Preliminary Design Review (PDR) Team Amaze Me

EE 296 Project (MicroMouse) Members –Brandon Gibu –Ah Ram Kim –John-Kalani Miyajima –Justin Ogata Website –

Brief Overview of Project Micromouse –Autonomous robot –Find center of a 16 x 16 maze –Uses sensors to turn at corners –Uses tracking program to keep track of location in maze –Continues to search until it finds the fastest path to center

Brief Overview (continued) Approaches –Use tutorials to help construct hardware to build mouse –Create wall hugger program to randomly maneuver through maze –Create tracking software to find fastest route to center

Block Diagram of the Mouse Mouse Itself Coding Wall Hugger Code Tracking Code Stepper Motor Code Circuit SensorsRabbit Hardware (Chassis) Circuit Parts (battery supply, Protoboards Stepper motor) Non-Circuit Parts (frame, wheels Joints) *Sub-components are inter-related with each other in some way*

The Chassis of the Mouse in detail Base frame (bottom plate) The Third Wheel Position of the protoboards, sensors, and other circuit elements Miscellaneous

Base Frame Oval design Fold up motor mounts Keep the wheels closer together Small body frame

The Third Wheel It is used to balance the overall weight of the mouse Experimented with roller caster Problem: Possibility of dragging the mouse Looking for a new 3 rd wheel

The Position of Circuit Elements Stack the protoboards on top of each other Stack in a easy access manner Team decided to use a top down layout b/c of experiment –The infrared sensors (QRD1114) are “weak” –A signal roughly occurs within half an inch distanc, based on tests Battery packs placed in vertical fashion near stepper motor

Miscellaneous Try to make it look like a mouse –Either a circuit board in the shape of a mouse or have a figure of a mouse on top Have adjustable arms that connect to areas of the sensors –No two mazes are exactly the same Find ways to protect the sensors –Ex. With a side sensor layout, use stand offs as bumpers to prevent damage

Prototype of Mouse Front View Side View Top View

Future Tasks Become highly familiar with the behavior of the sensors and “rabbit” At the same time, continue making changes on the chassis of the mouse Create the Algorithm Coding, coding, coding

Potential Problems Balance of mouse (extra wheels ???) Connecting the right ports to desired input or output Supplying enough power to mouse Keeping mouse within rules of competition Brains of the mouse Time constrains

Other Module Analysis-The Circuit (Stepper Motor Problem) Voltage drop across stepper motor circuit –Axle rotated only in one direction and stopped when sensor sensed movement –Voltage supply showed voltage dropping by half LED probe on sensor circuit –Not enough resistance resulting in LED being very bright and decrease in voltage

Decisions to be Made Third wheel(s): low friction pad or canster ball Number of sensors to be used Exact locations of sensors Design mouse into a “mouse” Amount of batteries we need to supply mouse

Schedule and Time Line Gantt Chart

Thank You Questions or comments?