Remote Surveillance Vehicle Design Review

1
Remote Surveillance VehicleDesign Review

• By Bill Burgdorf
• Tom Fisher
• Eleni Binopolus-Rumayor

2
Outline

• The Vision
• User Interface Design
• UI Software Implementation
• Hardware Design and Implementation
• Wireless Network Design
• Milestones
• Design Issues
• Cost Analysis
• Final Project Thoughts

3
The Vision

• The user would effectively be able to drive the
  vehicle and view the updated position from the
  software user interface. This type of project
  design could be practical applied to various
  remote control applications.
• This project will include the use of
• A software user interface communicating with a
  vehicle using a wireless ad-hoc network.
• A microprocessor which is used for motor control
  and wireless communication
• A video sensor is used to capture images of the
  cars environment.
• The captured images of the car's position will be
  displayed on the UI
• The movement of the car position would then be
  controlled from the user interface.

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User Interface Proposed
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User Interface Implementation
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User Interface Implementation
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User Interface Design

• The user interface for this project will be done
  entirely in software.
• The application will communicate with and control
  the network adapter to connect to the car's
  wireless card via an Ad-Hoc connection.
• The interface application will act as an input
  receiving the video image from the car.
• The application will also contain all of the
  vehicle movement controls.
• Increase/decrease speed and turn left/right.
• A joystick can also be used to control of the
  vehicle.
• Joysticks produce two continuous values in the
  range of -1.0 to 1.0 that correspond to the x
  translation component (left and right) and the y
  translation component (forward and reverse).

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UI Software Implementation

• Java based platform. Eclipse will be used as the
  development environment. As for UI components SWT
  will be used.
• Dialog boxes for authentication
• Message boxes for error messages
• SWT browser used to display video image
• Slider Bar to indicate steering position
• Application will receive joystick input from Java
  3D, which stores the position information as a
  transform matrix with an identity rotation
• Data will be transferred via a UDP protocol.
• java.net.DatagramPacket provides a wrapper for
  an array of bytes from which data will be sent or
  into which data will be received.
• java.net.DatagramSocket creates a local
  connection to a port that does the sending and
  receiving.

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Wireless Network Design
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Hardware Design and Implementation

• WRAP.2C Single Board Computer
• 1 Compact Flash, 2 miniPCI, 1 Serial, 1 I2C
• 128MB Compact Flash Disk
• Plenty of storage for OS and custom code
• Atheros miniPCI 802.11 Adapter
• Supported by MADWIFI open source Linux driver
• Devantech SD20 Servo Controller
• I2C bus will control both servos
• ME2000 Embedded Linux Environment
• Derivative of LEAF Network Appliance OS
• D-Link DCS-900W Wireless Camera
• Independent wireless connection
• Embedded web server for video streaming

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Wireless Network Design
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Design Issues

• Bandwidth required for the wireless link.
• The video image captured will need to be
  displayed at a low resolution (320x240)
• Frame rate my also need to be reduced (1 - 20
  FPS)
• Range of the wireless network.
• At some point the signal will be dropped and all
  communication will be lost with the car.
• The solution to this issue will be having the car
  stop immediately if the link is lost
• Power consumption

13
Milestones

• Car computer software environment configured with
  access to 802.11b adapter.
• Computer and car have established a wireless
  link.
• Design user application shell with control codes
  being sent
• Car computer correctly controls speed control and
  servo.
• Car receives codes from the user interface via
  the wireless link.
• Car computer transmits video to the user
  application.
• Finish user application to read video and display
  it on the screen correctly.

14
Cost Analysis

• Estimated Total Cost 420-500
• Movement Control
• Car Kit - 25
• Speed Control - 30
• Servo - 15
• Board
• Microcontroller with wireless - 176
• Servo Controller - 17.50
• Video Sensor
• Web Camera - 105
• Camera Battery - 39
• User Interface
• Joystick - 10.95

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Final Project Thoughts

• The technical hurdle in this implementation will
  come from actually configuring the wireless
  connection links between the devices.
• Other difficulties may come from accurately
  controlling the cars position and camera delay.