November 2023

Obstacle Avoidance

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The micromouse is made up of sensors for productivity and effectiveness of the motors, it has the microswitch, the white line sensors, the ultrasonic sensors and finally the infrared sensors. First, the Infrared sensors and microswitches are the main sensors for detecting obstacles. Luckily for us, the microswitch was attached to our prototype for building the motors.

Now for the infrared sensors, we had to build according to the schematic given to us, as the Infra-red sensors are far more useful in detecting avoidance even before collision.  We have a complex circuit to generate and demodulate the light at two frequencies, at 40KHz pulsed at 20Hz. The double modulation makes the sensors, immune to interference and reduces the current consumption.

Our goal for Obstacle avoidance, is for the micromouse must avoid contact with walls and every obstacle without physical contact, we would like the micromouse to move away swiftly from obstacle.

To test our circuit, we connected the probes at every points A to E to confirm that our circuit was connected properly and can be used on our PCB

Below we have the schematic design of the Infrared sensor with an optical filter to detect obstacles.

Point A

For point A, on the schematic above, there should be a 20Hz square waveform on the oscilloscope. That is shown below, and it proves that we connected Point A correctly.

Our result on the oscilloscope is shown on the right.

Point B

Moving onto to Point B, according to the handbook, we should be getting a differentiated square wave, which is shown below.

Point C

Point C has a burst of 40KHz square wave.

Point D

Point D is the output of the IR Sensors

Point E

Point E is the threshold voltage for detection

P.S The schematic design is given for the Infrared circuit is given by Dr Jobling and Dr Davies our tutors.

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November Blog

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During the month of November me and Ethan spent the majority of our time getting our micro mouse to run and have function touch bar sensors. We had a few set backs and plenty to troubleshoot. Firstly the tachometers on the motors were attached backwards and secondly the motors turn in the opposite direction as to the previous years motors. For the tachometers we carefully removed and flipped them and to have the motors move forward as intended we needed to alter some code. Finally our last issue was following the guidance of the handbook we wired the touch bars in a slightly different way which meant we had to make further minor adjustments to the code. After this was all complete we had a working micro mouse and it was very satisfying seeing our hard work in troubleshooting paying off. As a group we also looked at ethics in engineering which gave us all a better understanding of each other and how to conduct ourselves in the professional field of engineering.

The next steps will be to finalise testing of our IR sensors and breadboard components so they can be soldered to our PCB design which will be completed early next month. Following on to this we will integrate this onto our micro mouse and hopefully by the end of next month we will have functioning micro mouse with both touch bar and IR sensors., which is very exciting to see.

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November Blog

Leave a Comment / Dara's Blogs /

This month, we started building the PCB circuit so we could have the circuit ready for January for breadboarding for the main bits on the mouse, also last month we struggled to get the sensors ready because we had some issues with the coding, and we had not soldered the wires to the sensors, so the motor just kept spinning round without making any movement, but we managed to get it fixed with Doctor Davies’s help. This month we also completed the experiments on the raspberry pi board, although we work as a team and design the micromouse on the raspberry pi board, Doctor Jobling thought it was good idea to make us work in teams of 2 and do experiments on the raspberry pi board to give us more idea as to how it works and when we were done with the experiments ,we were able to fully concentrate on the micromouse.

After the experiments Andrew and I added a few more details to the website to improve it, if you take a look at the website, a few things that were not there last month was added, like the new pages in the menu, the news, engineering in society section and so on. We added some pictures and a short biography on all the members section too. And now we finally have a logo, a cute one at that. Check out the new section for more information and see you next month.

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November Blog

Leave a Comment / Andrew's Blogs /

This month we had significant progress regarding the basic structures of the micromouse. Ethan and Rhys were able to establish the code of the micro mouse in order to run forward, reverse, and walk in another direction, avoiding the obstacle. I started working on the PCB that will be used to implement the infrared sensors circuit. The website has improved from last month, as Dara and I improved its structure, creating all the basic pages and placing them into the main menu. For the following month before Christmas, we will try to implement the remaining features that need to be created and also finish the design of the website. I will finish constructing the PCB layout so then it can be printed to be sold next year when we come back from holidays.

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Ethics in Engineering statement from Ethan

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Honesty and Integrity

The first point in the joint ethics statement that was put out by the engineering council is about honesty and integrity. I will uphold these values and principles throughout the project by communicating openly and honestly with the rest of the team, as well as being respectful of the other teams and their micro mouse. I will also be striving to avoid deceiving the other teams with false information that may affect their progress on their micro mouse.

Respect for life, law, the environment and public

Upholding the principles of being caring and understanding of how the materials I will use in the micro mouse will be important to me, especially with all the news at the moment about the widespread damage being done to the environment. Also, I will be communicating to the team about wanting to reuse components from the lab bins as well as from previous projects that are no longer used. To keep myself and others safe I will be adhering to the lab rules set out by the lab technicians and lecturers.

Accuracy and rigour

During this project I will be striving to ensure the safety and proper operation of the lab by making sure that I have received or am receiving the proper induction from the lab technicians. I will also be making sure to uphold some of the values also mentioned in the Honesty and Integrity heading which include the accuracy of information and data that we put on our webpage and to only give other teams honest answers if they ask me for help.

Leadership and communication

While I am not in a position of leadership within the team, I will still strive to promote equality, diversity and inclusion within the team as this would allow for multiple different viewpoints and solutions that can be put across by people with different backgrounds. I will also be challenging any statements made by team members or other teams that could damage the professionalism of our team to make sure our team will only be seen in a positive and friendly way.

IET rules of conduct

I make the commitment to upholding and understanding the IET rules of conduct to the best of my ability. This includes making sure all the information and content in the web page is correct and valid to my knowledge as well as keeping my skills up to date. This code of conduct’s provides a detailed basis for ethical practices within engineering.

To further improve my own knowledge and understanding of ethics in engineering I have watched some YouTube videos from channels such as CrashCourse(Engineering Ethics: Crash Course Engineering #27 – YouTube) which provided some other ethics and situation which are applicable. Another source of ethics which I have been interested in is the Engineering Commons Podcast (Episode 12 — Ethics | The Engineering Commons Podcast) which is an interesting listen.

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November blog from Ethan

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This month I assisted Rhys with ironing out some of the issues we encountered within the code as the obstacle avoidance was not working. The micro mouse would just spin on the spot or if it did hit something it wouldn’t reverse. Dr Davies helped us work it out and it now works much better and does avoid obstacles but unfortunately there is still a software issue in that the left motor spins slower than the right motor. I will be looking at the PWM stuff in case that is the issue and if not then we will need to seek further assistance. I also have written my ethics statement based on the Engineering council guidelines which was interesting to learn as I have not read about ethics in engineering before, I think it will also help me be a better and more understanding teammates.

I am looking forward to the work we will be doing in the next month as it should mean we will see the micro mouse come along and start to perform much better.  It will be gratifying when we can see the micro mouse functioning properly and then we can move onwards towards completing the PCB design.

November blog from Ethan Read More »

PCB Design of IR Circuit

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We are currently starting the PCB design of the IR circuit on the Proteus software. Mr David Moody gave a briefing about it, and it needs to be completed on the 5th of December. Also, our website is coming along really nicely so Andrew would be moving on to starting a new project on the PCB, we would be helping him later on, but he’s got a head start. We have also got a great going on the breadboards.

All good news!

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October Blog By Rhys

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During this month we completed some team building exercises, then wrote our preferred roles and abilities down so we could be sorted into teams to start our micro-mouse project. For the first week together as a team we discussed are abilities and what our strengths are to the distribute roles. We made sure at least two were assigned to most roles so there is effective cover. I’ve taken a secondary role in the software and coding side of the project alongside Ethan, as well as, some project planning responsibilities with Dara. My primary responsibility will be the sensors on the micro-mouse. During the last two weeks of October I completed a bread-board circuit of two IR sensors, which can be seen in the image. Moving forward I will test the sensors sensitivity to make sure we have a pair of sensors with the closest matching level of sensitivity which can then be used in our micro-mouse.

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October Blog from Ethan

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During this first month we met our other teammates and did some bonding exercises, so we got to know each other. We also decided our roles for the project. I will be doing the electronic hardware along with Andrew as well as doing the software with Rhys. We split these tasks between multiple people so that they are more manageable and causes less stress within the team.

At the start of this month, we created a team page for Team Foxtrot so we can all communicate and send files to each other more easily. On this webpage we setup tasks which allow us to easily see what we need to do and when the deadline for those tasks is. Also, this month myself and Rhys have made a breadboard circuit using the IR sensors which will allow us to see and understand how the Micro mouse sensors will work. The basic layout of the micro mouse was also done as I have attached the motors and bearings to the chassis of the robot.

In the upcoming month we should be able to complete the IR sensor circuit and then we can progress onto the designing of the shell of the micro mouse as well as having a group conversation about the special feature our micro mouse will have. I will be doing some of the software as well.

October Blog from Ethan Read More »

October Blog

Leave a Comment / Andrew's Blogs /

During this past month, we were building team exercises to find the most appropriate team members for our group project, where we would write our strengths so we could pair up with the appropriate people. Afterward, I met with the other group members that I am going to stay with for the year building the micro mouse. It was exciting to see how each of the team members had different and creative perspectives as we were discussing our roles in the team and what it can they could do within their desired roles. In the end after dividing the roles evenly, where I was assigned to assist Ethan with the hardware while being a Web Master with Dara, being its Administrator.

After the team was built, we were still adjusting to our roles, therefore, we decided to start to work on the infrared sensors for the micro mouse. During that, the website was created for us to document our work and our blog posts. At the end of the month, Rhys was able to finalize the infrared sensor circuit as me and . For the upcoming month we aim to finish the infrared sensors and have them calibrated and be ready to implement them into the base of the micromouse’s chassis.

October Blog Read More »

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