Automatic Vehicles

1. Autonomous Vehicles
Derek Smith
EKU Dept. of Technology
Computer Electronic Networking

2. 2
OUTLINE
 Motivation: DARPA Grand Challenge and NAIT
 Introduction: The purpose of autonomous vehicles
and future roles
 Problem Statement: NAIT’s settings for the new
competition
 Proposed Solutions: Possible answers
 Results: Video and Explanations
 Conclusion: New understanding and Learning
 Future Work: Possible extensions to my work
 Questions
 Thanks

3. 3
MOTIVATION
 The DARPA Grand
Challenge was a
great inspiration to
me.
 Along with a 2
million dollar prize.
 NAIT played a big
role in my
motivation as well.
http://media.pbs.org/asxgen/general/windows/wgbh/nova/darpa_outt_
03_220.wmv

4. 4
INTRODUCTION
 The issue with producing an
autonomous vehicle is that everything
that can, always will go wrong.
 Argo was a major part of my research.
 The DARPA Grand Challenge
 How autonomous vehicles work properly
 The direction in which they are headed in
the near future.

5. 5
ARGO – A Linux based autonomous vehicle

6. 6
PROBLEM STATEMENT
 The National Association of Industrial
Technology
 Added an autonomous component to the
annual robotics competition
 The robot must be able to follow a 1 ½
inch strip of reflective aluminum tape
 Creating a need for understanding
autonomous vehicles

7. 7
PROPOSED SOLUTION
 To Solve this I went through many
possibilities:
 Calibrating and adjusting the infrared detectors I
have.
 Purchasing close proximately infrared detectors.
 Creating a light sensitive circuit that reflects light
off the tape
 Creating a circuit sending voltage through the tape
and receiving the information

8. 8
Proposed Solution
 My solution was to create the circuit
that ran voltage through the tape.
 Other methods need constant revision
 The circuit method is simplistic
 It only deals with one main variable
 Less things to go wrong

9. 9
RESULTS
 It worked, not quit to
where I wanted it, but it
still works.
 Problems that resulted:
 At higher speeds
handling has problems.
 The directional decisions
are entirely too slow
 The bot does all the
tasks that are required at
this point.

10. 10
Results
 To the right is my
code
 Below is the main
circuit
' {$STAMP BS2}
' {$PBASIC 2.5}
DEBUG "Program Running!"
voltdetector1 VAR Bit
voltdetector2 VAR Bit
voltdetector3 VAR Bit
voltdetector4 VAR Bit
DO
DEBUG CLS
voltdetector1 = IN0
voltdetector2 = IN1
voltdetector3 = IN2
voltdetector4 = IN3
IF (voltdetector2 = 0) AND (voltdetector3 = 0) THEN
DEBUG "Moving Forward"
PULSOUT 13, 850
PULSOUT 12, 650
ELSEIF (voltdetector2 = 1) THEN
DEBUG "Front Left is off track"
PULSOUT 13, 850
PULSOUT 12, 850
ELSEIF (voltdetector3 = 1) THEN
DEBUG "Front Right is off track"
PULSOUT 13, 650
PULSOUT 12, 650
ENDIF
LOOP

11. 11
CONCLUSIONS
 Not yet ready for the DARPA Grand Challenge
 We have made head way for NAIT next year
 That is, if my predecessors don’t squander their
time and resources.
 Understanding an autonomous vehicle was
the goal of this project
 I have obtained that goal
 I’m still in awe of the capabilities out there, but I
at least know the basics of how they work.

12. 12
FUTURE WORK
 Possible extensions
 Add vision analyses,
nothing big
 Create infrared mapping
 And possibly add GPS