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Professor: Dr

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Professor: Dr. Jason Gross Date submitted: May 5, 2021 i. 0 Table of Contents 1. Introduction.…………..............................................................................................................1 2. Team Management....................................................................................................................1 3. Background...............................................................................................................................2 4. Objectives..................................................................................................................................3 5. Preliminary Design....................................................................................................................4 6. Detailed Design.........................................................................................................................6 7. Budget.......................................................................................................................................9 8. CAD Package..........................................................................................................................10 9. Performance Results..................................................................................................................? 10. Conclusions................................................................................................................................? Bibliography..................................................................................................................................... ?Appendix A .....................................................................................................................................? Appendix B......................................................................................................................................? i. 0 1. Introduction One of the most fundamental technologies behind any mechanized or computerized process is the microcontroller unit. Its ability to regulate a plethora of complex tasks makes it an invaluable asset to engineers who are often tasked with designing hardware to autonomously complete tasks which might prove to be too tedious to be done manually. As such, a significant portion of this class focused on familiarizing students with microcontrollers and ensuring that they attained a sufficient mastery of their basic operating principles. This project in particular focused on how microcontroller technology could be adapted to create a system that could communicate Morse code over Zoom. Morse code is a form of communication achieved using visual, textual, or clicks that depict a particular pattern interpreted to make meaning. The specifications for said system were to allow for visual and audible communication over Zoom. 2. Team Management Table 2.1: Team Management Team Member: Role(s): Tyler McCormick Team Lead, Receiver Lead Peter Nickle Transmitter Lead, Programming Lead Carl Starvaggi Logistics Lead, Programmer Gregory McBride Budget/Materials Manager Hader Abualsaud Report Lead 1. 3. Background Over the course of several weeks of lab work, students were introduced to the Arduino Uno microcontroller unit and an accompanying software package which allowed the Uno unit to communicate with MATLAB. By running various experiments, each student became familiarized with the Uno technology to the point where they were able to program it to accomplish basic tasks such as read a circuit’s voltage or control a stepper motor. The students were gradually asked to make the microcontroller perform more complex tasks, leading up to this project. The Morse code communication system used in this project was meant to take inspiration from similar devices used by disaster robots who aid in search and rescue processes. Over the last three decades, the field of robotics has been constantly evolving; researchers and engineers are continuing to solve serious problems associated with this kind of robot and the environments in which they operate. Nevertheless, disaster robots have been deployed in various scenarios. The evolution of drone technology has also enhanced and redefined disaster management (Gawel et al., 2017). In desperate situations such as a structural failure or environmental catastrophe, every minute is paramount, and a second can make all the difference. Since the “ground zero” environments of such disasters are often lethal to humans, having robots who can withstand harsh environments is essential. For example, dexterous robots are utilized in high-risk areas such as those containing high levels of radiation. The environment could also contain deadly gases and conditions such as high temperature that would make it difficult for humans to respond. Disaster robots have also been used to reach areas that humans cannot go through. One of these is in search of humans trapped in remote locations. UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) have played a critical role in rescue operations. Military and police use has seen the most use of these robots. The provision of bird-eye view has helped 2. in search and rescue by navigating large areas in less time. Not only are they used after a disaster, but they are also employed in disaster monitoring. They have also been successively used in seas to help people from drowning. One such robot, known as EMILY (Emergency Integrated Lifesaving Lanyard) , had been designed to assist and rescue those in danger of drowning(Cadence, 2020). The robot can deploy rescue devices such as flotations that help exhausted swimmers. It also relays their location to the rescue center. One of the great hindrances to Disaster robots is mobility. While humans can walk seamlessly, this has proven to be a great problem for Robots; engineers continue to research how to ensure smoother and more seamless Robotic mobility (SeungSub et al., 2017). One great potential integration is AI(Artificial Intelligence). AI has the potential to improve the workings and efficiency of robots by providing human-like inferencing. 4. Objectives The main objective of this project was to design a system that can communicate a message in Morse code audibly and visually. This was to be accomplished by building two separate electrical devices: a transmitter and a receiver. The system is meant to provide textual information to the user on the receiver end across the Zoom video platform. A potential applicability of this system is in the field disaster robotics as described above.. Financial and time deficiencies are some of the constraints entailed in this project. Moreover, intuitiveness, design, and ingenuity were required on behalf of each individual to achieve the desired goal. 3. 5. Preliminary Design To fulfil the project objectives, the team initially decided to go with a simple two piece transmitter/receiver design. The transmitter concept (see Figure 5.1) consisted of a boxed-in breadboard-based circuit attached to the webcam system consisting of an LED for visual transmission, a piezo buzzer for audio transmission, and a limit switch system to control the transmission. This circuit was to be powered by a standard breadboard power module. Figure 5.1: Preliminary Transmitter Sketch The receiver concept (see Figure 5.2) also consisted of a boxed in, arduino-based circuit which would receive the signal and then decode it in MATLAB; it was initially planned to attach an LCD screen to the receiver which would have displayed the transmitted message. The audio transmission was to be picked up via a microphone, whilst the visual transmission was to be captured via a photoresistor. In both cases, the idea was to record the change in the circuit's voltage as measured by either the photoresistor or the microphone over various time 4. intervals. The length of said time intervals would determine whether the input signal was a dot, dash, or space; this information would then be translated by the MATLAB program into characters, words, and sentences. Figure 5.2: Preliminary Receiver Sketch In practice, an ideal test scenario would have involved at least two partners, one on the transmitter end and the other receiver end. The “transmitter” would send a message over zoom to the “receiver,” who would display the transmitted message. 6. Detailed Design 5. Over the course of the project, the team made several modifications to both preliminary designs to overcome technical problems encountered along the way. It is worth noting, however, that much of the principles governing the conceptual design remained unchanged in the system’s final configuration. Initially, the transmitter was designed to have no need of a microcontroller unit; however, upon acquiring the piezo buzzer, the team determined that it would need a microcontroller in order to control the duration of the buzzer’s tone. As such, the transmitter design was modified to have the circuit controlled by another Arduino Uno. This necessitated the use of an additional computer and USB interface cable, but also eliminated the need to purchase a breadboard power supply module. Additionally, the number of LEDs on the transmitter was reduced from four to two, as subsequent tests revealed that a sufficient visible signal could be produced with fewer LEDs. The final build of the transmitter is shown in Figure 6.1; additional images can be found in Appendix B. Figure 6.1: Final Transmitter Build, Front View 6. The receiver unit was also modified substantially. The first major modification was to the microphone unit; after initially acquiring the component and running some initial tests, the team determined that it required a more sophisticated piece of technology in order to detect substantial changes in an audio signal. As such, the decision was made to purchase a sound sensor module consisting of a microphone, an op amp, and a potentiometer. This component would prove to be significantly more helpful in acquiring the desired signal. After multiple hours of trials, the team also determined that printing the translated message to a separate LCD device simply wasn’t feasible given the project’s constraints; as such, that part of the receiver was scrapped in favor of simply printing the translated message in MATLAB. There was, however, a silver lining to this; the box which the LCD was shipped in proved to be a perfect fit for the receiver, and it eliminated the need to suction cup the device to the computer screen, as it could simply be mounted directly. The final build of the receiver is shown in Figure 6.2. Figure 6.2: Final Receiver Build, Front View 7. In practice, the system worked as follows: the transmitter was mounted and connected via USB to the webcam on the screen of laptop, Computer A, which ran both a Zoom session and a MATLAB code controlling it in the background (See Code 8.1 in Appendix A). The receiver was connected via USB to a second and separate laptop, Computer B, which ran a MATLAB code to receive and decode the audible and visual signals it picked up (See Codes 8.2-8.4 in Appendix A). The transmitter was mounted to the screen of a third laptop, Computer C, which was logged into the same Zoom meeting as computer A, and thus could receive the signals sent by the transmitter. The final build of this whole system is shown in Figure 6.3. Figure 6.3: Final System Build 8. 7. Budget Table 7.1: Team Budget/Expenditures Item: Need For (Transmitter/Receiver): Need to Purchase (Y/N)? Acquire From: Cost ($): Breadboard (2x) Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Peter 0 Buzzer Transmitter Y Amazon 6.5 Cardboard Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Peter/Carl 0 Jumper Wires/Alligator Clips Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Peter 0 LCD Receiver Y Amazon 11 LED (2x) Transmitter N Loan from Peter 0 Limit Switch Transmitter Y Amazon 7 Microphone Receiver Y Amazon 7 Photoresistor Receiver Y Amazon 5 Sound Sensor Module Receiver Y Amazon 6 Tape Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Peter 0 USB Interface Cable (2x) Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Dr. Gross 0 Uno Arduino (2x) Transmitter and Receiver N Loan from Dr. Gross 0 9. Total Cost ($): 42.5 10. 8. CAD Package Your CAD Package should be a one-page addition to your report inserted in section 7. It should have a 3-view drawing and an isometric-view model (e.g., how will system interface with computer) 9. Performance Results Overall, the system performed very well during testing. Once the transmitters and receivers were assembled and the MATLAB codes were written, the team met on at least three separate occasions to run tests. On each occasion, all present team members executed a plethora of trial and error runs in order to get the system to work as stipulated; the process was admittedly tedious, but not unproductive. The tests themselves were flawless in that each one revealed a bug which the programmers had not considered in the coding process. After a number of modifications to the translation code and its governing functions, as well as a lot of practice becoming familiarized with sending a coded message, the team was finally able to get the system to send a Morse coded message over Zoom as required by the project’s constraints. 10. Conclusions What conclusions can you make after finishing this project, after working with Arduinos and MATLAB in this application? What kind of future implementation do you see (what adjustments could you make to the project to improve it)? Any other conclusions? 11. Bibliography Cadence. (2020, March 26). Robots to the rescue: How robots can be used in disaster relief. Advanced PCB Design Techniques, Trends & News | Cadence Blog. https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/robots-to-the-rescue-how-robots-can-be-usedin-disaster-relief-2 Gawel, A., Dubé, R., Surmann, H., Nieto, J., Siegwart, R., & Cadena, C. (2017, October). 3d registration of aerial and ground robots for disaster response: An evaluation of features, descriptors, and transformation estimation. In 2017 IEEE international symposium on safety, security and rescue robotics (SSRR) (pp. 27-34). IEEE. SeungSub, O., Jehun, H., Hyunjung, J., Soyeon, L., & Jinho, S. (2017, June). A study on the disaster response scenarios using robot technology. In 2017 14th international conference on ubiquitous robots and ambient intelligence (URAI) (pp. 520-523). IEEE. 12. Appendix A Include any Appendices that may be necessary, but notice your CAD model is included within the report itself. 13. Appendix B Helpful formatting hints: Heading 1: 14 pt bold with multilevel list assigned numbering for level 1 times new roman Heading 2: 13 pt Italicized with multilevel list assigned numbering for level 2 (ie subsection headings have 2 numbers) times new roman Normal Font: 12 pt times new roman, you can double space if you like, not required Figures: insert figure, wrap text top and bottom, format align center, right click Insert caption Figure, go to numbering, include chapter number heading 1 with a period caption centered and below figure. Font, 10pt times new roman black, example below Figure 0.1: This is a pie chart Tables: insert table, wrap text top and bottom, format align center, right click Insert caption Table, go to numbering, include chapter number heading 1 with a period caption left justified and above table. Font, 10pt times new roman black, example below Table 0.1:Fruit and the color fruit color apple red banana yellow pear green Numbering: page numbers should be located on the bottom of each page in the center, no number on the title page, roman numeral numbering on the table of contents, and number 1 starting on the page with the introduction. Inserting a PDF: go to insert tab, find text and click the object drop down select text from file and find your PDF of your drawing. 14.