Week 1: The 'body' of the automatic following car was finished

Our work:

1.     Build the body of the automatic following car
2.     Collect some data about the communication between two Arduinos.

Method: 
Firstly, we used a plank to simulate the ‘body’ of the carriage. Secondly, some screws and nuts were used to fix the motors to the plank. Next, we used a motor driver L293D to control the speed and the direction of the two motors at the same time. We found some information of this IC in the internet. The interpretations of each pin mode of this motor driver can be found in the figure below. The link of that web page is: https://roboindia.com/tutorials/nodemcu-motor-driver-pwm


Figure 1: The pin mode of L293D

After learning some basic knowledge of the L293D, we connected the output 3, 4 and GND of the L293D to the motor and the input 3, 4 and enable1/2 to the Arduino. Next, we started to program the motor. The codes can be seen in the figure below. We set the inputs and the outputs first, and then we set a PMW wave to control the motor. 



Figure 2: The codes of the motor

After that, we did some search in order to let two Arduinos ‘talk’ to each other. We have tested several methods, however, the problem have not been solved yet.

Results:


Figure 3: The connection of the ‘body’ of the baby carriage

Problems:
1.     We cannot make two Arduinos to communicate with each other.

As a result, we did some basic work this week. We developed the ‘body’ of the automatic following car and we also found some useful information to solve the ‘communication problem’.

Here comes the plan for next week:
1.     Solve the ‘communication problem’
2.     Install the ultrasonic device
3.     Collect some data about using the Bluetooth module

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Week 4: We got it

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Our work: 1. Refine the wire length in a proper visualization 2. Add some “feedback” functions to effectively control and monitor the car.  Method: Firstly, reduce the redundant wires such on the polarity. Next, to improve the integrated system, the feedback, as the significant part in a system, should be considered by adding monitor. The buzzer was chose as the output signal to inform customer that the car is out of limiting distance (50 cm) from their position. Two pins on the buzzer, one for ground and the other is for pin on Arduino, which could be activated by processor. Finally, the initial speed of car is too fast to easily test. Therefore, the PWM number was adjusted to 150 as the minimum number which could drive the motors. It is also have an interval to calculate the codes during the movement. What is more, the application of this model was re-discussed as the “auto-convey”, for example, it could be applied in factory, bank and supermarket. It will r...
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All the test videos

Video 1: First test, the car can do some movements but can not respond properly Video 1: Second test, the car can do some response movements when it detect the handle Video 3: The final test of the automatic following car
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Week 3: We are almost there

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Our work: 1.      Upgrade the construction by removing a slaver Arduino on the car 2.      The car initially could recognize the signal source and have some response movements. Method: The original hypothesis is to modulate each function as a component model. The alternative way is to synthesize the total car by using only one processor, which means impose one master processer instead of attachment slaver. Thus, there are only one master and one slaver communicating with wireless modulation which called as 315 mhz remote control. After connecting each wire, the predictable result is that when one distance of slaver ultrasonic is near to that of master, the wheels will rotate. These testing programs only ensure the conception was correct. The most complex part is to constrain the condition codes to make the response sense. In details, three slaver distances on the car compare to the distance on the controller, which difference is...
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