ECE 290: Senior Design Autonomous Fire Robot

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ECE 290Senior DesignAutonomous Fire Robot

• Kenneth Cole
• Sean Pow
• Hau Truong

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Summary

• Advisor John Ayers
• Sponsor Department of Electrical/Computer
  Engineering

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Summary

• The 9th Annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting
  Robot Contest will be on April 21, 2002.
• Our Aim is to build a robot that will be a
  serious contender in this International Event.

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Summary The Robot

• Stand-alone system, self-controlled.
• Must locate and extinguish a lit candle within a
  model of a single floor house.
• House layout www.trincoll.edu/events/robot/images
  /arena02.gif
• Should not bump into walls or the candle.

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Summary The Robot

• An exciting challenge!
• Involves integration of mechanical, electrical,
  and computer knowledge.

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Objective 1

• To successfully create a robot, subject to the
  parameters defined by the Trinity College Contest
  Rules and Regulations, which will compete in the
  April 21, 2002 competition.

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Objective 2

• Combine the knowledge and skills of a 3-person
  team to successfully perform the task of
  designing and implementing a complex
  multidisciplinary engineering project.

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Objective 3

• Reach for the goals that the Fire Robot Contest
  is promoting
• Creativity
• Originality
• Invention
• Education

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Background Information

• Our fire-extinguishing robot will be an
  autonomous, microcontroller-based robot. It must
  be able to find the candle flame and extinguish
  it quickly and efficiently.
• The robot can put out the candle with such items
  as water, air, CO2, Halon, etc., but any method
  or material that is dangerous or will damage the
  arena is prohibited.
• The arena itself will be shown on the Video Tape.

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Background Information (cont)

• We will not be allowed to touch or measure the
  candle before it is used and we will also not be
  allowed to place any makers, beacons or
  reflectors on the walls or floors for navigation.
  In the contest, we will be given time between
  trials to make any adjustments, modifications or
  repairs to our robot. We also will have up to 1
  minute for the robot to initialize and begin and
  the robot must find and extinguish the candle
  within 5 minutes.

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History of Contest

• In the first year of the Fire-Robot competition,
  there were only 26 robots, of which only 3
  successfully extinguished the candle twice and
  none of which extinguished the candle in a third
  attempt. Since then the competition has become
  an international event with 107 qualifying robots
  in the 2001 contest. In fact, the Trinity
  competition has become so respected that it has
  been replicated in other parts of the world.
• The 9th Annual Contest will be held on April 21,
  2002 at Trinity College in Hartford.

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Our Design

• The Trinity College robot competition is divided
  into three classes
• Junior (Grade 8 and Below),
• High School (Grades 9 through 13),
• Senior (college students and adults), and
• Expert (experienced adults).
• We will be entering the competition in the
  Senior division such that any Operating Mode
  options are available and the candle may be
  located in any one of the four rooms.

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Our Design (cont)

• Our project requires a multidisciplinary
  approach to solving this problem since the
  components involved will use many types of
  engineering.
• The most important parts of our design will be
  the reliability and adaptability of the robot.
  There will be a large difference in the inputs
  and outputs of all of our components due to
  environmental changes. We would like the robot
  to be adaptable to the conditions that it is put
  in.

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The Frame

• Circular for minimal turning radius
• Plexiglas platforms
• Base Platform
• Distance and Line detectors, Drive Motors,
  Wheels, and Batteries
• Center Platform Microcontroller and Drive
  Circuitry
• Top Platform Flame sensors and Fan

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Motors

• In-Place rotation to avoid walls and objects
• 2 DC Motor-driven wheels
• Reversible, high torque, low current, low
  voltage
• 2 Swivel wheels for stability
• Both motors driven by Dual Full-H Bridge chip
  UDN2916B

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Fire-Extinguishing

• DC Fan Motor
• High torque at high speed, high current, low
  voltage

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Wall and Object Detection

• 4 - SHARP GP2D02 Infrared Rangers
• Ability to determine position in arena
• Impervious to color and reflectivity of object
• 10cm (4") to 80cm (30")
• Serial 8-bit clocked output

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Flame Detection

• UVTron Flame Detector
• Sensitive inside 185-260nm
• Susceptible to UV light
• Eltec Pyroelectric Sensor
• Heat-Sensing
• Responds to IR Wavelengths

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Line Sensing

• White line will indicate room entry
• White circle will indicate 30cm circle around
  candle permitting fire extinguishing attempts
• QRB 1114 Phototransistor
• - Responds to reflectivity of object
• - Susceptible to ambient light
• - Mounted ¼ from floor for optimal SNR

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PIC Microcontroller

• Brains of the robot
• Multiple inputs and outputs
• PIC 16F874
• Assembly language programming
• Flexibility Up to 8 analog inputs
• Pins as inputs or outputs
• Interface programming for threshold
  adaptation

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Software

• Extensive programming for optimal technique
• Determine position and orientation using distance
  measurements and table of values
• Select algorithm from table to search all rooms
  based on position in arena
• - Dead-Reckoning
• Execute algorithm until fire is found
• Extinguish the fire

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Budget
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Timeline
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Conclusion

• The Trinity College Autonomous Fire-Fighting
  Robot Competition is meant to further robotic
  knowledge and to encourage innovative ideas. We
  have used our prior experience to begin the
  design of an effective and reliable robot for
  this purpose. Although a lack of parts has
  prevented us from completing formal testing and
  implementation, we are confident of completing a
  robot that will be a strong contender in the
  robot competition on April 21, 2001.

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Questions? Comments?