Planning and control of unmanned vehicle

• Main Author: Ang, Melvin Jin Han
• Other Authors: Xie Ming
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Mechanical engineering::Motor vehicles
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/40347
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In a design report, the author will describe the process on how he planned and designed the planning and controls of the Unmanned Vehicle (UV). First, he identifies the area of scopes that he will need to cover. He split them into three different sections namely: Hardware design, Electrical Circuits design and Software programming. In the hardware design, the author first identifies all the things that needed to be covered by writing out the function analysis chart. In the function analysis chart, the different types of tasks that the UV will be covered are identified. After that, the author will research and studied the motors chosen to be use on the UV. From there, he did research on different types of controllers where he will determined which controller is best suited for the application. In the electrical circuits design, the author will be covering on how to integrate two different types of controllers where one will be responsible to command another. He also studied on the power requirements of the other peripherals that are needed to be use on the UV such as the LEDs for brake and signal lights, wireless router, IP camera, voltage regulator and Dc to Dc converter. He will then designed and wired the circuits integrating all the controllers and peripherals together. Schematic wiring diagram is drawn up to make things easy to work with when integrating all the parts together. In the software programming, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) containing three different types of modes are designed. They are namely: Local Mode, Remote Mode and Autonomous Mode. In local mode, user is able to physically control and manipulate the movement of the UV by a USB joystick. Speed and turning radius of the UV will also be displayed on the GUI. As for the remote mode, user is able to remotely control the UV on another computer or laptop online. When this option is selected, user will be granted access to the remote console and the IP camera. Through the IP camera, user will be able to see what is in front of the UV and by pressing the keyboard arrow buttons, signals will be sent to motors manipulating the movement of the UV. In the autonomous mode, UV is fitted with two web cameras where vision will be captured and processed. The processed data will then be mapped out in the algorithm where the UV will know what is in front of it and will send signals to the controllers manipulating the motor output so as to avoid collisions. The details of the autonomous part will not be covered in this report as it has been covered by another group mate. In this report, the author will also be covering on the integration of the hardware, electrical circuits and software programming. A trial test is then carried out to test the functionality of the UV and results will be discussed in the conclusion.