards each containing one micro-controller and attached to a CAN bus. The details of the network connections can be found on the Can bus page.

Each board performed one task. These tasks were

  • Controlling the brake actuator
  • Controlling the steering servo
  • Communicating with the laptop
  • Pulling data off the sensors
  • Communicating with the current power electronics

For more info on the board design, see Board Design.

Behavioural-level software runs on a laptop connected to this network via USB on the Comms board. The current state of the software running on the laptop is gone into on the Computer Vision page.

Future Work

Develop a more complete sensor network (possibly including computer vision in collaboration with COSC428) alongside more advanced controller software.

More information

For a more information on an area of the project see the links to the area of interest found on the Home page