WDARF

1
W-DARF

• Project Team
• Adam Medina
• Barry Burnside
• Michael L. Hostetler

2
Project Motivation

• Tragedy On December 3, 1999 6 firefighters died
  in Worcester, MA. It was considered the worst
  fire related tragedy in 27 years. A search team
  was lost, calling for help on the radio. A
  rescue team went in to find them. The rescue
  team was lost due to lack of visibility and no
  knowledge of floor plan. All 6 firefighters
  perished.
• There became a need to locate lost
  firefighters in buildings

3
Overview

• Our projects purpose
• What is a W-DARF ?
• Original Project Concept
• Revised Project
• Robot System
• System Hardware
• System Software
• Prototype Robot

4
Our Projects Purpose

• Begin solving the proposed problem by defining
  the system (i.e system components and hardware)
• Design a basic robot to lay the foundation for
  further research
• Solve the problem of locating the RF ID signal,
  tracing a path to the signal and communication
  between the robot and the base station (BS)

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What is W-DARF ?

• Wireless Deployable Autonomous Robot for
  Firefighter Rescue
• Wireless Robot communicates back to a base
  station PC using a Bluetooth radio
• Deployable Robot is distributed strategically
  into building
• Autonomous Algorithms allow robot to search and
  move independently
• Robot Is a machine which operates automatically
  to complete a programmed task
• Firefighter Rescue The robots task is to find
  the lost firefighters

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Original Project Concept
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Original Project Concept

• Send multiple robots into a building
• Multiple robots communicating back to one PC base
  station
• CSMA (Collision Sense Multiple Access) type
  communication
• Message sent only when robot turns or finds RF
  tag
• The less messages, the less power used by the
  robots
• robot must sense channel before transmission
• Robots can communicate with one another
• Multi-hop communication between robots
• Robots communicate a message robot to robot until
  the base station is able to be reached
• Difficult implementation

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Original Project

• Project to complex for the time period allotted
• Cost of multiple robots to high for budget

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Revised Project

• Design and build one robot
• Create a PC base station, to create a trace of
  the robots movement, using a LabVIEW Virtual
  Instrument
• Replace complex radio with a simple wireless
  RS232 cable replacement radio
• Find and integrate suitable proximity sensor for
  application (sonar)

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System Hardware

• Wireless Communication Hardware
• Bluetooth RS232 wireless cable replacement
• Radio Frequency ID
• Receiver
• Transponder
• Sonar Proximity Sensor(s)
• Polaroid Sonar Ranging Module

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Limited Coverage of the IR modems (a few meters)
IR Transmission
RS232 Cable (typical 6 feet)
IR HS (robot)
IR BS
PC
Limited Coverage of the IR modems (touching)
RS232 Cable (direct connection)
IR Transmission
RS232 Cable (typical 6 feet)
IR HS (robot)
Radio Frequency Transmission (up to 800 feet)
IR BS
PC
RF BS TX and RX
RF HS TX and RX
Wireless Communications
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Radiotronix Problems

• Evaluation Software
• Null Modem Cable (Crossed Tx and Rx lines)
• DB-9 Null-Modem

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Radiotronix Problems

• Technical Support
• Not Full-duplex ready as an RS-232 replacement
• Further Modifications
• Requires Micro-controller to implement several
  signals
• Required additional components to incorporate
  into the evaluation board
• This modification required further programming

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Wireless Solution

Code Blue Communications (New technology March
2003)
Serial Port Adapter Anycom USB
adapter
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Radio Frequency ID

• Passive vs. Active Tags
• Passive Low power and extremely short
  range(Powered up from RF signal from reader)
• Active longer range and battery duration
  issues(Less power requirements on the reader)
• Reader Power consumption/size/RCX connection
  issues
• Reader size vs. distance of detection

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TI S2000 Microreader

• Three versions
• Read only version
• Preprogrammed with a unique factory programmed
  identification code,
• Read/write
• Programmable
• Secure Read/write
• Possesses a challenge/response authentication
  feature for the highest grade of security.

Reader
R/W Transponder
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Polaroid 6500 Sonar Ranging Module

• Accurate Sonar Ranging from 6 inches to 35 feet
• Drives 50-kHz Electrostatic Transducer with No
  Additional Interface
• Operates from Single Supply
• Selective Echo Exclusion
• TTL-Compatible
• Multiple Measurement Capability

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Polaroid 6500 Ranging Module
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Polaroid 6500 Ranging Module
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Polaroid 6500 Ranging Module
Circuit to convert time to voltage level then to
a distance
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System Software

• Communication between RCX block and PC is
  implemented from the use of two primary
  programming environments.
• RCX Command Center
• Not Quite C (NQC) language
• Similar to C and C
• Robolab 2.5
• Graphical Programming language
• Compatible with LabVIEW

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System Software

• PC Base Station
• LabVIEW VI
• Displays X Y directions traveled in the trace
  window
• Distance traveled
• Total time
• ID tag found light

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Robot Code Flow Chart
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Robot Code (Test)

• Exploring Algorithm written in NQC

• Robot Explores small area communicating
  information regarding the sensors back to PC
• No radio RS232 replacement, the range of the IR
  tower is the range of the robot
• Code created using NQC Tutorial and code samples
  obtained from Jack Perdue, Texas AM University

25
Robot Prototype

• Testing robot
• While waiting for ordered parts testing robot was
  used to begin writing code
• Developing motor control
• Use of Lego touch sensors for proximity testing
  to be replaced by sonar sensors
• Lego light sensor used for wheel shaft encoder to
  measure distance robot has traveled

26
Summary

• Our projects purpose
• What is a W-DARF ?
• Original Project Concept
• Revised Project
• Robot System
• System Hardware
• System Software
• Prototype Robot

27
Questions ?